Page 27 - Mantena Annual Report 2021

Markets and strategy
THE PAINT HALL OPENS UP BRAND NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN NEW MARKETS
The new paint hall opens up new opportunities. The paint hall is 113 metres long and can be divided into four equal
sections of 28.25 metres each. This allows us to provide painting services to more players than just the train companies. In the new paint hall, high- quality paint jobs can be carried out on trucks, trailers, buses, construction and agricultural machinery, offshore components, cranes and masts.
Per Henning Torgersen has been Mantena’s project manager for Bane NOR in the work on the new paint hall. He says that the hall will lead to far greater efficiency in production, and that this is important to Mantena’s competitiveness.
Among the largest in Europe
-We’re talking about one of the biggest paint halls in Europe. As well as making us more efficient, because we have a better place to work on the jobs we do, we gain a huge amount of flexibility because of the four sections that the hall can be divided into. When it comes to painting trains, it will be exciting to see how this affects efficiency. There used to be some dead time in this work, but now we have space for all types of trains and, in the case of carriages and locomotives, we can take four units into the paint box at the same time.
Torgersen says the new paint hall is also important to the HSE work. HSE was taken into account in planning the hall, and here everything is new in terms of extractors, lighting and other matters affecting safety and working conditions.
Detailed design work
Torgersen and his colleagues have had some busy days, but thankfully all of the work has gone according to plan, which is not a given with so many players involved, some outside of Norway, and so much to be coordinated.
-The project has stayed on track all the way through, in terms of both time and cost. Getting this done on schedule
with regular border closures and harsh Covid restrictions has not been easy, but anything is possible when you have good people on the team. Along with good people at all stages, the reason why things have gone well is primarily good planning at the outset between Bane NOR, Norconsult and our own employees at Mantena. There has been a great determination to complete this project on time. Installing a 113-metre paint box inside an old building with all of its constraints is not a simple matter. That’s why detailed design work was essential, says a proud and excited Torgersen, who is now looking forward to seizing the new opportunities that have opened up.
Annual Report 2021 27