Thales complex company relocation of warehouses and production facilities

Thales Nederland B.V. specialises in the design and production of professional electronics for defence and security applications such as radar and communication systems. The company has had four new buildings constructed on its own premises in Hengelo for, among other things, the new central warehouse and a production building for the printed circuit board production. Saan transferred the contents of the existing warehouses and all the production facilities to the new buildings.

The first phase of this company relocation concerned the relocation of the warehouses, which were scattered across the site, to a new Central Warehouse. Saan took care of the packing, relocation, unpacking and the correct placement of about 40,000 types of article spread over 2,000 pallets and 7,000 linear metres of loose articles in warehouse bins on shelves and in 6 paternoster boxes. Some of these articles were packed and relocated subject to ESD procedures. This first phase was completed in only eight working days.

The second phase concerned the complete physical relocation of the printed circuit board factory (Group Competence Centre for Printed Circuit Boards). The PCB factory consists of heavy machinery (up to 16,000 kg), phototyping equipment, large installations with chemical baths and high-quality computer equipment. All the machines were first disconnected, cleaned, dismantled and prepared for relocation by the suppliers. Then Saan took care of the internal handling, the relocation and the installation of the equipment at the new locations. Then Saan’s industrial relocators assisted with the assembly of the machines and other equipment. Various employees from throughout Saan worked on this logistically complex contract to arrive at the best solution for Thales and production was halted for as short a time as possible.

In the last phase, Saan relocated and transferred Thales’ ACE (Advanced Components of Electronics) department. Saan implemented the final management stage of this project relocation under the name of: “From working factory to working factory”. To relieve Thales of the burden, the Saan project leader was responsible for the engagement and support of subcontractors, installers, suppliers and OEMs. This last relocation covered a large number of production workstations with very delicate electronic equipment such as microscopes. In addition, a number of pick-and-place machines were relocated by Saan’s industrial relocators and some of the ACE equipment was transferred to Benchmark in Almelo.