Five quick questions to Frank

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How long have you worked for RIVAL?
I’ve been here for 11 years. I trained at Hammel Maskinfabrik, where I worked for a year. The job involved a lot of forging, so in order to further my skills I applied to RIVAL, where I got the chance to work with CNC machines.

What has changed since you started?
When I started there were only 15 of us, so you can certainly say the number of employees has gone up. Self-managed teams have therefore been created with six or seven people in each team. That means we’re pretty much free to plan the work ourselves, and that we all have a lot of influence.

What’s it like to work for RIVAL?
There’s a lot of freedom and the work is exciting. Things run well, and the atmosphere is good. Not just amongst
ourselves – the members of the management team are good listeners and very approachable.

What are the best jobs?
Special jobs where we have to produce a part quickly. It’s challenging, and you feel you help to make a difference because you know that someone, somewhere, desperately needs the part you’re working on.

What are the effects of the expansion?
The new production facilities are more spacious – there’s not much room to work here in the old building. Now there’s more  space between the machines, which makes it far easier to handle the parts. New and larger machines will hopefully also mean that we can increase production even further.

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Christian is actively pursuing the customers of tomorrow

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Sales Manager Christian Aarup has worked in sales at RIVAL for over four years. The nature of the work changes continuously, and today it is considerably more strategic than it was in 2012.

Christian is very satisfied with being part of the RIVAL sales force. “Being able to go to the customers with something very good is extremely motivating. Every day I meet more and more people who want to enter into long-term agreements with us because they have precisely the same experience and just like us, can see the many benefits of fixed agreements,” says Christian.

More targeted work
At RIVAL, people are now much more precise about which customers the company can add the most value to. It is about the customers that require advanced components that are serially manufactured, where there is a need for RIVAL’s unique competencies and its valuable exchange and sounding out of ideas. “It means a great deal for my work, that I can target these customers more, and that I have a good success rate in getting them to talk,” says Christian.

Huge potential
“Without doubt, there’s a huge potential in what we can offer,” continues Christian. “I have some talented colleagues, who can, and have the ambition and the desire to exchange and sound out ideas with customers, and thus help to develop the customers’ components. There are a great many people who make inquiries when they find out the option exists.”

Good experience in networking
Christian also spends a great deal of time networking, since he can see that it provides good leads and valuable input in several areas. “It applies to when we’re seeking new subcontractors, partners and new customers,“ says Christian. “For example, I’m in networks like Erhverv Skanderborg, and the Danish Oil & Gas Group. I meet a lot of people there, whom we can learn from and whom we can give new knowledge to.”

Competencies before product
Today, Christian puts a lot of focus on selling RIVAL’s competencies before he starts to look at the specific products that RIVAL can help the customer to produce. “It also means that we’re increasingly becoming involved earlier on in the customer’s design process and we can come with our input and process optimisation, for example in the technical production area,” says Christian. “It’s a new way of selling a machined component developer and manufacturer, but it fits precisely with what we at RIVAL want to be known for – as the machined component developer and manufacturer of tomorrow.”

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Mutual understanding with the purchasers of tomorrow

At machined component developer and manufacturer RIVAL, we are experiencing new aspects in the collaboration with the purchasers of tomorrow.

It happens when we achieve mutual understanding and interest in entering into closer collaboration, so that both parties can get a good deal from the collaboration, and the customer can also see the benefit in relation to their finished components.
Together with the customers, we have managed to raise the dialogue to a more strategic level, where we look at the overall budget in the production of the customer’s components. The purchasers of tomorrow know that when they have to find savings at their suppliers, there are many other options available to them than just requiring a lower per unit price. They are already experiencing significant savings by entering into an agreement with RIVAL.

This is because at RIVAL we have for many years worked in a goal-oriented way to become the total supplier for our customers, and enter into long-term agreements for the serial production of the customer’s critical and expensive components. We have been very successful in this regard, because our setup, machines and employees are highly suited to solving such tasks, and we can provide the customer with a valuable and overall economically beneficial solution.

At RIVAL, we will rarely be competitive if it is just about producing one single component, and we shall ‘just’ execute the task. Our employees, processes and machines demonstrate their full potential when the task requires something more, and we can collaborate with the customer on challenging, developing and fine-tuning the machining. In this way, we are a developing partner rather than an operating partner.

Many customers see the same benefits and thus want to enter into a closer collaboration with us, both in relation to purchasing and to more technical production aspects. We achieve this mutual and fully utilised collaboration between the customer and RIVAL, when the customers also have a complete overview and have valid forecasts of their future requirements, which they choose to share with us and enter into a long-term framework agreement. In this way, we can often reduce the customer’s component prices by up to 20%, which is significantly more than the five-percent requirement that the customer often starts with.

