Stefan Eiselein is the new Managing Director of LAUDA Medical GmbH & Co. KG, founded in 2021.
Stefan Eiselein appointed new Managing Director of LAUDA Medical
Stefan Eiselein is the new Managing Director of the newly founded company, LAUDA Medical GmbH & Co. KG, based in Lauda-Königshofen. The 56-year-old qualified computer scientists will take over the role from the President and CEO of the LAUDA group, Dr. Gunther Wobser, who has temporarily held the position since LAUDA Medical was founded. Stefan Eiselein was most recently Chief Digital Officer and Chief Corporate Development Officer at Vogel Communications Group GmbH & Co. KG, a renowned specialist media company and B2B communication service provider from Würzburg.
Through the new company, LAUDA Medical, LAUDA will specialize in technology for the medical market. Its first development project is a technologically brand new, innovative hypothermia device to stabilize patient temperature during heart surgery. LAUDA has supplied devices to a leading manufacturer of heart/lung machines for over 40 years, and will continue to expand this partnership. In addition, LAUDA wants to build a reputation as an independent brand for precise temperature control on the growing medical market.
“Stefan Eiselein was responsible for managing and driving forward digital development at Vogel Communications for many years. During this time, he built up several new business areas from scratch and worked successfully with start-ups. I first became aware of him in 2017,” explains Dr. Gunther Wobser. “I am confident that he will actively shape the development of our new business unit for medical devices, and especially that he can make an important difference when it comes to digital solutions, user integration and subsequent sales development,” says the President & CEO of LAUDA. “The medical technology industry is a growing market. Digitalization is just one of the drivers of this development. I’m very pleased to acquire a new international business field with LAUDA Medical,” says Stefan Eiselein, commenting on his new role.
A major customer from the pharmaceutical sector uses Variocool process thermostats with NRTL certification to manu-facture Covid-19 vaccines.
LAUDA secures major order for the delivery of Variocool process thermostats with NRTL certification
LAUDA DR. R. WOBSER GMBH & CO. KG, LAUDA, the world market leader for constant temperature equipment and systems, has secured a major order for Variocool process thermostats. The German subsidiary of a major global US company in the biopharmaceutical sector has ordered a total of 76 devices, including accessories, for integration in their systems for producing the Covid-19 vaccine. The different models have a cooling capacity of between 2 and 10 kW.
The Variocool process thermostats are factory-certified according to CE and NRTL, and therefore meet the standards required in Europe as well as in North America. LAUDA redesigned these flexible devices before launching them onto the market in November 2020. The process thermostats have bi-frequency and multivoltage capability, which means that if production is relocated, the thermostats can be easily transferred to another location and also make project planning easier for the customer.
LAUDA has scheduled delivery of the ordered Variocool process thermostats to the customer for the end of April 2021. The customer uses LAUDA devices for controlling the temperature of mixers and single-use bioreactors required to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines. Cell cultures are grown at a temperature of between 4 and 37 °C in reactors with a volume of between 200 and 2,000 liters. Variocool process thermostats are designed to maintain a stable temperature within an extremely narrow tolerance range of ± 0.1 K.
Last year, LAUDA significantly increased its production capacity for Variocool process thermostats due to the high demand, and was therefore able to meet the tight delivery deadline. "LAUDA had already been working closely with the Variocool process thermostat customer for several years even before the major order was secured", explains OEM sales specialist Tobias Henning, who is responsible for OEM customer support in the bioprocessing sector. The LAUDA OEM division helps customers develop complete systems by establishing standards in collaboration with the relevant development teams, which are then integrated into the product configurator of the OEM customers at a later stage. As a result, the customer also receives assistance with documentation, calculations and similar tasks. In some cases, the OEM division even develops devices specifically for customers. "We are currently seeing a high degree of satisfaction with LAUDA on the market and want to build on this trust as a basis for further expanding our capacity to cater for specific customer developments", explains Thorsten Eilers, OEM Managing Director at LAUDA.
Dr. Marc Stricker, the COO at LAUDA, turned 50 on April 16, 2021.
Successful work at LAUDA honored in ceremony
The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of LAUDA DR. R. WOBSER GMBH & CO. KG, Dr. Marc Stricker, celebrated his 50th birthday on Friday, April 16, 2021. Due to the Corona situation, the event was honored in an internal ceremony at the company and broadcast via video.
Since 2014, the engineer with a doctorate has been responsible for production, logistics, research & development and quality management in the now three-member management team. He is also responsible for the heating and cooling systems, plant engineering and the four other development and production sites of the temperature control specialist.
Dr. Stricker was born in Wattenscheid (now Bochum-Wattenscheid). After completing high school and civilian service, he studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University and received his doctorate in engineering in 2002. In addition, he later completed a part-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg from 2009 to 2011. After his academic career, Dr. Stricker worked for four years at the heating company Viessmann, where he developed a novel adsorption heat pump as R&D project manager. In 2005, he moved to the Franconian pump manufacturer Speck near Nuremberg, where he rose from project manager to managing director and worked successfully for a total of nine years.
During the ceremony, the President and CEO of LAUDA, Dr. Gunther Wobser, also acknowledged the trustful cooperation on behalf of his colleague, Dr. Mario Englert. He particularly emphasized Dr. Stricker's unmistakable signature on the new equipment design and the very successful process thermostats. Dr. Gerhard Wobser expressed his thanks as an advisory board member and shareholder on behalf of the company's owners. The long-time, former managing director emphasized that Dr. Stricker's technical perspective is highly appreciated by all at the regular shareholders' meetings. Finally, the Chairman of the Works Council, Elmar Mohr, offered his congratulations on behalf of the workforce. All speakers presented special gifts, which were complemented by original objects from the various production sites. Visibly moved, Dr. Stricker thanked everyone for the speeches and the gifts.
