September 23, 2009 | Apprenticeship Award for on/off engineering gmbh
on/off engineering gmbh has gained the „Apprenticeship Award 2009“ issued by the Federal Employment Agency.
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Rolf Arneke, Managing Director of on/off engineering gmbh, and Manfred Bergmann, Manager Service and Installation, received the Award from the hands of Harald Büge, Managing Director of the Nienburg branch of the Federal Employment Agency. At the annual Apprenticeship Awards Ceremony on September 22, five companies from Wunstorf and Neustadt were honoured for their special efforts in the training of young people on the job.
on/off engineering gmbh regularly trains electronic technicians in a three and a half years' apprenticeship.
A press article published in the Leine-Zeitung (local supplement to the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung) on September 23, 2009, features the winners and their commitment to high quality training.
 | Presse_Zertifikat_Nachwuchsfoerderung.pdf | (1.3 MB) |
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September 5, 2006 | From engineering office to medium-sized enterprise ...
on/off engineering consults corporations in process automation/High standards in pharmaceutical production
Who wouldn’t be impressed by those robots that assemble cars with minute precision ... Production processes in the food and pharmaceutical industries appear to be comparatively simple: Read formula, blend ingredients, pack, ready. True? False. There’s hygiene, precise quantities, constant quality, continuous documentation – and above all, processes that are far less predictable than punching two metal sheets together. The tricky point about process automation: “Actually, you can never be sure what exactly the output will be like”, says Rolf Arneke. Thanks to his company, on/off engineering gmbh, you can be sure.
The company started in 1988 as an office which the engineer founded together with two colleagues in Hanover. After moving on to Wunstorf in 2000, on/off engineering has grown to a medium-sized company with international customers and sales reaching nearly € 10 million. Today on/off’s 120 employees consult corporations like Roche and Schering in process automation and information technology, whereas the first customers had been locals: the sugar and the potash industries.
One day, Schering placed a large order for computer systems validation: The computers that control the production process undergo thorough testing procedures. The customer receives a certificate confirming that his systems comply with regulatory requirements and operate reliably. According to Arneke, the aim is to produce pharmaceuticals that are absolutely safe.
During the Schering project the engineers learned so much about the particularities of pharmaceutical manufacturing that they made computer systems validation a separate line within their range of services. About half of the on/off team is located at the Wunstorf headquarters, with the rest travelling all over Germany, Russia or northern Africa. Some have offices at the customers’ plants. Beyond the pharmaceutical industry, it’s the biotech, energy and food industries that need on/off’s services.
But there is also expansion into new fields, such as an ongoing IT project for a major food manufacturer. Management and production numbers are drawn together in a single database, allowing greater transparency throughout the production processes: from product traceability to energy consumption. Furthermore, a new affiliate, which is in the market with automation in drinking water and sewage technology, was established just a couple of weeks ago.
There is, however, one obstacle to the company’s growth: the lack of qualified engineers. “The recruitment market is virtually empty”, as Arneke puts it. on/off also offers an in-house apprenticeship for MSR-Elektroniker, young people who are trained as technicians for electronic automation control. Needless to say that switch cabinets are assembled in the company’s own workshop. “Our customers want the full range”, says Arneke.
(Article published in the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung on September 5, 2006 - translated from the German)