—— “I want a workshop that’s stress-free and where people get energy from their work.
Employee well-being is essential to us.”
Kristof Horemans
Kristof Horemans
Horemans Kitchen and Furniture Workshop has been in business since 1967 and is deeply rooted in the Kempen region. Today, the company is led by Kristof Horemans and his sister Annelies. Their mission goes beyond simply making furniture. With a showroom and workshop, each covering 6,500 m², under one roof, Horemans consciously opts for short lines of communication between sales, project follow-up, and production. This ensures speed, transparency, and smooth collaboration between all departments.
At Horemans, punctuality is central. Deadlines are not guidelines, but a promise to the customer. “We should never have to call our customers to ask for an extension. We simply make sure we’re there,” says Kristof Horemans. To keep that promise, everything must go right the first time. That’s why Horemans invests heavily in digitization and automation.
Just as important are the people behind the process:
The variety of custom projects requires a production environment that adapts effortlessly to every design. That is precisely why Horemans chose the ARDIS® platform. “We wanted to be able to make every cabinet different based on the drawing, yet still move them through production just as smoothly.”
Trust also played a role in the decision. The combination of local involvement, technical expertise, and sufficient capacity to support their processes was the deciding factor in choosing a software supplier.
Michael Kerckhofs (planning and automation) manages daily production planning. “The application’s strongest point is definitely the batching, which can be used very flexibly,” he says.
A key benefit for Horemans lies in material usage, thanks to ARDIS®’s optimization and scrap management applications: "Our yield is very good. We purchase fewer sheets, simply because we optimize better today than we did in the past."
Whereas paper folders used to circulate between different workstations, Horemans now operates largely paperless, using screens, labels, and real-time feedback. “In the past, paper documents had to be printed, and people relied heavily on experience. Now, thanks to clear and simple screens, every work cell knows exactly what to do and in what order.” This creates a sense of calm, clarity, and achievable daily goals.
For Kristof Horemans, the “return on investment” lies not only in productivity but also in satisfied employees. “Machines are being utilized more effectively. But for me, the greatest return is in employee satisfaction and well-being.” Thanks to the increased calm and clarity, they’ve succeeded in creating a stress-free workshop where employees draw energy from their work.
Horemans Kitchen and Furniture Workshop proves that technology and people-centered business go hand in hand. By investing in data, automation, and smart production control, they are building a high-performing workshop where both customers and employees are at the center.
A forward-looking approach in which efficiency, flexibility, and job satisfaction reinforce one another.