Plukon Blokker runs smoothly with smart lubrication plan

At Plukon in Blokker, the drive to improve never stops. The company has several exciting plans lined up for the coming years. Meanwhile, operations continue as usual — around one million free-range chickens are processed each week. Thanks to a solid technical department and excellent lubricants, production runs smoothly day after day.

As a long-standing and reliable partner to the Dutch retail market, you might think there’s little left to wish for. Yet at Plukon in Blokker, North Holland, ambition runs deep. Each week, the company processes about one million chickens aged eight to nine weeks — all free-range and carrying the 1-star Beter Leven (Better Life) quality label. The Blokker facility is part of the Plukon Food Group, which operates in seven countries with a total of 42 locations. The group supplies poultry, ready meals, salads, and alternative proteins to leading European partners. In Blokker, the focus lies entirely on fresh retail products, the frozen operations were recently phased out.

From left to right: Troy Valk, Jason de Vaal and Tim van Kuik

Ambitious plans

Speaking of ambition: “We’re constructing a spacious new intake hall to support our operations. This marks an important step forward — better for people, animals, and the environment. Beyond that, we’re investing in further automation and robotization across other parts of the company to prepare for the future. And we already have concrete plans for a new warehouse system, where AI will play a key role,” says Troy Valk on a sunny autumn morning from his office overlooking the factory. As head of the technical department, Troy and his teams handle first-line malfunctions and preventive maintenance across the plant. He expects AI to play a growing role in his line of work too: “Take fault detection, for example. Imagine if we could just upload a photo of a broken bearing and immediately get a notification telling us what’s wrong, what we need to fix it, where the part is located, and how we handled it last time. That would be great.”

Food-grade lubricants

Fortunately, broken bearings are a rare occurrence at Plukon — thanks in part to the first-class food-grade lubricants used. Troy’s colleague, Technician Tim van Kuik explains: “There are lots of bearings in the slaughtering machines that carry the chickens. They’re linked by gear transmissions that allow rotation. These gears need a thin layer of lubricant film to prevent wear. But since we work with poultry, everything is cleaned every evening using plenty of water. That washes away grease and oil as well, so we have to reapply it every morning — at least on the plastic parts.”

Lubrication plan

Because of the large amount of grease and oil required, the factory switched a few years ago to a high-quality yet affordable lubricant approved for the food industry. Troy explains: “We work with products from FenS. The price-quality ratio is excellent, and their technical know-how is top-notch. Their service is great too; if the FenS team ever needs support, they can rely on a product specialist from Bechem, where the lubricants are developed. In short: everything runs smoothly.” Jason de Vaal, account manager at FenS, laughs: “We hear that one a lot!” FenS offers more than 500 lubricants, fluids, precision cleaners, and metalworking fluids for the food industry. The company is indeed known for its excellent service, Jason says: “We always think along with our customers when creating a lubrication plan — how often each machine should be lubricated, which product is suitable, and how it should be applied? We also check if a factory might be able to work with fewer products. That’s often the case, and it has plenty of benefits: fewer chances of errors, less storage needed, and easier reordering. We have a solution for every machine and application — our range is very comprehensive.” Tim immediately responds to that last point: “We’re actually looking for an installation to clean parts.” Jason: “A degreasing tank, you mean? We’ve got just the right degreaser for that!”

Automated lubrication plan

In the future, Tim and Troy are interested in an automatic lubrication system — one that would save them from having to grab a spray can every morning (or every week, depending on the machine) or manually check when a lubricant needs replacing. Troy explains: “Time is always scarce in our line of work. Lubrication is crucial, but honestly, sometimes we have to prioritize other things — a broken sensor or contact, an electrical fault, or a motor with moisture inside. Downtime in the factory has to stay limited. So an automatic lubrication system would be a real solution.” Fortunately, Jason confirms that there are plenty of options for that. Excellent, another item to add to the list of ambitions.

www.plukon.nl
www.fens.nl 

Photos: © Fotostudio Wick Natzijl