Kalmthout (B) – E.D.&A., a family-owned SME, develops and manufactures custom electronic controllers for machines and equipment for both industrial and consumer applications. Since 2012 E.D.&A. has maintained its own electronics manufacturing facility in Kalmthout (Belgium), achieving significant improvements in quality, flexibility, cost and internal lead time thanks to extensive automation. E.D.&A. was designated a “Factory of the Future” in 2016 in recognition of this achievement and renewed their award yesterday.
Innovation and collaboration are essential
Managing Director Gert D’Handschotter is justifiably proud to be receiving this recognition again. “This reward is due to the entire team, because as a truly Belgian development and production company we depend on committed employees with smart ideas and teamwork. I don’t mean just the collaboration between our developers, production and testing staff in various departments, but also the extensive collaboration with our customers and partners. Compared to three years ago, E.D.&A. has shown impressive growth in all areas: the production has tripled, staff has increased by 50%, lead times have gone down even more, there are many new processes and machines, etc.”
Jury approval
Every day we prove that manufacturing in Belgium is possible as long as you are willing to invest in people and automation. The jury was extremely impressed by our ability to manufacture cost-effectively both small and very large batches (200,000 items) of excellent quality. E.D.&A.’s comprehensive automation and digitisation in combination with our highly driven, committed staff was also noteworthy. Our extensive partnership with a neighbouring custom production company completed the jury’s positive impression.
E.D.&A. first received the Factory of the Future award in 2016 and has continued to
hold this title in the three years since.
More about Factory of the Future
Factory of the Future is an initiative of the technology association Agoria and Sirris, the collective centre for technological enterprises. Their aim is to accelerate the evolution of companies to
factories of the future – future-oriented manufacturing companies that work with smart, sustainable and in many cases digitised processes, making products with high added value that anticipate customer needs. This transformation of the industry is essential to compensate for the high cost of doing business in Belgium and the competition from less expensive countries.
