Anyone who wants to become "the reference" in their field must get their act together. From design to production. And they have understood that well at Ursus lids. Construction professionals can use the innovative online platform to order their own customized products such as Roundal day edges in addition to aluminum sheet metal. A process directly linked to the sheet metal fabrication department for one smooth, digital, error-free flow from design to production. A win-win for Ursus and its customers, who benefit from competitive lead times, high quality and 100% transparency. A growth story made possible in part by LVD's machines. Because Belgian pride demands Belgian pride.
Ursus took off in 2004. Although his figurative bread was baked in the family business Depa Ramen, Jan De Paepe's entrepreneurial blood was itching too much. He wanted to do his own thing and found it in the supply of aluminum to the windows and doors sector. "Because that's where we could really make a difference in the market with quality."
Ursus has since made aluminum sheet and folding work for the window and door sector its trademark. But the decision eight years ago to also develop its own innovative products focusing on the transition between the facade and the window and/or between the facade and the roof was the big turning point for the entire company. Couple this with the increasingly stringent insulation standards, and you understand that interest in these products is rising crescendo. "But mere innovation is not enough to be successful. It is the mix of innovation, quality and service that must form a rock-solid combination," says De Paepe.
So five years ago, De Paepe decided to completely reorganize the company internally. "Because we always want to be at the forefront. The classic approach no longer worked. We therefore went all-in on automation and digitalization, with the launch of an online platform." Ursus thus managed to transform one of its lesser points, communication, into a selling point. "Indeed, customers' digital order is linked to the planning of all our machines. So they know perfectly where their order is at any time. 100% transparency, in other words. And we couple that with the quality and service of which we have made our calling card. Over time, we want to become the most punctual supplier. We want to be the partner on whom our customers can build."
Finding a good machine partner was critical in this process. Plant manager Koen Behaeghe chose LVD. "If we want to encourage our customers to choose a local partner and all the benefits that come with it from short lines of communication and response times, we have to set a good example ourselves. By choosing LVD our story is even more true, proving that the custom fabrication industry has a future in Flanders."
Yet Koen Behaeghe was also critical of the engineering. "Because of the knowledge and know-how they gather under one roof there in Gullegem, your project is discussed and prepared in detail beforehand. No question falls off the table. Claude Stragier really thought with us about what the right machines are for us, today and in the future. Because of that thorough approach, it was just a matter of plug-and-play once the machines were in place, and we made tremendous progress."
The transformation of the workshop began with the expansion of the bending department. A new PPEB bending bench was added, but at the same time the old PPEB was retrofitted with LVD's latest Touch-B control. "Because that's where the biggest bottleneck was. That's the way we go every time: we eliminate our pain points, which allows us to continue to grow with the same number of employees." An exercise that has yielded annual growth of 15 to 18% in recent years.
Next step was a laser cutting machine (with 6 kW fiber source) to replace the punching machine: the Phoenix FL-4020. "The introduction of a new technology that gave us a huge boost in speed and increased our finishing rate. Where we used to spend ten minutes working on a door, that has now been reduced to forty seconds. Moreover, it allows us to seamlessly follow the trend toward more complex projects where our products become real accents in a facade."
Thanks to the laser, delivery times were shortened, but Ursus can also more easily take rush orders in between. "As long as the day edges are not perfectly finished, our customers can't make invoices and therefore can't make money. That's why we always want to help them as quickly and as well as possible."
Of course, the software was also important in this story. Here LVD proved to be a flexible partner that understood the needs well. "Planning and production are linked. When we place the order we already check the manufacturability in CADMAN-SDI, so there are no restrictions further down the line," says Behaeghe.
"Via CADMAN-B, the drawings of the pieces are then correctly unfolded and sent to the machines. Eventually the operator at the bending machine will just have to scan the order and the correct bending program will be loaded automatically. Three seconds is all the LVD software needs. Time savings and automation needed to serve customers faster. Because unfortunately, good sheet metal workers are becoming increasingly rare." ■