Schuler Consulting Receives Heinz Dürr Award

Grand Rapids, MI—Schuler Consulting has won the Heinz Dürr Award 2020 for innovation in “Digital Value Stream Optimization” developed by its Industry 4.0 team.

Headquartered in Pfalzgrafenweiler, Germany, Schuler Consulting established an office in Grand Rapids, MI within the headquarters of Stiles Machinery. Both Schuler and Stiles are members of the HOMAG Group and both offer production strategies and solutions.

Schuler’s award winning effort, Digital Value Stream Optimization, combines its established analysis methodology with digital technology and brings transparency to every aspect of a wood products manufacturing operation. Using Bluetooth Low Energy beacons and smartphone sensors, Schuler Consulting sets up indoor tracking and records machine data—regardless of the age or manufacturer type of the machine. Production data thus becomes quickly and digitally visible. The approach does not require an extensive IT project the analyze the value stream of a production operation in order to gather data to develop optimization measures.

A Holistic Approach

With offices in Spain, Switzerland, China, India, Malaysia, Brazil, and the U.S., Schuler Consulting works with manufacturing companies all over the world. Many of its clients employ between 20 to 100, and are typically privately owned and operated. Companies that fall within this size range can greatly benefit from Schuler’s services because they often don’t have the capacity to step outside of their day-to-day work to think about long-term strategies.

Schuler also works with large companies in the woodworking and furniture industries to improve production methods and optimization of material flow, automation, technological development and IT architecture. Clients come to Schuler in one of two ways. Companies who approach Schuler directly are typically looking to make major improvements and changes to achieve substantial growth. In other cases, Stiles Machinery will help make the connection between Schuler and a potential client by recognizing customers who could benefit from their services and recommending a consultation.

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