Gustav Schulte-Sutrum (left) in conversation with Reinhold Haverkamp from SICK

SICK insight: Mr.Schulte-Sutrum, how long has your company been in existence and what are your main activities?

Schulte-Sutrum: GSS Industrie-Electronic has been active since 1984. At that time we began by selling special electronic products, including sensors, control and drive technology from SICK and other suppliers. Since then we have been able to build up a faithful customer base throughout the Münster area. We now have 10 employees in internal and field service and, apart from components for industrial automation technology, we can also offer complete solutions including installation and commissioning.

SICK insight: What sectors are your main customers, and why did they choose you?

Schulte-Sutrum: The food and luxury goods industries, plastic processors, the iron and steel industries, and small and medium-sized machine constructors who have specialised in niche solutions, are among our most important customer groups. Whether a large company, or the small firm round the corner – they all come to us for basically two reasons: continuity and added-value services. By continuity I mean the fact that right from the start we concentrated on co-operating with partners who, like SICK, belong to the market leaders in their fields and whose devices are widelyfound in machine and plant construction. So those who modernise or convert their plants find that we can provide the sensor that was already installed on the machine. That we can offer from a wide selection of manufacturers further simplifies the work for them and contributes to reducing the number of suppliers for a large company. The second point is the value-added services. Among these I include product training, maintaining a stock – currently tying up a six-figure amount of euros – and active, individual support for our customers by our external team. One could, of course, simply see the last point as “an expensive form of advertising” – for us, however, it proves very effective.

SICK insight: But aren’t direct visits to customers dying out in this era of the home page, downloads and e-business?

Schulte-Sutrum: I see the Internet as a support, not a replacement for personal advice on site. Nobody ever seriously claimed in the past that the sending of catalogues meant that no external staff were necessary. The opportunities for actively obtaining information have improved through use of the Internet – the customer’s “real” questions only come up when one actually talks to them about things. And then, when our external staff’s sensor and application expertise encounters the user’s concrete requirements in conversation, the ideal solution is not far off.

SICK insight: For example?

Schulte-Sutrum: One of our customers recently faced the problem of needing to detect the edge height of the inlet pipe of a washing machine in a transfer and mounting station. At the same time he wanted this check to be doubly safe-guarded by a redundant signal. We then solved this task with a DMH height sensor. The device detects the height of the edge extremely accurately.

SICK insight: Could such intensive customer support also be the reason why your company experienced a permanent annual record in 2001, while elsewhere it was the silly season characterised by turbulent weather?

Schulte-Sutrum: Well, that is certainly one of the factors – in addition to our comprehensive stocks (more than 70 types SICK sensors alone) and their rapid delivery. Another reason is our customer structure. We mainly appeal to industrial end-users and small companies with niche solutions. We have found that they react quite differently from large machine constructors. If a machine or plant has to meet more stringent technical requirements but the investment budget does not allow for any new acquisitions, then the existing machine will just have to be redesigned and modernised. For automation technology this generally means that the orders do not come from large companies, but arrive as end-users’ orders worth a similar amount. For us this means that the order lands on our desks. In this sense, even bad times can have their good sides.

SICK insight: Your company has successful been in existence for 18 years, so the firm will celebrate its 25th jubilee in 2009. Where will your company then stand?

Schulte-Sutrum: I am a fan of steady, but lasting, growth. The new technologies market has shown that other philosophies are more likely to lead to belly landings. Of course I cannot tell you exactly where we will stand in 2009. But one thing is certain: it will not be staring into a crystal ball or reading tea leaves that will bring progress, but only continuity and customer-orientation. In addition to the necessary involvement, one also needs a certain amount of luck and ideas on the back burner – maybe in 2009, or earlier, we will have a new department for control system construction. We’ll see ...

SICK insight: Apropos tea leaves: thank you very much for your generous hospitality – and for the conversation too, of course!