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New times demand new investments. At all levels – equipment, clothing and storage – Convoi is future proof again.
Author: Roy Urlings
Industrial relocations increasingly often call for specific equipment in order to execute projects. In order to be able to be of service to our customers in the future, Convoi has invested in various equipment units, such as:
Spacesaver forklifts are forklift with a short rear side, which makes them much more manoeuvrable. It often happens that on project locations only minimal room is free for manoeuvring, while still a heavy weighing unit needs to be moved or installed.
An additional reason is that the rental offer for 7 tonnes Spacesaver forklifts is limited, which is why Convoi decided to add these machines to its own machines park.
Another, more special, investment is the new lift system of the Greiner brand. Increasingly the need to call upon the maximum capacities of the current lift systems is seen. In order to have more hoisting capacity from now on, Convoi invested in a unique 620 tonnes XL lift system.
The new system is comparable to the 620 tonnes system that Convoi already owns, but the XL has a bigger cylinder in the props, as a result of which a higher hoisting height and capacity can be achieved.
To draw a comparison: the old system has a capacity of 75 tonnes per prop at a height of 10,877 mm. The new system has a capacity of 75 tonnes per prop at a height of 12,345 mm. A significant difference that makes it possible for Convoi to accept even more complex lifting contracts in the future.
There is one drawback to the new system. Because of the bigger cylinder, the lift system is taller than the old system. As a result of this, it cannot be transported on a normal trailer or semitrailer (h = 900 mm), but it needs to be transported on a flatbed (h = 300 mm). This results, of course, in higher transportation costs. In order to solve this, a special frame and tilting traversing mechanism has been developed to be able to tilt the props, so that they can be transported in a horizontal position. When the props are placed horizontally, they can be transported on a normal trailer, resulting in a significantly transport costs saving. Mid September Convoi received the contract for a large project in Switzerland. The project is of such a big scope and large timescale that, in order to avoid cash-out, it was decided to buy a large part of the necessary equipment rather than renting it.
This resulted in the purchase of two Grove GMK 5110-1 cranes and two Manitou MRT2150 & Manitou MT1840 telescopic handlers. This equipment will be used frequently during the next two years on the project site in Luterbach, Switzerland.
It has been some time since Convoi’s work clothing was last renewed. Because of the takeover of Imtech, the demand for new work clothing kept on growing. After an intensive tender it was decided to make two types of clothing sets available – the regular clothing in Convoi colours, and flame-retardant clothing. The regular clothing is meant for staff members of Convoi Nederland, Convoi International, Convoi SRO and Convoi CH. For staff members of these business units the flame-retardant clothing is available upon request for project-specific use. Staff members of Convoi E & A have flame-retardant clothing by default, since they work on sites where this clothing is a prerequisite. Within short time, it will be possible to order clothing, using an online program, developed by the clothing supplier. This way, every branch by itself can provide employees with new clothing.
All equipment within the Convoi organisation is currently placed under one company name, namely Convoi Assets BV. This business unit rents out or leases the equipment to other business units. This merger and the frequent ad-hoc preparing of projects increases the demand for equipment in the Warehouse at Maastricht-Airport. The Warehouse supplies the bulk of the projects both in the Netherlands as well as abroad with equipment. Besides that, Convoi took over a branch of the bankrupt Imtech in September 2015. A branch which is active on a regional level and periodically requires extra equipment for projects. In order to fill in the increased demand for equipment, the Warehouse has been enlarged by the construction of an extra floor. Besides that, on the first and second floor shelve racks in different depths have been installed for the storage of various equipment. During this installation, all the equipment was assigned a standard storage location. In 2017, an update of the system will take place. With this update it will become possible to assign the equipment to a location that is connected to a code, so that with the help of hand-held communicators the supply can be maintained and every week an order can be received of all equipment that needs to be ordered. Apart from that, an automatic charging of the equipment and consumables to the projects takes place. Naturally, we look forward to the changes that 2017 will bring.