1. Substance
Aalund was invited to give a presentation on market orientation for a groundbreaking new production machine. For manufacturing screws. At Rotatec – a subsidiary of the NKT Group.

We won the contract. A project spanning 3-4 years. This was preceded by many hours spent thinking the entire project through. For this purpose, we received valuable assistance with the overall concept from Jørnn Ladegaard, Associate Professor from the Institute of Business Administration and Technology in Herning.

2. Benefits
We started by gathering all the desk research material available on fasteners – in Denmark and internationally.
The next step was a visit to the two Danish screw manufacturing plants – NKT in Middelfart and Skruefabrikken in Slangerup. To inspect actual screw manufacturing machines in operation. The best ones available on the market in 1990 were extremely noisy, and oil lubrication was everywhere. Among the options for adjustment were a few blows with a hammer.

Next stop was Germany as well as other locations in order to discuss the subject of screws with some of the largest factory customers for screws – e.g. Ford's development center in Cologne, Miele, Köenig & Bauer in southern Germany, and several others. We taught ourselves how to conduct in-depth interviews and making engaging summaries of them.

Visiting screw manufacturing plants in the largest screw-producing countries, we needed to get to grips with the requirements for the many features of a machine. Some factories were generalists, while others were specialists in specific types of screws. From Japan to Germany to the USA.

Finally, we had to market test the machine before it was completely finished. The machine was so unique and different—it looked like a large mainframe or giant printer (see photo)—that no one would believe it could cold form wire into complex screws perfectly and without noise or oil lubrication. For that reason, we traveled around with a portable video projector showing a video of how pre-heading and cold forming took place on a working prototype. Production people everywhere were amazed and couldn't believe their own eyes.

The collaboration with Ove Nielsen, Development Director, MSc Engineer and PhD, was exemplary, as he had experience from previous projects where B2B Market Research had not been used.

3. More Information
With the “invention” of many different research designs and steps, the entire project became the basis for the way in which Aalund conducts and reports on research projects.

Contact Isabella Kjeldsen at ik@aalund.com for more information about customized research designs.