Manager of the newly founded new.degree GmbH, Birgit Dillmann (center), with members of her team.
Temperature control specialist LAUDA founds new.degree GmbH, its own company for innovations outside its core business
LAUDA DR.LAUDA R. WOBSER GMBH & CO. KG, the world market leader for constant temperature equipment and systems, is encouraging innovation within the LAUDA Group. new.degree GmbH, a new, wholly owned LAUDA subsidiary, was founded at the beginning of the year to deal with temperature control-related innovation activities outside the present core business. The new company is managed by Birgit Dillmann and comprises seven employees in Germany and abroad.
new.degree GmbH brings together LAUDA start-up management, the LAUDA innovation laboratory including the branch office in Morgan Hill, USA, as well as the LAUDA Digital Unit, which is responsible for digitalization projects within LAUDA. The LAUDA internal ideas management scheme, which picks up ideas from employees about new products or business areas and possible process improvements, is also supported in the new company. The objective of the merger is to further professionalize and strategically develop the activities which have been developed so far. new.degree GmbH is based at its current location in Lauda-Königshofen. In the medium term, however, it is planned to move to the “Brainstation” innovation center planned by Dr. Gunther Wobser, the Managing Director of LAUDA, at Lauda railway station, the town that gives the company its name, in order to provide the creative space that is crucial to its success.
The core task of the new company is to identify innovation potentials relevant to temperature control outside LAUDA’s current normal business activities, develop them into innovative solutions and test them in the market at an early stage. Potential approaches to this will be systematically generated by the analysis of trends and suitable search fields, uncovering opportunities for future-critical technologies, targeted collaboration with startups or also thanks to ideas provided via the internal idea management instrument. The innovation laboratory quickly and validly evaluates such ideas for their sales opportunities and innovation potential. Promising ideas are developed into so-called Minimum Viable Products using agile development methods such as Lean Startup and Design Thinking with the active involvement of potential users. They are then proposed for further development to market maturity in the event of a successful test.
Support and supervision of young companies
new.degree GmbH supports start-ups in their business development with relevant technology innovations and gives their business ideas the necessary initial momentum through joint pilot projects. In addition, the innovation experts of the LAUDA management recommend strategic investments in promising start-ups on the basis of a comprehensive system. LAUDA has so far successfully invested in three start-ups - watttron, ENER-IQ and Better Basics Laborbedarf.
By integrating the Digital Unit, which was previously part of the IT division, in new.degree GmbH, the new unit is also responsible for driving LAUDA’s digital transformation. The development of customer-centric digital products and services, such as device diagnostics and data-based business models, implemented jointly with the parent company is of particular note here. At new.degree, experts from various disciplines such as marketing strategists, innovation managers, digitization experts, engineers and material scientists therefore work hand in hand at two locations. In addition, they are supported by the knowledge network of the entire LAUDA Group. LAUDA is also part of the Maschinenraum, an innovation ecosystem based in Berlin that brings together German SMEs and family-owned companies to collaboratively drive forward topics of future relevance.
Dr. Gunther Wobser, President and CEO of LAUDA (r.), tests the SmartRack under laboratory conditions together with Mario Schneider, CEO at Better Basics Laborbedarf.
LAUDA invests in Better Basics start-up
LAUDA, the global market leader for temperature control equipment and systems, will cooperate with Better Basics Laborbedarf GmbH (BBL). The Dresden-based company, founded in 2019, develops, manufactures and sells smart basic equipment for laboratories that simplifies the organization of laboratory workstations and supports laboratory employees in their daily work with individually manufactured organizational systems. The modular systems are produced using 3D printing technology. In addition to an equity investment, LAUDA is primarily focusing on synergies for the jointly addressed laboratory market. For LAUDA, this is already the third successful cooperation with a start-up after watttron and ENER-IQ. This is part of the family-owned company's comprehensive innovation strategy, which, in addition to cooperation with innovative start-ups, is also driving extensive digitization measures or sustainable idea management in the group of companies, among other things.
Cooperation at eye level
Thanks to its in-depth expertise in 3D printing technology and the materials used in this process, the start-up BBL is able to realize individual customer requirements in the field of laboratory equipment. The SmartRack organization system, for example, can be equipped with 3D-printed modules as needed, providing holders for pipettes, round-bottom flasks or waste containers. The modules can be freely combined in terms of quantity and position. In cooperation with BBL, LAUDA can offer customer-centric product solutions. This strengthens the laboratory technology segment, in which LAUDA already successfully markets high-quality laboratory equipment for a wide range of applications.
The cooperation is also intended to expand the technology expertise in 3D printing within the LAUDA Group. »The start-up cooperation with Better Basics Laborbedarf provides further access to innovative technologies, which, in addition to synergies with our research and development department, also provides new impetus directly in sales,« says Robert Tietze, Start-Up Manager at LAUDA. LAUDA is already using 3D printing in the series production of its temperature control units.
»A central aspect of LAUDA's innovation strategy is the targeted cooperation with innovative, young companies that complement and further advance our core competence, temperature control,« explains Dr. Gunther Wobser, President and CEO of LAUDA. »With Better Basics, we have once again made a find and can offer customer-specific solutions to the laboratory market. In addition, we expect to gain valuable insights in the field of 3D printing for the production of our temperature control units,« says Dr. Gunther Wobser.
»We at Better Basics Laborbedarf are very pleased to have gained a strategic partner in LAUDA, who will support us in our further growth. In this way, we can benefit from LAUDA's many years of experience and exploit synergies in sales, among other things«, says Mario Schneider, CEO of Better Basics Laborbedarf.
