Elsner Engineering Blog

Elsner Engineering Blog

TOP 5 REASONS YOU NEED PARTNERSHIPS IN MANUFACTURING

Over 80 years of manufacturing converting machinery, Elsner has seen just about everything when it comes to industry trends.  We’ve kept our eye on driving innovation while maintaining our traditional values.  Our vast experience and the on-staff expertise that make up the Elsner team has been the recipe for setting the bar for excellence and best practices in the converting industry.   We have found that the best way to deliver the highest quality to our customers is NOT trying to be all things to our customers.  Fact is, we have an amazing amount of expertise in building state-of-the-art converting equipment that stands the test of time, but in order to bring the most advanced technology to our customers, we must readily admit where our limitations exist.   I have found that building partnerships with the industry’s best is the way to make sure we are passing on a top-notch final product.

There are many reasons why partnerships are the best way to leverage expertise and provide services.  Here are some of the top reasons explained:

1.        Teambuilding to Access New Technologies:  At some point we all need a boon in our technological resources, or we come across projects that require a cutting edge technology that is outside of the scope of our regular services.  However, we may be hesitant to expend resources to bring that technology on-staff full-time.  After all, hiring someone full time is a huge commitment from both a personnel standpoint and the need to provide to that new-hire the tools to succeed.  We have found that as technology can move at warp speed, it is better for us to partner with others who can provide the latest and greatest.  These seamless integrations are often so well-polished that the customer just sees “team” not separate entities that are “partners.”  Such is the case with our partnership with Weldon Solutions who provide robots and programming services to us when needed.

2.       Extended Product Lines: In order for us to be well-studied on the most cutting-edge approaches for our machinery, we need to remain focused on what we do best. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t see opportunities to provide additional products and services to our customers.  Enter the collaboration with a complementary vendor to extend our product line.  A great example is the Shemesh Automation partnership which has yielded the most advanced, fully automated, high-speed wet wipes production line in the world.  Our ENR-1000 converting machine in conjunction with the Shemesh machines allows us to provide an extended product line to our customer.  This product line extension has led both Shemesh and us to have a much bigger impact in the world of wet wipes production than we would have alone.

3.       Increased and New Markets:  We are always looking to grow sales opportunities and building a partnership with companies that provide complementary services to ours allows us to increase market share or open new ones.  Many times we are able to gain access to their vendors, suppliers and resources, thereby increasing value for our customers while keeping control of our relationships.  In short, we are able to cover more ground through our partnerships than we would on our own.

4.       Increased Revenue and streamlined customer experience:  With increased market access comes additional revenue streams.  When the strategic objective is aligning complementary services with a partner in order to provide a “one stop shop” for our customers, we are able to sell deeper into our customer relationships.   A fortunate bonus for the customer is that the team built while leveraging the partnership equates to a streamlined, less complicated experience than if the customer were reaching out to multiple vendors on their own.

5.       Our Customers as Partners:  I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the benefits to building partner relationships with our customers.  We build custom machinery, so in many ways, we are truly an extension of our customers as their vision becomes our next machine to build.  Without a collaborative effort, we wouldn’t be able to deliver the truly unique pieces of machinery that drive our customers’ business—to the tune of over 3000 machines in more than 60 countries!  A great example of taking our precision engineering and combining it with our customers’ original design intent to create a cutting edge end product is with a California-based filter manufacturer.  Combining folding and rolling technology, Elsner was able to design and construct a machine that can produce an innovative filter that makes potable water from sea water. 

Guilt by association:  A note about choosing your partners:  As the saying goes, you are only as strong as your weakest link, so we strive to align ourselves with the right partnerships.  Making sure that we are complementary not only in services provided, but also in our vision as to how we work with and service our customers is of the utmost of importance.  At the end of the day, our customers’ experiences and their ultimate satisfaction are the most important pieces of the process.  We want to ensure all partnerships exemplify the Elsner standard that has made us an industry standard since 1934.  It’s how we do partnerships, and purpose built precision every step of the way!

Bertram Elsner II, President/CEO