My name is Jutta Eckhardt and I am the manager of the HellermannTyton ACADEMY Europe.
My name is Melanie Schwarzbach-Meyer.
I am a project manager and team leader of the New Parts team for HellermannTyton GmbH in Tornesch.
It wasn’t just my idea. It was a team solution.
A customer had installed EdgeClips and was unable to remove them.
He had fitted them in a vehicle.
They are hard to remove using a screwdriver under time pressure.
We thought it would be nice to give the customer a solution.
The EdgeClips are always fixed to an edge.
When I fix the clip, I have this smart gap at the front.
The idea is that I insert the tool under the clip, pull it back over the edge and lift.
Nice and easy.
This tool is so brilliantly designed that I get great leverage and can remove the EdgeClip with just a click.
Who can build it? What material do we need? We needed some expert help.
The idea soon caught on: “Let me have a look at the sketch.”
And it spread and spread: “You need a radius here” and “make the opening a bit bigger at the top for a firm grip”.
And my colleague appeared the next evening and announced: “It’s ready”.
Wow! Amazing.
When we had to remove EdgeClips from this solar panel on the product circuit,
Melanie magicked this amazing little tool out of her bag. The clips came off in no time.
I was so impressed that I said there and then that the tool had to go into series production.
We have to utilise this know-how and show it to the world.
I went to the Product Development department and spoke to my colleague Stefan Wulf.
He then created a CAD drawing, which in turn went to a local metalworking company.
The first series-production tools were then built.
We then took the tool and showed it to the customer. We were met with grins and laughter:
“You really looked into it?” “Yes, we really looked into it!”
It’s important to me that ideas and developments like this get the attention they deserve...
and are made available all over the world so that everyone can benefit.
That’s exactly what the ACADEMY is about.
It was fascinating that it was met with such a wave of enthusiasm.
I am delighted that the excitement shows no signs of letting up.
It makes you proud. And I’m happy to see the idea go from strength to strength.
I’m also delighted for the team that worked on it and made such a contribution to the company.