Today we talk to Javier González, founding partner of Einnek Ingeniería Eléctrica, a company created after the pandemic of 2020 that has managed to become a benchmark in its sector, even achieving the Cebek Emprende 2023 recognition.
Setting up a new company is already a challenge, but what is it like to do it in a mature sector and, moreover, in the midst of a pandemic?
I was working in another company, and then the pandemic hit. At that moment, my mind saw an opportunity in the subject of digitalization in the electrical panel world. So we took advantage of the pandemic to work on that idea. The world stopped, and what we did was to work on the idea to prepare ourselves for when this world started up again, to be ready. And so we did. In July 2020 we set up Einnek, fiscally, and let’s say that between September and December 2020 Einnek started to operate already manufacturing equipment goods.
Innovation is very important in Einnek, was that the cause or consequence of the award to the best entrepreneur of Bizkaia by Cebek?
Ours, in the end, is a mature product, they are electrical panels, and so what we have tried to do is to innovate and apply digitalization to the electrical panel, both in engineering and manufacturing. We work with methods such as the Agile philosophy and the Lean manufacturing philosophy, both in assembly and in engineering. For all that, we have been given this award in 2023 for the innovative, entrepreneurial company of the year.
Felipe Rebollo and Javier González.
You have recently opened a new space focused on innovation, what are you looking for with this new space at Einnek?
We believe in people, we believe in teamwork. We are also enrolled in a program called ekinBarri, and we believe that people grow in safe and trusting spaces. And in this part of Einnek, which are new offices that will be about 100 meters, we want our team to be creative, to have a space where they feel comfortable to think, to work and to promote ideas.
The technical office is apart from this space, it is another 100 meters or so of office space, in which the day-to-day work is generated and, when we want to think, to create, we go to this new office.
We are also trying to open this up to collaborate with other companies and to be able to create collaborative spaces in this innovation laboratory that we can share with other companies. We believe in community and we also believe that companies alone do not advance, that they have to be surrounded by people who share a life in society.
Einnek achieved ISO 9001 certification in record time and is one of the few UL certified companies for capital equipment for the American market. How much more do customers need to give them what they really need?
Well, the ISO 9001 was to create Einnek and do it, because we focus on industry and for that we need it. The UL, it is true that we are the first panel builder in Bizkaia to obtain it, and we are looking for it because we see that the American market, for us, has a pull. Therefore, being in the American market is a plus point. It is a complicated, difficult standard, in English, which forces your team to have a good command of English, otherwise it is complex. But it has given us many opportunities to provide solutions to Bizkaia in terms of equipment assembly.
One of the most distinctive elements is that your customers participate in the company. Is this an endorsement of Einnek’s shared project?
When we set up Einnek, Miguel and I started, and then Leire came in. It has been a sequence, it has not been all in a row. The initial idea came from Miguel and me, Leire joined in 2021, in February, and after we started working with a company called Ona Electroerosión, who saw our company philosophy, how we set up, what ideas we have, the digitalization of the panel, etc., they proposed us to be a partner, our partner. And we, logically, saw an opportunity and accepted. So now we are three partners and one company, Ona Electroerosión.
Cycling equipment, people, how much of everyone’s work goes into every electrical panel that leaves the company?
Cycling is a story that I personally like very much. And when we set up Einnek, we also saw that sport was an important part of the company. When you do any sport, everyone is very close.
At work, many times, in companies, people separate. So we saw cycling and sports as an important way for people to work as a team. Cycling is a team sport and, well, that’s where the cycling team was born. I raced in cycling in veteran categories. The clothing with the colors we have was born. Spiuk’s support for the company was born in terms of our corporate image as a cyclist. Many people tell us, “here come the cyclists”, because of the clothes we wear. We are closely linked to sport and cycling.
So, for us, cycling is a way to show that sport and business can coexist. And to take what is good in sport and apply it to business.
What projects do you have for the future?
On the engineering side, we are working with Eplan. Eplan has three very important platforms, P8, Propanel and Harness. And, above all, the Harness part, which is the digitization of the machine cabling, is what we are doing.
There have also been projects to collaborate with companies for the calculation of their installations and plants.
And on the shop floor side, the UL side is very important. We are setting up an ad hoc line for the American market. So, in the medium term, that’s kind of where we’re going.
