Impulses and trends for daily business
As long as face-to-face events still have to deal with the known uncertainties, virtual events enable professional exchange. This was also the case in mid-September at the two-day E/D/E digital industry update for the building hardware and building technology sectors, which was extremely well received with around 400 participants.
Dr. Christoph Grote and Peter Jüngst, E/D/E management board members responsible for the fittings and building technology product groups, among other things, welcomed visitors to the digital event, which this time took the place of the industry get-together special. “Even if personal contact – at least in this large group – is not yet possible, we would still like to present information and solutions that are important for day-to-day business,” Peter Jüngst made clear. Over two mornings, the approximately 400 participants were treated to a diverse selection of specialist and keynote speeches by experts from practice and science. Selected contract suppliers also presented their product innovations in 25 presentations.
What added value does digitalization offer the trade – and what impact does this have on retailers? Eva Lomme and Dr. Thomas Siemer from the Mittelstand-Digital Zentrum Handwerk addressed these issues. “The skilled trades sector is in the midst of digital change and is often faced with very complex issues. Since complexity hinders progress, the first step must be to simplify this complexity,” emphasized Dr. Siemer. This starts with the data with uniform standards for product article numbers: “Today, there are different article numbers with non-unique and non-standardized product attributes. This cannot and will not remain the case, especially with regard to the BIM method.”
E/D/E with initiative on BIM
Thomas Kirmayr, Managing Director of the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance and long-standing industry expert, was able to tie in directly with the content of the event, providing comprehensive insights into the current status and future prospects of Building Information Modeling in his presentation. In close cooperation with the Fraunhofer expert, E/D/E recently initiated its own project in this area. Christian Gräff, Managing Director of the Smart Living & Health Center e. V.: “Demographic change will pose enormous challenges for building planning and equipment in the future. The number of people in need of care will continue to grow rapidly in the coming decades without sufficient specialist staff.” The association wants to show the extent to which smart building technology can provide a remedy with its “House of the Future” in Berlin – in close cooperation with retailers and tradespeople.
Crafts in transition
Ralf Bickert from the carpentry trade association dealt with changing trade structures in his highly acclaimed lecture. “A concentration process is taking place in the carpentry and joinery trade. Only 16 percent of businesses still generate almost three quarters of all sales,” he said, referring to the extremely positive economic development. Without digitalization, nothing would work anymore: “The skilled worker of tomorrow will install windows manually and write the installation report digitally,” Bickert summed it up. In view of these changes, E/D/E discussed how the trade can position itself in this environment – for example through digital networking with trade partners – as part of the industry update. Bernd Keppler, Managing Director of OS Datensysteme, and Carsten Pinn, PinnCalc, once again presented their respective industry software solutions, which have already proven themselves in practice many times over. The focus was particularly on networking the ordering processes with the retailer store and the added value this creates for the trade and retail sector.
Digital building technology: the WUPPER-RING advantage
“B2B digitalization affects all market partners in the three-tier sales system, and each partner needs a clear strategy,” emphasized Prof. Dr. Uwe Kern, Managing Partner of ITEK Technologie GmbH, in his keynote speech. He discussed industry standards such as Open Masterdata, the integrated data interface IDS and Open Datacheck and made it clear: “The wholesale online store will become the central sales platform in the coming years.” The further course of digitization requires targeted investments and continuous knowledge building. Prof. Dr. Kern: “The right time to start is now.” E/D/E supports WUPPER-RING distributors in this – in particular with the SHK multishop and around 1.5 million master data items, which eDC Haustechnik-Daten GmbH & Co. KG (partly in cooperation with ITEK) always provides in an up-to-date form.
Industrial 3D printing was another topic at the event, as was the importance of private labels for retailers. As is well known, the Building Technology division has embarked on a promising new path for WUPPER-RING members with the relaunch of its own FORMAT brand.
Lecture topics. “The online solution enabled an extended group of people to take part who don’t usually attend the regular industry meeting,” said Georg Vetter, Managing Director of Baubeschlag-Union. Bernd Blümmers, Head of Sales Products at dormakaba Deutschland GmbH, described the specialist presentations as very informative: “Changing trade structures and the associated need for process optimization are the driving force behind further digitalization.”
Extended group of participants “The virtual format is certainly not a fully-fledged replacement for the face-to-face event – but it is better than no event at all,” commented Axel Güthner, Managing Partner of Hans Bohner GmbH & Co. “The industry update with presentations from the industry and various themed talks was a successful virtual event. From our point of view, it was at least an opportunity to communicate with our customers, albeit in a limited form,” reports Harald Schultz, Sales Manager Specialist Trade Germany at ABUS: “Overall, we can say for the building hardware sector that customers are largely positive about 2021. Only the procurement situation poses challenges for the industry.”
The large number of participants was also seen by Christoph Grote as confirmation of the event concept: “The response shows us how much the industry is looking for professional exchange with each other – even if it is currently taking place in the digital space.” Dr. Grote also had some good news for the coming year: with confidence in future developments, the total industry get-together is once again planned in its familiar form as an in-person conference – on 6. and September 7, 2022, there will be a personal reunion in Leipzig. [os]
