The world sorts eggs with Moba

Every second counts when you're working with a billion eggs a day. In a world where precision, speed, and reliability make all the difference, Moba, based in Barneveld, has been the undisputed global leader in egg processing machines for decades. CEO Edwin Bolwerk offers insight into the strategy behind their global success.

In the world of egg processing, Moba is a household name. More than one billion eggs pass through a Moba system every day. That's about 70 percent of the world's egg carton production. So there's a good chance the egg in your refrigerator went through a Moba machine. With 950 employees, the company supplies 110 to 150 countries annually, with Asia as a key market.

"Nine out of the ten largest Chinese manufacturers buy Moba," says CEO Edwin Bolwerk, who has led the company for over five years. "In China, 'Moba' has even become the common name for an egg sorting machine. We serve half the global market, although it remains a niche." He calls the company a micro-multinational: a medium-sized company with a global impact in a specialized market.

At Moba, everything revolves around two pillars: uptime and innovation. "Our customers work with live animals that lay eggs every day," says Bolwerk. "If a system is down, the eggs pile up, and production can be lost." The second pillar is innovation: thanks to increasingly smarter technology, fewer and fewer eggs are being lost. "You can recognize good eggs, and bad ones too, but it's all about the doubtful cases. Every egg we can save is a win: both in terms of sustainability and in our customers' wallets."

An organization in transition

Under Bolwerk's leadership, Moba is making a transition from customization to configure-to-orderWhere salespeople used to start with a blank sheet of paper, they now build with standard modules and customer-specific configurations. This approach requires a different way of working, says Bolwerk. "We had to move away from the arbitrariness of every customer request and work towards a modular basis. That's more efficient for design, purchasing, and production. And more predictable for maintenance."

The change affects the entire company, from engineering to sales. "We're changing with the shop opening," says Bolwerk. "New production lines are fully modular, and older machines are being phased out." The benefits are significant: machines with varying capacities now share the same components. "We can meet every customer request with less design work, less inventory, and greater consistency. Moreover, we now produce in-line instead of in cells. This increases speed and efficiency."

Strong through own production

Moba produces a remarkable amount of its own materials, something that's rare in mechanical engineering. "If you can buy a gear, you shouldn't make it yourself. But we produce plastic components entirely in-house." The company has approximately 1,200 molds, which its own team develops and refines until the shape is perfect. This vertical integration offers flexibility: when regulations change, such as the current situation with PFAS, Moba can quickly switch to other materials. "This flexibility makes us less dependent on suppliers and protects our expertise."

Smarter weighing with light

Innovation is deeply ingrained in Moba's DNA. The R&D department, with over a hundred engineers, continuously works on improvements in design, hygiene, and efficiency. One of the most groundbreaking innovations is vision weighing: a technology that determines the weight of an egg without touching it. "We're the only ones in the world who can do this," says Bolwerk. "A special light source shines through the egg and calculates the thickness of the shell, the air chamber, and the contents."

The technology is more hygienic and easier to maintain than traditional weighing systems. “A machine processes up to a quarter of a million eggs per hour,” Bolwerk explains. “Traditional scales have to be calibrated and cleaned. With vision technology Only the lens needs to be kept clean." The next step is already in sight: in the future, the system may also be able to recognize unusual egg shapes and thus preserve even more usable eggs. "This makes the technology not only smarter, but also more sustainable."

A close-knit community

Despite the tight labor market, Moba is successfully retaining employees. "We invest in a pleasant work environment and personal attention," says Bolwerk. New employees are carefully trained, and the organization trains young technicians through its own vocational training program. "Barneveld is a close-knit community; almost everyone in the area knows someone who works or has worked at Moba." Every quarter, there's a town hallmeeting, which is shared globally with all thirteen locations. "This way, despite the distance, we remain one organization."

Change is part of entrepreneurship, Bolwerk emphasizes. "Every company hits a wall every now and then. Then you have to have the courage to reinvent the organization." When he started at Moba five years ago, it was one of those moments. The company is now growing steadily. "It's important to keep an open mind, not rely too much on the past, and have the courage to stop something and start something new. This requires a positive atmosphere, a good culture, and trust in the people. That's absolutely key."

Want to learn more about how an OEM like Moba innovates, collaborates, and makes a global impact? Edwin Bolwerk will be a speaker at the Machinebouw event on Tuesday, December 2nd, at Congrescentrum 1931. In his presentation, he will share how Moba helps customers optimize their business operations, the innovations needed to maintain market leadership, and the role suppliers play in this.