"We make Rolls-Royces every day"

Andy Thomas exchanged England, his country of birth, for the Netherlands when he fell in love. Following his initial years of work, in which he focused mainly on learning Dutch, he was ready for a new challenge. A friend introduced him to JOZ, and it’s obvious he feels very much at home here. “I go to work whistling every day”, he says.

The last step in the production process

As a production employee, Andy is responsible for the final step in the production process: assembling and checking the end product. “Suppose a customer wants a new scraper system. To start with, my colleagues create a design and about two weeks later the factory is told to make the product.

“As soon as the welders have done their job and the components have been coated in the galvanising plant, they come to me and I assemble the end product. It takes about six weeks to complete a product, from the drawing to the end product.”

The IKEA model

“I always compare our solutions to the IKEA model”, Andy continues. “I connect all the components together to create a complete product. This involves numerous nuts, bolts and technical activities. Just like putting an IKEA cupboard together. I then check whether everything is working well and is ready to be delivered and used by the customer. If everything is OK, the product can be transported.”

Rolls-Royce

Andy is proud of what he makes. “During my first year I worked with the field service, installing the manure scrapers at the customer’s, for instance. That way you get to see the product in action and that made me so proud. We supply such great products and it made me realise that we’re actually making Rolls-Royces every day. And on top of that, they end up all over the world. This is what makes my job complete.”

Pleasure in going to work

Andy says he really enjoys his job, that every day is different and that again and again it’s a challenge to get everything done on time. “You really have to step it up”, he laughs. “The metal is delivered about twice a week. We then have approximately two and a half days to process everything. That means working hard. I’m happy to be able to work independently and decide at which speed I want to work.”

And how’s the atmosphere in the factory and the office? “It’s excellent. We have a great team. We enjoy working together and helping each other. Besides this, what I like about working at JOZ is that you have a lot of freedom. It’s a world of difference compared to when I used to work in the British army. I go to work whistling every day thanks to all these things.”