Like all advanced mechatronics companies, Lamers needs to increase capacity to keep up with the growth of our customers caused by the explosive growth of the semiconductor market. Since 2021 several initiatives have been started to increase capacity and improve our operations. The Cleanroom 5 addition is an example where several of these growth initiatives come together.

At the end of 2021, Lamers got the opportunity to rent an additional building in Wijchen, located near our main location at the Vlotkampweg in Nijmegen. The building already had a 600 m2 ISO6 cleanroom, plus about 600 m2 of office space, making it a perfect opportunity to increase our cleanroom capacity for the next few years until a new greenfield location can be realized.

Our original plan was to move part of the assembly to the new cleanroom and create capacity at our Vlotkampweg location. However, when the opportunity to rent the Wijchen building came along, we were also involved in a design sprint with ASML, focused on improving delivery performance and increasing our capacity. One of the sprint initiatives was a supermarket concept aimed at decoupling supply from demand to get a stable flow in production. Our team connected the two opportunities and the plan for Cleanroom 5 was revised.

Now, Cleanroom 5 in Wijchen will become a “tube factory” where all tubes will be cut, bent, welded, cleaned, and packed. These tubes will be manufactured in batches and sent to the assembly lines in Cleanrooms 1, 2, and 4 at the Vlotkampweg. The offices in Wijchen will be used by our installations business, an upgrade from the building where they have their offices now. This solution will free up more space at the Vlotkampweg than the original plan and will also make it easier to plan and share resources, such as testing equipment.

The new facility will come together over the next few months. The business processes have already been designed and tested at the Vlotkampweg during the design sprint. Some renovation work is currently being done in Wijchen. Our installations team will move into the offices in July and we aim to start producing and checking the quality of products within a few months.

This project is a great example of how we are leveraging entrepreneurship, collaboration, and the relentless pursuit of excellence to improve our operations and meet our customer’s demands and needs.