ISTObAL – CELEbrATING 60 yEArS OF SUCCESS would have traded for a nice cup of English tea. Then again coffee is what everyone else drinks in the factory so why shouldn’t I and it was great to see that there is a drinks trolley, not a vending machine, offering workers a personal service, something which today you will not see too often in the UK. Next stop, quite literally was what I can only describe as ‘Istobal Central Station’. This transportation hub is a vital ingredient in the ‘Just-in-time’ process through which a constant flow of small containers pass, carrying materials to the next stage of their manufacturing process. as mentioned earlier in the seven lean manufacturing key principles, the quantity of the work performed at each part of the production process is dictated solely by demand for materials from the immediate next stage. This ‘Tren’ Spanish for train, operates throughout the whole factory and keeps the whole manufacturing and assembly process on track, showing departure and arrival times on a board just like any other railway timetable. I suppose seeing the end product, having followed a process from start to finish, will always be where most people get the greatest buzz, for want of a better word. We have seen steel cut, welded, assembled and painted. Watched the electrical components being loaded into their various positions and witnessed how brushes are put together through a process unique to Istobal, prior to the machine, which it has suddenly become, being slotted onto one of six roller tracks, leading ultimately to the outside world, where it will hoisted onto a lorry and transported to its ultimate destination. In a normal day Istobal make eight machines of sorts and we were lucky to see one just finished for OMV, destined for somewhere in austria. The range of car wash related products actually manufactured by Istobal is extensive and includes Roll-Overs, Washing Drying Tunnels, Payment Terminals, Jet Washes, Enclosures, Water Treatment equipment, Washing accessories, plus a whole range of commercial wash solutions. Their top selling ‘M’ range of Roll-Overs, is without doubt their star line, but my feeling, having spent a day with this group of extremly the ‘tren’ timetable at istobal Central Station with departure and arrival times, just like any other mainline station innovative people, is that there is much more to come in the future. Sonia Mañas kept hinting to me that there will be something exciting to see at this year’s automechanika in Frankfurt, but every time I pushed her on the matter she said “You will have to wait and see” Sounds promising! Back in the offices for half an hour, I met with long time erpec delegate and Managing Managing Director of Istobal, Rafael Tomás Director of Istobal, Rafael Tomás and he had time to tell me briefly where Istobal’s focus is right now: He said “There are two main focus points this year regarding markets: one is to finalize our consolidation in the European market, especially in Germany where we have gone through a strong modification of our current organization. Our second focus is the North american market. The main tasks of our Product Development Department regarding Europe, is to improve even more the reliability of our products with new developments, while in North america our main objective is to continue adapting our products to the needs of this particular market. In general terms our strategy is based on hearing our clients, mainly the Oil Companies and making sure that first we understand their requirements and secondly that we are able to give them exactly what they need and to be able to do this everywhere in today’s globalised market”. after a nice “Paella” for lunch with the team, what else would you expect, we said our thank you’s and headed for the airport, but as we were exceptionally well organised, we had an hour to spare, so Ms Stroppel and I Álvaro shows the just in time process, where only the parts for the next job are held at any particular work station 16 LATEST NEwS, EvENTS, jObS ONLINE – www.PETrOLPLAzA.COM went to see the City of arts and Sciences, a famous modern landmark in Valencia. For me it will always be famous as being the place where I lost my hire car keys! a 200 kilometres drive to alicante followed, from where I had originally rented the car, to get the spare set of keys, in another car I had to rent. I was one hundred and fifty kilometres on my way back from alicante to Valencia, before I realised the car hire company had given me the wrong spare keys. another one hundred and fifty kilometres back to alicante and I finally get the correct set of keys followed by another 200 kilometres drive to Valencia, before driving the second rented car back to Valencia airport and getting a taxi back to the first one, which luckily was still there. another 200 kilometres and eight hours later than I should have been there, I was back to alicante checking into a hotel at 11 pm, having missed two flights home in the process. Sadly, they had just stopped doing food. luckily, Ms Stroppel was able to leave on her scheduled flight many hours earlier, as like any hero, I insisted she should leave and I would sort out the logistical nightmare I was presented with … and she did! However, through all of this there was an unexpected bonus for me. Whilst driving around Valencia that evening, totally lost I must say, I witnessed the most spectacular display of street lights I have ever seen, evident in every road I drove down, attributed I have since learned to Valencia’s annual Festival called “The Fallas”, which involves extremely loud fireworks, lots of dressing up and a great deal of drinking. So, if like me, you ever lose a set of car keys in Valencia at this time of the year, I recommend you simply tell the rental company the car has been stolen; you buy some carnival clothes, locate yourself in the nearest bar and wait for the car rental company to come and sort everything out. after all, they said it would take 2 – 3 days, which for this particular festival is probably just about right. For more details visit www.istobal.com Valencia’s annual Festival called “Fallas”, a must see for anyone visiting town in March with time on their hands
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