Listeria

The Netherlands is losing confidence in meat consumption …

Photo of the front page of the “Eindhovens Dagblad” dated 5 October 2019. Several publications have been published in the newspaper about the current Listeria scandal in the Netherlands.

It has been 2 years since the strategic partnership PP4C (Professional Partners for Controlled Environment), an initiative of the undersigned, decided to have a study carried out among the Dutch and Belgian food industry. Everyone spoke about the great future expectations that this industrial segment had to offer in the market of controlled environment. As specialized companies, creating safe and clean workspaces with a working climate in which dust and microbiological contamination is controlled, we were interested in whether and to what extent this industry was familiar with the concept of ‘hygienic construction’ and whether the high expectations were justified.

Among approximately 1,000 food manufacturers with more than 5 employees, the question was asked whether they were familiar with the concept of “hygienic construction” and the application of “High Care facilities” in high-risk areas. The results were not really reassuring! Netherland Response

Of course it was clear that the really large industries in this sector are best acquainted with the legislation and guidelines for a safe production and storage process. Nevertheless, we found it staggering to find out that many companies had no or clearly too little knowledge about this subject.

In the past 2 years I have regularly given lectures on developments in the field of food safety. I have also published a number of White Papers on this theme. There are many developments in the global food market and there is sufficient news gathering in this regard. A new White Paper will soon be published on the theme of gowning and the latest developments in this regard.

June 7 of this year is the first global “FOODSAFETY” day organized by the World Health Organization (WHO). There are a number of reasons why the Food Safety theme is receiving increasing attention from, among others, the WHO and the UN. An important reason was the results from the report that the WHO commissioned in 2015 on this theme. This showed:

• 600 million registered cases of disease involving contaminated food.
• 420,000 casualties. (Estimated carefully)
• Of these, 125,000 were children <5 years old.

Problems with Food Safety are now recognized as a global threat:
• 200 diseases are caused by 31 polluters. (Bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites, etc.)
• Disruptions in the digestive system can lead to cancer.
• Diseases are the cause of morbidity and mortality.
• Significant obstacle to the national socio-economic development of a country.

Where can you find the cause of this increasing threat?
• Basically the enormous growth of the world population. (10 billion 2050?)
• Globalization causes more international traffic of food.
• The food chain is becoming longer and more international.
• Less control over the causes of food safety issues and recall actions are becoming increasingly difficult.

On balance, the WHO sees deficient Food Safety worldwide as one of the greatest health dangers.
Colleagues or listeners with the comment that the results from the report would be debatable or that it would “not as bad as it likes” have sometimes approached me. Trust me on my word: the PP4C research has been professionally carried out by a specialized external agency and when one reads the content one is quickly convinced of its authenticity.

My wife and children who always read my blogs and White Papers appeal to me more often in these days and tell me that they now understand even better why we as an organization are so interested in this theme and the potential market within this sector.

The newspapers are full of the current Listeria crisis in the Netherlands and even today there was an interesting article in the regional newspaper “Eindhovens Dagblad”. The journalists Sanne Schelfaut, Ellen van Gaalen and Sebastiaan Quekel deserve to be mentioned here. It is fantastic to be able to establish that people are now able to determine the origin of a food contamination with the help of the latest DNA technology. It is very important to read that in this case there are three deaths and that of course you can take the necessary measures as quickly as possible to avoid further casualties. It is also staggering to read in the aforementioned article that two victims are to be regretted in Spain following the bacterial epidemic this spring, in Germany a manufacturer had to stop its activities after it could be determined that two elderly people had died after eating his sausage. In England, five people died in June after eating contaminated sandwiches and salad, not to mention in the restaurant of a hospital…

On balance, I note that it is certainly worthwhile to draw attention to the theme of food safety and I am pleased to be able to continue working with our partners within the PP4C (E) organization within this interesting market segment, in addition to our activities in the cleanrooms for the semi-conductor and, for example, the pharmaceutical market. For those who have been triggered by this blog and would like to know more about our activities on this theme, please refer to the PP4C (E) and White Papers sites for download.

Until the next opportunity and…. eat safe and healthy!

Greeting Geerd Jansen

The PP4CE (Professional Partners for Controlled Environment) organization is familiar with the EHEDG guidelines for hygienic construction concepts! We guide the engineering process and offer turnkey solutions for your production facilities, also in the food sector! A combination of specialists is at your
disposal, with only one contact person and coordinator during the entire process. Check our site
www.pp4ce.com ore for Holland www.PP4C.nl and download our White Papers about the various food safety topics and / or legal obligations if you are active in the Food sector! Or just contact us if you have any questions!

