Two Vetico companies have joined forces. In January, ECM Europe will open its brand new ISO Class 8 Clean Room in Oss, under the roof of sister company Vetipak. And this site has much more to offer ECM than just space.
The reason: a major challenge for capacity
ECM is experiencing a significant increase in demand from its clients. This is great news, of course, but only if we also have enough capacity to accommodate this growth. If we were to continue processing the assignments solely at the headquarters in Gemert, then we’d run into an inevitable bottleneck. “So we went in search of extra space,” says Dianne Vogels, production manager at ECM. “But just try finding a suitable place at short notice, where you can work in isolation under extremely clean, controlled conditions, and with access to excellent logistics facilities. After all, there is a lot of coming and going involved in making medical products.”
The solution: a Clean Room in Oss
After searching areas local to Gemert, the solution turned out to be closer at hand than expected – we could join Vetipak in Oss. Just like ECM, Vetipak is a Vetico company. “There was a production compartment at Vetipak that still wasn’t being used,” continues Dianne. “We were able to work with a clean room builder to establish a ‘box-in-box’ Clean Room in this space. The existing production compartment is the external box, and the new Clean Room is the internal box. We can also make use of Vetipak’s loading dock and canteen facility.”
The construction was completed in very short order, with the Clean Room being delivered in mid-October after building started in August. “The Clean Room validation was already scheduled a day later, and the DEKRA audit at the end of the week,” says our production manager. “The new Clean Room and location were approved immediately, so now we are just waiting for the certificate. As soon as we receive that, we can get started.”
The added value: thirty percent additional production capacity
Space? Check. Logistics? In the bag. And new Clean Room staff? Dianne: “Even before building started, we were already training Vetipak staff in our Clean Room in Gemert. They’re now ready and waiting. We will soon have thirty percent additional production capacity, and we’ve managed to pull that together in just a couple of months. We are still looking for a few extra Clean Room colleagues though, so we can make full use of that extra capacity.”
Dianne believes that ECM won’t be the only company to benefit from the new site. Not only will the company’s customers be able to count on fast service, Vetico stands to benefit too. We’ve been part of the group for less than a year, so all of the parties still have to get to know and become accustomed to each other. A joint project like this one can only accelerate the synergy between Vetico companies. In short: it’s a win all round!”
were training Vetipak staff’’
