'Letting customers do what they do best'

Freek van Beersum, sales consultant at Hellebrekers Industrial Automation articulates Hellebrekers' mission in two simple sentences: "We just want to make our customers' lives a little bit easier. We make sure they can keep doing what they are good at."

Hellebrekers has been known as a specialist in water and leisure technology for more than 50 years. Behind some 80% of the public swimming pools is the technology of this company and in many a zoo, recreation park or yacht Hellebrekers takes care of the water treatment. Over twenty years ago, the company broadened its own horizons and also deployed its technical knowledge and experience in two new markets; the process and manufacturing industries. Anno 2024, a total of 280 people work for this originally Nunspeet-based company from six locations.

Process Industry

Van Beersum: "In recent years there has been quite a change in the process industry. Whereas previously there was a market need for high volume and low mix, nowadays a production company has to be able to deal with the demand for low volume and high mix with an extra emphasis on quality. This requires a new, more flexible way of working at a time when there is a chronic shortage of skilled personnel. Sticking to the old, manual way of working, then, is counterproductive, really bogging down companies. Production security is compromised and, due to high staff turnover and the constant need to train new employees, quality is also compromised. That is then often when such a company comes to us with the question, "How do we solve these problems?"

Within Hellebrekers, Van Beersum is a commercial specialist in the field of Robotics. Yet the deployment of robotics is not immediately the first thing he thinks of when solving production-related issues: "The question is what is the best solution for the customer's issue. Robotics is not a goal in itself for Hellebrekers. We always look at the whole picture. Of course a robot can do a lot, especially when equipped with sensorics, cameras, multidisciplinary gripper systems and controlled by artificial intelligence, but the foundation of a company must be prepared for this. For example, there was a company in construction-related products that wanted to ensure its production security by deploying a robot. After several sessions in which we asked various critical questions, it turned out that a lot of data had not been digitized. Before this is in order, it makes no sense to implement a robot. After the necessary digitization, the master plan can be implemented and the deployment of a smart robot will provide the production security the customer is looking for. Were we a "You ask, we run" organization, the customer would be helped in the short term with an additional robot, but the ultimate dot on the horizon, production security, is not achieved. By standing alongside the customer in the role of collaborative advisor and working together to find the right solution, this customer can continue to do what they do best."

Manufacturing

In the manufacturing industry, Hellebrekers has built great partnerships with several (medium) sized OEMs. This mainly concerns machine builders in the food, pharmaceutical and sustainability sectors. Van Beersum: "Machine builders also face various challenges in which the continuous delivery of quality, production reliability and short lead times are important challenges. By standardizing and modularizing both the control software and the hardware, we support OEMs and also reduce their engineering and assembly costs in the longer term."

Service

Having collaboration partners that supply products or machines all over the world requires a Service Desk that is available 24/7. Van Beersum: "When we say we want to let our customers do what they do best, that means a commitment to service. We have to deal with customers in other time zones, and in the event of a failure you want to have someone on the line to help you as quickly as possible. In many cases we can solve a problem remotely, but if necessary, we provide an on-site engineer. We are facilitating technical specialists in industrial automation. We solve problems so that our customers can focus for the full 100% on what they do best."