Since it was founded around five years ago, Orca Industriemontagen has been implementing assembly and plant construction projects all over the world. "We serve the entire industry, especially the food and pharmaceutical sectors as well as mechanical and plant engineering," says owner and Managing Director Jochen Busch, describing his clientele. "Manufacturers are essentially concentrating on their core competencies such as development, production and after-sales, while installation at the end customer is increasingly being handled by assembly service providers like us." The spectrum that he covers with his 65 employees ranges from the installation of new systems to commissioning according to specified plans. "We take on the planning, mechanical and electrical installation, including piping and ventilation construction. The area of process and process engineering, on the other hand, is the territory of our customers," adds Busch.

Jochen Busch and his team have been working in the industry for more than 20 years and know the requirements not only from their desks, but also on site at the construction sites. From its headquarters in Backnang, the company primarily serves Europe. South East Asia is covered by a wholly-owned Orca subsidiary based in Malaysia. Orca works all other markets, such as China and Latin America, with network partners. There are only a few offices and warehouses at Orca's headquarters, as the company is essentially a mobile company that works almost exclusively on a decentralized basis at its customers' premises. Busch explains: "We are a global service provider that handles temporary projects at a wide variety of locations. We take care of all the planning, logistics and physical implementation for our customers. Our jobs take between three weeks and a year." Such orders include both the installation of new machines and the relocation of entire industrial plants. "In the case of a relocation, we take care of dismantling, packing, transportation and reassembly until the equipment is ready for production," adds Busch. The systems are dismantled in such a way that Orca can plan and carry out the dismantling and assembly - with plans and drawings drawn up in-house. In addition to assembly orders, Orca also occasionally supports its strategic partners in the assembly of components at the manufacturer's plant on a contract basis.

Changing locations and teams require flexibility

A new, often international team is set up for each project. Containers containing materials, equipment and tools are transported to the respective construction site. "This is practically our project-related branch of the company," says Jochen Busch. This means that the current members of the project team must have access to the containers and equipment. At the same time, the containers are often the only protection for the valuable and expensive special tools: "The tools are absolutely central to our work, we can't complete a project without the equipment," emphasizes the Managing Director. The Orca teams also need to be highly flexible, as project processes change and customer requests are added and need to be fulfilled. In order to be able to react spontaneously, weekend shifts and night work are also part of the job. The entire workflow with changing personnel, construction sites scattered across continents, time differences, transportation routes and the valuable material requires good safety technology that is also absolutely flexible in terms of location and time. Susanne Wendt reports: "Previously, we used mechanical key solutions, which were very cumbersome to manage and involved an enormous amount of work. This only worked with constant time-consuming appointments for key handovers, a lot of trust in God and a lot of wastage." The desire for a secure and uncomplicated locking system that could cover the entire globe, be installed quickly and be easy to manage digitally was correspondingly great.

Electronic locking system with cloud-based management

Kjell Bank from Fass Handelsvertretung helped Orca decide on a functional and flexible locking system. The choice ultimately fell on the electronic locking system eCliq from Assa Abloy with the digital extension Cliq Connect. The combination of wireless cylinders, an electronic key with battery, cloud-based management with self-explanatory software and updating of access authorizations via app and smartphone is ideal for Orca's unusual requirements. Kjell Bank explains: "Thanks to the variety of types and the simple installation of the system, all necessary rooms and containers at Orca can be very easily integrated into the locking system and the system can be permanently converted with minimal effort. A screwdriver is all that is needed to install the wireless cylinders. The cylinders are also maintenance-free."

Thanks to the wide range of cylinder designs and variable cylinder lengths of the Cliq system, a wide variety of door locks in buildings and padlocks on containers can be integrated into a single locking system. It is also possible, for example, to integrate furniture, lockers, letterboxes or switchable systems such as elevators and industrial cranes. All Orca buildings and halls as well as all containers and "outposts" can be equipped with a single locking system, regardless of where the containers are located. Each employee worldwide only needs a single Cliq Connect key, for which they are responsible. If the team in Germany has issued access authorization for the corresponding cylinder in the cloud via software, the team member can transfer this authorization from their smartphone to their key via Bluetooth using the Cliq Connect app on site - without the need for an additional programming device.

The Cliq Connect digital extension enables flexible cloud-based management of the new locking system, as access authorizations are controlled via app. © Assa Abloy safety technology

Kjell Bank explains: "The flexibility of the keys also allows them to be used selectively for certain groups of people, for example by using different key types for different requirements." All systems, from Chile to Malaysia, can therefore be controlled across countries and secured on a project-specific basis with Cliq. "The key administrator no longer has to be on site," reports the sales representative. This makes it much easier for Orca to organize and handle projects and saves a lot of money.

The switch to digital locking technology has given Orca a major boost in terms of security and control: with a single electronic locking system and an electronic key for each employee, all scenarios of a project can now be mapped. As the power supply is integrated in the key and not in the cylinder via a replaceable standard button cell, the wireless Cliq cylinders are very easy to install and ready for immediate use. Digital management makes it possible to grant, time-limit and revoke access authorizations with just a few clicks in the software. This means that temporary employees can be given limited access authorization at the start of a project, which automatically expires once the job is completed. This flexible handling of access authorizations ensures significantly more security and convenience in all processes. Jochen Busch agrees: "Our projects are finite. Our teams are constantly changing. And handing over keys to the next colleague at night, including the waiting time, is not exactly convenient for our employees." Thanks to the electronic management of access authorizations on the personal key, these cumbersome handovers are now a thing of the past.

The benefits quickly outweigh the costs of the locking system

Even the departure of an employee or the loss of a key is no longer a security problem - authorizations can simply be blocked from Germany. Bank summarizes the advantages: "The cost-benefit effect is very quick with this locking system, if only due to the short response time in the event of a lost key. eCliq offers full flexibility, especially for industrial companies with their different and changing requirements, thanks to the wireless system, the key types and the fast administration."

"But the most important advantage for us is actually the worldwide functionality and ease of use," explains the owner enthusiastically. "This is an enormous gain in security and convenience for people and materials." The test phase with the new locking system went as he had hoped. The system is now being rolled out in the company. Jochen Busch is so impressed with the result that he has also installed the electronic locking system in his private property.