The third generation company Hans Braches GmbH from Solingen has been producing packaging for customers from a wide range of industries for almost 100 years. The uniqueness of the small company, which currently has 8 employees, lies in its focus on custom-made products in small to medium batch sizes, which can satisfy almost all customer requests using unusual designs and a wide variety of materials. Raw materials (solid cardboard or papers) based on cellulose are used, which also meet the requirements of sustainability (e.g. solid-colored colored paper with/without embossing or offset-printed papers). Deep-drawn plastics or types of foam are also used as product carriers. Hans Braches GmbH always develops customer-specific packaging in any form on an order-related basis and not for storage. Due to the increasing trend of sustainability, packaging in cardboard, folded or die-cut versions has recently become increasingly common again.
“We take a lot of time and effort to accommodate every request.”
Jörg Braches, Managing Director of Hans Braches GmbH
Due to the special location of the blade city of Solingen and the increasing outsourcing of production by many of the customers based there to other (foreign) locations, the current managing director Jörg Braches was forced to look for new customers in his tried and tested business model.
“Many small and medium-sized companies, which also made up a large proportion of our customers, simply disappeared from the scene and at some point I reached the point where I said that the topic of acquisition was becoming more and more important; I had to make sure that I was somehow better noticed.”
Jörg Braches, Managing Director of Hans Braches GmbH
Approach and solution
The collaboration with the KI NRW Future Center, brokered via the NRW Efficiency Agency, initially led to a creative exchange about potential ways to optimize the business. A target group structure was initially created based on a business model analysis. Through an interactive creative process, ideas were then developed that made communication with the target groups more efficient. As a result, in addition to the idea of presenting the product portfolio more transparently overall, the idea of creating a digital product configurator also emerged. With the help of these measures, the Hans Braches company’s products and services should be better presented on the website and initial customer inquiries can be answered using a chatbot function.
The prototype itself was developed in close consultation with the managing director, Mr. Braches. The first goal was to establish a modernized design. The focus was particularly on the values that Mr. Braches and his team vividly conveyed during the consultation. The digital product configurator plays a crucial part. This serves as an interactive module of the prototype in order to be able to accommodate customer inquiries more efficiently and at the same time more individually. This relieves the burden when creating complex offers and at the same time gives the freedom to respond even more closely to the customer’s ideas through the design options. The aim was to make Mr. Braches’ consultations more effective and to make the product portfolio more transparent overall.
The click prototype, designed by an employee of the KI NRW Future Center, is currently being completed in another research project in collaboration with the European Digital Innovation Hub (EDIH) at the University of Siegen in order to then test to what extent the tool meets expectations.
“I can’t answer the final decision as to whether this is the big hit for me because I can’t predict the function of this shop and its success. That can only happen when the whole thing goes live, but at least the phase in which we developed and launched it was actually a good and meaningful collaboration.”
Jörg Braches, Managing Director of Hans Braches GmbH
The results that were achieved during the intensive consultation significantly increased the motivation of the entrepreneur Jörg Braches to further address the topic of digitalization and, as soon as the product configurator was successfully tested, to actively use it in everyday company life.
The need for further support was clearly recognized by the consultants towards the end of the intensive consultation. To ensure this, the strong network of the KI NRW Future Center was used and further support was ensured by the European Digital Innovation Hub South Westphalia (EDIH). One of the central tasks of the KI NRW Future Center is to refer companies, as part of a pilot function, to other projects and institutions that can advance digitization efforts with specific expertise.
In addition, further measures are planned with the KI NRW Future Center to impart further knowledge on the topic of AI and digitalization.
We look forward to future collaboration and are excited to see how the project we were able to start together develops!
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