At Veldkamp, everything revolves around technical service, overhaul, and maintenance. The company from Raalte gives existing machines a second life: they undergo a complete mechanical overhaul, and outdated controls make way for modern software and control panels. In addition, Veldkamp supports customers with maintenance, troubleshooting, and on-site technical work. Throughout the Netherlands and sometimes far beyond.
With 60 to 70 employees, including engineers and especially many mechanics, tight planning is crucial. Work takes place in the workshop as well as on location, and the planning horizon varies from long-term maintenance schedules to ad-hoc requests that need to be addressed immediately. Precisely in such a dynamic environment, you always want to know who is available, where bottlenecks arise, and how to inform employees in a timely manner.
It soon became clear to Veldkamp: working with Excel was no longer feasible. Together with Timewax, Veldkamp brought more structure, predictability, and control to a complex planning environment. Erik Koskamp, Operations Manager at Veldkamp, shares how they made that shift. And what the results were.
When Erik Koskamp started at Veldkamp twelve years ago, planning was still done in Excel. Together with colleagues, he maintained a shared file in which tasks, availability, and deployment were planned manually.
In practice, that worked less and less well. The planning was prone to errors, offered too little overview, and made it difficult to quickly see who was available or where capacity shortages were looming. Especially in an organization where both long-term planning and urgent work are the order of the day, this caused unrest.
Erik noticed that the combination of different types of work, in particular, made things complicated. Some clients submitted a complete annual schedule as early as December. At the same time, short-term requests came in that required a technician immediately. Excel lacked the overview needed to manage this effectively.
Veldkamp went looking for a solution that would allow the organization to see who was available faster, look ahead more easily, and anticipate busy periods sooner. They found that solution in Timewax.
Although Veldkamp did not immediately use all the functionalities, the planning board in particular proved to offer exactly what was needed. At a glance, it became visible which capacity was still available, where the schedule was starting to fill up, and at what moments action was required.
By easily switching between different time periods—from a few weeks to several months ahead—Erik gained much more control over staffing. This also made it possible to make adjustments sooner, for example by arranging external hires in a timely manner before a capacity problem actually arose.
The greatest gain lay not only in the planning itself, but above all in the calm it brought to the operation. Whereas planning previously regularly led to last-minute changes and uncertainty for technicians, much more predictability was now achieved.
I get feedback from technicians that they have never been informed about their schedule so early. What used to regularly cause unrest is now much better under control.
That difference is significant for a technical service organization. Technicians need to know where they stand, customers count on reliable deployment, and planners want to anticipate problems rather than solve them afterwards. That is precisely where Timewax made the difference for Veldkamp.
Veldkamp has been using Timewax as a planning solution for about ten years now. And although the planning board still forms the core, the organization is looking at further optimization.
The next step is to further automate processes related to planning. Think of employees viewing their own schedules, instead of having them communicated manually. And digital time tracking, where hours worked are recorded and processed immediately, instead of via paper forms and subsequent administrative actions.
With Timewax, those possibilities are within reach: a single system where planning, hours, and communication come together, and processes are organized significantly more efficiently.
In addition, Veldkamp examines the role of integrations with other systems, such as Exact. Especially as planning and time registration become further integrated, it is logical to have those systems work together more effectively.
In addition to the functionality of the product, Veldkamp also appreciates the collaboration with Timewax. According to Erik, the system is stable and support is easily accessible when needed.
While other software vendors work with tickets and long waiting times, Veldkamp finds that Timewax responds quickly and provides immediate assistance when questions arise. For an organization where planning has a direct impact on daily operations, these short lines of communication are important.
For Veldkamp, Timewax helped make planning manageable in an environment with high turnover, varying types of work, and a large field service team. The organization now has better visibility into capacity, can adjust sooner, and communicates with technicians more promptly.
What started as a replacement for an unworkable Excel schedule grew into a solid foundation for the operation — and a basis for further professionalization.
Briefly summarized, that yielded Veldkamp:
Want to know more about this collaboration? Or curious what this could look like for your organization? Let’s explore together where your planning can be smarter.
