Two companies,
one team
It is very busy at the feed mill. ‘It’s never been so busy’, says Bob Pritchard. He has been a plant manager for 10 years and knows the plant like the back of his hand. Bulk trucks are coming and going. These are challenging times for the people at Coppens Diervoeding (Coppens Animal Feed) in Helmond, the Netherlands.
O
n 1 October 2021, the regional compound feed producer was taken over by De Heus, an internationally operating animal feed supplier. Production capacity was increased from 6,000 to 7,500 tonnes per week in a short space of time, which had a massive impact on logistics and planning, and consequently on the people on the work floor. The takeover combined with an immediate increase in production means a lot of changes in a short time. The plant is now so full, a few hours of disruption has major consequences for the entire logistics process. It is now really important that – as a team - we prevent disruptions from happening. By ‘we’ he means not only his own people, but also their partners. Innovative and Committed are the
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core values of compound feed producer Coppens Diervoeding. And that is what it also expects from the partners it works with. This is confirmed by the company’s collaboration with KSE Process Technology in Bladel. They supply the production software, and they manage and replace the servers. Some of the equipment in the production line also comes from there. For as long as Pritchard has been the manager of this plant, he has been working together with the people of KSE, but the collaboration dates back even further. ‘Theo Coppens, until recently one of the owners, has always had a good relationship with that company. He comes from the same region as the owners of KSE and that apparently clicked very well. We have been customers since this feed mill was built in 1989.’
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