Recently, Design World got the chance to interview Rüdiger Knevels, CEO of Rollon Group about the Rollon-Timken business and new brands that have joined the Rollon family. Though the conversation was primarily focused on the U.S. market, it also touched on Rollon’s global approach and capacity as a global brand.
This interview was conducted at the 2024 Automate Show in Chicago.
Rudi, what is Rollon showing at Automate?
As a major player in the linear-motion market space, we’re showing a lot of technologies. These include robot-transfer units — an excellent add-on for robot manufacturers that’s garnering a lot of interest. We’re also showing system solutions along with new products we’ve added to our range through organic growth. In fact, we’ve developed a lot of new products over the last two years and have even acquired two companies. All of this has had a big impact on our product lineup.
Rollon RTU solutions can accommodate very large robotic installations.
Did the acquisitions expand your RTU offerings?
They’ve expanded our ability to supply other technologies. Years ago, we acquired IMS in Michigan — a company and set of products fundamental to our RTU business in the U.S. We continually develop that company and its products. But recently (last year) we shifted focus to offer ballscrews, guides, and rotational products to complement our existing range and offer a lot of value-add for customers.
It sounds as though some of these components work with the linear guides for which Rollon is known.
Yes. Every acquisition we make seeks to expand into complementary products — to let us improve our service offerings for design engineers. Each new product fits perfectly into the product range we previously offered. For example, the ballscrews and other rotary-to-linear screws we now offer are important drive units in the linear motion market. These also fit perfectly with the linear-guide products. We made another company acquisition at the end of last year to develop and produce high-rigidity high-precision products for the linear-motion industry.
Do you use your global network to produce these products or are you making special efforts to serve different regions (such as the North American market) more efficiently than in the past?
Let’s start with the second part of your question. In the past, our United States presence was primarily led by a sales office. Now, we’re transforming Rollon Corp. into an operational U.S. company with a much bigger production site — and in fact, we’re going to produce the entire product range in the United States. So, we’ve become a fully-fledged local manufacturer of premium motion products. On top of that, we’re developing and producing system solutions for the U.S. market. It’s a huge change. In the past, it was all about Europe … because after all, the company has its origins in Europe. These days, we do most of the investments in United States, because we strongly believe in the growth of the U.S. business. Plus, we recognize that there are very interesting markets here such as factory automation and logistics. We also recognized that we must invest more in local production, so that is what we’re doing right now.
At the end of the year, we’re going to present the new factory in Michigan — a facility that will have huge impact. This facility will support our global approach and goal to be less Eurocentric than in the past. In fact, even in Asia we now have local facilities. To be clear, what we produce in Asia today is purely for Asian markets. We don’t produce in low-cost countries just to trim price and offer that to the global market. Rather, we produce in those countries where we want to sell. Ultimately, the total global capacity to supply components and systems is key … and we want to serve customers where they are. Hence all these big investments we’re making in the United States.
Especially since the COVID 19 pandemic, there seems to be new awareness that local supply chains can sometimes support local demand better than logistics-heavy arrangements.
I totally agree. Even now, we’re changing the relationship between Europe and United States so in the future, we’ll produce most of the products sold in North America in the United States.
What is planned for the expanded operations in Michigan?
We currently have a modest manufacturing site in Michigan where we produce robot transfer units, gantry systems, and other solutions; that site will be a core element of our expanded production. But gradually we’ll implement the entire product range of Rollon in Michigan — including the full production process with hardening, straightening, grinding, and procedures that today we do only in Europe. Currently semi-finished Rollon material is shipped to the U.S. and then we execute some cutting, assembly, and localization on these materials; ultimately, the goal is to be able to do everything in Michigan.
That’s surprising; I expected you to say Rollon will do more integration of multi-axis systems in Michigan. Will you offer additional integration services?
Yes, Rollon is built on a foundation of customization, and we specialize in customizing products to applications and customer needs. So, you find a lot of tailor-made products in our range. What we saw when we acquired IMS in Michigan is just how many U.S. engineers are looking for fully integrated system solutions. We’re really working on satisfying that need. In short, we offered components and then actuators and then systems — and now we’re doing increasingly integration for machine builders and plant engineers to offer full services and solutions.
I’ve monkeyed around with the online Rollon Configurator — an intuitive tool that lets engineers customize products on their own … and it seems to pull from a large library of Rollon possibilities.
Yes, I fully agree — and am personally very excited about this platform, because it’s more than just a service element. We aim to describe the entire sales process on this digital platform — starting from selection and sizing tools and allowing the collection of 3D models, drawings, and technical specifications. The next step will be to add an ecommerce function to the platform. After all, if a supplier customizes products, they need to make sure they’re very close to the design engineer. But what we find today is that engineers increasingly want to go digital. Many only want to have sales-engineers visits in very specific cases when it’s crucial for the application; basic design work they want to do via digital platforms. That’s why we’re offering this digital tool — to support the customer journey and make life easier for these design engineers. All this said, we still believe that we must offer significant engineering services … and so our people are always ready to visit customers and go into the details of applications.
From what I understand, Nadella is now in the Rollon family of brands.
Yes, we made a very important acquisition last year. The Nadella Group made their own acquisitions and changed the shape of their company before they were acquired by us, so include companies making mechanical components including ballscrews and rotational components such as rod ends and needle bearings. So, when we acquired Nadella last year, it was a big group — two thirds of our size in terms of employees and business revenues. Their product range was fully complementary to ours. For that reason, we’re very excited. Integrating a large company is work, but there are a lot of good synergies, good people, and good engineers joining us.
Shown here are some of the rotary-bearing components now offered by Rollon Group.
What is the relationship between Rollon and Timken?
Timken is our parent company, and they acquired us in 2018. Previously we were owned by private equity funds, and even we management team members were company shareholders. But the management team saw it’s now key to be part of a large industry group. That’s because being part of a large group allows an organization to get rid of three to five-year project windows and pursue long-term strategies instead. So, we’re pleased to be part of Timken. We have a very independent business unit (linear motion) that was not part of the Timken family before. We benefit from that independence as well as the HR, legal, and financial benefits of being part of a big corporation with an extremely strong brand in the United States.
What was your journey to your position of leadership?
I started at Rollon in 2006. At that time, the company was still pretty small — mainly a European business with modest activities in other regions. I started as a management director in Germany, and then became the global sales director of the Group. My job was to help grow subsidiaries in China, India, and other countries. So, it was a very exciting journey with lots of travel. Then in 2017, I became the CEO of the Group — an exciting step in my career. It’s fun to work with the management team on global strategies, and I love to be in the United States. We have a great team here. In short, it’s loaded with lots of responsibilities. In my time as a CEO, we’ve made some very important acquisitions, which always involves stress and pressure. But again, it’s fun, and we’re very successful.
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