Mecatis uses digital technology to stay in touch with its customers
The Covid-19 crisis has forced some SMEs to reinvent themselves and find ways of continuing to exist and sell. Such is the case of Mecatis, based in Isérables. During the weeks of semi-confinement, its owner, Samuel Vuadens, relied on digital technology to promote his services related to the Micro5 five-axis milling machine. And it worked, with numerous customer contacts.
Samuel Vuadens was the guest at a recent online talk organized by Alp ICT, CimArk and The Ark Foundation. On this occasion, he was able to recall that his company, founded twelve years ago, was built from the outset with connected tools and the Internet. However, the coronavirus crisis had an impact on the SME from the beginning of January, with a drop in orders from the watchmaking industry. " From March 18, we were at a complete standstill, with our 17 employees and cramped premises".
Despite the production shutdown, Mecatis implemented various measures, including an agile organization with daily online reviews, for the engineering side. "On the customer side, given that trade fairs were cancelled, all our communication was done online, mainly on LinkedIn and Google Adwords. These tools are working well, and we've received a lot of quotes, even more than during traditional trade fairs.
Fewer trade shows in the future
As a result, Samuel Vuadens plans to exhibit at more than just one trade show this year (as opposed to the three initially planned). " These seven weeks of confinement have enabled us to make a significant number of customer contacts. We'll have to see what the final results are, but I have a feeling that we won't be going backwards as far as trade shows are concerned, and that international customers will be dealing almost exclusively with digital tools." However, the Mecatis boss appreciates the human touch. I want to meet my customers," he says, "but digital tools allow me to make a pre-selection. Teleconferencing tools, which have been widely used since March, will continue to be an integral part of Mecatis' commercial life. "A priori, I'm no longer going to jump in the car at the first phone call to go and see a customer or prospect".
In recent weeks, Mecatis has invested little in equipment. On the other hand, major efforts have been made in terms of employee training. " Our employees have been able to learn how best to use the tools, and will retain this knowledge in the long term".
Production sprint to July
Production starts up again on May 11 at Mecatis, with the constraints of social distancing, separation between work areas and hygiene. " We'll be in sprint mode until July to deliver the machines we've been ordered and manage to produce at least two machines a month".
The SME's order book was full before the crisis. We'll see what happens in the future," he says, "but I'm afraid that investment in new machines will decline. Samuel Vuadens is already anticipating this trend, by offering machines for rental rather than sale.
As a reminder, Mecatis markets the Micro 5, an intelligent milling machine developed by HE-Arc as the first building block of Factory5, a digital factory. "It's already up and running, based on an open source solution. This platform can be applied in any company and allows customers to know the status of their orders, but also to buy related products".
Source: The Ark Foundation blog. Article written by Cédric Luisier at the Live-Talk co-organized by Alp ICT and CimArk on May 7, 2020.
