Smooth operator

Written by Experience Manufacturing

Published Wed 5 Nov 2008

When it comes to shiny, hygienic and easily manageable concrete floors one Swedish company has it ‘waxed’. Founded by Hakan Thysell back in 1987, HTC Sweden AB has grown continuously over the years to become a market leader in the sector of diamond-based grinding systems in both Europe and the US. Its grinding machines have earned a reputation for being effective and cost efficient and are used by a range of companies including Hitachi, GeKas and IKEA for both industrial purposes and public buildings. Today, all production and product development is still located in Soderkoping, Sweden, with sales offices located in both Germany and the US and specialised production in the UK and the US.

In order to grow the business and attract customers, to its concrete grinding machines HTC works the market in two ways. “As we are changing the minds of people as to how they look at concrete floors we use a push and pull strategy,” says Karl Thysell, the company’s R&D manager, who is also the founder’s son and has been working at the HTC in various departments and roles since he left school 15 years ago. The grinding machines are mainly sold to specialised floor contractors. “One way we work the market is to find companies that are contractors and show them what our machines can do compared to what they are currently using,” explains Thysell. By showing them on site what their equipment can do he claims that nine out of ten times they will make a sale. This is called push sales.

The other method is to essentially match the contractors with those end-customers who are interested in the flooring solutions that HTC presents to them. “We get the jobs to the contractors,” says Thysell. “This type of sales business is a no order taking sales. It’s more about informing floor owners, large companies with warehouses, retail stores -, really any company with a floor – what options they have when it comes to choosing a floor finish, as almost every company has problems with their floors, especially in warehouses.” This is called pull sales and as Thysell puts it HTC work as the sales people for the customer. “We are doing the sales work on behalf of the contractors,” he says. The contractors then fight amongst themselves for the client’s business.”

This ‘push and pull’ business model for grinding concrete has proven to be very successful and as a result of strong sales the company has grown significantly over the years. In fact, when 3i, a private equity and venture capital company, invested in HTC in 2006 the company had grown more than 50 per cent in the two years previous. Additionally, it has achieved up to 200 per cent annual growth, growing from $7.5 million to $56 million in just six years.

However, its rapid growth can also be attributed to the fact that HTC places a very high premium on product development and prides itself on its innovative grinding machines that are not only functional but also stand out from competitors as being aesthetically pleasing. “In our business of construction equipment it has always been the case that function comes before design, but many companies haven’t understood that you can combine them,” he says. “Design helps you sell and also communicates something about the company and what it stands for. At the end of the day, what would you prefer to buy – a machine that has lights and looks nice or the one without the lights? Most people will buy the one with lights, although you will never use the lights as you will be indoors, but you always want the nice looking one whatever it is.”

So, in order to help bring its desirable products to market very quickly HTC has been using Autodesk software for the past 18 years. It started with AutoCAD back in 1990 with its first machines being designed in AutoCAD R9. In 1993 the company decided to upgrade to AutoCAD LT, which enabled them to keep the DWG format and so kept all the old drawings. When Autodesk launched advanced 3D capabilities with Autodesk Inventor, HTC immediately adopted the technology and today uses a full suite of Autodesk products including Inventor Pro-Series, 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD Electrical as well as Productstream.

“We definitely have had great business growth and in a way Autodesk products have played a part in that. The tools have helped us develop better products faster,” explains Thysell. “Since we started using Autodesk Inventor in 2001 the growth has been as follows: number of employees 2001=21, 2008=182 and turnover 2001= Euro 5.1 million, 2008=around Euro 40 million.”

For Thysell, the advantage is really how the various Autodesk products all work collectively. “In the old days the Autodesk products didn’t work that well together and we had to use third party PDM software,” he explains. However, having spoken to Autodesk about this he now says that all the products work together very well. “What I appreciate with Autodesk is that they listen to the customer (i.e. me) when I make suggestions. Also they have improved their software over the years and are constantly improving,” he says. There is also a distinct advantage in having all the products supplied from one vendor. “The best benefit is that you have one supplier who takes responsibility for all the products,” he adds.

