The Covid-19 pandemic led to many difficulties in the Polish and global economy. The introduction of new restrictions and red zones in the country causes stagnation in many areas, and the situation is still changing dynamically. The Pekabex Capital Group plans to operate effectively all the time, maintaining all forms of caution and caring for the safety of its employees. For this purpose, on February 27, the Management of the Pekabex Group, together with the Health&Safety team decided to introduce preventive measures. Despite the prevailing epidemic, the company achieved a record result in the first half of 2020 and created a line for the production of masks – for its own employees, organizations with which it cooperates and those in need.
Pekabex activity
The reality of the pandemic showed what new solutions in the field of construction technologies work the best in such uncertain conditions – supporting people and ensuring business continuity. Faster, more automated and quality-controlled products and processes are expected not only for economic and environmental reasons, but also for human safety.
Comprehensive of services: from design to turnkey construction, it allows for better management of the entire process and the exchange of information with its participants. The transfer of business conversations to an online form and the quick adaptation of corporate IT communication systems to issues related to construction management, design and offerings have demonstrated the strengths of flexible companies – including Pekabex. Thanks to this, a large part of the team from offices was able to move to remote work in a short time, and thanks to modern solutions in prefabrication technology, construction sites do not resemble those classic places that have been known for years. Working with prefabricated elements is much faster and less “physical” than in traditional construction, because most of the hard work is done by machines: cranes, mortar pumps or hoists. As a result, the number of people working on construction sites is reduced – but there are small, specialized teams. Designing, thanks to working with drawings in 3D technology, enables optimization of assembly processes. It allows to plan that as many components as possible are mounted straight from the wheels, so no on-site warehouses are needed.
The example of the new, ultramodern Pekabex factory in Gdańsk – Kokoszki shows that some production processes can also be done remotely thanks to communication with a robotic production line.
The introduction for a dozen people working in the production facility, similarly to the four other facilities of the Group, of the rules of “social distancing”, disinfection of workplaces, temperature tests or using masks transfer the entire business to a higher level of safety – both human and business.
Taking Precautions
Pekabex makes sure that all information about precautions reaches to every employee in every department. Detailed Health&Safety procedures and instructional videos make it possible to obtain information about safe functioning in the enterprise. The recordings disseminated within the company and in social media concern:
- organization of business meetings,
- hiring new employees,
- receiving mail and couriers,
- procedures during working in factories and on construction sites,
- correct application and removal of masks,
- effective hand washing,
- safe office work.
The record order backlog
The driving force behind the results was the increase in revenues from the implementation of the “Prefabrication” and “Construction Services” contracts. Pekabex achieved a record portfolio of orders, which at the end of June amounted to 788 million PLN. The vice-chairman of Pekabex, Beata Żaczek, gave an interview in which she said: “The presented results are a continuation of the market trend in the field of prefabrication, which we have been observing for several quarters. It is also a confirmation of the rightness of the Pekabex business model, one of the pillars of which is automation and a successively expanding order portfolio. Let me remind that at the end of June this year the backlog amounted to 788 million PLN, of which 390 million PLN is to be realized in 2020. The record financial result of the first half of the year is a reason to be proud also because it was generated during the pandemic. During this time, we had to adapt to new health and safety requirements, increase safety measures and change the organization of work. Despite these conditions, production in all of our factories procede as planned and the company has behind its best first half-year in history. “
Automated face mask production line
The need to provide protective measures for employees, including hardly available on the market masks, made us start to work on the construction of its own production line with the engineering start-up ReBuild, which ended with success after six months. “On the Polish and European markets, there was a lack of masks, and we shared with hospitals for charity the imported ones. This lack of masks made us feel embarrassment and started to search for new solutions. We perfectly know the possibilities of young engineers and we know that they can create such inventions. “Pekabex, striving to become the leader of innovation in Poland and Europe, creates structures: it’s looking for talented engineers and supports them in their development, ”says Robert Jędrzejowski. Working on the construction of the new machine was not abandoned by the company, even in spite of symptoms emerging in the summer about that the pandemic is weakening. Now the line production is ready to produce masks, mostly for Pekabex employees and their families, as well as organizations that it supports locally.