Feal sells customized ramps and has moved from a time-consuming manual quotation process to allowing customers and retailers to configure a unique ramp themselves via an online configurator. The 3D configurator also generates drawings and images that can be used to help end-customers and decision-makers understand what the quote includes.
From manual sales to self-service and automated documents
Feal manufactures and sells ramps for accessibility adaptation of buildings and vehicles, etc. The products improve the quality of life for people all over the world. We meet Malin, Ulrika and Daniel from Feal who tell us about their configurator project.
The ramps have always been customized: the sales people draw the solutions together with the design department, which has to produce one or more proposals that clearly show the product and how it will be used. Historically, this has always been done manually. Doing the work manually meant that it took a lot of time. At the same time, the manual process also required the user to have a good understanding of the product, otherwise it was very easy to make mistakes.
Feal saw the opportunity to streamline the process and developed its first online configurator on its own.
At the launch, Feal’s dealers and customers were given access to the configurator to configure themselves and produce documentation that can be used in the dialog with the end customer and explain how the result can be.
With the solution, the user can configure a ramp on their own and see the result in 3D, and also get automatically generated PDF drawings and images of the product. Malin, Ulrika and Daniel talk about the reactions:
“Now there’s a 3D image. It’s a huge difference!”
Everyone understands with the help of visualization
Ramps are designed for residential use and each situation is unique. At the same time, the end user, the reseller and the municipality’s grant officer are all involved in the decision-making process. With the help of the visual configurator and automatic drawings and images, it is easy to produce clear proposals that are useful in the decision-making process.
“I have heard from our customers that they are very happy to be able to show the people living in the house,…” says Malin.
More time and fewer errors thanks to the configurator
Feal staff also use the product configurator to receive orders more smoothly, while avoiding mistakes – the configurator’s rules can ensure a correct configuration when a ramp is produced. Both the PDF drawings and images are used to communicate about the quotes. It also means that certain tasks can be completed more quickly, leaving more time for Feal’s staff to focus on further developing the business.
“This has become a great tool, it’s so much faster,” says Ulrika, who works with inside sales and receives customer inquiries.
A change project driven by internal staff
Feal had previously looked at streamlining the quotation process, but did not have the time or capacity to do so. When Feal heard about DynaMaker and that you can develop your own solution with your own staff, it became the spark that started a major change process.
“I understood from the first meeting really how powerful it was… the potential so to speak, became obvious then” says Daniel, who works as a designer and product developer at Feal.
Daniel, part of Feal’s engineering team, began building what would become Feal’s DynaMaker configurator for ramps. Using his knowledge of the product and that of his colleagues, Daniel developed an initial product configurator with CAD visualization and drawing automation. They then tested the configurator internally and on selected customers to get early feedback. Thanks to quick back-and-forth with sales and key customers, a quick launch could take place and be shown to the world at one of the company’s annual trade shows.
Daniel started learning DynaMaker on his own using DynaMaker’s open training materials and webinars. He gradually started to build a product configurator with input from the other Feal employees – knowledge of the products and how they work was an important input in the work. In a few months, the project went from idea to internal testing and then launch. Feal was able to manage the project entirely on its own and did not need to bring in external help.
“We see it as a huge advantage that we could do it ourselves,” says Malin.
It was possible to try developing in DynaMaker free of charge, which Feal found convenient – the only thing that cost in the beginning was their own time.
“It felt risk-free to try it out,” says Daniel.
About Feal
Feal is a Swedish manufacturing company that offers various ramps such as transport ramps, portable ramps and system ramps. The ramps are used in different ways and some of the products need to be adapted based on the environment where they will be used – the system ramps are used for housing adaptation and make it easier for wheelchair users to get in and out of their home. Ramps need to fit in with the home and take into account the environment where it will be installed, which means that a ramp solution needs to be adapted for each new installation. The decision-making process often involves several people who need to be informed: end-users and grant officers at municipalities that award grants to finance the ramps.