It was very important for this innovative and forward-looking company to move into the world of digital prototyping, and with Autodesk’s products it can develop its machines in an all-digital product development workflow. Inventor brings together design data from all phases of the product development process and stores it in one place that is available to everyone in the company. As Thysell says, the days are long gone when you could afford to have the design and engineering departments working separately and updating one another with drawings. “Paper drawings are good but we also struggle when people (including myself) have been at a vendor changing measurements and have not put these changes on the original drawing,” he explains. “What I want is one source for this information and it should be stored in one format; if we need another format it should be linked to the original format. That’s why we have installed Autodesk Productstream and developed our ERP systems to interact with Productstream.”

Autodesk also promotes collaboration between not only design and manufacturing but also other departments within the company. “I like the way Autodesk takes the whole chain into consideration. Other vendors focus on just the engineer but forgets the purchasing department, production departments etc. Autodesk with Productstream takes that into consideration,” says Thysell. “It is a better total solution. It has a total grip on the whole chain from ideation to when the product is on the market.”

Another important consideration in HTC’s business is of course cost saving, and one way that Autodesk’s digital prototyping solution enables the company to achieve this is by reducing the amount of physical prototypes HTC produces. In fact, they have cut the number of physical prototypes to just one. Previously, the company had to dedicate time and resources to develop up to five or six. “When it comes to digital prototyping, the cost savings are massive. A physical prototype could cost from Euro 5,000 to Euro 50,000 and more. If you can cut the number of prototypes by 50 to 80 per cent it saves you a lot of money,” says Thysell. As for the other cost savings that come with utilising Autodesk’s suite of products, Thysell explains that it’s difficult to pin down exactly where the savings have been made. “It’s hard to say in figures, but all the ‘could you print this drawing’ has ended and that usually happened every day,” he says.

One of the features in Inventor he particularly likes and one he thinks other businesses may benefit from too is the Sustainable Materials Manager. “A plug- in for Inventor helps you calculate the environmental impact of the materials. It’s a basic plug- in but really useful and gives the digital prototyping a bigger meaning,” comments Thysell. This plug-in, available to Autodesk Inventor users via Autodesk Labs, allows engineering companies to see how environmental their designs actually are at an early stage. Engineers can take a product design and instantly run a report to see which parts/components within the design contain materials of high toxic values or how much of the product is recyclable or whether the design complies with regulatory compliance such as WEEE or RoHS. “We can put the tool in the hands of the engineer and he can see what materials are best to use and best for the environment,” confirms Thysell. “You can get this information at once and it allows us to bring the knowledge directly to the engineer.” Ultimately this plug-in could help reduce a product’s environmental impact while still meeting critical performance requirements. “It’s great that you can make the right choices before you put a product on the market,” says Thysell who believes that it will definitely become increasingly important as more and more businesses focus on their impact on the environment.

Autodesk’s products have also been used in other areas of HTC. For instance, its use of 3D Studio Max animation software allows the company to use its digital model to develop marketing materials. This saves costs and enables the company to showcase their grinding machines and consequently generate sales before they are even launched. “We are using the CAD data to make movies using 3D Studio Max or rendering pictures for presentations or folders, and all of our manuals are based on the data from Inventor,” confirms Thysell. “This all helps you get a unified look and feel to the material that is supplied to the customer and that shows that you take your business seriously.”

Autodesk is good for HTC’s business. The company is growing – and has ambitious targets for its future development: Autodesk will play a part in helping them achieve this. In fact, its latest grinding machine – HTC 1500 ixT – was designed and developed within one year (an extremely short timeframe) and this is predominantly down to its use of digital prototyping. “We plan to grow the company and take market shares from existing solutions,” says Thysell. “Autodesk will help us to develop our products in many ways.”