TMC’s Edwin van Bergen helped build a pharmaceutical warehouse in Poland in record time
As a project manager, Employeneur Edwin van Bergen (Manufacturing Support) oversaw the construction of a warehouse for high-end medicine in Poland. The client company was so satisfied with the result that they gave Edwin a special award. It was his first assignment at TMC, where he now brainstorms on a new business cell and is working in the Entrepreneurial Lab on an in-ear system for musicians suffering from hearing damage. A conversation with a born entrepreneur brimming with energy and enthusiasm.
In the last thirty years, Edwin van Bergen has never spent a working day at home. Therefore, he didn’t hesitate when a pharmaceutical company approached him for the construction of a new warehouse in Poland. “A super fun job,” he reflects two years after that first phone call. “I was invited for a job interview the very next day and started the Monday after.” It became his first assignment at TMC, who arranged the contractual procedures.
Although Edwin has ample experience in warehousing, it was his first time being fully responsible for the entire building process of a pharmaceutical warehouse. “It was a totally new challenge. Since medical regulations in Poland differ from the rest of the EU, it was a bit of a puzzle at first to get a clear picture. Other than that, the quality demands of a pharmaceutical company are staggeringly high. We organized a special workshop for the project team where we worked out all requirements for the warehouse.”
Dripping tray
After selecting the logistical supplier that was to build the warehouse, Edwin started working on remodeling the design drawings. “We wanted to combine professionalism with a tight budget, which we did. As a joke I told my boss that I wanted everyone to enter the warehouse with a dripping tray under their chin, you know, to catch the drool, haha.”
Despite the outbreak of the Corona pandemic in the middle of construction, the project hardly suffered delays. Edwin: “I’m proud to say we reached all our targets and deadlines. Also, I managed to stay a few hundred thousand euros below budget.”
Edwin flew to Poland in June to oversee the moving of the old warehouse as well as the construction of the IT infrastructure. “For those few weeks I worked from seven in the morning until midnight and slept only four hours a day. That intensity gives me a huge kick, to be there every day and manage the team.”
Safety First, Quality Always
On a Friday afternoon in June the warehouse went live and the first order processed seamlessly. The company was so satisfied that the director of the European Supply Chain department offered Edwin an Award of Excellence. Edwin credits the success to his two motto’s repeated at every team meeting and presentation he holds: ‘One Team One Goal’ and ‘Safety First, Quality Always’. “I sincerely belief in those one-liners.”
The company also asked Edwin to coach Russian and Bulgarian managers in project management. “A good project manager masters a project from start to finish,” Edwin says. “I was not only responsible for the end users, but also for construction, quality requirements and budget. It’s great to educate other project managers in taking that next step.”
Hearing protection
Within TMC Edwin is also a very active Employeneur. Together with other TMC engineers and managers he is currently investigating opportunities in the change management market for new consultancy assignments. He’s also supporting the new Supply Chain business cell. “That cell deals with logistical processes, going a few steps further than traditional Manufacturing Support.”
If that is not enough, he is also working on developing a new product in the TMC Entrepreneurial Lab, together with Private Ear. “In my free time I’m a sound engineer and musician. Together with other TMC Employeneurs we’re helping in the development of an in-ear system for hearing protection. With our earplugs musicians with hearing damage are still able to make music, while also protecting their ears.”
Edwin is very happy about having chosen TMC as his employer. “The space TMC allows you to develop yourself is amazing.” He has already started a new assignment, dismantling a pharmaceutical warehouse for a Dutch company. Sitting at home is still not an option.
Would you like to know more about Manufacturing Support at TMC? Feel free to contact Noortje van Boxtel.