Piet Tilma sees challenges in new halls

The two new production halls of one of Europe’s leading tank and silo-manufacturer Polem – that are build after the fire that put six halls into ashes last year – are ready at the end of February and they bring new possibilities and challenges to the Dutch company from the town Lemmer. Piet Tilma, chief of production in the industrial hall, sees a lot of challenges in the new production halls. The way of producing tanks and silos is different for ones with a diameter of nine meter (the maximum possible size in the new halls) then the ones of five meter, the largest ones that could be build in the past. Ofcourse within Polem the projectteam that was created for the new constructions project is thinking about the way the new halls are arranged inside. “We are going to work with bigger scaffoldings and ofcourse the weight of those bigger silos make the balancing even more important then before”, says Piet Tilma. ‘I find changes interesting’ “It is also possible that we are going to use different techniques with the manufacturing of the tanks and silos. That’s why we are going to have a look at our ‘mothercompany’ (litteraly translated from Dutch) Plasticon Europe in Oldenzaal. Piet Tilma likes everything that has to do with this project. “I like changes, that brings a dynamic atmosphere to the company and that’s why I love my work.” In february 2011, when the fire put six halls into ashes, Tilma was shocked for a short while. “But the day after that I saw enough challenges and new possibilities to make our company even better then it already was. You have to give a positive twist and feeling to the negative things, complaining doesn’t help anyone. You have to put your shoulders under it and do your best. A lot of people at Polem have that attitude and that’s one of the things that I like about this company.” More work done in 2011 then in 2010 The industrial hall – were Tilma is in charge - made more tanks and silos in 2011 then in 2010. Piet Tilma: “Until the fire we worked in two shifts every 24 hours, after that we started working in three.” Even the manufacturing of seventy saltsilos for municipalities in Germany could be realised in the last two months of 2011. Tilma: “That was really great, in the last weeks of the year we made ten of them every week.” It is really a huge achievement of the people of Polem that the company had a reasonable manufacturing year, after the fire-disaster in february. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digital archive articles new constructions-project Polem - Louw Yntema and the new constructions project - Michiel Evers: ‘It’s a lot of work’ - Special task building coordinator Oene Wassenaar - Polem reaches highest point new constructions - New constructions ready on 21st of February 2012 - Polem builds new production facilities terug