LONG TIME NO SEE

It’s been 4 months since the last blog…

Laziness? Long vacation? Or perhaps nothing unusual has happened for me to write a decent blog about? None of the above! These just happen to be tremendously busy times. Building up our new organisation simply requires a great deal of time and our international ambitions are challenging and successful, but they also demand much effort. Are we complaining? Absolutely not!

The requests for quotations just keep coming in and the interest in our company to design and build controlled environment facilities is growing rapidly. Our team of employees continues to grow steadily and the Management Team that has now been appointed is increasingly successful in delivering high-quality performances in collaboration with the management.

Over this past period, we have also had several ISO care systems certified by TÜV Nederland. In our case, we refer to the ISO 9001 (Quality), 14001 (Environment) and 45001 (Health & Safety) standards, as well as the certification of the VCA** care system. (HSE (Health, Safety and Environment), Checklist for Contractors. Very few of our colleagues in this branch have had such a complex and complete care system certified.

In light of the many activities within our organisation, it may seem like we completed this “in passing”, but actually, in this case, it involved a complete re-audit and what’s more, we have implemented a completely new care system for our Health & Safety (ARBO) process for the first time ever. So, we are super pleased with this certification for the coming three years. With thanks to our terrific EHSQ (Environment Health Safety Quality) coordinator and colleague Esther!

I am also very pleased with the investments made to raise the level of our quality. The large fully-automatic CNC machine for routing aluminium (frame and door) profiles and the stunning CNC sawing machine have by now been placed and are being used daily. Two great examples of the steps we are taking to achieve perfection!

CNC machine
CNC sawing machine

It is still, however, necessary to continue to invest in people. The number of office personnel has grown greatly and our two newest employees, who recently started at our “Bedrijf-Bureau” will help the exsisting team further along the road towards implementing the BIM work method in the middle-long term.

We have recently started working with the Revit software for this. This does not mean that we will only be able to make perfect 3D drawings with the Revit “Building Information Model” in the future. The programme makes it possible to make drawings with representative images of aesthetic and functional characteristics. In the future, these will be intelligence drawings, that is to say, they will also be sources of information.

What is that BIMming, anyway?

Building Information Modeling (BIM) differs from Computer-Aided Design (CAD) in that an intelligent parametric 3D model is created which allows data to be generated with various methods. This data can also be exchanged with external tools with which the model can be adapted if necessary.

Put simply, it means that on the basis of the BIM work method, we can offer a digital representation of all the physical and functional characteristics of a controlled facility in a drawing to our building partners, facility managers, etc. A BIM model is a shared knowledge source or file that contains information about the building that serves as a reliable source to base decisions on during the entire lifecycle of the building. It thereby covers the first design, the construction period, the management and ultimately the demolition of the building.

The basic principle of BIM is that various parties and teams can collaborate during the different phases of the lifecycle of the building whereby the supply, retrieval and adaption of the information in the BIM serves to support and facilitate the roles of the divergent stakeholders.

I can’t describe it much simpler than that.  In practice, it really means that in the future, a maintenance manager, when he encounters a problem with the door closer of a pass-door, he will be able to see who made the door closer with just a few clicks in the drawing and where he can order the parts if necessary as all of this information is digitally available!  Also, based on the available maintenance information, it will be easier and faster to make a LTMP (Long-Term Maintenance Plan) that has a complete summary of all the parts that require maintenance at the facility.

Truly, a clear advantage from the design phase all the way through to the ultimate demolition phase of the building! We believe it is a must to implement this work method at Brecon in the coming 2 to 3 years. Without the BIM work method, we foresee problems in executing our range of services as a full-fledged international building partner.

Is there nothing new to report on a personal level?

Loyal readers of my Blog know that in addition to the commercial developments, I also sometimes report on news of a more personal level. Unfortunately, the news I have to report is not positive. This is also why the site has been a little more quiet than usual and I have not done much on my LinkedIn page. In January, after nearly 5.5 years, my dear wife Tineke was told that she was “clean” again. But, during a recent follow-up examination, she was told that the cancer had metastasized in her body. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy and we hope to fight this terrible disease for as long as possible. This is again terrible news for us and there not much more I can and wish to say about it. All I know is that she has an incredible fighting spirit and we as a family are doing all we can to get the most out of this life! The Jansen family will not give up easily.

Source:          “Het Nationaal BIM Platform” website.

Melancholy… and bam, I’m already over it!

