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Boon Edam, known for its revolving doors and turnstiles, picked itsme as their main electrical components supplier last year. The large product range and the vendor managed inventory (VMI) solution for the grab stock of electrical assembly materials were the deciding factors. “When you install VMI, you actually do it forever.”

Sissing Noord in Leek (Groningen) is an expert in the maintenance, renovation and construction of “wet” infrastructure, like movable bridges, pumping stations and locks. For the drives of these structures, itsme supplies the speed drives and, where necessary, also the technical know-how. For projects where Sissing Noord needs this knowledge, specialist itsme offers “some relief”.

The Lean improvement method distinguishes eight waste categories. One of these is 'inventory'. Too much stock is not good, but neither is too little. After all, having stock also provides the safe feeling of availability in times of uncertain internal planning and external factors that cannot be directly influenced. Because optimising availability both in one's own company and in the supply chain is often not the core competence of our customers, itsme can take over the care of such optimisation, for example through the import and management of so-called Vendor Managed Inventory systems. But, how do you know whether VMI is indeed the right solution? Ralph van Aartsen can answer that crucial question - using five questions. Here, in advance, are his answers to our questions on VMI.

Technical services provider Breemes supplies customers with PLCs, drives and other materials. Customers like industrial automation company Digi-Flow. Turnover, both parties feel, is not the ultimate indicator of a good relationship. Coming up with solutions together and providing knowledge are equally important. Ultimately, Breemes has to make the customer’s life easier, Digi-Flow CEO Eric Decant believes. Antwerp-based Digi-Flow assists industrial companies in their transformation to smart industrial environments using industrial automation and digitalisation. The company is a spin-off from ESAS Automation in 2020. Solindus, now ESAS, had grown into a company with 2,000 employees after its founding in 2003 by Eric and Robert Decant. With Digi-Flow, they wanted to go back to small-scale entrepreneurship. Eric Decant is now the CEO of the company, which has 30-plus employees. ‘I’m still ambitious, but I don’t want to complete this kind of strenuous trajectory on such a large scale anymore.’ Meanwhile, he is grooming his son to take over the reins. This makes Digi-Flow a true family business, as reflected in its core values of co-creation, long-term vision, lifelong growth and personal.

With Pilz' safe radar system PSENradar, safe area monitoring in harsh environments can now be implemented for other applications as well: Thanks to the extended field of view functions, the radar sensors can be more easily integrated into different production environments.

That first-class safety does not have to come at the expense of production capabilities, ABB proves with a wide range of machine safety solutions. The Orion2 Base light curtains are a good example. With them, openings for machine access or material feed can be optimally secured.

The magnetic switch, also known as an electromagnetic switch or contactor, has had a tremendous impact on industrial development over the past 100 years and has become a fundamental part of modern industrial infrastructure. From supporting the first steps in industrial automation to integration into modern, smart factories, this technology has contributed to safety, efficiency, flexibility and sustainability in the manufacturing environment. From the invention of the pioneering BAR contactor in 1924, the world's first contactor, to TeSys island, a fully digital and IoT-connected load management system, TeSys' journey has been marked by continuous innovation.

AX IT wall-mounted enclosures have been part of Rittal's portfolio for many years. From the market, there appeared to be demand for customised solutions. For this reason, in addition to the standard AX IT, Rittal has expanded the portfolio with 3 innovative solutions.