One of our customers, a highly skilled machine-building company, manufactures custom built production lines for the food-industry. The company designs and builds complete solutions and also provides service and maintenance for their international customers.
Our customer develops efficient lines for the production of various kinds of bread. Both semi-baked as well as fully-baked products go through stages from mixing the raw materials and internal transport with conveyor belts to the handling of crates with ready product and final packaging.

The Challenge

The customer was searching for high quality stainless steel wire trays to meet the international standards of hygiene in the food sector. These wire trays are widely used in their production machines for the routing of cabling infrastructure, and therefore had to be flexible in installation capabilities.

It was very important that the wire trays were easy-to-clean while strongly reducing the chance of corrosion and the possibility for metals to contaminate the products. For the customer’s business continuity it was also imperative that Mulder-Hardenberg could deliver these stainless steel wire trays within fixed timeframes at a consistent price level.

The Solution

Mulder-Hardenberg found a manufacturer of wire trays that could meet the customer’s standards. The selected wire trays are stainless steel 316 grade and come with a large assortment of widths, lengths, junctions, mounting/hanging options, support kits, brackets and installation tools.

To provide the customer with just-in-time delivery it was agreed that Mulder-Hardenberg would keep the frequently used parts in stock. Therefore providing the customer business continuity and less production downtime.

The Implementation

For a proper installation of the provided wire trays it was important that the customer received training in the proper installation of the wire trays and accessories and the efficient use of the installation tools. Therefore Mulder-Hardenberg constructed a product-training for the customer’s technicians.

After the first couple of shipments it became clear that emergency deliveries for maintenance and unforeseen situations were of crucial importance. This turned out to be not a problem at all because of the stock kept at Mulder-Hardenberg.

The Result

Because of the chosen option to let Mulder-Hardenberg keep stock, the customer has a very steady supply of the stainless steel wire trays. This means shorter delivery times and less influence of price changes in the steel markets.
The technicians were also very satisfied with the high quality of the stainless steel wire trays, the large assortment of accessories and the ability to now produce even higher quality production lines.