Building the future

Wonderwoods will be a green oasis in the center of Utrecht. Orion Beton, a leading Dutch precast concrete manufacturer based in Enschede, is playing a crucial role in the construction of the 31-story Boeri Tower and the 22-story MVSA Tower. With approximately 50 employees and a digitally controlled, state-of-the-art production facility, Orion Beton is supplying wide slab floors with shear reinforcement for this prestigious project, crucial to the structural stability and design requirements of these unique towers. By digitally planning and controlling the entire production process, Orion managed to successfully and efficiently complete the project with maximum precision and transparency.

Towers with a future

Wonderwoods consists of two impressive towers connected by a one-story underground parking garage. The towers, with a total area of 81,000 m², will house various functions, including rental and for-sale apartments, offices, stores, restaurants, education, culture and a semi-public roof garden. The construction project, whose design phase began in December 2020, experienced a temporary 6-month delay between February 2021 and August 2021. Despite the many challenges, production of Orion began in November 2021 and the first delivery took place the same month. Automation and digitization were crucial to respond quickly to the unforeseen changes and to keep delivery times short. 

Optimal efficiency 

Orion Beton's core business is the production of precast floor slabs, where a fully automated carousel system optimizes production. The MES systems ebos® and profit, both developed by Progress Software Development, also support end-to-end all aspects of the production process, from precast concrete production to steel processing for reinforcement. These integrated and overarching systems replace a whole series of separate software solutions, allowing employees to perform their entire work process in a single homogeneous and user-friendly system. "The use of ebos® has greatly increased our production stability, and thanks to the optimized pallet allocation, production is much easier and more efficient," says general manager Cor Rensen with satisfaction. 

Orion has deployed digitization and Building Information Modeling (BIM) integrally throughout the entire project life cycle of the Wonderwoods towers, from quotation and design to planning, production and construction. The entire process is seamlessly integrated into the industry-specific ERP system erpbos®, which generates quotations, production and delivery schedules and invoices. Production control and monitoring then takes place in ebos®, which provides real-time data to production staff. The digital solution, known as SmartProduction, provides production personnel with targeted information about the precast concrete elements to be produced, significantly improving production efficiency, flexibility and quality. This integrated approach ensures that the various systems communicate with each other in the same way and provides a standardized platform for all participants in the project. 

Open structure, systematic updates

"The choice for erpbos® and thus for Progress Software Development was made, among other things, because of the open structure of the database and the systematic updates. The ability to integrate ebos® into erpbos® also played an important role, as did the fact that we have enjoyed working with Progress for almost 20 years," Rensen emphasizes. The benefits of digitization and automation in this construction project manifest themselves in several aspects. First, the overview of the planning is significantly improved, making the entire planning process faster. Second, control over the administration and invoicing processes is more efficient. And finally, the number of errors in the production phase is reduced to an impressive minimum. Patrick Verheij, Head of Engineering at Orion, confirms that the digitization efforts have not only saved time, but have also improved machine availability, optimized production capacity and drastically reduced errors and downtime during the project.

Advantage through a wide range of services

"Delivering strong performance with predictable accuracy requires machines and software solutions that can be optimally integrated into our existing system while contributing to targeted increases in efficiency," says Tonny Bunte, the company's project manager for erpbos®. With PROGRESS GROUP, Orion Beton has found the right partner to meet these high requirements. Reliability, experience and focus on performance were the decisive factors in arriving at this long-term, successful cooperation. 

Progress Software Development GmbH, a company of the PROGRESS GROUP, was a strong partner to implement software modernization. The successful cooperation goes back as far as 2003 and includes various machines and software solutions.