Who is Feig? Debbie Greenway

Feig Electronics

Today, Debbie Greenway shares her story and sheds some light on FEIG and how its RFID technology is changing the world.

FEIG, a German-based company headquartered in Weilburg, manufactures RFID equipment and payment terminals where all work, from engineering and design to manufacturing, is done in-house.

The company began in 1966 with a gentleman by the name of Wolfgang Feig, who, in his 80s today, can still be found around the halls of FEIG and attending board meetings. Debbie, who has had the pleasure of meeting Wolfgang, says, “What you get any time you encounter him is just kindness. There is genuine kindness there. He’s an engineer, and he loves technology. He wants to talk about what’s new out there, what’s going on at the trade shows, and what the new products are. He also has a genuine concern for the over 400 employees working for the company.”

While headquartered in Germany, FEIG also has an overseas location in Duluth, Georgia, where you can find Debbie running the US.

People always ask her what it’s like to work for a German-based company, and she boasts, “Here, I find that I love the German values. They are very quality-conscious. Quality is at the top of everything they do. As a person out in the field promoting our products to customers, I can discuss every objection the customer might have to purchasing a FEIG RFID reader. It’s essential to me and a theme throughout the company.”

Beginning her career in the semiconductor industry, Debbie gained extensive experience in quality, operations, rep management, and sales. She eventually became disillusioned by the manufacturing outsourcing to lower-cost regions around the world, which made it difficult to differentiate your products from competitors or add useful features to create distinctive products in the market. Outsourcing also led her away from customer-based relationships and partnerships toward purely pricing and purchasing agreements, which she says were exhausting and unfulfilling.

Debbie recalls, “It just felt meant to be” when she found FEIG. “It was as if I’d been training for it for many years.

“FEIG is a solution-based sell. I like that. I wanted to sell something I could help a customer solve a problem with and stand out and be unique with. My goal was to find something in my wheelhouse but with a value that could add value to what a customer was trying to do or even exceed their expectations. That was getting harder and harder at the component level. The system level is much more rewarding.”
Today, Debbie and FEIG are helping customers solve problems in a myriad of industries and offer many opportunities for companies to take advantage of not just FEIG’s mission but their commitment to innovation and service.

“It’s not the same old things that RFID used to be used for. It’s not just the idea of tracking items; it’s the ability to increase efficiencies, lower errors, reevaluate costly production and process flow, and, in some cases, increase safety.”

“Educating people about what works best for them is the most exciting part. With tag prices decreasing rapidly and the various technologies available, RFID can be adopted continually and more widely today.

“We speak broadly about markets like healthcare, payment, and logistics, but I see new companies adopting RFID every day. Currently, we have a customer using RFID in lab mice to study Parkinson’s disease. We also have other companies using RFID on animals to check their growth and health based on the food they eat.

She adds, “It’s beneficial in many ways, mostly in efficiency. We worked with a hospital to track patients so they would know where all their patients were. They found that several of their processes were a mess. Patients were building up in one location, and other operating rooms were empty. They increased their efficiency and, honestly, safety from using an RFID system.”

“Ultimately, this all leads to better use of our great American talent. We don’t need to waste that talent standing around scanning barcodes all day. Employees can innovate and interact with customers. They can be used in better places. That equals the value I was looking for. Even though I play a small role in that, it gets me out of bed in the morning and makes me excited to come into the office.”

To hear more about the technology, passion, and solutions Debbie and FEIG are bringing to the RFID world, listen to The Identify Podcast, powered by FEIG Electronics.

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