The warehouse demolished and the production part which will also disappear within a few weeks…

All in all, I have been active as a director in various companies for 36 years now. During all these years I have tried to represent the interests of shareholders as best I can. Admittedly, I also had to make and/or implement less pleasant decisions. All in the context of revenue growth, profit optimisation, or simply to ensure continuity and preserve jobs.

Meanwhile, the almost 30 years of my career in building chemistry have been behind me for a while. In 2013 I had the opportunity as a consultant to get acquainted with the world of controlled environment in general and cleanrooms in particular. After having been active in building chemistry for so many years, I had the possibility at the age of 58 to get to know a whole new field of work and I am now very enthusiastic about my management tasks at Brecon Cleanroom Systems. For the loyal reader of this blog it is well known that I can write with great enthusiasm about our performance within this market segment. My blogs are also generally very positive and I try to describe things here and there with the necessary touch of humour.

Now, however, I spontaneously wrote an at first glance somewhat melancholic blog because I accidentally saw the old Hoeka business premises on a rainy Saturday morning, on my way home from the soccer field where my two youngest grandsons had played their soccer match.

It was already many years ago that I had driven through the street where Hoeka was located. The company where coatings, plasters and floor finishing products were developed and produced for decades, and where I, as a director, was in charge for fifteen years from 1983. Of course, I knew that the new owners had sold the company again since 2012 and had learned that the factory was no longer active. All the staff were fired in 2017 and 2018 and the buildings were empty and abandoned since last year.

By now the demolition hammer had struck and only part of what until a few years ago was a beautiful and efficient production company was still visible. I have to say that I was very sad to see the once well-maintained building, so completely damaged and stripped of its soul. Half demolished, every building is ugly and repulsive. In this case, however, every former colleague will be saddened by the picture above this article.

Such beautiful times we have been through and such great results this company has delivered in its good years! Many people have spent a large part of their lives in this building. Whether they were production staff, laboratory or office people or colleagues in logistics….. Everyone was committed to the company and we all went for good results. We really worked hard!

And there were good results. Both financially and socially. With our ISO care systems we were one of the first construction chemistry companies active in the Netherlands. It was not by chance that we won the INK Quality Award in 1997. We left the Dutch Railways (NS) and the Dutch Post behind us and were as proud as a peacock that we were allowed to stand on stage for the presentation of this wonderful prize. A lot of publicity and praise were given to us and because of this more and more international recognition and nice turnover growth were achieved. Just think back of my last blog in which I wrote about how you have supporters and sympathizers when you win and shine.

INK Prize made in 1997 by Borek Sipek, the prominent Czech glass artist and architect, who passed away in 2016.

However, it was a large German chemical group, which, much like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” decided to finally sell the healthy group of Relius companies, which included Hoeka, accepting the loss of hundreds of jobs. I too lost my position as CEO and my place on the Board of Directors within the group, and was allowed to leave the place with a golden handshake after 25 years of employment.

8% to 10% profit on turnover and an excellent 15% Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) proved insufficient. It was decided to split everything up into small parts and a beautiful international group of companies, with about 1,500 employees, was partially closed or sold.

Every party that takes over or merges a factory site or activity calls for 1+1 to yield a 3 through synergy, but reality regularly overtakes these fine words and predictions, as has happened so often in takeovers and mergers in the past. Of course not everything in the Relius Group has been lost, but corporate thinking has clearly left its mark. The sad sight of the company buildings in my hometown Deurne gave rise to the somewhat melancholic thoughts this Saturday morning.

In the afternoon, however, I read the newspaper and allow the terrible images of the terrorist who murdered 50 people in New Zealand to have an effect on me. Of course, there is a lot of news about the Brexit strategy to be implemented and how this may all end.

But there is also economic news from the region that attracts my attention. Some positive thinking CEOs from the region have good expectations for 2019, though they make it clear that the top year 2018 will be difficult to match, let alone improve. And a somewhat wait-and-see attitude on the part of Professor Bart Vos of the University of Tilburg, who, based on the purchasing managers index, is slightly less confident about current developments.

 

How happy am I then, to learn about an enthusiastic CEO like Huub van de Vrande, responsible for the now very international Neways group. He is also aware of the unrest caused by a Brexit and is attentive to what a Trump calls and twitters. However, it is Huub who is literally quoted in the article with the words: “We can’t continuously improve, and we have to get used to the occasional slowdown”. That’s what I call a person with a healthy sense of entrepreneurship and a realistic view of business developments.

Of course, the results of a company must be satisfactory. Profit figures must provide shareholders with a good return on capital invested. “Shareholder value should increase. But all stakeholders must be kept satisfied. Our employees too are entitled to rely on working for shareholders with a healthy and normal expectation pattern and a keen eye for realism! One should also be able to accept a somewhat disappointing year….

