OPINION > fischer
“Our company will emerge stronger from the crisis”
Armin Heß, Spokesman of the Management Board Fixing Systems and Managing Director Sales and Marketing of the fischer group of companies, writes exclusively for Torque Magazine…
Given the global corona pandemic, our company is pushing specific topics in order to emerge stronger from the crisis and be a pioneer in the market, looking at developments in the immediate environment of fixing technology and in other industries served by our group of companies. At the same time, we also focus on megatrends with an effective period of several decades. After all, these megatrends also have a medium and long-term impact on our business and can be combined with our own products and services.
Megatopics such as digitisation with e-commerce, smart production, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, cooperation with or the development of own start-ups, internationalisation and sustainability have long been a reality in our company and are being further advanced.
We view our innovations from the customer's perspective and develop practical solutions.
"Focusing on products that are in high demand" - this is the roadmap for the further development of our product range. Proximity and responsiveness to the market also increase our internationalisation, which is currently underway with the establishment of a new production plant for fixing systems in Vietnam, where we recently founded a new national subsidiary.
We already offer a wide range of plastic fixings, steel anchors, chemical fixing systems, embedded fixing solutions such as cast-in elements and much more from a single source today. Moreover, we support our customers with our wide range of services for all their fixing projects.
By constantly demonstrating our innovative strength and technological competence, we maintain and expand our brand awareness and ensure our continued economic success. This requires new approaches all the time. Why shouldn't plugs in future be able to communicate independently about their environmental conditions and their behaviour in the building material?
The project business offers enormous growth potential. To ensure even greater participation in this, we are increasingly gearing our structures and processes, as well as our products and services, to the relevant markets and customers. Integrated planning in conjunction with Building Information Modeling (BIM) is an important prerequisite for further increasing our share of sales in the project business.
“By constantly demonstrating our innovative strength and technological competence, we maintain and expand our brand awareness and ensure our continued economic success.”
Armin Heß – Spokesman of the Management Board Fixing Systems and Managing Director Sales and Marketing of the fischer group of companies
With the help of the Sales & Operations Planning Process (S&OP), we also synchronise market and customer requirements with the capacities in our production facilities and at our suppliers. We have also combined product management and development in business units to create suitable structures for innovation - just to name one example. This networked knowledge allows us to develop new solutions for our customers and the market in an even more efficient and targeted manner. Start-ups that our company establishes itself or with which it cooperates also support us with short lead times, from the idea to the market launch of new assortments outside our core business.
It is our employees who, in our philosophy, implement change and renewal and drive our company forward.
We therefore create suitable conditions allowing each individual to develop his or her full potential. The fact that we had already put new forms of communication, such as chats and video conferences, high on our list of priorities proved to be a great advantage right at the beginning of the corona crisis. This allows us to easily digitise processes and move them to the home office, thus further increasing our flexibility. Our employees log into the company network, chat and conduct digital meetings. In this context, we have taken precautionary measures to ensure a high level of IT security through virus protection programmes and firewalls on the company equipment provided, and to guarantee data protection. All these measures are accompanied by appropriate training programmes for our employees, such as seminars on the subject of "Agile Working", in order to prepare the company for volatility.