Xeltis develops technology for making artificial vessels and heart valves. When they needed a professional measuring machine for quality control, they knocked on itsme's door for control software and data collection. It worked out really well. “itsme has a lot of in-house expertise, they know everything about the hardware and they can switch quickly with partners. Plus, they're flexible.”

Van de Kar Elektrotechniek has had a relationship with itsme since early 2003 for the supply of materials and Siemens training sessions. This spring was the premiere of in-house customised training. “That is much more efficient. Our guys already have a certain background, so they can skip basic stuff and actually dive deeper into specific parts.”

The relationship between Manders Automation and itsme is all about flexibility and the drive to do things better and smarter. Take, for example, the 2BIN system for grab stock management and the complete kits for serial machine construction. “We are constantly challenging each other. We also want to take additional steps in digitalization and become more sustainable.”

Matco International has enjoyed a relationship with itsme for almost 20 years for the supply of electrical components, including safety sensors and systems from Leuze. “In our cooperation with the itsme-Leuze combination, reliability is very important, not just in terms of quality, but also of availability”, says André van der Wei, director and owner of Matco. “The orders always go through itsme, but sometimes we also call on Leuze's expertise directly.”

Boon Edam, known for its revolving doors and turnstiles, picked itsme as their main electrical components supplier last year. The large product range and the vendor managed inventory (VMI) solution for the grab stock of electrical assembly materials were the deciding factors. “When you install VMI, you actually do it forever.”

Sissing Noord in Leek (Groningen) is an expert in the maintenance, renovation and construction of “wet” infrastructure, like movable bridges, pumping stations and locks. For the drives of these structures, itsme supplies the speed drives and, where necessary, also the technical know-how. For projects where Sissing Noord needs this knowledge, specialist itsme offers “some relief”.

The Lean improvement method distinguishes eight waste categories. One of these is 'inventory'. Too much stock is not good, but neither is too little. After all, having stock also provides the safe feeling of availability in times of uncertain internal planning and external factors that cannot be directly influenced. Because optimising availability both in one's own company and in the supply chain is often not the core competence of our customers, itsme can take over the care of such optimisation, for example through the import and management of so-called Vendor Managed Inventory systems. But, how do you know whether VMI is indeed the right solution? Ralph van Aartsen can answer that crucial question - using five questions. Here, in advance, are his answers to our questions on VMI.

Under the header “FastForward”, itsme supports product improvement and process acceleration, including by informing customers about time-saving solutions and smart technologies. For example, in spring 2023, a webinar on predictive maintenance was organised in collaboration with KIM Plus Delta, consultants for asset and maintenance management. Bright Renewables’ participation resulted in an actual predictive maintenance project for Bright's green gas plants.

Technical services provider Breemes supplies customers with PLCs, drives and other materials. Customers like industrial automation company Digi-Flow. Turnover, both parties feel, is not the ultimate indicator of a good relationship. Coming up with solutions together and providing knowledge are equally important. Ultimately, Breemes has to make the customer’s life easier, Digi-Flow CEO Eric Decant believes. Antwerp-based Digi-Flow assists industrial companies in their transformation to smart industrial environments using industrial automation and digitalisation. The company is a spin-off from ESAS Automation in 2020. Solindus, now ESAS, had grown into a company with 2,000 employees after its founding in 2003 by Eric and Robert Decant. With Digi-Flow, they wanted to go back to small-scale entrepreneurship. Eric Decant is now the CEO of the company, which has 30-plus employees. ‘I’m still ambitious, but I don’t want to complete this kind of strenuous trajectory on such a large scale anymore.’ Meanwhile, he is grooming his son to take over the reins. This makes Digi-Flow a true family business, as reflected in its core values of co-creation, long-term vision, lifelong growth and personal.

