'Digital measuring in interior construction will become the standard'

With precision and convenience

At least 9 out of 10 interior builders in the Netherlands have not yet made the move to digital measuring. "They do that manually and draw on a piece of paper. Chances are that this results in measuring errors. And that's a real shame!" Speaking is Nicky Wijnen, director/owner of Perlo Digital Measuring in Eindhoven. He started his company late last year but its growth is already unprecedented. And that's not surprising, because the interior construction industry in the Netherlands is discovering the efficiency and accuracy with which Nicky measures on location.

"I work with a professional digital measuring-in machine, the Proliner," says Nicky. "Whether it's small family businesses, where sometimes only father and son still work, or large interior builders who have a whole team of planners: for each of these types of companies it is almost unprofitable to buy such a digital measuring machine yourself. They easily cost tens of thousands of euros. If you only need it a few times a year, the question is whether you will get the investment out of it. At that point I hope to be in the picture with my company."

According to Nicky, "I go to the location with the Proliner, I install it and start measuring. I usually reserve some time for some substantive preparation - for example, I want to know as much as possible about the project locations - but generally, after an hour - an hour and a half at most - everything is measured to the millimeter. I also provide a guarantee of the correctness of the measurements."

Follow-up

The customer has a choice of two follow-up processes for the subsequent phase. "For example, after surveying we can deliver the raw DXF files to the customer who can then use them himself immediately to draw further. But it is also possible that our own technical draughtsman - Leon Colijn - signs it off after which the end result is delivered to the customer complete. The latter then actually only has to press ENTER for the CNC machine."

So Nicky and his colleague Leon stand for efficiency and speed. "We also see that there is a great shortage of personnel among interior builders. These often do not have their own inmeters at their disposal while we, on the other hand, can be called in on demand - with professional high-quality equipment. So in that sense I am relieving the customer with this (digital) step within their company."

"By the way, it's not illogical that I started this business," Nicky says with a laugh. "Originally, I am a furniture interior designer myself. I also did a lot of training and gained a lot of experience within the shipbuilding industry. From those specialties, I know how an interior builder thinks and reasons. But so does Leon, my technical draughtsman. Who has worked for an interior builder for more than 10 years: he knows what it's all about."

When asked where he wants his company to be in a few years, Nicky is clear: "I hope that by then we will be driving around the country with two or three vans and have many interior builders as regular customers. The bottomline remains that we want to measure up within a week and a half of the request. In any case, that vision is catching on: the growth is there! In fact, this month we commissioned our second measuring machine. We look forward to the future with confidence. We look forward to getting further acquainted with the interior construction industry in the Netherlands because digital measuring is going to become the standard."