History
KEYNES looks back on a history of more than 50 years:
1950
The entrepreneurs Willem Keyer and Henck Ness form a partnership in the Netherlands with the aim of providing engineering services to the chemical process industry. The company is named after its founders: ”KEYer NESs“
Mr Keyer’s wealth of ideas combined with Mr Ness’ knack for picking the right people pave the way for a successful start.
Both founders believe in maximum customer involvement in the plant design process and onsite provision of their engineering services.
The young company sets up its own Model Construction department. At that time this is a completely novel method imported from the USA to maximize design accuracy in plant engineering projects. With piping drawings – the piping engineering documentation method used in Germany until then - the accuracy level was typically in the range of 75 to 80 %. Visualizing the piping design in the model and isometric drawings increased the accuracy level to 95-97 %. Initially, the material for model construction had to be procured from the USA.
1960
Establishment of KEYNES Planungsgesellschaft mbH headquartered in Düsseldorf.
The company’s experienced engineers provide engineering services both onsite at the customers’ offices and from KEYNES’ Düsseldorf headoffice. The result of the engineering process is transferred to a physical model, initially made of metal, later on of plastics.
1963
Klaus Plänk joins the company and develops its business within Germany. Under his management, the company experiences continuous growth, employing some 160 people. KEYNES engineers are deployed to customers’ sites from Hamburg to Munich.
1981
The Hamburg branch office with ultimately 12 people on its payroll is opened. Dipl-Ing. Klaus Walter joins the company to head the Hamburg operation. In 1998, he takes over the Hamburg branch which has since been operating as an independent entity under the name of Keynes Walter Planungsgesellschaft mbH.
At the same time, KEYNES opens its Uerdingen branch office.
1991
Relocation from Düsseldorf to the new office building in Neuss. With this move, the model construction and engineering activities are united under one roof.
In parallel, computer-aided design embarks on its triumphant conquest of the engineering world. Like model construction – initially smiled upon - 3D design tools gain a firm foothold in plant design. The industry places high hopes in this novel technology, expecting, in particular, reduced staff requirements, i.e. one 3D designer instead of a designer and a model constructor, prevention of errors and collisions, facilitated material management and, of course, a 50 % cut in design costs and shorter project lifecycles.
Not all of these hopes have come true. The fact is that intelligent 3D piping design eventually displaced model construction so that, after a transition phase, the Model Construction department was closed down in 2003/2004.
1997
Quality plant engineering does not happen by chance! KEYNES introduces a certified quality management system according to DIN EN ISO 9001, ensuring disciplined and proper documentation which may not always be fun – but makes lots of sense.
1998
The managing shareholder Klaus Plänk hands over the helm of the successful company to Dipl.- Ing. Dieter Timmé and has been maintaining close ties with the company to this very day.
• Partnering with “M-Plan“ and “EMP“ in the KME joint venture, KEYNES undertakes the detail engineering for the TAD facility in Dormagen. The scope of work for this contract (worth EUR 14 million for KME) includes the detail engineering for vessels, piping and I&C, procurement services and engineering field support.The design software selected for this mega-project comprising 650 vessels, 5600 piping lines, 8100 special pipe supports and 3200 measuring points is PDS-3D. At peak times, 73 employees of KME are working on the project. The project is carried out under the management of KEYNES Planungsgesellschaft mbH.
2010
The managing shareholder Dieter Timmé hands over the helm of the successful company to Dipl.- Ing. Markus Böke.
Currently, Mr. Böke is heading a team of some 100 specialists serving all „mechanical“ plant engineering areas.