Festo’s Customer Solutions Group: Tailor-Made Added Value for Maximum Success
September 2, 2025
By Krystie Johnston
Festo is a global leader in the motion industry, and for more than a century, they have focused on innovations that support their customers across industries and around the world. Their commitment to this shows in every facet of their company, from Corporate and Didactic to their automation products, engineering tools, solutions, and support. Muzen Zurar, Sales Supervisor at Festo Canada highlights Festo’s Customer Solutions Group and shares his insights on these products and services.
Customer-focused, tailor-made solutions
Zurar explains that Festo offers more than just automation components. He says their team supports customers in developing tailored solutions for their applications when standard products are not enough. “Our team loves to work very closely with our customers. We try to engage with our clients at the initial stages of a project” he says. With Festo’s customer-specific solutions, there are no limits to what is possible. And the earlier they begin this partnership, the more value they bring to the project.
In Mississauga, Zurar says that Festo’s Customer Solutions Group consists of ten technical experts they utilize for certain clients. This team has been developed to support OEMs and integrators, enabling them to add greater value to their own clients by leaning on Festo as an extended arm of engineering expertise,” he says. This group of engineers – with focused backgrounds in mechatronics, controls, and electrical systems – collaborates closely with customers to create tailored solutions when standard products are not sufficient, ensuring deep application understanding and optimal results.
Festo’s off-the-shelf product portfolio consists of more than 60,000 pneumatic and electrical control and drive components for factory and process automation. But when a customer needs something more, Festo’s Customer Solutions Group can help engineer, procure, assemble, and integrate a tailor-made solution. “We like to get in with the clients early-on, to understand what they are doing, and provide them with proof of concepts of how we would design a system when it is not a cookie-cutter type of application,” Zurar says. “From start to finish, this group of technical engineers will aid the customer with defining and designing a solution that will fit their needs.”
A look at the Mississauga Customer Solutions Group
Zurar says their team of experts in the Mississauga office focus on the diverse types of products in Festo’s catalogue and collaborate with customers to modify them or develop new ones that fit their application. “Two of them are really focused on our handling solutions – so material handling, cartesian robots, robotic applications – so those guys are very mechanical in that sense,” he says.
“We have another gentleman who engages in more of the pneumatic solutions, or serial OEM-type applications. So, even if it is a custom solution, if a customer wants us to put together a few components rather than do it themselves, we will put it together based on our products and we assemble everything and make sure that it comes out as one full part for them,” Zurar says. “OEMs appreciate this value-added service because it saves them significant time and internal resources by outsourcing the assembly of thousands of components into complete, ready-to-install systems. That is an added value for machine builders.”
Zurar says there is another technical expert in the group who works closely with global manufacturing when adjustments are required. “For example, if there’s a component from Festo that a customer prefers but needs to be modified at the global production level, our team will engage directly with our global counterparts to explore how the modification can be implemented,” he says.
“We also have a dedicated group of control-focused engineers who specialize in programming and integration. These engineers support the control-side just as effectively as the mechanical side, providing comprehensive technical coverage. What is more, whenever our Customer Solutions Group develops a custom build, adjustment, or system, we assign it a unique Festo part number. This ensures that the customer can reorder the same solution consistently, eliminating the challenges of ‘one-off’ builds and enabling scalable, long-term value.”
The Customer Solutions Group in Mississauga includes a team of experts who assist with building panels and delivering complete solutions for machine builders and system integrators. “Our panel shop is fully certified to cULus 508A standards, which enables us to provide added value to OEMs and integrators who require North American-compliant panel builds,” he says. “We have a dedicated group that assembles everything—whether it’s electrical control panels, mechanical assemblies, or integrated systems—tailored to the specific needs of our clients and based on our diverse product offerings.”
Zurar says that Festo’s Customer Solutions Group maximizes the entire customer experience from being offered a product number from a catalog to precisely what it is they need. And they support their tailored solutions the same way they do a standard product from their catalog. “Everything that we do on the custom side is fully guaranteed,” he says. “We offer full design and engineering assurance to make sure they are comfortable with our designs and the warranties around it as well.”
Support for customers, local, national, and global
Festo’s Customer Solutions Group in Mississauga is strategically located close to their customers, but Zurar says they have support for customers that are farther away. He explains that the first point of contact a customer makes with Festo is through their sales team, and if a tailored solution is needed, they go to the next level of support. “We have 14 sales reps in Ontario. I have never seen that many sales reps in a manufacturer before. But Festo likes to invest and make sure that all their clients are being taken care of properly – no matter where they are located,” he says. “If our Solutions Group needs to go anywhere in Ontario, they will do that.”
For customers who require assistance with product selection or after-sales technical support, Festo’s Applications Engineering Group is readily available. This dedicated team, located across the country, supports a wide range of customer needs—even when a custom solution is not required. “This team provides technical assistance across our entire product portfolio and industrial control platforms,” Zurar explains. “Whether it’s helping with product compatibility, configuration, or troubleshooting, they are equipped to guide customers through the selection and application process.”
Like Festo’s Customer Solutions Group, the Applications Engineering Group is composed of highly skilled engineers with expertise in controls and mechanical systems. “Whether a customer is working with one of our off-the-shelf products and facing integration challenges or needs help identifying the right product during the pre-sales phase, this team is there to support them,” says Zurar. “Only when the need extends beyond our standard catalog offering and requires a custom-engineered solution do we escalate to the Customer Solutions Group.”
