Anyone visiting Broshuis in Kampen will undoubtedly be impressed. They have been in business since 1885, making them the oldest manufacturer of special trailers in the Netherlands. With an extensive range of high-quality and durable semi-low loaders, low loaders, flat trailers and container chassis, Broshuis supplies national and international customers such as the US military, wind turbine and crane transporters and other heavy transport organizations. Due to growth, increasingly stringent regulations and changing customer requirements, it was necessary to drastically professionalize their technical department.

Frits ten Brinke, maintenance manager at Broshuis, had long felt that more control was needed on all the technical equipment used in and around the production environment. “A lot of knowledge was stored only in colleagues’ heads or in a cluttered number of Excel sheets. Moreover, schedules, maintenance reports, inspection reports, installation drawings, certificates and much more were not findable in one central place. My colleagues in the technical department also did not have a computerized schedule of their daily work. While the number of assets to be serviced, such as air treatment systems, welding machines, welding robots, cranes and lifting equipment, spraying equipment, compressors and building-related equipment, was growing rapidly. In addition, customers increasingly expect and demand that we are certified. Without certificates such as ISO 14001, ISO 9001, ISO 3834, AQAP 2110, we cannot deliver to valuable relationships, such as the Ministry of Defence.”

They chose IFS Ultimo EAM to support them.

We asked Frits about the results: “Working smarter with Ultimo Premium saves us at least 1 FTE in time, because all asset data are recorded, and we no longer have to search for missing maintenance and service or quality data. Besides, the value cannot always be monetized, especially when it comes to security, reputation and compliance.”