From bottleneck to flagship

All the employees came to look through the window last month. They wanted to see the newest addition to the shop floor, the TruLaser 1060 Fiber from TRUMPF, at work. At Meco Metal, a specialist in custom steel structures, the machine ensures that cutting is no longer the bottleneck of the workshop. With its speed and accuracy, it delivers top quality, providing added value throughout the entire production chain.

The Altez Construction Group is a name that quickly rings a bell. As an all-round construction partner for agricultural, equestrian and industrial construction projects, the company has put itself on the map in recent years with its cost-conscious, fast and sustainable solutions with prefab steel and concrete structures. Meco Metal is one of the jewels in the group's crown and is responsible for specialized custom steel constructions. Since 2018, Harry Seijkens has been at the helm of the company based in Oudsbergen. "The ambition was, is and remains to have Meco Metal stand completely on its own feet. By also working more for externals, you get a sophisticated distribution of capacity in which you continuously keep going."

LEAN leads the way to optimizations

A mission in which Meco Metal is succeeding wonderfully. Since 2018, sales have already gone up 10% every year, without adding any additional employees. The secret behind this success? A thoroughly LEAN approach. Seijkens: "Technical personnel are so hard to find. That is why we focus on flexibility among operators and try to look at our processes every day to eliminate inefficiencies. After all, there is a lot of potential for improvement if you can make all your internal processes fit perfectly. The fact that we already have many repeat customers proves that we can deliver on our promises in terms of timing and quality." Seijkens is not alone in this. Together with production manager Domien Driesen and workshop manager Remi Moonen, they created a new schwung in all parts of the company.

New cutting machine needed

Using the LEAN philosophy as a starting point, the machinery was also thoroughly reviewed. The past three years have been marked by substantial investments. "In order of importance, because by investing smartly you can actually win. The replacement of the overhead cranes, for example, enabled the maintenance team to be reduced from six to two, supplemented by good service contracts with reputable suppliers. Personnel that you can then cleverly deploy elsewhere," says Seijkens. This year it was the turn of the sheet metal working department. Sheet metal processing is a crucial component in the steel constructions that Meco Metal delivers. About 1,000 tons of sheet metal passes through the workshop each year. "Material that was cut and trimmed to size by a punch-laser combo or a plasma cutting table. But that proved to be a bottleneck in production."

Very convincing overall package

However, Meco Metal did not rush to replace the machines. Based on a tender with the company's needs in terms of materials, quality, quantities, dimensions, cycle times ... clearly formulated, the company consulted leading manufacturers. After carefully weighing all the alternatives, Meco Metal chose the TruLaser 1060 Fiber from TRUMPF, with a 6 kW TruDisk source supplemented by BrightLine Fiber and automatic pallet change, supplied by V.A.C. MACHINES. "By opting for a fiber laser with slightly higher power, we no longer needed a separate plasma cutting table for the thicker materials. The TruLaser 1060 Fiber covers our range from 2 to 20 mm nicely. Why V.A.C. MACHINES as a partner? Because we had confidence in the technology, which we had also seen working during some reference visits. It is a low operator machine, the machine automatically adjusts itself for all materials and thicknesses. That's what we need here. In addition, the personal involvement we felt from both product manager Francis Sercu and manager Karel Vincke was convincing. I received good answers to all my questions and a very convincing total package," said Seijkens.

Perfectly as agreed

The delivery of the machine occurred on Sept. 9. "Perfectly according to the agreement. In the whole approach from quotation to installation of the machine, you still feel that German 'Grundlichkeit'. We were given a script with timing to prepare the arrival of the machine perfectly, from the electrical installation and the preparation of the soil to the transport to the workshop. This meant that we could do everything possible from both sides to avoid surprises." 

Higher quality, lower cost

The TruLaser 1060 Fiber also delivers on its promises. "The cutting is no longer the bottleneck after just one month. The machine goes so fast that it is now looking at how we can clear the cutting table again fast enough. This also has to do with how user-friendly the machine is, because after only two or three days our operators are already using it. Very remarkable. It is now up to us to get to know the machine and continue to increase the pace daily. And the plasma cutting table? We no longer use that. After all, the cost price per cut piece is lower on the TruLaser and the quality of the cut is much higher. We also feel the added value of the TruLaser 1060 Fiber further down the chain. The higher accuracy it delivers makes welding or bolting connections much easier. They fit like a glove," concludes Seijkens.