05/31/2023

Welcome to the world's leading trade fair! – LIGNA is back

Trade fair review by SCHULER Consulting

After four long years of waiting, it is now finished: LIGNA 2023. And those who were there have experienced it for themselves - LIGNA has lived up to its name as the world's leading trade fair!

Willingness to invest in the international furniture industry

We welcomed numerous visitors from around 40 countries and almost every continent to our stand. The high quality of the visitors was consistently inspiring, so that we were able to hold very good technical discussions. The international furniture industry was particularly interested in the "Strategic Production Development" consultancy service, i.e. the construction, conversion or expansion of their production.

The signal was clear: many companies want to continue to grow and are currently facing the next investment steps, but the new or replacement investments must be planned more than ever for the long term and sustainably. Those who are now reaching the limits of their production capacity usually have many questions about the right strategy, which were discussed in intensive one-on-one meetings. This is where our interactive best practice production layouts come into play. The state of the art 3D renderings showed the possibilities of production planning and development.

A second focus was on digitalization and production optimization: Our on-site installation of "Digital Value Stream Optimization" met with great interest. Using a coffee machine as a simple simulation, Bastian Schulz (Team Leader Industry 4.0) showed how our tool can be used to connect any machine to the digital value stream in order to obtain process data. In this way, the company can obtain process data that provides relevant KPIs such as throughput time, performance, availability and inventory. This data, along with other available production data, flows into a value stream dashboard. As a result, all work steps become transparent and measurable, and can be optimized in a targeted and sustainable manner. Bastian Schulz explains how it works here!

Shortage of skilled workers in timber construction: practical solutions sought

For the first time, SCHULER Consulting was represented at this year's Ligna with a team of timber construction experts. The cross section of visitors at the timber construction stand covered all facets from small to large: the "classic" carpenter as well as investors planning to set up their own production facilities visited the trade fair to find out about new technologies, trends and services.

The most common questions our team received were about optimization. At the moment, many companies are looking for concrete measures to digitalize and automate in order to cope with the shortage of skilled workers. However, there is often not enough time in the day-to-day business to develop and implement solutions. At the same time, construction tasks are growing, but in most cases not with the number of employees to manage these tasks.

Our timber construction team provides active support for this demanding challenge. The goal is to start exactly where things get stuck in the day-to-day business and create practical solutions so that every employee can work more efficiently. Michael Postulart explained in his short presentation "More efficient and leaner production" that these "small improvements" are also related to the key topics of "digitalization" and "automation" and are a remedy for the lack of skilled workers.

Young talents don't miss LIGNA either

Another highlight for us was welcoming the next generation of wood industry professionals to our stand: A total of 60 wood technology students from the Rosenheim Technical University and the Hildesheim University of Applied Sciences visited us in Hall 15 to gain an insight into the "Schuler world". We were very pleased about the great interest and the attentive audience. If you are now interested in a career at Schuler, please take a look at our current job openings and/or send us an initiative application. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us!

Conclusion

A large number of visitors from all over the world, very good technical discussions, full halls and an excellent atmosphere throughout - our conclusion: LIGNA, the world's leading trade fair, is back. And we are already looking forward to next time!

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