Not just solutions but an entire ecosystem!

In the previous edition, Rami Jokela, Chief Sales Officer of the Körber Group, highlighted the subject of ecosystems. How does Körber Technologies use this approach?

Jürgen Heller: We focus on our customers and their production, their needs and their vision, and not on our solutions. There’s a good reason for that. As with numerous other sectors, the tobacco industry is also undergoing a far-reaching transformation process. It needs to be faster, more streamlined, more cost-efficient and more sustainable. We have understood this and reflect this change in needs in our ecosystem approach. Instead of using individual or exclusively our own solutions, we adopt an integral methodology. We involve other partners to help customers achieve their objectives. We create an all-inclusive solution for the customer, with production material suppliers, upstream and downstream machines, and software solutions that extend our range of consultancy services.

We're talking about the big picture then...

Jürgen Heller: Exactly and we are precisely the right partners with our expertise gained over decades, our premium machines, digital solutions and extensive service network. The latter enables us to be available to our customers locally at all times and gain insights into plants of widely different sizes and development stages. We piece together individual solutions into a whole system, especially in cooperation with the Körber Business Areas Supply Chain and Körber Digital. We also have a very varied network of partners in the tobacco industry and companies such as Microsoft and Porsche Consulting, which examine a factory’s processes in detail, evaluate them and recommend improvements.

What does the often used term “end-to-end” mean in this connection?

Jürgen Heller: End-to-end means nothing other than the way to achieve your objective: we don’t look at individual machines. We start at the beginning, at the factory gate, and end the analysis where the finished product leaves the workshop. In this way, we come to understand the plant concerned as a whole and can optimise it with our integral solutions. It is the customer who specifies the objective. You shouldn’t envision the analysis as a lengthy scientific process. This approach allows us to achieve rapid, positive effects for the customer and we can also work on long-term changes together at the same time.

How should we envision such a process exactly?

Jürgen Heller: The focus is on the customer at both the beginning and the end. We generally work together with them to define a vision that establishes what the company wishes to achieve. and preferences, and greater cost and innovation pressure will define day-to-day operations in small and large companies. We are convinced that no company can respond to all these challenges on its own. It requires experts from a wide variety of areas to do so. We aim to bring all these experts together in our network and thus offer our customers optimum solutions. If desired, we are thus much more than just a supplier. As an integrator, we can merge different solutions or orchestrate an entire network in such a way that customers receive the best solution from a single supplier. Incidentally, this not only applies to the tobacco industry. We are currently expanding our company’s scope to include other sectors, where we face similar requirements. We also include an assessment of the current situation and an implementation plan, which also contains instant improvements. This plan may involve an individual process such as filter production, a complete make-pack line or the entire manufacturing area.

What do you wish to achieve with this ecosystem approach?

Jürgen Heller: Obviously, there is no universal answer to that question since our customers’ future needs and objectives will be as individual as they are at present. As a market leader in the tobacco industry, however, we have a precise picture of the megatrends that we are about to experience or that are already with us. In addition to sustainability, these also include a significant increase in productivity and overall equipment effectiveness and a considerable reduction in waste. It is also all too apparent that stricter regulations, changes in consumer needs and preferences, and greater cost and innovation pressure will define day-to-day operations in small and large companies. We are convinced that no company can respond to all these challenges on its own. It requires experts from a wide variety of areas to do so. We aim to bring all these experts together in our network and thus offer our customers optimum solutions. If desired, we are thus much more than just a supplier. As an integrator, we can merge different solutions or orchestrate an entire network in such a way that customers receive the best solution from a single supplier. Incidentally, this not only applies to the tobacco industry. We are currently expanding our company’s scope to include other sectors, where we face similar requirements.

So Körber Technologies wishes to be an ecosystem supplier beyond the tobacco industry?

Jürgen Heller: In our corporate strategy, we have actually specified that we not only want to consolidate our core business with new technologies and business models, but also seek to win over customers in new sectors. This aspiration is an expression of our self-concept stated in our new claim “Passion. Precision. Performance” and our guiding star for the coming years. We handle pending tasks with passion and our long-standing capacity for high precision. This aims to reliably offer our customers the elements that will ensure their future success at the highest quality standard. We will only achieve this if we match our strengths closely with the needs of new sectors. If they do match, we will adopt this approach in new markets. Our vision summarises this strategy and places this self-concept at the centre of our actions.