Here, SpeedComforts are assembled with care and attention

The SpeedComfort is a purely Dutch product. The units are assembled by the employees of SDO Werkt in the company’s 1,600 m² workshop in Beek, in the municipality of Montferland. Dick Brons is the director and ensures that every product is assembled with care, starting with the very first unit back in 2015.

Dick has a background in business administration, specialising in production processes. His challenge is to ensure that the assembly of the SpeedComforts runs as quickly, smoothly and with as high a quality as possible. “We cannot afford mistakes,” he states firmly. That applies to any product, but for the SpeedComfort the bar is set even higher. “It is a finished product. The next person who takes our product out of the box and sees it is the consumer.”

Social entrepreneurship
At SDO Werkt, around fifty people work who have a distance to the labour market. At the Beek location, a wide variety of products are assembled, ranging from wheelchairs for airports to the electronics used in the ANWB roadside assistance cases. And SpeedComforts as well. The organisation’s goal is to enable these employees to make a genuinely valuable contribution to society. SDO does not stand for Sociaal Durven Ondernemen (Social Entrepreneurship) for nothing.

A real challenge
At SDO Werkt, employees are truly challenged. This is not only socially important, but also necessary. “We are a business, with our people as our most important capital. If they are able to develop further with us, the company develops as well. That is essential, because we are also simply a commercial organisation,” the director explains.

In addition, the SpeedComfort is quite complex to assemble. The product consists of a top and bottom section, several specially designed fans and connecting cables. “Assembly has to be done neatly. The connections must be correct and there is no room for errors,” says Dick. This applies not only to assembly, but also to packaging. “A package with three SpeedComforts includes two connecting cables, while a package with two includes only one. It sounds simple, but it requires attention.”

SDO Werkt thinks along
From the very first unit, SDO Werkt has actively contributed ideas for a smart production setup, as well as product development. For example, the internal wiring was replaced by a printed circuit board, making the product less prone to errors. In the early stages, each employee performed one specific task, with a separate inspector at the end of the production line. As production volumes increased, Dick adjusted the approach. Employees became responsible for assembling the entire product. “That is faster,” Dick explains, “but it is also more challenging and varied for the employees. They get to know the product better and take on more responsibility.” Quality control remains a fixed part of the process: after assembly, each product is checked again and packaged by another employee.

Top-level production
For a period, the employees of SDO Werkt assembled around 40,000 SpeedComforts per week. By now, a substantial stock has been built up and production has been scaled back. Current activities mainly consist of packaging the SpeedComforts, adding the Control Sensor and including the updated manual.

A beautiful and recognisable product
Many different products are assembled at SDO Werkt. “Most people consider the SpeedComfort a beautiful product to work on. It is recognisable for consumers and also helps reduce energy bills,” Dick explains. Others prefer more variety and like to work on different products as well. “We continuously try to help our people take the next step,” concludes the director of SDO Werkt. “Towards a higher level, with more responsibility.”