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managing supplies & processes

Purchase & Supply Chain

The Purchase & Supply Chain Departments are dynamic departments with an essential task: to ensure that all supplies needed to build a machine are delivered to the workshop at the right time. This is essential to build, ship and install the machines on time. The dynamics in the market, the fluctuating prices and the – sometimes limited - availability of components make it a challenge every time to get the machines to the customer within the agreed time. Something that has still succeeded to this day!

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In the Purchase & Supply Chain departments, no day is the same. Everything you would expect from this department is done here: requesting quotations, comparing prices and ordering products on time is daily business. The teams are also involved in Research & Development projects in order to be involved in a timely manner and to be able to influence the front-end regarding parts and price. The lines of communication with other departments - including Project Preparation, Sales, Customer Service and Finance - are short.

At Voortman, we invest in sustainable partnerships. Therefore, making long-term agreements with suppliers and managing these relationships is an essential part of this department's work. These relationships are especially important because even in a difficult market we want to get the parts supplied that are needed to build our machines.


The department works with different buyers, all of whom have their own tasks. Where one buyer deals with partnership contracts and meets with reputable parties, another buyer looks into further agreements on cooperation about quality, packaging and prices. Our buyers also make sure that all parts come in and are processed in SAP, are involved in the development of new machines and, together with the rest of the team, consider which supplier will supply the products. The department also employs Supply Chain Engineers and Material Management specialists. Together they ensure a good balance between production control and planning, inventory management and material handling. Another important task of our Supply Chain Engineers is to carry out optimization projects focused on our Supply Chain, for which they use data and dashboards.

"WE ARE ENTREPRENEURS, INVOLVED, DOWN-TO-EARTH AND WE LIKE CRAFTMANSHIP AND TECHNOLOGY"

Life at Voortman


TEAM

The Purchase & Supply Chain departments consist of young and enterprising teams that are growing rapidly. Typical is the good atmosphere and room to learn. Would you like to try something new? Then we encourage that, because personal development is important. We work hard together, yet fun and relaxation is also important. These teams enjoy that between work, during Friday afternoon drinks or one of the team outings.


PURCHASE & SUPPLY CHAIN:
AN INDISPENSABLE ELEMENT IN OUR PROJECTS

THE LARGEST AUTOMATED VOORTMAN SYSTEM EVER

J&D Pierce Contracts Ltd. is a large structural steel fabricator based in Glengarnock, United Kingdom. Pierce invested in the largest European fully automated Voortman system. Due to the size of this immense project, the system was on forehand determined and designed based on real-time simulations.

Derek Pierce, CEO van J&D Pierce, explains: “I did expect quit a few glitches with the total automation and the load balancing and there were very few problems which I was incredibly impressed with. The system is a large system and it has a tremendous amount of automation and they all worked almost perfectly first time which I was incredibly impressed with. We can do 200 tonnes per day without any issue at all. The facility is more than capable of doing way over 1.000 tonnes per week."

Want to know more? Watch the testimonial of J&D Pierce.

THE JOURNEY TOWARDS EFFICIENCY

Ian Cahill, managing director of Cahill Structures, based in England, is a testament to the transformative power of the right machinery in structural steel fabrication. "The industry we're in is a very competitive industry. Everything's about being efficient."

In the pursuit of efficiency, Cahill found himself on a quest for quality machinery to reduce man-hours and increase production capacity. This led him to Voortman. With Voortman's machinery, Cahill Structures has seen a significant reduction in man-hours by an average of 25 to 30% per ton. Cahill states, "We can run both machines load and unload and start the steel with two people." The company now handles projects well in excess of £7 million, a far cry from their early days of £50,000 projects. The machine can do the work of five or six men running a day.”

Curious? Discover the story of Cahill structures.