Being able to shift gears quickly is crucial to the success of industrial automation projects. This refers not only to the delivery of components but also to decision-making. Short lines of communication are important here. That was the case in the project to control a washing line for plastic PET flakes, in which ATR Engineering and itsme teamed up closely. ‘The added value of our collaboration is being able to anticipate customer requests extremely quickly.’ Bringing ten years of experience in industrial automation to the table, Adrie van Triest started his own company in 2019. With a broad approach, ATR Engineering in Berkel-Enschot focuses on hardware and software engineering. ‘Our area of expertise is offering total solutions for industrial automation centred around the design of PLC controls. We will sit down with a customer to discuss pending automation issues and we will determine the needs and wishes for a project together in advance. We also offer flexible support for projects or commissioning.’ ATR Engineering is a small company currently employing four engineers from different disciplines. There is also a permanent ‘flexible shell’ of engineers and technicians available to help during peak periods.

Specialist in industrial refrigeration Top Cold Control carries out complete projects, and energy management cannot be missing from that these days. This starts with a lot of measuring. For a cold store in Amsterdam, itsme, in consultation with Top Cold Control and the customer, designed a solution to integrate energy measurement in the control system. Top Cold Control from Nieuwkuijk, specialised in industrial refrigeration technology, realises large projects for customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and, through them, elsewhere in the world. These include refrigeration and freezer systems for slaughterhouses, processing companies, cold stores and transport companies. Top Cold Control can handle all common refrigerants, but specialises in the use of the natural refrigerants ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2). For fast freezing, Top Cold Control supplies advanced, energy-efficient freezing tunnels. "The company stands out for its short lines of communication," says operations manager Arjan Maas. "We are always accessible and customers immediately get the right person on the line with us."

COVID-19 and global component scarcity threw the industry into a ‘perfect storm’. Industrial automator Dymotec and Breemes kept the phone lines constantly open to tackle the scarcity problem together with creativity and proactivity. Dymotec in Olen (B) focuses on industrial automation spanning a broad spectrum of industries, from food and pharma to logistics and metal. The company has been around for 30 years and joined the Jeco Energies Group in 2022. Dymotec now has some 50 employees and also has a flexible shell with technicians, programmers and project engineers. Ever since its establishment, the company from Kempen has had a relationship with (the predecessors of) Breemes.

Enduro Softslings builds machines for the manufacture of its own heavy lifting soft slings. For a new machine, it called in itsme for the full package: advice on the drives, supply of components and programming of the controls. “We completed the entire project in just over six months. That’s fast for such a specialised machine.”

If the description for an automation project is clear from the start, it is easy for the industrial automation specialist to give it substance. In practice, however, specifications often change during the course of a project. This happened to Stimac/SNK when designing the control technology for a horticultural machine. For the problems that arose during the process, itsme quickly provided Stimac/SNK with a solution. “When a customer calls us, we respond immediately. So it’s nice to have a supplier like itsme who can also help immediately.”

Innovatec Hatchery Automation launched a process of professionalisation for its procurement process last year. The company partnered with itsme because of its technical expertise, logistics concepts and intensive contacts with manufacturers. “First we were dating, but now we’re thinking about moving in together.”

Optimising internal logistics is often a challenge for panel builders, from grab stock management to getting a grip on delivery times. Especially when production is spread across multiple sites, like at Elektro Internationaal (EI) in Woerden. In 2016, the company already took a big step, together with itsme Connected Business, at their batch production site. This was related to the introduction of Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) in the form of a 2BIN system. In the near future, EI expects to start the construction of new premises, whereby all activities will be brought under one roof. At that point, the logistics for the entire production will also be optimised.

In cooperation with itsme Lighting Technology, COROOS is switching to LED lighting in its warehouses at its Kapelle site. Together, they chose luminaires from Bever Innovations from Zierikzee. They are equipped with motion detection and daylight compensation. Bever’s smart control provides additional energy savings, while raising the lighting level to meet the latest standard for safe working in indoor areas (NEN EN 12464-1).

