Vlisco Netherlands B.V.

Vlisco is a Dutch textile printing company based in Helmond, the Netherlands. The company has operated under the name Vlisco since 1846. Its textiles are designed using a batik-inspired printing technique, and since around 1940, the brand has focused primarily on the African market.

Vlisco operates two locations in the Netherlands, both in Helmond: the factory and the finished goods warehouse located on the industrial estate.

The factory runs almost 24/7, with operations only pausing from Saturday 2:00 p.m. to Sunday 2:00 p.m. Employees work in three or four shifts to maintain continuous production.

Workplace safety at Vlisco

Around 60 employees are part of Vlisco’s internal emergency response organization, working in shifts and available on call in case of an incident. This team includes about 20 First Responders as well as emergency response officers (BHV). Until last year, Vlisco maintained its own company fire brigade. Under Frank Ettro, this was transformed into a First Responder organization — a lighter, more practical setup. After all, the Helmond municipal fire brigade is located just around the corner and can be on site quickly in case of a fire incident.

Deployments of the emergency response team and first responders team

The First Responder organization (formerly the company fire brigade) is deployed around 15 times per year. Fortunately, most of these are false alarms or minor hazardous material incidents, along with occasional first aid calls.
In addition to the weekly test alert, there is on average one BHV alert per week.

Alerting before MultiBel

“We used to alert everyone using a pager system — but that’s long outdated,” Frank says.

About five years ago, he started testing smartphone-based alerting apps. Two competing systems were thoroughly evaluated, but both had reliability issues:
alerts from the control room (Vlisco’s security team) often didn’t reach recipients, employees appeared as unavailable even when present, or weren’t automatically signed out when leaving the site. Sometimes, alarms even went off while people were asleep at home. As a result, trust in app-based alerting quickly vanished.

Choosing MultiBel

When looking again for a replacement pager system, MultiBel was recommended by Vlisco’s BHV training provider (Saasen). Initially, Frank assumed MultiBel offered only a paging solution and remained skeptical of any app-based system after previous experiences.

The Sales Consultant presented MultiBel’s “BHV app” and the concept sounded great. I thought: if it even works half as well as promised, I’ll be happy.

During the test phase, the app worked exactly as promised. For about three months, Vlisco ran MultiBel alongside another system — sometimes skipping the old app altogether and relying solely on MultiBel, even though testing was still ongoing.

Testing the System

Because of their past experiences with unreliable systems, Frank and Harm were cautious at first. Trust had to be rebuilt. Initially, MultiBel was tested daily per shift. Now, Vlisco performs a weekly test every Wednesday afternoon, and the app is also used during weekly First Responder drills.

A key feature for the security desk is the ability to quickly and easily convert incoming notifications into clear alerts containing the right details for all available Ermergency Response Teammembers.

Employee Acceptance

The MultiBel system was quickly accepted as a replacement for both the pager and previous malfunctioning apps.

With the old pager, we never knew whether the alarm was for a fire, a chemical incident, or an accident,” Frank explains. “We had to go to the station, call security over the radio, and only then find out what was happening. Now, with MultiBel, we already know what we’re responding to while we’re running to the station.

Harm adds:

And of course, everyone always has their phone on them — a pager was just another device to carry.

Attendance Registration

Vlisco uses two methods for presence registration in MultiBel: geofencing and the badge system.

Frank explains to employees:

There’s an imaginary circle drawn around the company. When you’re inside it, MultiBel knows you’re available for a BHV call.
As soon as you leave that area, you’re automatically signed out as unavailable. The system knows you’re off-site, but not where you are — so your privacy is always protected.

The Alerting Process

Alerts are currently issued via Vlisco’s internal security desk, which manages the alarm control center. They receive notifications from the emergency phone or fire alarm panel and determine what’s happening and where. This ensures that security always knows the situation, especially if external emergency services arrive. Security staff include detailed information in each MultiBel alert message.

Harm explains:

A recent alert included the building name, the specific installation, and that smoke was detected. That already gives me three key details. On the way to the station, I can think ahead and plan my approach. Once there, I know which First Responders and Company Emergency Officers are present. That’s another advantage — at the start of each shift, I can already see the available team. I know whether we have enough people to handle a larger incident or if we need to scale up immediately. At the station, we can change into gear, take the vehicle, and go straight to the scene.

Frank adds:

The more information that comes through in the app, the better. For fires or chemical incidents, we have to change clothing first, which takes about five minutes — having detailed information helps us prepare faster and respond more effectively.

We also had an in-depth conversation with Frank Ettro about how Vlisco recruits First Responders and Emergency Response Officers (BHV) for its internal emergency organization. Read the interview (in Dutch) about recruiting, selecting, and training First Responders and BHV personnel.