Speed-Factory – How Hekatron implements functional prototypes in 15 days with Luminovo

Hekatron, a German manufacturer of fire alarm systems, security, and access control systems, combines in-house development and production with a workforce of around 1,000 employees. To meet the growing demand for rapid functional prototypes, the "Speed Factory" was launched – an agile unit aiming to flexibly and quickly provide internal manufacturing of functional prototypes.

Through targeted process optimizations, consolidated responsibilities, and the introduction of Luminovo, the lead time for functional prototypes was significantly reduced to just 15 days.

"When developers quickly needed prototypes for verification, for example, to test a new design, the series production process often took too long. Therefore, we simplified many processes and, among other things, and introduced Luminovo as a useful tool. Finally, we managed to reduce the time to 15 days." — Iven Henschel, Head of Speed Factory

A key lever for this efficiency increase in the Speed Factory was the optimization of the quotation process, which in the standard process is characterized by many manual steps. Request data is often transmitted by customers via email, processed in Excel, and then forwarded to purchasing and production. Calculation is done separately, and supplier inquiries are often still made manually – a time-consuming but proven process that now runs about 70% faster thanks to Luminovo.

"The normal quotation process has a significantly longer lead time than the new Speed Factory process." — Iven Henschel, Head of Speed Factory

Challenge: Coordination instead of quotations - The limits of manual setups

Before the introduction of Luminovo, the quotation process was very manually driven:

• The preliminary review of bills of material took one to two days, depending on the scope.

• Feedback from suppliers sometimes took one to two weeks.

• Technical evaluations, purchasing, and calculation ran separately and were manually consolidated.

"For data preparation alone, I was sometimes busy for two days." — Iven Henschel, Head of Speed Factory

With Luminovo step by step to the digital RfQ process

Instead of starting a separate IT project for the Speed Factory or increasing the team's headcount, Hekatron opted for Luminovo as a scalable and future-proof solution. The introduction of Luminovo took place in stages.

• Initially, Luminovo's configure-price-quote was used to accelerate the processing of material requests (RFQs), reducing the average lead time to 24 hours.

• The EMS sales team uses Luminovo to structure and internally forward external customer inquiries.

• With the establishment of the Speed Factory, the customer collaboration portal was introduced: For functional prototypes, developers upload bills of material directly, Luminovo automatically checks, and queries and technical clarifications take place directly in the portal or via teams – data preparation was thus reduced to about four hours.

"Our customers appreciate direct access via the customer portal. No detours via superiors, no delays. They have direct Teams contact with me and a quick and open exchange." — Iven Henschel, Head of Speed Factory

Requests for the Speed Factory now enter the system in a structured and fully checked manner, manual effort in purchasing and engineering has been significantly reduced, and the entire team can react faster.

"Thanks to Luminovo, we were able to forego additional personnel resources for our new Speed Factory while streamlining the purchasing process. The part creation process now also runs significantly more efficiently." — Iven Henschel, Head of Speed Factory

Outlook: Leveraging further potential

Hekatron plans to integrate Luminovo even more strongly into existing processes in the future. A next step could be the increased use of the tool for internal calculation of production times – an area currently still performed manually by manufacturing engineering. Iven Henschel is already successfully using Luminovo for this in the daily operations of the Speed Factory.

Hekatron also sees further potential for the use of Luminovo in the EMS business and strategic purchasing. In parallel, the continuous development of the platform, especially with regard to AI-supported functions – is being followed with great interest.

"I am excited to see what new opportunities will arise through the use of AI in Luminovo in the future. The last improvements were very well received – I look forward to the next steps and the possibilities that will result from them." — Iven Henschel, Head of Speed Factory