Festo refocuses on industry sectors

• Electronics and light assembly
• Food and beverage
• Process automation
• Automotive

This reorganisation in the UK follows a successful implementation elsewhere in Festo's worldwide operations. Indeed, the global approach brings additional benefits, such as cross-border teamworking and the exchange of ideas so that, for example, a successful application in one region can be offered to other customers elsewhere. Similarly, sales engineers working with multi-national key accounts are now working more closely with their counterparts in other countries to disseminate customer-specific project information.

Already customers are enjoying the benefits of the industry-orientated sales teams; they are finding that Festo's sales engineers have a far clearer understanding of their needs and can make informed suggestions for products and systems that will meet their requirements. Customers are increasingly inviting Festo's engineers on site to discuss projects and seek out ways to enhance productivity and quality.

In parallel with reorganising its sales force, Festo has also created new web portals and revamped its demonstration area in Northampton to create areas dedicated to the four industries listed above. Of course, there are many pneumatic and electric/electronic products that are applicable across two or more industries, so there are also areas within the demonstration room that focus on product groups. These include:

• Air preparation
• Valves
• Guided cylinders
• Vacuum
• Electric drives
• Programmable controllers
• Sensors
• Safety
• Energy efficiency

As before, there are also a number of demonstrations that can be seen in action, such as adaptive three-finger grippers (eg for picking fruit), pick-and-place systems, programmable linear positioners and air muscles.

Several of the demonstrations also serve to illustrate the way in which Festo can supply customers with ready-to-fit assemblies, rather than individual components. This approach is now very popular among OEMs building series machines, as well as special-purpose machine builders working on one-off designs. Festo can even undertake the design and sourcing of mounting plates, brackets and other hardware, as well as panel building for pneumatic and electrical control cabinets. Customers today appreciate that Festo can assemble components very cost-effectively, and purchasing assemblies rather than components reduces the administrative burden as well as the time and cost of assembling components in-house.

Contact Festo for more information about its products and services, or to arrange a visit to the demonstration room.