“Our employees can be deployed very quickly, deliver high quality and can handle a large variety of different tasks!”
The sheltered workshops De Floere (Halle), BW Asse and Dymka (Zaventem) were merged at the start of January 2015, thereby establishing an umbrella organisation called AMAB, namely the ‘Associatie MAatwerkBedrijven’ (Association of Social Enterprises for Customised Work). This means that this non-profit association (vzw) can now cover a larger area of activity.
With approximately 800 employees, it can now take even more flexible action, whereby new orders can be quickly processed, regardless of whether they are small or large. By outsourcing work to AMAB vzw, production in your company will become simpler, cheaper and faster. And by bundling know-how and experience, AMAB can offer a suitable solution for every request.
“Thanks to AMAB vzw, we now have a strong presence in the entire agglomeration around Brussels”, says Sales Manager Bram Carrein of the Asse site. “We have optimised the entire commercial team and our approach, and multinationals as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises can count on a very quick follow-up, all the way from the order to the finished product. For instance, a single contact person is assigned to each customer, who follows up on the entire project. This applies to the packaging of cookies or pralines, as well as to the building of displays or the preparation of a gift package. Our power lies in the fact that we can react very flexibly to highly-specific requests. The customer does not have to use expensive temporary workers or call on his own personnel for a job that isn’t part of his core business anyway. Companies will often find it valuable to outsource non-core tasks to us. We can carry out such work at one of our three branches, or we can deploy a team on-site, so that the order will be finished by the agreed deadline. Another option is to have an AMAB team continuously at your company, for carrying out repetitive tasks. Are more or fewer people suddenly required? No problem: We will immediately adapt our deployment of staff to your requirements”, says Carrein.
Accurate follow-up
The fusion of the three branches also has the advantage that work can be distributed among the branches, each according to their specialities. In Asse these are, among other things, shrink packaging, flowpack, display assembly and all kinds of manual handling, and there is also a gardening service. The other two branches have their own specialities, too. Sales Manager Dieter Vanackere of the branch in Halle reports: “AMAB in Halle is specialised in the packaging of all kinds of food products, such as biscuits, chocolates, pralines and so on. We work completely according to the strictest food safety standards that are required by the Belgian Federal Agency for Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV) and we are also BIO certified. And as of September, we will also have a BRC certificate. But our branches are also specialised in packaging and enclave operations. We consult with our clients monthly, and we are given a number of key performance indicators (KPIs) in advance. A KPI score of between 95 and 100 % is certainly not exceptional, among other things because we make good agreements and ensure an accurate follow-up.”
High volumes of work
“At Zaventem, AMAB specialises in co-packing, postpress, mailings and the assembly of electronic components”, says Sales Manager Joëlle van der Veeken of the Zaventem branch. “We have around 2,000 pallet storage locations, which means that we can easily handle a large work volume. And to that, you still have to add the 3,500 pallet storage locations at Asse, and 1,500 locations at Halle. Some of this storage capacity is also air-conditioned for the storage of foodstuffs. The three branches therefore have a joint capacity of more than 7,000 pallet locations, which means that AMAB can handle large quantities. Even though each of these branch offices is focusing increasingly on their specialities, the overlap of activities does make it possible to exchange jobs between them. With the implementation of the new ERP platform, we are able to follow up on every project very smoothly, starting with the offer, all the way to invoicing and across all three sites. All goods are scanned at the start of each new process, so that we can follow up the order “in real-time”. If a customer, for instance, has a large quantity of goods packed by us, then he can immediately see how far we have got, and when and where everything will be delivered.” Van der Veeken points to a computer screen and says: “It cannot get more flexible than that!”
