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. Netherlands.

On 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 fl oor. 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 core values of compound feed producer Coppens Diervoeding. And that is what it also expects from the partners it works with. This is confi rmed 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.’

Bob Pritchard controls all processes from his ‘control centre’. PHOTO: JOOST DUPPEN

Aim to move forward together and look beyond your own part

That’s a good sign

Joint development

‘The collaboration is therefore more than a customer-supplier relationship’, Pritchard explains. ‘I have weekly contact with them. It’s about making improvements to the software, but also about them joining our thought process in renewal or replacement projects. And even about the joint development of new products that make our plant more effi cient. So I really see us as a team, even though we are two companies.’ An important result of this the PROMAS ST software application for the box dosing system that has been operational in the plant since 2020. `Previously, operators had to manually add small amounts of raw materials to a batch’, says Pritchard. `That meant a lot of lifting of bagged goods, repetitive actions and regular exposure to dust. That kind of thing makes the work less attractive and also ineffi cient. Together with people from KSE, we developed a fully automated solution for this. It is now running in our plant, but it is also available for other feed mills.’

Planning is important

Now that production has been ramped up so much, the planning of maintenance, replacement and renewal has become even more important. ‘We can coordinate the planning of activities very well. For example, KSE always works on Sundays for major works in the plant. Seeing as the plant is closed on Sundays, these works do not aff ect production. It’s great that we can arrange it that way, because it also means something to their own people, of course.’ What is also important to Pritchard is the stability in the KSE team. ‘Some people have been coming here for 20 years, so they know the plant inside out. We even had one of our own joining them. I think it’s a good sign that they can retain their personnel. Especially in a region where there are a lot of tech companies that can easily poach people.

PHOTO: JOOST DUPPEN

This morning I spoke to someone who had left the company, but is now back. That’s positive.’ Are there never any dissatisfactions or struggles in the collaboration? ‘Of course things happen, as they do everywhere. And we do talk about it. But the most important thing is that you aim to move forward together and look beyond your own part. That is what I mean by commitment. We demand it of ourselves and our people, but also of our partners. The fact that our collaboration has lasted so long tells me that KSE fi ts in well with our core values.’