Ambition, transition and instruction

Building a new warehouse and extra production for a food processing company requires controlling routing with specific installations for completion. Bouwteam P&O and Alsta Nassau joined forces to ensure their client’s growth ambitions are reflected in their construction and standards.

Setting a growth ambition and adjusting your existing building accordingly is a process that requires knowledge commitment, involvement and overview. Construction team P&O was challenged to take care of the expansion of a food processing company. The wishes were on the table. A new warehouse, adjusting and expanding the production and traffic areas with a routing that is clear to employees. With, to seal off the areas, doors delivered and services by Alsta Nassau, which ensure food safety.

Focus on construction

Justin van Leijden, from Bouwteam P&O in Alphen aan den Rijn, talks about their control and construction assignment: “We have been taking care of construction processes for this client since 2011. We once started out with converting a cooling installation to NH3, a significant project throughout the entire factory. Since then, we have also been tasked to take care of the construction matters, so that our client can continue to focus on its own process. After all, given the growth ambition, production always continues. An extra dimension during the construction process”.

Justin proudly explains the approach of the construction project. “We are go-getters when it comes to project management, planning, price and process implementation. With this assignment, a specific demand arose. We not only needed to create space for upscaling, but also decide about closing off in accordance with hygiene requirements, with the specific question to reuse existing door installations. We involved Alsta Nassau from Terheijden to properly respond to this demand. A partner with whom we go back approximately thirty years, which we trust and that fits well with our client. The nearly 100-year-old company is a merger of Alsta B.V. and Nassau Indus Deur B.V, two players that have grown from producers to service providers in brand-independent doors.

Transition

Nanko Wassenaar, Key Account manager at Alsta Nassau, describes the situation meticulously: “We had to deal with separate spaces, multiple floor types with level differences, and diverse range of doors with associated suppliers and different maintenance contracts. With the transition to a single whole, the construction of a new warehouse was given priority, in order to have the traffic and production rooms connect to it. We examined the entire package of existing doors and, at every location, critically asked ourselves the question: ‘can we reuse this?’. Is a repair possible with a defect, or do we ask for a reinvestment for a new door to ensure long-term quality? By keeping each other sharp, looking at developments in the market and taking the ambition of clients into account, we worked together in a smart way and managed to keep costs down”.

Instruction

Both Bouwteam P&O and Alsta Nassau have lots of experience in the food industry. They know how to take the production process of the client into account when constructing and installing door installations. Nanko’s eyes glimmer as he continues enthusiastically: “We are actually a facility services provider and are continuously manoeuvring with the business movements. It is very important to have the support of employees when it comes to changes. We have put a lot of energy into information, involvement and showing what is going to change. And how they are meant to handle the areas and doors. 

For instance, the old shipping area has been converted into a new production area. Via the entrance and a hygiene sluice, the new door, the D311 with Dynalogic 5 operation, provides access to the high-care department. This door is made of stainless steel (food-safe), has contactless operation and is the fastest door on the market. Only one routing is possible, so it is important that employees know the way and how to handle the door. In addition to an oral explanation, we have also visualised the instruction”.

Closing

With the construction, the door was literally and figuratively the closer. The space was constructed first, and then the door was added. A tight schedule. “This construction process was dynamic because it took place ‘around the production’. Only once we were sure an area was ready, we could ask Alsta Nassau to install the door”, Justin explains. The construction process has mostly been completed. Justin and Nanko are still working on one project. A traffic square with five different reused doors arose from the new routing. Creating a good crossroads for products, people and outside air with this variation is a challenge. For convenience, they have taken over the maintenance of these doors from the previous suppliers, so that the client has one point of contact going forward. Bouwteam P&O and Alsta Nassau take care of the maintenance together. “Thanks to the software tool from Bouwteam P&O and the Dynalogic 5 operation, we will soon be able to receive malfunctions and reports digitally and resolve them remotely. If on-site maintenance is required, one of our expert engineers will always be nearby”, Nanko concludes. “This way, we can continue to guarantee that the areas are properly sealed!” 

www.bouwteamp-o.nl
www.alsta-nassau.nl

Images: ©JORIS TELDERS