Kornelis Caps & Closures and NoordWestGroep have been working together for over 35 years

Kornelis has been working with NoordWestGroep for over 35 years. Kornelis believes in contributing to the local community, and as NoordWestGroep celebrates its 65th anniversary this year, it’s a great time to share more about this sustainable collaboration.

NoordWestGroep is a work development company in Steenwijk. People who need support in finding work can find a job there. The goal? To help people develop towards regular work or as close as possible to it. Traditionally, the core business of NoordWestGroep’s industrial department has been packaging and assembly, which fits perfectly with Kornelis’ work.

Clicking caps and closures

Wicher Nieborg, team leader of industrial services at NoordWestGroep, has been working there since 2002: 'When I started, there were already employees from NoordWestGroep working at Kornelis. They were clicking on sprinkle caps that came from the injection molding machines because they weren’t fully closed. Over time, these tasks moved from Kornelis’ location to NoordWestGroep’s. The work often involves clicking caps and closures, assembling cap parts, and checking products for defects.'

Introducing automation

In the past ten years, Kornelis has made significant progress in automation, reducing manual labor. Robots are increasingly closing caps and closures. Wicher explains: 'Because of these developments, we came up with a new project with Kornelis to introduce our employees to automation. What does a machine do? How does it work? It often sounds more complicated than it actually is. You press a button and the machine starts. And if something goes wrong, a light comes on.'

Kornelis set up a tagger machine at NoordWestGroep. This machine presses the tagger into the cap. 'In the past, we did this manually. Now the machine does it. Our employees’ task is to keep the machine running. They load caps and closures, replace full boxes with empty ones, and seal the boxes. With an automated order system, we keep each other well informed,' says Wicher.

Enthusiastically assisting

'We don’t just throw away rejected caps and closures with cardboard inserts. The employees at NoordWestGroep remove the cardboard inserts so we can recycle the caps and closures. They also occasionally assist with quality control checks at Kornelis. It’s great to see how enthusiastic these employees are to contribute to our production process. That’s really satisfying,' says Koos Wagenaar, supply chain manager at Kornelis.

Making a local impact

Kornelis finds it important to make a difference locally. Everyone deserves a good workplace in a familiar environment. Wicher adds: 'It’s great that we can support Kornelis, but it’s even better that Kornelis supports us.' Koos concludes: 'Through our long-standing collaboration, we help create jobs for various target groups, and that feels good.'