Affordable, tailor-made solutions for The Compound Company
As a producer of compounds including Yparex® extrudable adhesives, The Compound Company was looking for specialist expertise for the revamp of their factory in Enschede. Wouter van den Berg, Yparex® General Manager at The Compound Company, turned to Sitech for advice.
Identifying improvement ideas together
Wouter has been working on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus for 25 years. "That's how I know what expertise is available here," he explains. "Within the revamp project there were some subquestions, which I thought Sitech could help us with." Technology Manager Peter Bosmans then visited the factory in Enschede a number of times to talk to employees from production, maintenance and technology. Peter points out: "To be able to advise a customer properly, you must have as complete a picture as possible of all conditions in the factory. You have to understand what happens in and around the machines. By analyzing the causes, we came up with improvement proposals for various issues together with the team."
Wouter van den Berg, General Manager Yparex® at The Compound Company
“Linking up our experts with Sitech's ensured that they examined the issues in depth immediately. This resulted in constructive, tailor-made solutions”
One of the proposals was the purchase of a tool to allow extruders to be easily disassembled for cleaning purposes. Another issue was the wastage that occurred when cutting the granules. By mounting the blades on a granite block, they are all calibrated exactly the same. As a result, they cut better, so they need to be sharpened less often and there is considerably less wastage. These simple solutions all cost next to nothing to implement.
Broad knowledge, under one roof
"The collaboration has taken the discussion to the next level," continues Wouter. "This led to constructive custom solutions, which were also very affordable. We have now also asked Sitech to look at a bid for the engineering of a refrigeration project. They have called in their Principal Rotating Equipment Engineer, who will convert the text of the scope of the work into a drawing. This helps to ensure that both customer and supplier know for sure that they are talking about the same thing before a contract is signed. The broad knowledge and expertise that Sitech has in house makes them the ideal partner for me."
