PIONEERING SMARTER OPERATIONAL PRACTICES 4A.Works is a unique, multi-level platform that offers automated solutions in the manufacturing industry to improve interaction between buyers and producers worldwide. The marketplace expedites searches of better price offerings, eliminates language barriers, converts technical standards that vary from country to country, assists with the conclusion of contracts, oversees the production process, controls quality, manages payment transactions, and secures on-time delivery of the order. Philip Yorke found all of this out from Volodymyr Berezhniy, the ‘4A.Works’ co-founder and Business Development Director.
IN
2015, a group of highly experienced manufacturers and marketers based in the Ukraine, realized that there was a huge industrial trade gap within nearby markets over the last few years. This group decided to utilise the opportunity and take advantage of the country’s low labour costs and operating overheads by establishing a company that offered a range of bespoke services to European manufacturing industries. As a result, 4A.Works was born. 4A.Works has already signed up a number of contracts secured with a broad range of small and medium-size companies in various industries, including one of Europe’s biggest oil & gas equipment producers.
Scientific approach The Company sees huge potential in the European marketplace for a unique package of technological automation and turnkey services that it develops. The platform connects European small and medium size enterprises, adding value by finding significantly cheaper (as much as 30-50 per cent) production solutions of metalwork elements, while securing the same or better quality and guaranteeing on-time delivery in various markets. Such markets include automotive, agricultural, transportation, finishing with heavy equipment, and oil and gas. Ukraine’s current labour force is around 10-12 times cheaper with similar or higher expertise and service quality than in Europe. Currently, 4A has aligned around 50 top-quality manufacturers in Eastern Europe. The process is very simple: (1) go to the web-site and upload CAD and other specifications with a price offer; (2) 4A will come back, clarify details, and will work promptly to find better offers from the most reliable and trustworthy manufacturers sourced. 4A focuses on the machine tool industry, where it has the experience and tools to control each production stage, as well as an extensive database that helps it to find a manufacturing solution in a prompt manner, therefore connecting Europe and the rest of the world. Berezhniy said: “Currently, we are focused on metal-work related products. Our services and equipment include welding, cutting, assembly, stamping, etc. For example, we performed a big order for an Italian client that includes CNC lathes, milling and laser cutting, water jet-cutting CNC punch shock cutting, and EDM (electrical discharge machining). In the long-term, we are looking to work not just with steel, but also with other materials like timber, and plastics. We have already aligned manufacturers for these sectors...”
“Globally, the size of the machine tool market is worth over $70 billion and we are already connecting with India, the UAE, South America and the USA, however, we are open to doing business with customers from anywhere in the world. Our web-site is available in 11 languages including most European languages as well as Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. At the present time our key markets are Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the UK. We offer a lot of potential savings to our customers between demand and supply where we can build automated solutions and streamlined international logistical systems.”
Trust through Communication and Control Connecting the industrial markets has never been easy. This is due to a number of different factors including language barriers, mentality, different technological standards, etc. It is challenging, but the law of supply and demand will drive the lowest-value-added part of the supply chain to where wages are lowest. European markets are very fragmented, but manufacturing goes digital and it connects the world; this means that a third great shift is now taking place. It will push products to be made in a more economic manner and in smaller numbers, with more flexibly and with a much lower input of labour force. This is primarily due to new materials that are used as well as brand new processes, such as 3D printers, easy-to-use robots and new sharing automized manufacturing solutions that are available online. Ukraine has everything in place: a great location, experienced and trained engineers, advanced equipment and smart software developers. How do we establish trust and reliability, and automate processes? That’s what 4A is building: “Even though we work only with the most reliable manufacturers, but still, when we have tight deadlines, we usually sit on production line nights through, with engineers, to make sure timing and quality are in place: we keep our promises!”, says Petro Berezhnyi, co-founder and CEO of 4A.
Investing in the future With the projected growth the Company has forecasted, 4A is looking to hire experienced engineers from Europe in order to obtain maximum control of the supply chain between the manufacturer and its customers. It is also planning to establish a concierge service with professional engineers to help take care of its customers’ production requirements, 24/7. By the end of 2016, the company is looking to raise $1.5 million for market expansion and software automation developments. “Imagine you’re connected to the production lines of the numerous manufacturers in Europe: you know exactly who will perform your order, you know exactly what equipment he will use, and you are confident that he is reliable, 100 per cent, whilst you still save 30 per cent of your costs for production… we’re aligning the manufacturing world”, re-affirms Vasyl n Berezhniy, the third founder and father of Petro and Volodymyr. For further details of 4A’s revolutionary platform visit: www.4A.works
Industry Europe 69