I will close my blog and start working on a budget calculation for the expansion of a cleanroom in a Neways group building in Echt in Limburg. In 2014, 1150 m² of cleanroom was already built there and now, together with the PP4C partners, we can realise some 225 m² of expansion. It’s great to be able to work for another positive and realistic CEO like this again. My good mood is back and I’m looking forward to it!

“One good turn, deserves another”

Last month we worked hard on our activities in the USA. I have to conclude that supplying and building a cleanroom in California is certainly not the easiest thing in the world. The requirements imposed in that part of the US on the construction and components of a clean room are absolutely incomparable to how the authorities in Europe deal with this. Everything is related to extremely strict requirements and very difficult to obtain building permits. It goes without saying that people in Europe also comply with the applicable rules and directives, but what we have to provide in California in terms of information and how difficult it is to obtain a permit there for the construction of a relatively simple “box in box” space is really outrageous. It has everything to do with the local earthquake risk, so it is understandable. It just costs you some more grey hair….

A truly difficult delivery, but all the more joy when in a while the final result will be there..

Speaking of deliveries, I can’t leave the birth of our ninth grandchild unmentioned.  Our daughter Minke and her husband Piet gave birth on February 7th to their third daughter with the beautiful name Sam, and once again it is a very healthy little child. Like I sent a message to my business relations: Controlled Environment is important, but family expansion with one of your children is “true happiness” again! By the way, mother and daughter are doing very well.

Meanwhile Brecon is busy in Germany with the construction of 2600 m² cleanroom. The complete work consists of two phases and we will therefore still be working there for a while. However, the work is now continuing steadily and the results are also becoming visible here.

Just delivered: KMWE Cleanroom at the BIC in Eindhoven. (photographer Studio38C)

Also at the BIC in Eindhoven we have delivered another beautiful work, without even a single delivery point. The engineering was provided by PP4C partner Deerns and then we worked in good harmony with Kuijpers to achieve a super result for the prestigious company KMWE. The qualification by CMI resulted in an ISO 14644 class 3 “as built”. Also because of the excellent cleaning activities of WERO Cleanroom cleaning, this is again a beautiful PP4C reference! I think we are approaching the start of the 30th cleanroom project, achieved in the past 4 years of collaboration within PP4C. Not bad at all!

Of course I don’t just want to write about our projects, but honestly, we are very proud of the ongoing developments! Realising beautiful works on the one hand and successfully bringing in new challenging projects on the other hand. Surely one enjoys that and it gives you an adrenaline boost every time! How fast it can go….

Just over a year ago we were in a dated building in Etten-Leur. And now we work in our modern business facility in Tilburg with a growing team of enthusiastic colleagues in an increasingly professional organization with a fantastic working atmosphere. Hence the title of this blog! Whether they are clients or new potential employees, when you meet Brecon for the first time, you will become acquainted with a modern organisation, a professional policy and a good working atmosphere.

We are just like a winning soccer team or a skating or cycling team that regularly wins impressive titles. Suddenly people want to talk to you and work with you. Your fame transcends your own region and nationwide they stand in line for the athletes. In the end, everyone wants to be identified with a winning team. And that’s no different in the business world…. Beautiful, isn’t it?

In my last blog there were two pictures where I could be seen with my brace. It is hard to imagine how often you are asked if you have had a ski accident, at this time of year. Sometimes a bit tiring, therefore all the better that my new orthopedic shoes will be ready in a few weeks. At this point I am walking with a trial copy of a new shoe and I have to say to my joy that this feels very good. Just walking as in the past is no longer possible, but I do notice that with the right shoe I can do a bit more. Maybe I’ll be working in the garden again this Spring. That would be fantastic.

That Spring seems to have arrived already in February this year. However, we all know that March and April can still bring some Winter weather. We’ll see. In any case, the shortest day is already well behind us and we are all looking forward to the best time of the year: Spring. I will find the time in April / May to write another blog and by then I will also know how it goes with walking. I hope for the best and will keep you informed. In the meantime, I wish everyone a beautiful Spring and good luck and good health, both in business and private.

EXCITING AND BUSY TIMES AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE NEW YEAR!!

Joining me are founder and MD of GCSS, Krikiov Djabourian and Darren (GCSS M+S Director) and two engineers from Abu Dhabi representing the Space Technology University faculty

It took a little longer than expected….

A few months ago, in my first blog, I explained that you could expect to hear from me with a blog every month. That was September, so it took a little longer than expected! Unexpected new developments within the Brecon Group are the cause of this. At the beginning of October, a shift took place within our shareholder structure and a change in the management composition was directly related to this.