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Are you also one of those purchasers who must save 5% a year?

In many companies, there is a requirement that savings and optimisations must be achieved annually. This often means that the purchasing department has to lay down requirements for savings with their subcontractors. But savings can be achieved in many ways, and at RIVAL there is a clear approach to this.

“In many ways it’s about not thinking completely conventionally in relation to purchasing and savings,” says RIVAL’s Henrik Holvad. “Our experience over several years is that the customers who are in control of their business and who look at the total costs, also end up getting the best prices – and in that way, it can become a good business both for the customer and the supplier.”

Valid forecasts
The potential for good prices often starts with the customer having valid forecasts for the future production of their components. “It will seldom become a good business for the customer if they start by ordering 200 components, and then repeat the process several times, perhaps over a year,” says Henrik Holvad. “It’s all about knowing beforehand, for example, that 1000 components a year will be used and then entering into a framework agreement to manufacture them with us. It gives us completely different options for manufacturing, when we have plenty of time and can put components in storage, so we can deliver when the customer requires them and at the same time, offer a better price.”

Optimisation of product and production
RIVAL often enters into an optimising process on the actual machining, when it applies to the customer’s components, which can also have a significant impact on the final price. “When our customers enter into a long-term agreement with us, it also makes good sense, and it’s very profitable if we look at how we can optimise the machining process and perhaps optimise the customer’s specifications relating to machining, tolerances and materials,” says Henrik Holvad.

“It happens often in a collaboration where the customer can see the benefits in investing in a start-up project in order to subsequently get more attractive prices on the finished products.”

Significant savings
“Today, many of our customers can for instance see the benefits in entering into framework agreements, where in addition to getting the full RIVAL package with among other things, documentation, measurement reports, quality, reliability of delivery and professionalism, they also achieve overall financial savings up to 20%. But it requires that our partners in “purchasing” at the customer’s location are ready to look beyond the conventional purchasing strategy, where it’s about the price and the product.

You have to see things in a bigger perspective, and the total overall savings must be factored in. This is where the customers can achieve the required savings without having to compromise in areas like quality and reliability of delivery, which are often crucial for the people who will finally use the components.”

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Loyal customers primarily see RIVAL as a developing partner

RIVAL carried out a customer satisfaction survey in the autumn of 2016. The results are clear. Tomorrow’s customers, who want to utilise RIVAL’s developing competencies, experience a good balance between service and price.

“I those cases where we work closely together with the customer on the development and optimisation of the components, the customers are very loyal and satisfied with the collaboration, quality and price. And especially the customer’s technical decision makers value the collaboration,” says Henrik Holvad.

This is in harmony with RIVAL’s strategic focus, and thus a great indication that the company is doing the right thing in the process, which is developing from being an operating supplier to being a partner and total supplier.

Delivery performance must improve
The survey also shows that the customers have noticed that RIVAL’s ability to deliver has fallen from a level that was just above 98%, to a level that is just below 98%. “This is obviously unsatisfactory, and we have a clear objective, which is 98%,” says Henrik Holvad. “We’re working to optimise several areas in the production and planning, which will certainly get us back to the higher level.”

Sharper profile
The survey also shows that several, more periphery customers do not have sufficient knowledge of the competencies and services that RIVAL can offer. “Therefore, from now on we will have an even sharper profile, both in our sales work and in communication. We will have a clear profile in the market at all of the relevant companies,” says Henrik Holvad.

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RIVAL takes its social responsibility seriously

At RIVAL, social responsibility is not empty words but an area that has a significant impact on our daily work. This is why we actively take on responsibility, both in relation to recruiting people into the industry, training new apprentices, refugees in the local community and by providing a new option for flexible jobs.

Tomorrow’s pool of workers
We are very aware of the challenge that our industry faces, with over 300,000 machine operators leaving the industry within the next 10 years and just 100,000 machine operators joining the industry in the same period. This means we need to actively increase the pool of workers. This happens when we collaborate with local schools to stir young people’s interest in engineering, and when we take responsibility for training new apprentices. Often, we have four apprentices employed, which is a significant number in relation to our size. We know how important it is for the individual apprentice and for development in our industry when young people get off to a good start with a good education in an area they are interested in.

“Industritekniker – Talentsporet “(Industrial Technician – Talent Track) – what is it?

“Industritekniker – Talentsporet “(Industrial Technician – Talent Track) is a complete industrial technician course at a higher technical level. The course is academically and technically demanding, and is aimed at ambitious students.

The length of the course and number of semesters is the same as the standard industrial technician course, but the level is higher, and the allocation of subjects is different.

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