{"id":9445,"date":"2024-03-15T09:40:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-15T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/?p=9445"},"modified":"2024-03-19T14:00:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T13:00:42","slug":"wearing-a-mustache-for-a-good-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/2024\/03\/wearing-a-mustache-for-a-good-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"Wearing a\u00a0Mustache for a\u00a0Good Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Miguel Oseguera and Matthias Kauffmann\u2019s \u00adcooperation with Stihl usually involves sealing solutions for electric tools such as chainsaws. But their latest business discussions have focused on high-pressure cleaners \u2013 and put a spotlight on healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miguel Oseguera, Global Segment Director, Power Tools, and Matthias Kauffmann, Global Key Account Manager, Power Tools, were puzzled at first. In November, they invited three engineers from Stihl, one of its customers, to visit the Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) facility in Schwalmstadt. Upon arrival, the \u00adStihl employees looked a little unusual: All three had mustaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was for a good cause. Stihl is taking part in the global \u201cMovember\u201d campaign. The term is a combination of the words mustache and November. More and more men around the world have been wearing a mustache during the month of November as a sign of support for a campaign launched in Australia. Its goal is to publicize men\u2019s health issues, including the prevention of testicular and prostate cancer, psychological ailments and suicides. The campaign aims to increase awareness of these problems. It also encourages men to stay alert to symptoms, treat complaints with seriousness, and take advantage of options available for early detection. It is similar to the \u201cPink \u00adRibbon\u201d campaign for women, which promotes awareness of breast cancer and solidarity with women affected by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stihl enlisted its products in the cause, supporting the \u201cMovember\u201d campaign with a slightly altered title, \u201cMow-vember.\u201d The emblem of the Stihl campaign is a lawnmower with a large mustache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight after our meeting at the Schwalmstadt plant, as a sign of solidarity, I trimmed my beard into a mustache, even before our joint business dinner that evening,\u201d \u00adKauffmann said. That struck a chord with the Stihl employees. He and Oseguera were quickly invited to a \u201cMow-vember\u201d photoshoot a few days later at the Stihl headquarters in Waiblingen in southern Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photoshoot at Stihl for its \u201cMow-vember\u201d campaign, which promotes men\u2019s health.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Feeling of Being Part of Stihl<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By then, Segment Director Oseguera had also reshaped his beard for the occasion \u201cOn that day, we were scheduled to be there anyway. So it worked out great,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole campaign symbolized our tremendous cooperation with Stihl. We were the only outsiders who were invited to attend the photoshoot. The customer-supplier relationship is so good that we are almost considered to be part of Stihl.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That comment goes to the heart of the \u00adrelationship. With one of its new products, FST has managed to break into a business segment at Stihl: high-pressure cleaners. \u201cUntil now, we have primarily been providing Simmerrings to seal crankshafts in Stihl\u2019s two-cycle motors,\u201d Kauffmann explained. A few years ago, the customer added high-pressure cleaners for home and garden use to its portfolio. FST and Stihl has now entered a development partnership to work on the equipment\u2019s second-generation \u2013 and has now been awarded the series-production order for u-rings with wipers as well as O-rings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new FST solution is a \u201ctypical Schwalmstadt hydraulic approach\u201d with u-rings and wipers. It replaces an HNBR tissue seal with a separate PTFE backup ring from a competitor. \u201cWe are now providing Stihl with a single u-ring design, optimized for the application and made of a \u00adnewly developed HNBR elastomer material,\u201d explained \u00adKauffmann. The advantages of the new solution include easier handling, cost-effectiveness, longevity and better performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The order could open the door to other applications for Stihl high-speed cleaners. The reason: The customer plans to enter the professional cleaning market. Here the equipment performance would generally be higher than for the consumer market. The sealing technology for professional equipment faces significant challenges \u2013 but FST already has solutions in hand that it developed for the professional lines of other customers. As for these other manufacturers, they could, in turn, benefit from the seal just developed for Stihl. This is where Sales\u2019 ability to \u201ccross-sell\u201d comes into play.<\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n \r\n <\/i>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miguel Oseguera and Matthias Kauffmann\u2019s \u00adcooperation with Stihl usually involves sealing solutions for electric tools such as chainsaws. But their latest business discussions have focused on high-pressure cleaners \u2013 and put…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9245,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[125,261],"tags":[632],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-9445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-customers","category-schwalmstadt-en","tag-edition-02_2024-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9453,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9445\/revisions\/9453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9445"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=9445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}