A Fabricator Plus
At FIB Industries, the customer comes first. The processes and the equipment needed for these processes, are designed by our customers. We see our role as a Fabricator Plus. FIB Industries builds their equipment tailored precisely to the customers’ preferences. Process wise the customer knows what they want, construction wise is were FIB Industries comes in. We optimize the design in such a way that it suits the job it has to do.
'During the process of getting to know the customer, figuring out their desires, down to the eventual conclusion of their actual needs, Robert de Jonge is the linking pin. He has been working for FIB Industries for almost three years and has a total of almost fifteen years’ experience in business relations. He facilitates the contact between FIB Industries and its customers: “As an Account Manager for FIB Industries, I have an important role. I make sure the interaction between the customers, engineers and our design engineers runs smoothly. I direct questions from both the customer and our engineering team to the right place in the counter organisation. This leads to superior quality products”.
Below, we illustrate this process using three examples.
Convincing the customer of our competence
The first example is the process around two columns for a company that produces products out of potatoes. FIB Industries got the request for quotation with a documentation package. The engineers went through it and came to the conclusion that, in order to do a proper analysis, one document with information was missing. Robert contacted the customer and requested the document. With the extra information FIB came to an offer. The customer evaluated all the offers they got and told us we had the highest price, but also proposed the highest wall thickness of the columns. This difference in wall thicknesses explained the price difference. In an evaluation meeting with the customer’s team and the FIB Industries bid team, the engineers explained how FIB Industries came to the wall thicknesses using all the provided information. During this meeting the customer got convinced of the competence of the engineers of FIB Industries and their approach using all the information. We were awarded the contract and built the columns to the satisfaction of the customer.
Flexibility and knowledge deciding factor
Another example is a customer who came to us with only the parameters for the autoclaves they wanted. No drawings or design details were available. The bid team took the challenge and our construction engineer made a rough sketch of the autoclave. After several discussions with the customer and numerous iterations on the proposed design a final design was ready. The customer awarded us the contract with the remark that during the bidding phase they got convinced that FIB Industries was the right partner to work with due to its flexibility and knowledge.
Reorganisation leads to a better performance
Finally, an example of how the process works in practice, is our recent established joint cooperation with a company that is specialized in mixing and drying powders with conical mixers and dryers. FIB Industries has been building conical mixers and dryers for this company for years. Approximately a year ago, FIB Industries changed the team that was supporting this customer. The focus changed towards a service-oriented relationship with contacts throughout both organisations. This resulted in a much better understanding of each other’s possibilities. As linking pin in this relationship, Robert brought the several disciplines within the companies together. This resulted in discussions between the people with the same competences within the companies looking at the options to save time and money. This resulted in a stronger market position for FIB Industries' customer and got FIB Industries more orders.
FIB industries is at the cutting edge in the field of developing and manufacturing stainless steel products in equipment building. The company is a global supplier and installer of its products, while production itself takes place in Leeuwarden. If you are looking for a Fabricator Plus and/or a supplier of high quality fabrications, please contact our Account Manager: Robert de Jonge at r.dejonge@fib.nl.