As you may imagine, changes such as these have an impact on an organisation. The management team was faced with much extra work. Wim van Ree, our financial man, will be adding more general tasks to his employment package.

Frank Moelands, as technical manager, will ensure that all projects are running smoothly and he is, of course, quite busy with all of the works that have recently started up and those that were completed last month.

I, myself was also busy providing support to both of these colleagues and in fulfilling the entire commercial process. At this time, the new organisation is firmly positioned and we going full steam ahead!

Export activities successful in Germany and other places

In Germany, PP4C has been given the assignment to build roughly 2,500 m² of cleanroom technology. These past months, we built a smaller (temporary) cleanroom of 325 m2 and now we are about to begin the serious work in ‘die Heimat’. A challenging assignment with a tightly planned work schedule. Whether it be projects large or small, we are supremely satisfied with the international developments in general and this great project in lovely Bayern in particular. We are looking forward to this challenge!

Also active in the Middle East

In November, I also unexpectedly spent 5 days in Abu Dhabi to train the team of our local PP4C distributor GCSS and provide support at the Clean Zone conference; organised in this part of the world for the very first time. At the request of the organisation, I gave a 20-minute speech on “Controlled Environments from a global perspective”. A theme which also elicited an array of responses in Abu Dhabi during the forum discussion that I headed along with four other experts afterwards. Do we want to implement the same technology and identical materials at our international company locations or will we allow the management team to make other choices at a local level? Do we also want operational reliability and lower maintenance costs with better opportunities to exchange personnel and have similar OSPs (Operational Standard Procedures)? These topics resulted in some interesting discussions. Unfortunately, I was there a week too early; otherwise I could have witnessed the F1 race live with our hero Max Verstappen.

The next stop was in November: EHEDG Conference in London

At the end of November, I also attended the EHEDG World Conference on Hygienic Engineering & Design in London. This was a prime time event for all organisations that are involved with the Hygienic Engineering and Installation of facilities for the production and processing of safe foods and related products. As you know, we as PP4C(E) see a clear growth potential in the food industry and consider Food Safety as an important topic of discussion. That is also why we were present here as a Gold Sponsor and the international food market was able to get acquainted with our Controlled Environment concept! Happy to report that we were invited to come discuss our hygienic building concept at various company locations in a range of countries in and outside of Europe after our appearance here.

At the EHEDG World Conference in London with a colleague from STULZ

More places to visit in 2018

We have, by now, also been asked to build a cleanroom in America. Preparations have begun as have the permit procedures.  For those of you who have experience with building in America, you will know that acquiring the necessary building permits is not an easy task. (With the local fire department being the strictest!) Certainly when it comes to an area where there is a real earthquake danger, like Silicon Valley in California. I will spend a week there this month with our supervisor Boris Wessels to visit the site.

You may not realise it, but a flight to San Francisco takes about 11 hours, the same amount of time as say, a visit to China. On my return flight, I will have a stop-over in Washington to speak to the management of our PP4CE partner STULZ about this project, so my flight back to Amsterdam will be much more comfortable…..

It was an eventful year…

2018 was, in many aspects, a very eventful year. I already described all of the changes at a company level above. On a personal note, I am glad to report that the operation on my ankle has brought the desired result. Most likely, I will be operated again at the end of 2019…for those of you who have noticed that I always wear a brace and/or an orthopaedic shoe – In January of 2017, I contracted bacterial infection and I lost the cartilage in my right foot. A permanent handicap is the result! Unfortunately, I will never walk normally again. But, as you may have noticed from my travel reports, this hasn’t stopped me from working hard! My lovely wife Tineke has now been free of cancer since after a serious operation in 2013 and we are so happy she has overcome this major hurdle!! My youngest (twin) daughter Minke will deliver our ninth grandchild in February of 2019 – what a gift. All is well with our other three children and grandchildren! What more could a man hope for?

2018 was, for me, concluded in a truly satisfying fashion and in 2019, I hope to again be keeping you up-to-date on everything I come across in my journeys. I wish you all a great month of December and a wonderful new year!

GREAT NEW DEVELOPMENTS!

The past four years at Brecon 

The presentation of the new development strategy to the shareholders of Brecon Cleanroom Systems B.V. at the start of 2014 marked a special moment in our history. As a consultant, I had done everything I could to get an idea of the Controlled Environment market. I carried out competitor research at a national and international level, made a SWOT analysis, studied the entire range of product offerings and above all, I looked at what possibilities Brecon had to generate turnover growth. In all honesty, the latter was not Rocket science!

