Creativity, passion, and team spirit lead to opportunities during the crisis

A bang with a long echo: With "LogiMAT goes Hamlar", Grenzebach acts as a pioneer in "digital fairs". The company received enthusiastic feedback from customers and partners who used the digital offers. Positive feedback also came from banks and many other companies from machinery and plant engineering as well as other industries, which also had to deal with the cancellation of trade shows. The media response was without precedent for Grenzebach. With digital content from the exhibition booth at Grenzebach’s own Innovation Center in Hamlar near Augsburg, Germany as well as webinars on innovation topics, Grenzebach also created content for everyone interested in intralogistics that will be used long-term beyond the exhibition period. The intralogistics business unit, which is of great strategic importance to the company, also used the digital LogiMAT to open up new ways of reaching target groups.

Entering digital space with spontaneity and creativity

Frédéric Erben, Head of Corporate Strategy & Communications at Grenzebach, says with regards to the short-term decision in March: "With our project, we want to encourage other companies: Stay positive and look ahead. Every challenge also holds the chance to offer a unique solution through creativity". After the cancellation of LogiMAT in Stuttgart in March at short notice, it quickly became clear to the management and the Grenzebach team that they would make the intralogistics innovations available to their customers in a digital space. "After all, our customers‘ need for information was still there," says Erben.

Transatlantic project

When the official cancellation of LogiMAT had been announced, Frédéric Erben was on a plane to the United States to attend the intralogistics show MODEX. Across the Atlantic, in two time zones, Erben, his team, and long-standing partners coordinated their efforts. "Let’s do it, let’s bring LogiMAT to Hamlar!” The booth builders of their partner GES quickly moved from Stuttgart to the Innovation Center in Hamlar. "The challenge was, that one truck had already left for Stuttgart and that the team had already arrived there as well. We had to reroute everything overnight and the set-up was of course different than at a trade show. The team enjoyed it, and so did I. I hope that this project will also inspire other companies," says Solveig Singerhoff, Project Manager at GES Booth building and Design. At the Innovation Center in Hamlar, Ralf Jäger, Chief Operating Officer of the Grenzebach Group, and his team had instantly cleared space for the booth. "Assembly teams from all areas gave us a hand to make the originally planned start of the trade show in Stuttgart the first day of LogiMAT in Hamlar. A great joint effort!" Everyone showed full commitment even through the weekend.

From sales representative to film star

LogiMAT: Meet us digitally! To make this possible, SinCinema movie production team went into two-shift operation. Tim Reischmann, the managing director, underlines: "To master such a challenge together with a long-standing customer is simply great. Producing so many films in such a short time is an exceptional situation for us. But an exceptional situation that we enjoy and for which we appreciate this job". The entire marketing team at Grenzebach concentrated all their efforts on the digital LogiMAT. Grenzebach experts working in sales, service, product management and many other areas spontaneously found themselves in front of a camera. "That was new for everyone. We are very happy with the result and according to the feedback so are our customers," says Frédéric Erben. Parallel to the filming, Gregor Wiebe from Huckleberryking took photos of the booth, and there were other cameras too: ZDF and Bayerischer Rundfunk, two German TV channels, reported from Hamlar.

Make innovations tangible, allow for specialist discussions

The Grenzebach team placed great emphasis on interaction and professional exchange between intralogistics experts, customers, and partners. For the intralogistics world, innovations were made tangible digitally. Philipp Marb, Product Manager Software Solutions at Grenzebach, quickly converted the presentation "Everything under one (digital)roof", which was planned for LogiMAT in Stuttgart, into a webinar (unfortunately available in German only – please contact us if you wish an English version). Technical questions could be clarified in web sessions and interested parties were given additional information on new solutions. The focus was on the following topics: the digitalization platform SERICY, new VR training applications, and an innovative feature for monitoring the driving area of automated guided vehicles. Grenzebach thus underlined its motto "Transforming Intralogistics" once again – at the digital LogiMAT in-house and at the MODEX trade show in Atlanta, Georgia in the US.

MODEX in the US could still take place as planned. "Fortunately, we were able to have face-to-face conversations with many customers and other interested parties in Atlanta," says Erben. Particularly the Goods-to-Person solution was presented at the booth. At the picking station, visitors had the opportunity to pick goods themselves and experience how easy, reliable, and ergonomic picking with a Grenzebach system is. A presentation area offered the additional opportunity to gain valuable information about intralogistics in general and Grenzebach solutions in particular to take away for daily work practice. For interested parties who could not be on site, some insights were captured on video by Grenzebach as well as together with industry associations such as MHI.

Sustainable action, digital added value created

For Frédéric Erben, providing a digital stage for innovations and a virtual version of the trade show is a good example for acting sustainably. The new intralogistics solutions, the design and implementation of the booth, the specialist presentation, and accompanying communication had already required many hours of work even more heart and soul and a considerable budget. All this has not only been secured by the courageous project, but Grenzebach and partners have created added value beyond that. One example: The films produced for the digital LogiMAT can be used by the business unit Intralogistics on a long-term basis to reach target groups that they might not have encountered at the LogiMAT in Stuttgart.

Continuing to take a courageous approach during the current COVID 19 crisis, to see and to use opportunities, to support partners and customers with creative solutions: Grenzebach meets those challenges every day. For example, with adapted services under the motto, "You will never walk alone".

Grenzebach’s partners at the digital LogiMAT:

GES – Booth building and Design >

Huckleberryking – photography >

Kellermeier Kommunikation – editorial support >

SinCinema Filmproduktion – film production >