Azteq aims to revolutionise European green heat technologies on an industrial scale and is developing solar heating systems to do so. The Belgian start-up cooperates in projects with technical service providers, who in turn call upon Breemes for advice and the supply of components. For a major project in Seville, there were challenges regarding the delivery times of the decentralised PLCs and on how they could communicate with each other in the large facility.

Communication in and between machines is becoming more and more extensive. In production lines, machines need to coordinate more with each other and users want to get more data and signals out of them. Machine builders therefore come with many questions. From this practical experience, itsme has developed a training course for network communication, covering commonly used protocols and techniques. B&S benefited immediately. "In a project I was working on, I did not yet have much knowledge of the customer requirement for an MRP ring (Media Redundancy Protocol, ed.). That topic was in the training at the time." With some 100 employees, B&S in Hengelo (OV) provides special machinery construction, industrial maintenance, service and maintenance management. With the acquisition of WiTechs Wire Technologies, it has had a machine builder for the wire industry in house since 2020. From B&S, Henk-Jan Scherphof spends most of his time working for WiTechs. "Traditionally, their machines were wired for a start and stop signal and a reset signal, but that was basically it. Nowadays, those machines also work a lot in a line and need to be able to communicate with the other machines in that line. More communication is also needed within the machine itself, to control the process properly. Moreover, customers want to be able to extract more signals and other data from the machine than before."

At RBB, the production of concrete roof tiles runs on drives that mostly come from Danfoss and are up to 20 years old. Breemes assessed their status and made recommendations for maintenance, replacement and standardisation. As a result, the supplier provided its customer RBB with higher efficiency in terms of spare stocks of drives and energy consumption in production - and ultimately a better night's sleep.

A lighting plan may look nice on paper or screen, but ultimately what counts is what the lighting does in reality. Virtual reality can help to get a good idea of this in advance. Consultant Vicoma and lighting expert itsme proved it in a project for the Royal Netherlands Navy. "They knew within 7 minutes: ‘That’s how we want it’." Vicoma is an independent consultancy and engineering firm with five offices, including one in Velsen-Noord (60 employees). Christian Klaver has been working there for two years now as Electrical & Instrumentation team leader. For a lighting project at the Royal Netherlands Navy in Den Helder, he brought in itsme to design the lighting plan. In doing so, he worked mainly with Ruud Adriaansen, team leader of the Lighting Design Center at itsme.

Panel builder PM Elektro experienced significant growth, moved to larger premises and immediately optimised internal material logistics. Supplier itsme conducted a cost-benefit analysis for this purpose and implemented a 2BIN system; it has recently started managing the grab stock in PM Elektro's warehouse. For the lighting on the new shop floor, itsme also provided consultancy and installation services. "Wow, it’s so bright in here!" is what people say when they enter the workshop.

Indulec installs medium-voltage cabinets for the electrification of industry and the community. Indulec recently started sourcing the required compact and solid distribution boards from Siemens, via Breemes. Working with Siemens was a learning process for the three parties in the first project, but it immediately yielded a “very nice” result. “The support provided by Breemes was top-notch. We will do more projects with Siemens in the future.”

Drachten-based Sparck Technologies builds automated packaging machines that make customised boxes for online retailers. The company focuses on energy-intensive pneumatics at a number of points for its innovative, high-speed machines. This ensures maximum benefit for customers: less air in the box, less cardboard consumption, higher packaging capacity and less dependence on manpower. itsme supplies the Festo standard components for this and also ensures that Sparck-specific pneumatics products are made.

To ensure the quality of air suspension struts, VDL Weweler - a leading international manufacturer of air suspension systems for trailer construction - uses a shot peening machine in production, among other equipment. This treatment contributes to an increased product service life. When the machine in question was due for replacement, machine safety was also reviewed. Because of the long-standing cooperation, VDL Weweler again chose Leuze and itsme to purchase and supply the new safety light barriers. “Our slogan is ‘strength through cooperation’. So we always strive to create partnerships.”