Case Study: Dutch Marine Ingenuity
Read this chapter to learn about a family-owned dredging and marine engineering business that has managed to survive and prosper over 150 years due to entrepreneurial ingenuity and continued commitment to its people and environmental sustainability. It takes you through the company's evolution and the challenges of being profitable and responsible while aiming to achieve four SDGs.
As a marine dredging and engineering company, what challenges does Van Oord face in attempting to be profitable and protect the environment? How does the company leadership and culture inspire entrepreneurial ingenuity?
Logistics
"What is important is that our equipment is in excellent working condition. Maintenance and repairs of the marine equipment and its parts that are subject to wear and tear is a key task for our ships maintenance department".
"We need enough spare parts on the shelf to be able to operate worldwide on a 24-hour basis. If we do not have spare parts available at the right time, then we have a big problem because the ship might not be able to continue its operations. But too many spare parts leads to unnecessary capital being tied up. So the question is, what spare parts do we order, what can we do to use more standard parts across different ships? This really is a strong focus. Can we do it better?"