 

By 2013, we had been in business for roughly 24 years and our impeccable track record as builder of cleanroom systems was mostly based on the AMSL Campus in Veldhoven where we once began building offices.  In the early nineties, unburdened by much prior knowledge and experience, we enthusiastically started our first assignment of building a cleanroom at ASML. Now, over halfway through 2018, we have built over 54,000 m² of cleanroom surfaces to the thorough satisfaction of this outstanding semi-conductor company.

 

So, up to 2014, we had had a few ups and downs and worked very hard to generate quite some earnings with only one client. This doesn’t mean that we didn’t acquire a little experience in other markets! With the well-known ASML as a reference, Brecon had begun to build a solid reputation in the Netherlands without even having a real marketing plan to base this on.

 

It was known among many facility managers and entrepreneurs that this company in Veldhoven maintained the highest standards for quality, flexibility and the timely commissioning of work. If you are able to realise such a high level of satisfaction for so many years, you really are a quality firm.  That is why we also started to receive other work assignments from, among others, the TNO Delft, MSD in Oss and Boxmeer and Patheon Pharma in Tilburg. These and many other great projects were realised in the period between 1990 – 2014. But, the strategy to extend our growth beyond ASML still wasn’t in place.

 

To take a successful company in an entirely new direction with many changes in its daily operations, product implementation, personnel composition and management, (just to name a few of the recommendations established by me), was not only unique but also certainly quite exciting. A SWOT analysis can also be confronting when you come to the section on ‘internal weaknesses’… But, the shareholder responded positively and it didn’t take long before we went to work. As member of board, I was able to initiate, implement and supervise all of the further change processes for the new commercial initiatives. But you don’t achieve success on your own, only with a team of outstanding and inspired colleagues can you really create something!

 

The Brecon Cassette Panel System

With this blog, I would like to take moment to explain how proud we are of these new developments of the past year, and especially the BCPS (Brecon Cassette Panel System). It was quite exciting to conceive and develop a modular wall ceiling system from the ground up. Even more exciting was having the ultimate result tested by an internationally recognised organisation like the German Fraunhofer Institute. Because like the Opel commercial says, “We Germans don’t make jokes!”

 

Right at the start of the development phase in 2016 we decided that we would have our new system certified by the renowned Fraunhofer Institute IPA (Industrial Production and Automation). Our goal was to be registered in the data files of IPA as a tested and certified cleanroom building system. (www.tested-device.com).

 

In our actual Whitepaper which can be downloaded on our websites, we have thoroughly described how this process went. The IPA registration certainly did not occur overnight! Once we were ready, my colleague Frank Moelands and I visited Stuttgart in 2017 to discuss the process and everything that was needed to have the tests carried out. Co-member of the board Frank was already involved with production development at Brecon for 28 years and together with my partner in crime we conceived this entire BCPS product development process!

 

During one of our visits, we were able to take a tour through their high-quality cleanrooms. It was immensely impressive to see the approx. 150 m² sized cleanroom in the ISO 14644 class 1 in action.  This classification may not mean much to many of you, of course, but try to imagine that in the air of a room of one m³ (1x1x1m), your bedroom, for example, where roughly 30 to 40 million dust particles smaller than one micron can be found floating around. These are air particles, smaller than one thousandths millimeter which you cannot see with the naked eye. Germs (bacteria, fungal spores, viruses) can be found on a part of these dust particles. Now try to image that in a cleanroom at the Fraunhofer Institute that number of approx. 35,000,000 dust particles per m³ smaller than 1 micron is reduced to less than 10 dust particles smaller than 0.1 micron! There are only three such cleanrooms to be found in all of Europe, which really says it all!

 

In April of this year we built a “BCPS test box” of our system for this cleanroom in Stuttgart. With a door, a window and a ceiling made in the kinds of finishing materials (steel and HPL) and two kinds of insulation materials (aluminium honeycomb and Rockwool). In July, after months and months of testing, we finally received word! Summarised in short: “suitable for high classified cleanrooms in all market segments.” How pleased and proud we were of this result! In September, we will officially introduce the BCPS building system with an expansive marketing package at the international Controlled Environment congress ISCC’18 in The Hague. How fantastic that we can verify the quality and suitability of this great system as based on Fraunhofer certification! This may sound like a whirlwind marketing text, but that is purely unintentional, I am only trying to describe a realistic part of our company history and my personal involvement in it.

 

Next time, I promise to write more about the phenomenon of dust and the dangers it carries. I often hear that people want to hear more about this…so I hereby pledge to cover this topic in my next blogs.

