EAS Focuses on Growth

RENSWOUDE, The Netherlands — EAS Change Systems has experienced enormous growth in recent years, in Europe and Asia as well as in the United States. A change has been made to the management of the organization in order to further structure growth in the Americas and implement a worldwide organizational structure.

CEO Vincent Nijzink will provide strategic leadership to the worldwide growth activities from the new head office in Greenville, South Carolina. The first focus will be on North America and Mexico, and second on South America. “The enormous growth in investment, in primarily the automotive branch, demands reinforcement of our own sales network and broader support for our existing dealer network,” says Nijzink. Thierry Pastor will be responsible for technology and worldwide operations in the new organizational structure. In recent years, Pastor was in charge of Asia, during which time a new production facility was constructed. “The team there is now well established and that gives me the opportunity to manage the operation from Renswoude and to focus more on the overall corporate structure,” Pastor says.

Worldwide Organizational Structure

Alongside the development of the U.S. market, Nijzink will focus on global strategic market development. In recent years, an organizational structure has been implemented for a number of corporate entities including R&D and engineering. According to Pastor, “Our larger clients often operate worldwide and that requires us to organize our company in the same way too. Until now, our sales offices and production facilities were all stand-alone as independently operating subsidiaries. Step by step, we will now implement a structure primarily for sales and services for our key accounts that leads to more intensive and worldwide cooperation opportunities. At the same time, that gives us the room to support the current dealer network as demand grows.”

U.S. Automobile Industry

The plan involves driving U.S. sales, which currently amount to approximately one-quarter of European sales, to match those of Europe. As Nijzink puts it, “The automobile industry in North America is undergoing substantial growth at the moment. Companies with production traditionally in Asia are now about to bring the business back to North America, or, do so again. That means a tremendous amount of investment to come. Our lean manufacturing solutions contribute to optimal output, so our expectations are sky high. We paid considerable attention to SMART manufacturing processes during the construction of our new production facility.” The Milwaukee, Wisconsin site will remain operational as a sales office alongside the new head office in Greenville, Wisconsin, where an assembly warehouse will be built.

About EAS

EAS was the first European company to design and market hydraulic rapid clamping systems for injection moulding machines and metal presses as a lean manufacturing solution. In addition, over the last 16 years, EAS was responsible for the first magnetic clamping equipment applications for injection moulding machines being introduced. The company played a pioneering role in the use of automatic multicouplers and mould change vehicles and tables for the European market. These activities have been further developed in recent years and EAS introduced complete Smart Industry solutions.