Mr. Schink, how do you see your role as a distributor when it comes to connectors, enclosures and cabinets?

Dieter Schink: Simply stocking and selling products has long been a thing of the past. If you want to be successful as a distributor today, you have to be able to offer much more. In addition to a wide range of products, logistics quality, product availability, short delivery times, price and, increasingly, sales and project support all play an important role. Offers and services relating to sales and project support in particular can sometimes set you apart from your competitors.

To what extent has the role of distributors changed?

Our tasks have become more diverse. It starts with product modifications and ranges from fully assembled and pre-wired assemblies to design and production-related project support. Products often have to be adapted to specific conditions and modified, for example by drilling holes, cut-outs, printing, special colors or special designs. We carry out such modifications in collaboration with the respective manufacturers or on site at our premises in accordance with the customer's specifications.
In general, customers are increasingly looking for a partner who not only supplies them with individual components for a system, but also supports them with comprehensive services during the implementation of a system or device.

How important is consulting?

In view of increasingly complex products, advising our customers has been an important part of our service for years. This requires a high level of expertise on the part of our employees, who not only understand the requirements but can also translate them into creative solutions. With special training and further education offers for customers and interested parties, we usually also create the conditions for a beneficial transfer of knowledge in cooperation with the respective manufacturers. After all, well-founded knowledge of technologies and products is also the basis for trouble-free operation of the customer's application for employees and service technicians. In addition to events on products and technologies, we offer specific courses for developers, service technicians and operating personnel.

What was your most challenging order?

Orders can be challenging, for example, when the time factor plays a decisive role. This was the case, for example, with an order from a large international company where we had to deliver over 3,000 19-inch cabinets per year in different versions and with various accessories just in time directly to the factory. Among other things, we were responsible for quality control and inventory management with documentation.
The biggest challenge, however, was that the customer notified us of their requirements one day before delivery and we were obliged to deliver just in time by 10 a.m. the next day. But this also worked extremely well for many years.

One of the issues that is currently driving manufacturers is the topic of single-pair Ethernet and its standardization - is this already an issue for your customers?

Yes, and we are glad that we have been a sales partner of Harting for over 60 years. In a multi-stage selection process, international standardization committees have opted for an SPE mating face from the Harting Technology Group for the Single Pair Ethernet standard. This ensures planning security; developers of new devices or sensor/actuator technology can start implementing SPE. Harting has now announced that the T1 Industrial interface is now available in series production in field-assembled and overmolded versions.