Zurar adds that Festo’s technical engineers are highly knowledgeable not only on Festo’s own automation and control platforms, but also in a wide range of third-party technologies – a key value-add for many customers. “We often say that we are very agnostic across all major control platforms,” he explains. “Whether customers are integrating Festo servo motors and PLCs within a Festo-controlled architecture or connecting them to third-party systems such as Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Schneider Electric, Beckhoff, or Omron, we provide the support necessary to ensure seamless integration. This cross-platform proficiency allows our applications engineers to deliver expert guidance, regardless of the environment, simplifying implementation and accelerating project success.”
Festo provides comprehensive technical support across Canada, covering both pre- and post-sales needs. Zurar highlights the added value of having a highly skilled Technical Support team based locally. “Our North American Technical Support Team—which supports customers across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico—is headquartered at our Mississauga location,” he explains.
“This team goes far beyond basic product selection assistance. They regularly help customers troubleshoot complex automation challenges and will even replicate systems on-site using our local test bench, staging the customer’s setup with actual hardware to walk them through step-by-step resolutions. That hands-on, solution-oriented approach is a major differentiator, and many customers are surprised to learn the level of support we are able to offer from right here in Mississauga.”
Online tools do more than sizing and selection
Festo also provides a wide range of online tools – all free to use – that enable their customers to help themselves too. Zurar says these online tools allow users to size and select products themselves with accuracy and reliability. One example is Festo’s handling guide online. “It enables customers enter the application requirements for cartesian robots – whether it is an XYZ (a three-axis) gantry, put all the loads they may have, all the stroke lengths, and requirements they may have – and it allows them to ensure all the products are put together properly. All of that is done through a lot of our engineering tools.”
Zurar adds that every output from their engineering tools is fully guaranteed on its performance. “We can do this because what Festo does, globally, is they test a lot of their products – and these engineering tools are not just paper-engineered tests that say, ‘Yes, this should work, this should not work’ – they actually put their products through rigorous tests to make sure the live durability tests are implemented in the sizing tool itself,” he says.
“That is a huge advantage. We have implemented that data into our engineering tools to make sure that we stay strong on our warranty performance guarantees.”
Zurar says another useful tool is Festo’s Quick Search Plus, which adds value for the end user. “When it comes to selection tools, we have a software called ‘Quick Search Plus’ that we like to use to help our customers. Festo has over 60,000 different products in their catalog, so sometimes it can be hard looking for the right product,” he explains. “That Quick Search Plus software becomes a digital catalog for the customers and helps them navigate towards the right product. And within that software, users can access all Festo’s engineering tools.”
Festo’s online tools add value in other ways. Zurar says that for end users, they save time and instill a sense of confidence that their selections are accurate and complete. “When they are using these tools for an application, these tools are not just giving them one product to use, but all [emphasis added] the products they would need to accomplish that entire task,” he says. “Customers do not feel like they are missing out on any accessories or components when putting these solutions together.”
Another added value is that Festo’s online tools provide the documentation required to order, install, commission, and maintain the motion systems they produce. They also make it seamless to order the same machine in the future. “Festo’s online tools will generate 3D CAD drawings for the customer, and will also provide commissioning files for them, so when they go about puttingthis machine in place, all the files and commissioning files are right there, ready for them to use. It really cuts down the time of engineering, and in the design and commissioning of these products.”
More facets to Festo: investments in didactics and innovations
Festo maximizes their customer’s success with additional offerings that go beyond their top tier products, support, and online tools. Festo’s didactic division focuses on training at educational institutions and industrial settings. “They create turnkey lab equipment for mechatronics training stations, process automation, whatever it may be, and they build the entire training station for these educational institutions,” Zurar says. “And they do this not only for the educational institutions. But also, for larger companies that want to train their workforce on pneumatics, or electrical automation… And they offer these [training lab] builds [for industry as well].”
Zurar says that Festo also invests in innovation labs to further innovation. For example, there is a Technical Engineering Center in Boston, MA, where they work to develop innovative solutions to meet the challenges of the life sciences industry. “And globally, one of the cool things I discovered about Festo was that the headquarters in Germany has become their R&D facility area because they like to invest so much into R&D and innovation,” he says. Every year, Festo reinvests a vast amount of their global profits into R&D to ensure they are continually innovating.
Conclusion
Festo has built a legacy of leadership in the motion industry and continues to solidify its position with investments in innovations that support their customers. Their Customer Solutions Group utilizes everything Festo has to offer and maximizes these elements to further the success of their customers. Zurar says, “We continue to invest as a company, and it continues to make us stronger. We invest in our people. We invest in our products. And we invest in our clients.”
More Information
Interested to learn more? Visit Festo today!
Festo: Optimistic Start for 100th Anniversary Year
The Festo Group achieved a positive result in the financial year 2024, on par with the previous year, as announced by the Chairman of the Management Board, Thomas Böck, at a press conference held during the Hannover Messe. The innovation leader significantly expanded its portfolio in electric and pneumatic automation, particularly in the areas of control technology and digital solutions, software and AI. The company will continue to invest heavily in innovations in the future. This enables Festo, as a partner in motion, to offer integrated and seamless drive technologies from a single source –– complemented by a comprehensive range of technical training and education solutions.
