Ambulance

Focus on Europe’s fastest-growing ambulance builder
St.John’s and the famous Hong Kong Hockey
club. In terms of ambulance we have a
100% market-share. We’re also selling well
to China… about 400 units per year, in
cooperation with a local manufacturer. It’s a
mix of Mercedes and Vito chassis on mainly
box bodies,” Franz explained.
The next stop was in the Design Unit.
Staffed by a group of four designers and
business development managers this hectic
office space is the technological nervecentre
of Baus. Filled with display boards
with draughtsman’s drawings it’s a case study
in organised chaos. Every work surface is
dominated by large computer screens and
crammed with files and diagrams and every
shelf is stacked with random components,
such as light-boards, computer boards and
even distributor caps.
It is here that the design team develops
the bespoke designs for each ambulance
order. Baus don’t work on a ‘one-size-fitsall’
business model, instead preferring to
work closely with each customer so that
the specification for every order precisely
meets their individual needs. So even though
the rudiments of the general design and
build process may have large elements in
common, every order will have a number
of features that make it unique; whether the
order is for 10 or 100 units, for a straightforward
emergency care ambulance or
for a complex High Dependency Unit;
there may be different seating, alternative
interior layouts in the patient treatment
compartment, a different lifting system or
a customised trolley-loading system. But as
Business Development Director Robert
Piotr Królikowski, explained to me: “We focus
on each customer’s specific needs and then
help them incorporate the latest technical
innovations.” With eight years experience at
Baus nothing fazes Robert. “We stay in touch
with market trends in build and design and
learn as much as possible about how the
vehicles we build are going to be used. The
more you understand their front-end use,
the better you can meet the needs of your
customers,” he explained. “So, for example,
while we typically recommend either Sarco
or Whelen light-bar fittings, we’ll look at
other suppliers if the customer has a need or
a preference for them.”
Sat across from Robert were Project
Manager, Marek Sylwestrowicz, who has
been with the company 11 years and,
beside him, Agnieszka Mazur, also a Project
Manager who, due to her bilingual capabilities
including French, is responsible for Baus’s
growing presence in the French EMS
market. Agnieszka is responsible for working
with their French distribution partner and
monitors all their builds.
After the relative quiet of the Design Unit
we walked into the first main build area.
One production worker, Marcin, has been
a tool-turner for as long as Franz Baus has
been involved in ambulance-building – thirty
years. Based in the busy Mounting Room,
he is one of the engineers responsible
for hand-crafting the numerous small but
vital engine parts which form the essential
bone structure of each Baus ambulance.
When I caught up with him he was focusing
intensely on turning an unrecognisable joint
he was smoothing down for the main plinth
of what I later learnt would become the
main suspension supports for one of Baus’s
in-house-designed under-carriages - that
invisible part which support the seats in
the ambulance’s driver compartment. As I
looked down, I asked Marcin what he was
making? “It’s a small but difficult part,” he
replied. Adding with a serious look: “Each
of these parts has to be crafted to within a
milimetre… sometimes even more precisely.”
I squinted in even closer, still trying to
recognize the precise thing he was making.
Sensing my lack of mechanical knowledge,
he added, as if by way of further explanation.
“It may appear to fit well at a glance but
you have to inspect it closely. If it doesn’t fit
perfectly, that’s when you get the wear-andtear…
But here we build them to last.”
Also guiding me around the plant was Franz’s
son, Uwe. Aged just 35, it’s Operations
Manager Uwe’s responsibility to know each
of the company’s 200 + staff on first-name
terms, exactly what their individual work
manifest requires of them on a given shift
and which part of each customer’s order
they are charged with fulfilling that day. To
achieve this daunting task he must possess an
intimate knowledge of every single part of
the design and build process for every one
of the 800 + vehicles that rolls out of the
plant each year. Despite his experience of
the whole build process Uwe takes nothing
for granted and consequently has nothing
but admiration for Marcin and his teammates.
As he explained to me: “In every ambulance
we build there can be between one-to-twothousand
small but essential parts, most
of which are built from scratch in-house.”
It’s this kind of attention to detail which
marks Baus out from all other European
ambulance builders. Working away next to
Marcin another colleague was machining the
supports that keep the gas cylinder holders
in place to ensure maximum safety and,
of course, total compliance with the rigid
EC CEN regulations which all European
ambulance builders must meet in order to
make their vehicles road-worthy.
Most of the Baus facility is taken up by
dedicated manufacturing areas: mounting
rooms, fixation rooms, furniture shop,
electrical area, metal-working rooms and
a huge stock management area. It’s all laid
out in such a way that as you pass through
each area, spread over two facing sites,
you gradually get a picture of how each
ambulance unit evolves. In some areas you
might see a bare chassis stood next to a
work-bench with a large sheet of heavy
metal laid out on top and random holes
drilled up and down it. Then you walk
through to the next unit and see an almost
identical scenario - but this time electrical
engineer, Karol Pierukki, 26, is patiently
threading many different-coloured lines of
electrical wiring through each hole and you
realize you are seeing both the inner vehicle
wall and its electrical circuitry system take
shape.
Next we moved on to the Fixation Room
where much of the stainless steel work is
done – everything from the outer-skins of
the ambulance body down to variouslysized
brackets which hold them together
are cut here. Huge and spacious it was
filled with vast pallets of different grades of
steel and pipes of all lengths and diameters.
With its high ceiling, the high-pitched whine
of a ferocious looking computer-operated
cutting machines echoed off its walls; amid
all the din and noise I was waved over in
the most friendly of fashions by Lukas Rata
60 Spring 2016 | Ambulancetoday