Radwell International’s Blog

Radwell is a hybrid distribution and engineering company that is designed using modern advances in ecommerce and internet connections. Unlike older distribution models using small local industrial engineering-enabled distribution, or more modern national e-commerce web sites that lack engineering support, Radwell gives you the option to combine local engineering support style distribution along with the power of a national ecommerce platform. With Radwell you get the ease of a worldwide ecommerce site combined with the largest technical support provider globally. Added to that, with Radwell’s after-marketplace you have access to the largest stock of new and obsolete parts available globally.

Recently our Engineering Department completed a new project. They repaired a Zebra 140 XiIII Plus printer from a non-functioning state to fully operational by utilizing existing parts and in-house materials. Not only has this given us some functionality for labeling our own inventory and repair bins, but it has also given us additional repair skills so we can help our clients repair their printers.

Internally we use the Zebra printer to create barcodes which help us accurately track and manage our repairs and inventory bins through our operating system. In working through repairing this machine, our engineering department was able to address three areas that have been helpful in operating this printer: changing the printer ribbon, changing the print head and printing using an existing template.

We've recently added a Markem Hot Melt Ink Printer to our engineering department and its an interesting addition. 

How does this printer actually work?

Markem ink jet systems use Markem Touch Dry inks. These inks are instantly drying, non-toxic solid inks that contain no solvents and require no special handling. The printer produces prints that are crisp and do not smudge. It is also suitable for printing on a wide variety of packaging materials.  Code changes and real time updates can be completed without any downtime too. The printer has a user-friendly control panel and easy-to-use screen graphics that allow operators to program the entire day's code changes only once. 

Brian Janusz is an interesting person. He has been central to the redesign and remodel of Radwell International's new headquarters building in Willingboro, NJ. When he wasn't hard at work on managing remodeling and material handling systems,  he has been working with other Radwell locations on expansion plans. Brian is busy: moving frequently and quickly through the 311,000 square foot Radwell headquarters building, easily gravitating from project to project with ease. We caught up with him recently to get a glimspe into his job at Radwell International. We had to walk really quickly to catch up.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you came to be at Radwell International.

My education background is in Mechanical Engineering and I graduated from Virginia Tech. My first job out of college was working as a Project Engineer for Bowen Engineering, a great construction company that builds and works on water treatment plants, waste water treatment plants and large utilities. It started off as a summer internship that turned into a full time job. I learned so much from the experience, mostly from the amazing people I worked with. They taught me about project management, people management and construction. It was a difficult job to leave because there was still so much to learn. That experience has helped me enormously, in what I do at Radwell International.

How I came to Radwell: During my freshman year at college I emailed Brian Radwell looking for a summer job. He directed me to Steve Wallace and I got a position helping out in production. That first summer I did anything and everything that was needed. I delivered manual recs, organized the order shelves, cleaned units, worked with speed line testing and approving parts for orders, picked in the warehouse and just generally learned

If you work in a manufacturing facility, we’ve got a product offering that can change your life. Sounds like a lofty promise, doesn’t it? Our answer is all about one of the most unique of our offerings at Radwell International: our Radwell Verified Sub Program. It is not something that is all that common to find among industrial automation service/parts providers. We get asked about this program all the time by customers who want to know what a Radwell Verified Sub is and how it can benefit them.

If you've been keeping up with the remodel of Radwell International's new headquarters building in Willingboro, NJ, then you know about the installation of our Swisslog Autostore. To read more about this revolutionary system, give Todd Radwell's blog post a read here. It was truly fascinating to watch the system being built from the ground up.

In many instances, large companies talk (and talk and talk) about the products and services they can provide for their customers. Millions of dollars are spent each year on marketing efforts designed to tell customers about all the wonderful products and services that are available to them as consumers. Often the talk can be much more appealing than the reality. I’m not going to lie: many times within our marketing at Radwell, we do share our many capabilities with our customers. However, our reality is something we are very focused on every day, in every department within our organization. The best way to discuss what Radwell International is really capable of is by sharing some stories straight from the field. We’ve decided to do just that, 

starting with a great hero story straight from Robert Tiedeken, our Branch Manager in Radwell-Indiana. Rob has been with Radwell International for 10 years this April. He was a career IT professional and started with Radwell as a Systems Administrator. He was promoted to IT Operations Manager and in this role, he worked on design and buildouts for Radwell-UK, Radwell-Canada, Radwell-Texas and Radwell-Indiana. An unexpected opportunity arose for him when he was asked to take on the challenge of being a Branch Manager in Franklin, Indiana upon it’s completion. He took on the challenge and has never looked back. Rob is a great leader for Radwell-Indiana and does a great job building his team and creating a sense of community both with his employees as well as his clients.

Here’s Rob’s Customer Story:

“There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.” -Audre Lorde

Being successful in business is a challenging experience. The pace is fast, you can be hit from all angles, and anything can happen on any given day. In almost every instance you are surrounded by competitors. All you want to do is continue to move forward and provide the service or product that your business offers in a productive and profitable way. What is it that differentiates your business from every other company out in the world offering a similar product or service? Maybe your branding is more skillful. Perhaps you use technology in a more impactful way. It’s possible you even execute better than competitors. But in almost every business, the differentiating factor truly is the customer service you provide to your clients. If your business operates with customer service as a priority, it is most likely standing out and hopefully moving forward in a positive way.

Of course everyone preaches that they are customer driven. It would be foolish for a business not to say such a thing if they hope to continue to operate successfully. But what does customer driven really translate to? What does it mean?

In the business climate of today, it’s no longer an option to run a manufacturing facility as greenly as possible- it's a necessity. With the rising cost of doing business, finding ways to help the environment and reduce costs is a new standard. It's a standard that many are working hard to achieve in their daily business operations.

For manufacturing facilities, with their large working spaces and equipment-driven operations, going green can be even more critical. Finding ways to help the environment can be challenging but there are four simple ways to make a decent level of “green” impact:

At Radwell International, we are known for the quality of products and outstanding level of service we provide to our clients. One of our services is our repair capabilities. Although we are known for being able to provide all kinds of repairs for all kinds of industrial automation equipment, it’s easy to overlook some of the more basic items that we are also capable of fixing for our customers. Items like temperature gauges, process controls, timers and counters are items we are just as capable of repairing as much larger items.

It’s so easy to overlook a small display or a dial. Many of our clients wouldn’t even think about having these items repaired. Yet in our NJ Headquarters, we have an entire repair team dedicated to exactly these types of repairs. Repairs in this category are fully testable, and the parts are easy for us to replace if we can’t fix the item. Sounds like a win-win!

Steve Ramirez, a long time Repair Technician with Radwell International, is an expert when it comes to these types of repairs. Steve started with Radwell in July of 1999, working in the calibration lab. Basically, he has been repairing these types of parts for the past 16 years!