Franke Sissons, leading provider of washroom solutions for all industries, has partnered with NBS to have its products’ technical information embedded in NBS specification software with NBS Plus. They also publish product catalogues, technical documents and design files in the industry-leading online index of manufacturers’ product information, Product Selector.

In 2017 Franke Sissons took a step further on their BIM journey and extended the relationship with NBS by hosting its BIM objects on the NBS National BIM Library, and sharing best practice and knowledge, especially around sustainable architecture, as part of the RIBA CPD Providers Network.

About the company

Franke Sissons has over 230 years of experience and is a world leader in providing washroom solutions for all industries, including education, leisure, hotels, transport and stadia. With standard and bespoke sanitaryware (grade 304 stainless steel and granite composite), accessories, and brassware Franke Sissons caters for all project types and sizes.

The last 12 months for Franke Sissons

The biggest change for Franke in the past 12 months has been moving our manufacturing to our Polish factory, which operates a lean manufacturing process with excellent product capabilities, within a 12,000m2 site. Franke Sissons now has an outstanding manufacturing site with more capability than ever before. Another large project during this time was ‘getting BIM-ready’, and after extensive research and planning Franke Sissons launched the initial BIM models in January 2017, with more planned in 2018.

Combining the use of our BIM models and online data with lean manufacturing and in-house engineering expertise, Franke Sissons has continued to produce exceptional quality products.

The recent changes have had a positive impact on the business and have helped the company consolidate and grow its offering, both online and offline. Additionally, as part of the expansion, Franke now has wider distribution channels, including increased online distributors and independent merchant channels.

Make it wonderful

At Franke, we consider our values of utmost importance. In fact, they are the heart of our culture and help us to translate our strategy and brand into concrete behaviours and actions.

As one of the world’s leading providers of washroom solutions, we are very conscious of our responsibility for contributing to a sustainable environment and are actively engaged in this challenge. We try to reduce the environmental impact of our operations, taking into account the commercial viability and availability of environmentally friendly technology. We implement a number of measures to ensure that our environmental footprint is reduced; these include sustainable buildings, reduction of water use, resourcing efficient products and demonstrating material efficiency in production.

The Franke approach and projects

Franke has been involved in numerous projects over the years in many sectors with various clients, including Balfour Beatty, Wolseley Group, NG Bailey, NHS Trusts, Jewsons, Travis Perkins, Grafton Group, NMBS, PTS and many more.

Being one of the leading provider’s in sanitaryware and having over hundreds of projects throughout the years, the specification process is something that Franke is looking to develop more in the future. BIM has provided a key opportunity to help support and develop relationships with public and private sector architects, designers, and industry professionals. Franke Sissons has been actively involved in RIBA events and is part of the RIBA CPD Providers Network, with a range of CPD materials on offer under the sustainable architecture category: for example, Water Conservation in the Commercial Washroom. As ‘delivering solutions’ is one of the key company values, Franke wanted to go one step further and develop BIM and Product Selector profiles to make it easier for users to find and engage with the Franke product range.

What does BIM mean to Franke?

After extensive research, we launched the first of our BIM Models in early 2017, which received a high response rate online. This has created many opportunities with architects, contractors and other businesses within the industry. The results so far have been very positive, and statistics show that our profile has received high traffic, and provided us with an established online presence. As our profile grows, and more of our models are hosted on the NBS National BIM Library, we hope that these relationships continue to thrive.

We now have nearly half a million impressions every month which is an outstanding breakthrough for us on a digital level. According to research from NBS, 71% of specifiers need manufacturers to provide them with BIM objects, which is why we are providing models of our products. Although we do not use BIM as a way of manufacturing our products, we see BIM as a positive aid for the specification process, developing our relationships, and enhancing product knowledge for architects and designers.

In the future we believe that BIM will become more integral to all sectors, not just in the public sector, and we see BIM becoming the norm within many industries. As part of this we are striving to develop further models of both existing and new products to ensure that information is easily available during the specification process. We are eager to continue our BIM journey and are striving to make as much progress as possible, and we are excited to see what the future holds.


Article written by Sara Hallam, from Franke Sissons

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