 

Greetings, Geerd

 

If you would like more information about the BCPS system or our certification, please visit our websites and download our latest Whitepaper on www.pp4c.nl or www.brecon.nl

Success gives an adrenaline rush!

Everyone is familiar with success in sports or otherwise. Do you enjoy the adrenaline rush that it gives as well?

In March of this year, we were introduced to a large EMS producer in Bayern (Bavaria), Germany. In addition to many other definitions, EMS also means Electronic Manufacturing Services. This company often assembles electronic components based on designs and guidelines of other huge plants. As they were unfamiliar with clean room technology up to this points and a new international client had high demands, we put a lot of energy into the transfer of knowledge in the last period.

The necessary visits to beautiful Bayern have not been in vain.
Now, a few months later, I can describe the message on the PP4CE site as follows:

“PP4CE was hired this week to design and set up all clean room engineering activities to be created in the German Bavarian area. It is a semi-conductor-related clean room, to be created in two successive phases, with a total area of approximately 2,300 m2. The global client will make one of its existing sites fully available for the construction of this clean room to deploy new EMS activities. The commissioning of the ISO 14644 class 7 clean room is scheduled for the end of March 2019.

After this engineering assignment, more discussions will take place about the actual construction of this beautiful turnkey project by PP4CE in the coming period. More news about this wonderful project will follow as soon as possible.”

Brecon, together with PP4C partner Kuijpers, also received a great order at the BIC (Brainport Industrial Campus) in Eindhoven. The well-known KMWE, with their CEO Edward Voncken as one of the leaders of the overall BIC project and current president of Brainport Industries, has great plans for the campus with 30,000 m2 of production space. PP4C is allowed to build the approximately 1,400 m2 new clean room to be commissioned in January. One of the many Controlled Environment facilities within this beautiful company. After the 1,850 m2 realisation of Anteryon in the last half year, the 2nd beautiful BIC project that we will realise in the coming period is now a fact!

Brainport Industries Campus

I do not want to bother everyone with a list of current projects, successful deliveries, or possible projects that are currently being discussed. Sometimes, I am even not allowed to write about a specific activity, simply because a confidentiality agreement is in force. This is also the case in the project in Germany discussed above! But where possible, it is nice to share successes.

Receiving these assignments with the PP4C(E) concept gives us an adrenaline rush!

Implementing Inbound Marketing is completely different, but also damn interesting!

Developing an international marketing strategy and converting it into a marketing plan is an interesting challenge. Previously, as Senior Executive within the BASF group, I had several millions available for our marketing activities in Europe, and now I have to undertake worldwide marketing activities with a really small budget… Talking about challenges!

Much has changed in the marketing world over the past 10 years. Fortunately, I enjoy studying in my free time besides my normal day job. For some time now, I have been very busy with an “inbound marketing” course through an extensive webinar offered by HubSpot, the founders of Inbound Marketing. This (content) marketing concept is not really new, as many larger companies in particular have been using it for a long time and have fully implemented Inbound Marketing over the last couple of years.

Outbound marketing means that you try to attract the interest of potential customers by spreading a general offline marketing message through classic media channels (TV and radio advertising, advertisements, trade fairs, direct mail etc.). This will cost you a fortune if you do it on an international scale!

Nevertheless, we have to find new clients as PP4CE, in countries where our organisation is not yet known.

With Inbound marketing, you offer the prospects the information they need, mainly online. What is a prospect doing? What does he want? What interests him? By studying this and by offering digitally adapted content, we can make people or prospects become aware of our activities.

This familiarity convert a prospect to a potential client, a lead! By nurturing this lead and using the right sales approach, you can come to an actual order! Afterwards, by providing the right services through a well-executed periodic maintenance and cleaning programme, the customer may become an ambassador who may provide good new leads.
In Inbound Marketing terms, this timeframe is called the Customer Journey.

The entire communication process mainly takes place digitally through, among other things, White Paper publications, Call To Action, blog writing, etc. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Advertising (SEA) require a lot of attention to be successfully positioned at Google on an international level.

But also by giving lectures at seminars and congresses, as we do this year with PP4CE in The Hague for the ICSS 2018 and in London at the EHEDG. In April 2019, we will introduce ourselves to the pharmaceutical market in Dublin at the ISPE annual conference.

I cannot explain it more briefly and any clearer. Inbound Marketing will allow us to position PP4CE internationally faster and in a more affordable way!

This keeps me reasonably busy and demands the necessary time and energy.
In any case, it keeps me away of trouble…

Until the next Blog!

