A new level of growth

Jordi Batet has been a successful entrepreneur for over twenty years. His company, SmartLift, sells electronic components for elevators internationally. It is not an easy business: Batet's main customers are the few major full-service companies in the elevator industry. They are manufacturers, installers and field service providers rolled into one and don't generate their revenue only by selling new elevators systems, which have a service life of twenty years and more. About sixty percent of the global thirty-three-billion-euro elevator market comes from maintenance and retrofit business.

Only suppliers that fully understand the needs of the major elevator companies can offer them the right products at the right point in time. Jordi Batet has done this successfully since 1989, when he founded SmartLift. Today, the medium-size company has sales of EUR twenty-three million, employs twenty people at its headquarters in Castellar del Vallès near Barcelona and uses production facilities in India and South America. As a supplier of switching cabinets and electronic components for displays or control panels, SmartLift regularly achieves annual growth rates of over twenty percent. Batet applies his entire experience and sector knowledge to maintaining this track record. He continuously monitors the elevator market and develops new concepts, aligning his small but excellent company with technological trends.

The sober-minded entrepreneur only adds to SmartLift's product portfolio if it makes sense – any new fields of activity must fit the company's strategy. "Because European labor costs are so high compared to the emerging countries, we can only be competitive if we develop leading-edge technology, and then automate the manufacturing process to the greatest extent possible," Batet explains. Since elevator shaft cabling is very labor-intensive, SmartLift avoided the segment for years. There is nothing high-tech about this area of the business: technicians painstakingly bundle individual wires to form wiring harnesses. The risk of faulty contacts and lack of continuity is ever present when they manually connect the lighting or control branch circuits via plugs at each level.

Batet saw an opportunity here to develop a new market through innovation. "We eliminate the manual labor and transform the shaft cabling into an industrially manufactured standard component," is how the inventive General Manager describes his approach to the problem. "The key is to combine maximum passenger safety with straightforward installation for the technicians."

For practical implementation of the concept, Batet looked for a partner that would ideally complement SmartLift's core competence in elevator electronics. "We knew that we needed custom, innovative connection technology, so we turned to Weidmüller's specialists. They are extremely knowledgeable in this area, and we have had an excellent business relationship with them for many years," says Batet. Together, the two companies were then able to develop the exact end-to-end solution for elevator cabling he had in mind.

The product, called KonboX, consists of a fourteen-conductor flat cable that runs vertically in the shaft and replaces the hand-made cable harness. The various leads are used to transmit the control signals, supply power along the shaft and monitor whether the elevator door is open or closed. "We selected cable manufacturers that guarantee top quality to ensure that the flat cable is precisely manufactured," says Batet.

KonboX is completed by a plastic enclosure that houses the contacts between the flat cable and the wiring that branches off at every floor of a building. Here Weidmüller drew on its expertise to develop an innovative hybrid contact for power and control signal levels that for the first time combines piercing and Push In technology. The shaft cabling can be completed in only a few steps. The technician inserts the flat cable in the box and closes it using a screwdriver. This causes the piercing contacts to permanently and precisely connect to the cable. The branch wiring is simply plugged into the Push In contacts on the back of the box.

Thanks to an innovative hybrid contact, KonboX cable harnesses can be quickly pre-assembled

SmartLift and Weidmüller market the KonboX solution jointly, targeting the two core elevator markets around the world: new installations and upgrades. For new buildings, elevator companies can purchase a completely preassembled solution. Elevator shaft dimensions are sent via Internet and processed by a machine designed by SmartLift. An installation-ready KonboX is shipped a mere twenty-four hours after receipt of the dimensions. Alternatively, customers can also assemble the solution themselves on site. This option is especially advantageous when refurbishing old elevators and the location of the other wiring is not known in advance. Either way, all technicians must complete a special training course before being permitted to install the KonboX product. Jordi Batet insists on safety and quality, right down to the last detail.

Thanks to the reliability of the connections provided by the Weidmüller technology, extensive troubleshooting is a thing of the past. "This enables customers to estimate their project time and costs more reliably," says SmartLift's General Manager. "KonboX labor costs are eighty percent lower than those of the conventional method, and the costs of material are comparable. Thanks to the prewired solution, installation now takes only five minutes per building floor. It’s just like plug-and-play." His head always full of new ideas, Batet can already picture further applications: "A modified version of KonboX holds promise for adding considerable value in building systems. It could be used to easily distribute fieldbus signals."

For now, SmartLift is tapping the huge potential of KonboX in the elevator market. There is no comparable competing product. "Actually, the elevator industry is slow to change and uses proven products for a long time. Right now, we are still having to help some companies get used to our novel solution. But ultimately, the advantages are convincing," says Batet as he describes the market situation. Projects by leading elevator companies using KonboX around the world, such as the one for a new building complex in South America with more than forty high-speed elevators, support this claim: "Thanks to the alliance with Weidmüller, my company has a new pillar upon which to support its market strategy. This will enable it to grow further."

This application story has been published in:  Annual Report 2008