materalfluss: Mr. Schmidt, everyone is talking about the crisis in German industry, is that reflected in your company?

Carsten Schmidt: No, we can't confirm that from our point of view. There was a dip last year following the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, but this is currently being made up for. As SEH, we are heavily involved in the automotive sector, where the conversion to electromobility is in full swing. This has inevitable consequences for conveyor technology, for example when car bodies become heavier or batteries have to be transported for assembly.

mfl: Does this affect the entire conveyor technology?

Schmidt: Yes. Our highlight at SEH is certainly the Skyrail electric monorail system, but we also offer other overhead and the entire range of floor conveyor technology, and the demand is there everywhere.

mfl: The number of e-car registrations is currently stagnating.

Schmidt: That is correct, but probably only temporarily. What is more important for the demand for conveyor technology is that plant technology is being ordered now that is due to go into operation in two to three years' time. This is a long-term business.

mfl: What prospects are there for SEH outside the automotive industry?

Schmidt: Surface technology is already a very important market for us; the entire painting sector with both powder and wet painting. Outside of industry, hospitals are a new market for us, especially the catering sector. Airports are also of interest to us, but only in certain areas such as catering. Baggage handling systems are not our business. Our goal for the future is to work half for the automotive industry and half for other sectors.

mfl: What are the actual advantages of overhead technology compared to floor conveyor technology?

Schmidt: The most important advantage, especially for our smaller customers, is scalability: with a floor conveyor, you have to install the entire conveyor technology right from the start, even if production has not yet grown that much. With an overhead conveyor, the installation of the rails is usually much cheaper. The vehicles can then be purchased as soon as the need arises. Another advantage is that we can integrate monorail systems very flexibly into existing systems. We have worked hard on this in recent years.

mfl: Can you explain that in more detail?

Schmidt: We call our technology predictive engineering. We use 3D scans from just four points in the hall to create a 3D model of the existing system, into which we can then virtually insert an initial draft of the track layout. We can then see very quickly where objects are in the way of the monorail system. The customer can also get a first impression of the track layout in their installation. This is very popular with our customers.

mfl: Wouldn't it be easier to use the construction plans for the hall?

Schmidt: In practice, the installations in a factory building change rapidly and there are many people involved. No construction plan can reflect this. Even our scan is out of date after a few weeks. This makes our development process, the work of our engineers, much easier, from planning to commissioning the system. At the same time, the customer gains more planning and investment security.

mfl: How important is the topic of energy efficiency for your customers?

Schmidt: Today, this is an important topic for our customers. However, the topic only came up about two to three years ago. It didn't play a role before then. We can see that there has been a clear rethink. The greatest savings potential naturally exists in new systems; Skyrail in particular has a lot to offer here. However, new systems only account for around 10 percent of our business. But existing systems can also be sustainably optimized.

mfl: Ostrhauderfehn, East Frisia, your main location for conveyor systems, is really pretty, but it's a bit away from the big cities. How do you find qualified employees?

Schmidt: Thank you for the compliment. But that's already one of the ways: Although many East Frisians are initially drawn to faraway places, they then return and remain connected to the region. It is becoming increasingly important for us to attract young engineers to the regional universities. I am also personally committed to this. We also train apprentices ourselves. We definitely want to keep engineering in-house and have always succeeded in doing so. In the assembly area, we also work with long-standing external partners, but the people in charge always come from us. Our customers also demand this.