Take a seat and go for a ride!

Bruno Independent Living Aids

Bruno's Manufacturing Plant, Product Assembly, Packaging, and Shipping Facility

Valet Signature Seating (Shown is Bill Belson, Director of Engineering)

Bill Belson, Director of Engineering, gave us a tour of Bruno's facilities. We first learned about all their products: Stairlifts, Vertical Platform Lifts, Vehicle Lifts, and Valet Signature Seating. One fun fact he told us was that Siegfried, the famous magician in Las Vegas who was injured by his tiger, uses Bruno products. He even got his chairs for his vehicles customized with tigers on them. This was a great visit because my grandpa has been handicapped for almost 14 years. So I've seen first-hand how people with disabilities can really benefit from their products. He uses a powerchair and the vehicle platform lifts. It was touching to learn how family oriented Bruno is and they really value their employees. 

It was very interesting to see first-hand how the plant operated. Bruno prides itself on fast delivery--within 48 hours they can get product shipped out. It can take anywheres from 6-28 mins to complete a product. Bruno really tries to use their resources and eliminate as many steps taken by factory employees to keep production time to a minimum. He first took us to see where the parts to be used for assembly were placed on a piece of cardboard and they had a template shot down from a projector onto the cardboard so they knew exactly what pieces needed to be placed on there and where they needed to be laid out. 

Putting together the seats for the stairlifts

Testing out the stairlifts

Vehicle lifts made for smaller cars, such as a Sedan. This is similar to a trailer on the back of a car.

She was testing out the Valet Signature Seating that was shipped in from Autoadapt (Bruno's partner in Sweden). She opened the box, used a machine to lift it onto this base/platform shown, bolted it down, and ran the test. It moved the seat all the way through the process as if it were lifting the chair in and out of the car. After that test was complete, she put a 375 pound weight on it to make sure it could hold the maximum weight of a person.

The last part of our visit was meeting with the Marketing group. We learned a lot about their target market and the different challenges they face with trying to meet the needs of both the dealers they work with and their customers. Their target market is elderly people with disabilities who want to stay independent in their home and cars. Another large customer is the Veterans Affairs group. Their "Web Guru" who makes the website mentioned that he spends a great deal of time on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Making sure that Bruno shows up first or near the top on the search engine is very important to generating business.

One challenge Bruno faces is meeting the needs and wants of their customers on an international level. For example, in the Nordic countries they thought the colors used were too dark. The amount of weight the product needs to hold is also another obstacle they face; as well as, different types of architectural styles. Bill mentioned that in the U.S. the staircases are at a 45 degree angle, for the most part, and in Europe they have much steeper staircases. So adjusting the seat to pivot in different angles as it goes up the European steep staircases so the user doesn't get their knees bumped by the wall is something they have to modify when working with that market.