Successful Grinding Symposium 2014

For the third time, the United Grinding Group held the largest symposium in the international grinding machine industry from 21 to 23 May in Thun (Switzerland). "Making our customers more successful" was the central motto. A total of 30 machines from the Group were presented at 14 stations. These included five world innovations: BLOHM PROKOS XT, JUNG JE600, STUDER S141, SCHAUDT CrankGrind, and EWAG LASER LINE ULTRA. The program was completed by 20 lectures given by renowned experts.

The world's largest event in the grinding machine industry drew to a close in Thun (Switzerland) with an enthusiastic audience. The international nature of the United Grinding Group was impressively underlined: Every day more than 1,400 visitors from over 40 countries--including 70 international trade journalists--took the opportunity to learn more about the future of grinding in more than 154 technology presentations and 20 lectures. In addition to technical exchanges, there were many opportunities for networking with colleagues from all over the world. "The Symposium is also a way of thanking our customers", explained Stephan Nell, CEO of the United Grinding Group AG, as he welcomed the participants. "A way of saying thank you for the loyalty and trust which our customers place in us." 

The combination of technology presentations and world innovations, cross-cutting lectures and partner stands offered during the Symposium allowed visitors to actively experience how the United Grinding Group fulfills its claim to offer its customers more than just the right grinding technology. "We also consciously deal with topics that are not directly connected to grinding", said Nell. "Trends and multiple opportunities for optimization in a wide range of fields play a central role in making our customers more successful and offering them added value in addition to the machines."

The technology presentations offered in four different languages met with a high level of interest. These offered each participant the opportunity to discover specific advantages of the machine innovations or to discuss them in direct dialog with developers. "These presentations are unique", said one participant, "because in just a short time you can understand things that are very difficult to grasp through other information channels." The demonstration of the SCHAUDT CrankGrind crankshaft grinding machine--among others--impressed visitors with the advantages offered for the first time by a machine of this type.

Only standing room remained for many lectures. In addition to presentations on global trends and innovations, topics relating to increasing efficiency during grinding met with a particularly high level of interest. The breadth of the lectures ranged from materials in grinding tool development to increasing productivity in the design of grinding processes, as well as the reduction of grinding forces or processing and auxiliary times.

During the press conference Michael Horn, COO of the United Grinding Group AG, explained the background and effects of the internal PuLs® program. "It is more than just production optimization. PuLs® illustrates our corporate philosophy, which is to align all processes with our customers' requirements, to find and utilize potential for optimization and to minimize waste." The level of actual customer satisfaction is regularly surveyed with the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) measuring method. "The worldwide implementation of both standards demonstrates the aspiration by all companies in the United Grinding Group to set benchmarks with their production processes in the grinding machine industry throughout the world", concluded CEO Stephan Nell.