Best regards,
Geerd

P.S. Brainport Industries Campus will be a hypermodern campus, implemented over approximately 200 hectares of greenery, amidst one of the largest city parks in Eindhoven. An innovative and sustainable work landscape where stylish company buildings form a coherent whole with the green, forest area of Brainport Park
Leading knowledge institutes and reputable companies will work together at the Brainport Industries Campus to make ideas ready for production and develop business cases. The campus is a state-of-the-art working and learning environment for the next generation in high-tech manufacturing. The Brainport Industries Campus is home to broad alliances between suppliers, specialised companies, and innovative educational and knowledge institutions.

“Never too old to face challenges!”

That I would keep myself busy with writing a blog, I really did not expect that anymore. Let’s face it, with the nice age of 63 you sometimes have some trouble with all the developments on social media and I can assure everyone: I will not have any problems with private information on the web by using Facebook or Instagram. I really do not feel at home on such platforms, where everyone thinks the world is interested in the colour of the underwear you wear that day, or what I ate that evening!

Rest assured, if you decide to continue reading this first blog, you will at most get to know me and read something about my passion, my work! In the future I would also like to share what I am concerned with and what my experiences are in our area of ​​work, develop and build Controlled Environment facilities. That may be about international trends and developments in our expertise, great stories about realised projects or whatever comes my way!

Anyway, age is already known. To view my career, it’s best to check out my LinkedIn site. In any case, I was allowed to do damn interesting work, cooperated with many intelligent and interesting people, in both small and also 15 years in very large companies and I have travelled a lot. I am happily married, have four wonderful adult children and together they are responsible for 8 fantastic grandchildren.

After more than 30 years working in the construction-chemical world, I became acquainted with cleanroom technology, almost 5 years ago! Super interesting, and a very nice product segment. From that acquaintance I was part of the Brecon Group management. After having led the group as general manager for a number of years, I am currently occupied with the marketing strategy for the entire group and the development of our international activities.

I am the initiator of the PP4C and PP4CE concept. A partnership within our field: Controlled Environment! Check the sites if you have never heard of these two market parties in this domain.

PP4C has been very successful on the Dutch market for several years and at the end of this year PP4CE will also be known in the international Controlled Environment market as a designer and builder of Turnkey Controlled Environment facilities. They do this for various market segments, such as Pharma, food, medical devices, but also the semiconductor market and many related market segments.

How did I actually come up with the PP4C (E) concept?

From my construction chemistry time it was clear to me that there are many different disciplines in a building process, for which specific product- and professional knowledge is necessary. Specialized companies are therefore required to perform these special activities correctly. Even though it may not seem obvious, but for example, you do not allow a sand-cement floor layer to place a complex multi-component Epoxy or PU bonded floor. Both earn their money on their knees, but their expertise has virtually no connection.

On balance, you do need some companies to successfully develop and built  a Controlled Environment project. A client actually does not want 10 discussion partners, but prefers to maintain contact with one company in order to get the project cleared. So it seemed to me a clear improvement if a number of specialized companies in this field would work together! That would have to be professionals with the necessary experience!

Take a look at the list of partners on our website and everyone immediately sees what I mean by professionals…

Who will do what, at what time and what will it cost. Who then ensures that the whole runs in a coordinated way and is ready within the specified time? The client wants to have that clear.

Meanwhile, we have made it clear that it is precisely our partnership PP4C (E) that makes it possible to answer the above-mentioned questions satisfactorily and we have a list of references, in different market segments, where we have successfully implemented our turnkey concept.

Have we learned anything from all those assignments?

“Try to understand the project from the customer’s perspective and be aware of his vision of possible risks and resulting challenges.

 Analyse the way you deal with these challenges and communicate this in a clear and open way. Only with honest and healthy cooperation can we meet the expectations of the customer “.

That is what we keep in mind over and over again, and where in the start-up phase of our cooperation we certainly also made some mistakes had to pay some lesson money for. However, if you have learned to understand this, you can often achieve the highest possible satisfaction with your clients. And it is true that we try to make a reference of each work, which in turn can lead to new assignments.

Sure enough, I will also start a blog! Without making any firm promises, I want to promise to share knowledge or news with the reader every few weeks. This will mainly concern Controlled Environment developments, but I will not fail to pick up a topic that might be current in my area at the time.

I hope for many readers, or is that called ‘followers’?

Just like the lessons we have learned in our PP4C (E) activities, I am aware that I have to understand from what perspective my readers are interested in Controlled Environment. So at least I hope to be challenged by you, ask questions or give critical feedback.

Not only for challenges you are never too old, but certainly not for learning, so I take your advice absolutely seriously ……

Greeting Geerd