SWISS KRONO Timber Planner: a manual is brought into the digital age

With around 70,000 attendees, the world’s leading trade fair for architecture, materials and systems provided the perfect opportunity to showcase the Timber Planner. ‘A smart, user-friendly digital solution,’ as Fabian Koelliker emphasised, ‘for making work significantly easier for planners, architects and engineers.’

The tool is one of the initiatives discussed by Koelliker in an interview with foryouandyourcustomers aimed at continuously pushing forward digitisation at the SWISS KRONO Group with a customer-centred focus. The web-based app provides the timber framework manual which has long enjoyed success, bringing the information contained into the digital age in order to give professional builders more useful, modern options such as BIM-compatible data.

The Timber Planner was first conceived as a mobile app solution that would help experts find and configure precisely matched components. After a detailed analysis phase involving workshops with foryouandyourcustomers that focused on customer needs, however, the decision was made to develop a web-based application instead. ‘After usability tests, it’s a solution that came up as more practical and offering more added value for the target group using it,’ said Clara Großeholz, project manager from foryouandyourcustomers. ‘Involving SWISS KRONO employees and above all, the different end users of the app was very important to us and ultimately the key to implementing the project with the target customers firmly at the centre of our focus.’

After a preliminary project, foryouandyourcustomers received the order in August 2018 to conceptualise, design and implement the application by the start of the Bau 2019 trade fair. ‘A really close and inspiring collaboration with the managers at SWISS KRONO developed right from the start,’ said Clara Großeholz from foryouandyourcustomers, looking back on the project. ‘For us that was a big help in implementing the cross-location project within a tight timeframe for the launch of the application, achieving our stated objective, creating an intuitive web-based app and providing easy access to data the users require.’

‘I have known Cornelius Kistler for many years now. The intensive exchange with foryouandyourcustomers is based on this personal relationship,’ Fabian Koelliker explained. ‘They are the perfect partner for us, which became clear right from the initial meetings about what we wanted to achieve together and the preliminary project for the app. We have benefited from the wealth of expertise foryouandyourcustomers has in the digital change and their highly professional assistance in the process, as well as the use of their innovative tools.’

Visitors to the trade fair in Munich had the opportunity to see the result of the collaboration themselves at the first test. ‘The result in an app that is so far one of a kind in the timber industry,’ asserted Fabian Koelliker. The search for the right components for specific projects would be much easier for the professionals involved. All information is now available in one place in digital format and can be accessed and adapted at any time.

Different filter functions, such as filters for regional requirements, building class, property type, sound insulation and fire protection regulations, quickly result in the right product. The corresponding product information or product-related text for invitations to tender can be downloaded and printed out via the app with ease. Components can also be checked and optimised in terms of their U-value, occurrence of condensate and structural calculations.

Furthermore, users have the option of creating their own projects and sending information on individual or multiple components to dealers or installers in a simple process. Pre-formulated text for invitations to tender can be completed with the specifications for the selected components and can be individually added to or further used for the specific property. The components can also be downloaded in IFC4 format and further processed in BIM-compatible or CAD software. ‘As a result, this web-based app provides really specific guidance and as a digital tool, it makes the day-to-day work of architects, planners and installers easier,’ Fabian Kölliker summarised the benefits of the new and innovative SWISS KRONO solution.