We regularly visit other companies with our vocational college class to get an insight into the fields of activity of our classmates and to bring the theory taught in the school closer to practice. Since trainees from WHW Hillebrand are always present in large numbers in the school and since we have already been told a lot about the company, this time it was our turn.
To get started, we gathered in the conference room and watched the corporate film to get an overview of our company’s fields of activity. Afterwards, I pointed out the peculiarities of WHW Hillebrand in a short presentation.
After familiarising ourselves with the safety requirements, we were split into two groups and guided through Plant 1 to gain a deeper insight into our processes and production.
After a short break the tour continued. Split into two groups again, the school class was shown Hillebrand Chemicals. The route led to the Technical Centre, where Alexander Kämper was waiting for us. He showed us how the coating process works on a small scale, and described the tasks of a surface coater.
We were then led by Sven Nitsch through the warehouse and the production department and informed about the specifics of chemical storage. As a highlight of the day, every student was allowed to ride on the high-platform forklift truck.
Finally we visited the laboratory and were given a short tour by Petra Humpert and Christina Rutz. It was now easy to understand the development steps of the surfaces: they make their way from the test tube, via Technical Centre, to the small plants and then to the large plants and mass production.
There was then a small introduction into the area of WHW Hillebrand Services after we had enjoyed a delicious lunch in our Haus Gerbens.
Having arrived in Fröndenberg, there was a factory tour led by Tim Thiele through the packaging, picking and coating departments. Finally he took us to a quiet spot where he explained the different functions of WHW Services.
The final discussion allowed all the impressions of the students to be gathered. These included “I did not think that WHW Hillebrand was so big”, for example. We illustrated WHW360 in practice to the students and all of them left in a positive mood with many new impressions.
At this point, once again a big thank you to all the helpers and also to WHW Hillebrand who made this visit possible for our school class.
