After 16 months of construction work and considerably more preparation time, today the ‘Platea’ industrial zone is home to the imposing new RONAL IBÉRICA plant, occupying some 55,000 m2, where there was once nothing. The foundation stone was laid in 2016, but the complex preparatory work to plan the whole land development project, where a huge variety of problems needed to be overcome, began much earlier. We asked colleagues to tell us their experiences of the construction phase and special moments in the early days. They all had one thing in common – They are proud to have been able to take part in a project of this magnitude.
Carlos Gómez, IT Manager:
“We started on a piece of virgin land, with not even a cell phone network, so temporary networks and connections had to be set up. We more or less had the first wheel before we had proper cell phone coverage.”
Eladio Buzo, Production Manager:
“Long before the construction work, staff training began for personnel destined for management positions in the new plant, and recruitment started for workers. Two competitive teams had to be set up and neither of the two plants in Teruel were to fall behind. Because the whole point was not to close one plant and operate the other, but to run both plants at the same time.”
Begoña Izquierdo, Personnel Manager:
“This was an opportunity for Personnel to grow stronger, especially since they were now stationed at two operational sites, which necessitated the use of new organizational formats.”
Marta Álvarez, Health and Safety at Work Specialist:
“Thanks to thorough planning right from the start, it is now easier to prevent workplace accidents and risks, especially when it comes to air conditioning. This gave an additional boost to worker motivation.”
Ángel Vicente, Environment Officer:
“With regard to environment issues, the work in these initial phases of the plant consisted in obtaining the different environmental consents from the city authorities. Especially great efforts were made in the fields of garbage management and energy consumption, which comes 100% from ‘green’ sources.”
Antonio Blasco, Warehouse Manager:
“Purpose-built roads had to be laid for the first shipment of aluminum. Because it was not only RONAL material that had to be coordinated but also that of the suppliers or fitters. When the warehouse was started up, we could all apply improvements derived from our experience with our first plant in Teruel.”
Luis Ángel Ibáñez, Foundry Manager:
“I particularly remember the moment when the first cast wheel was formed. The faces of the workers who were allowed to take it out were beaming with pleasure.”
Javier Perales, Planning Officer for Mechanical Processing:
“There were some special moments, for example when a complete robot production line was running for the first time, or when the first wheel was being processed mechanically. Even here, months of preparation work were needed until the lathe was perfectly aligned. Adjusting the process to this new top-quality technology was a challenge, but the motivation was just right. You could see the anticipation in people’s faces and the pleasure of working with everything new.”
Manuel Martín, Quality Manager:
“Building a new plant presented the opportunity of equipping quality control and the laboratory with new cutting-edge technology and using this to make the work easier, for example by digitizing all the information.”
Though it didn’t quite happen exactly on the first birthday of the plant, even so, a ceremony was held on September 12, 2018 to mark the millionth wheel, with due recognition for all the workers.
