At thyssenkrupp Steel Europe in Duisburg, they never close. Work is carried out 24/7 over three shifts, often including public holidays. Facility Management is responsible for the entire factory premises. Gültekin Pischmann, Head of Facility Management at the site, explains, “If a ventilation system isn’t working, pipes are blocked or the lighting fails, then that’s where we come in. This means that only a third of the day is planned – the rest is spent on call.”

Employees in steel production go to one of the centres containing social and sanitary facilities to change before the start of their shift. They then shower after work and put their everyday clothes back on. Gültekin Pischmann, who started as a fitter at thyssenkrupp Steel Europe 38 years ago, knows from his own experience that having clean changing rooms and showers is very important for the workforce.“In steel production, we’ve got to deal with stubborn dirt like sinter dust from the blast furnaces, machine grease and oil, etc. We’ve also got these types of dirt in the buildings, and the best way to remove it quickly and effectively is with high-pressure cleaning.”

The high-pressure units were last renewed in the 1980s. Back then, the buildings with two to three floors and between 200 and 900 lockers were cleaned by internal staff. One cleaner was assigned to each floor, which is why several stationary high-pressure units were installed in each building so that they could work in parallel. Pischmann explains, “In the 1990s, we outsourced the cleaning work. Since then, there have only been one or two cleaners per building. This meant that the units weren’t being utilised to capacity, but still had to be maintained. That was inefficient and expensive in every respect.”

After 40 years, it was time to replace the units. To this end, thyssenkrupp Steel Europe enquired with various suppliers, including Kärcher. The project was delayed due to changed priorities, but Kärcher kept at it. “My contact person regularly checked in with me. That showed me that Kärcher would be there when we were ready.” The requirements were noted down in detail during on-site appointments.

The result was a concept in which one or two high-pressure units were installed per building. This reduced the number of units to a third of the previous amount. The result is significantly reduced effort and costs for maintenance and servicing with the same or improved cleaning performance.

The project was implemented in 2022 and 2023. Pischmann smiles, “We set a very ambitious time frame, which Kärcher managed well. Overall, I found the employees to be very professional; we didn’t need to have someone assisting them all the time. That’s an achievement at our site because we always have service providers who get lost on the company premises.” One by one, the old units were dismantled and 34 new units were installed. After briefing the cleaning staff and some minor challenges at the beginning, everything went according to plan in the everyday cleaning.

Kärcher has trained a customer service employee who lives in the Duisburg area and can be deployed quickly to ensure that the desired response time for service call-outs of a maximum of 48 hours is met. There was also a presentation on the benefits of using a foam nozzle in conjunction with the Kärcher foam cleaning agent. Pischmann summarises, “We liked the foam cleaner’s longer contact time; we’re currently testing it in two buildings. This is because our goal is intensive cleaning in a short time, and Kärcher’s suggestions are very appealing. We’re very satisfied overall, everything is currently going as I’d like it to – and long may it continue.”