Link 2019 Zuid Nederland Special by henjuitgevers.nl

TH E CO N N ECTI O N B ETWE E N TEC H N O LO GY, MAR KET AN D MAN

Magazine

SPECIAL SOUTHERN NETHERLANDS April 2019 | volume 21 | issue 2

THEME STRENGTH THROUGH COOPERATION ASML CEO PETER WENNINK IN CONVERSATION WITH THREE KEY SUPPLIERS CHAIN INTEGRATION MARKET PRESSURE PROMPTS IAI AND ITS SYSTEM SUPPLIERS TO GROW TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER

HEALTHCARE PRIVACY EXCUSE AND FRAGMENTATION ARE OBSTACLES TO INNOVATION

WILLEM VAN DER LEEGTE (VDL GROEP)

‘ASML HAS CONTRIBUTED VERY MUCH TO THE STRENGTH OF THE SUPPLY CHAIN’

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WILLEM STRENGTH THROUGH COOPERATION

CONTENTS 5 SHORTCUTS 8 THEME STRENGTH THROUGH COOPERATION • ASML CEO Peter Wennink in conversation with three key suppliers about the strength of the South Netherlands ecosystem • Consortium working on smart logistics • Never a dull moment at Brainport

18 STRATEGY VDL Nedcar in Born: working on a new businessmodel in a resetting automotive sector

23 STRATEGY Demcon: ‘We want to land two to three startups this year’

24 INNOVATION Entrepreneurs talk in Link Café about the need for innovation

29 SYSTEM INTEGRATION VIRO: Strong at system architecture

31 INNOVATION ‘Healthcare meets Industry’ TalkING participants exchange insights and concerns

37 CHAIN INTEGRATION Market pressure prompts IAI and its system suppliers AAE, MTA and Mevi to grow towards one another

43 INDUSTRY 4.0 LVD responds to reduction in lead time with supply

46 INDUSTRY 4.0 IGS GeboJagema moving towards model-based mould making

49 PROCESS IMPROVEMENT OC Verhulst: ‘Capacity significantly increased, faults down’

51 SHORTCUTS

What is the strength of the high-quality manufacturing industry in the south of the Netherlands? Representatives of Brainport Eindhoven are asked this question regularly. Collaborative strength, that is the answer to that question. The reason for collaboration was, however, not born out of luxury. In the 1990s we had to reinvent ourselves in order to preserve employment, prompting representatives of companies, knowledge institutions and governments to join forces. For the outside world, the highlight of our regional cooperation took place in 2011, when an American think tank crowned Brainport Eindhoven ‘smartest region in the world’. The combination of history and social structures makes our region especially suitable for cooperation, which is a prerequisite for successful chain integration, the theme of this region special. It is mainly down to the following: Brainport Eindhoven is moderate in size, enabling staff from different organisations to meet one another in social networks where knowledge is exchanged. Through this clustering of creativity, especially in fast-moving companies, we boost one another’s innovative strength.

At the invitation of Link Magazine, Willem van der Leegte, president and CEO of VDL Groep, is the guest editor-in-chief of this special edition. Photo: Bart van Overbeeke

Our successful cooperation in the chain is based on taking responsibility, mutual trust and the willingness to do each other a favour. Openness and honesty are important in this respect. It is also about daring to be vulnerable. This mindset, combined with easy access, is an important prerequisite for collaboration. Employers give their staff a feeling of security and safety and allow them to make errors, from which we all benefit. The added value also lies in chain-wide investments in technology and development and in actively involving engineers from different companies. Our ecosystem can take more progress in this respect, working towards a chain that is invented by us instead of not invented by me. The knowledge-intensive manufacturing industry in the south of the country is on a roll. External global factors, such as Brexit and trade conflicts, can have consequences for the global economy and hence for us as well. It is best to assume that our world leaders will keep their head. As an exporting country, the Netherlands reaps the bitter fruits of all forms of protectionism. Our domestic policy must take a firm stand against this in Europe. Our economy is strong but we cannot sit back and relax of course. We must constantly work on our innovative strength to meet challenges in the field of climate & energy transition, digitisation and the labour market – challenges that can only be tackled systematically if we hold on firmly to each other, both in and outside the chain, allowing us to cherish and further develop our mutual dependence and mutual benefit. I am proud of the group interview about this that you can read later in this issue. Strength through cooperation! WILLEM VAN DER LEEGTE GUEST EDITOR IN CHIEF OF THIS SPECIAL EDITION AND PRESIDENT AND CEO OF VDL GROEP

PUBLICATION INFORMATION Magazine COLOFON

This special issue is a supplement to the April 2019 issue of Link Magazine. Link Magazine is a management journal that discusses contemporary forms of co-operation between companies themselves and between companies and (semi)government bodies, universities and colleges of higher education. Link Magazine is published six times a year.

APRIL 2019 PUBLISHED BY H&J Uitgevers Mireille van Ginkel Bosscheweg 76, 5151 BE Drunen The Netherlands +31 10 451 55 10 +31 6 51 78 41 97 www.linkmagazine.nl

ADVISORY COUNCIL ing. P.A.M. van Abeelen (ISAH), J. Beernink MSc (Golden Egg Check), ing. D.M. van Beers (Festo BV), J.C.A. Buis MBA (RR Mechatronics), ing. B. Draaijer (V en M Regeltechniek), F.M. Eisma (Trumpf Nederland), ir. J.F.M.E. Geelen (Océ), ir. R. van Giessel (voormalig ceo Philips CFT), H. Gijsbers (Thermo Fisher), ir. M.H. Hendrikse (NTS-Group, HTSM-boegbeeld), ing. J.B.P. Hol (Legrand Group), ir. T.J.J. van der Horst (TNO), ir. M.W.C.M. van den Oetelaar (Bosch Rexroth), dr. ir. M. Peters (president & ceo Moba Group), dr. ir. D.A. Schipper (Demcon), E. Severijn (Siemens PLM Software Benelux), J.A.J. Slobbe (ITM Group), H.G.H. Smid (Variass Group), ir. W.W.M. Smit MMC (DBSC Consulting), ing. N.J.F. van Soerland MBA (Philips Healthcare), ir. H.H. Tappel (Bronkhorst High-Tech), W.B.M. van Wanrooij (IBN Productie), ir. S.J. Wittermans (ASML)

EDITOR IN CHIEF Martin A.M. van Zaalen FINAL EDITING Lucy Holl, redactie@linkmagazine.nl THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ISSUE Pim Campman, Jos Cortenraad, Hans van Eerden, Willem van der Leegte, André Ritsema TRANSLATION Powerling Nederland, Bunnik GRAPHIC DESIGN Primo!Studio, Delft PRINTED BY Veldhuis Media, Raalte SUBSCRIPTION € 70,50 per annum ADVERTISING OPERATIONS John van Ginkel john.vanginkel@linkmagazine.nl +31 010 451 55 10 +31 6 53 93 75 89

ISSN 1568 - 1378 No part of Link Magazine may be copied or reproduced without the publisher’s permission. This publication has been compiled with the utmost care. Nevertheless, the publisher cannot be held liable for any inaccuracies. No rights may be derived from this publication.

Special Issue - April 2019

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SHORTCUTS MAASTRICHT AIRPORT MAINTENANCE BOULEVARD IS GROWING In 2017 Samco was still considering closing the Maastricht Aachen Airport branch in view of all the uncertainty surrounding the airport’s continued existence. A year later, the aircraft maintenance company announced another large-scale investment after the prior construction of an additional hangar, once again confirming the airport’s niche position as a maintenance boulevard. Samco is the maintenance boulevard’s airplane magnet. There are now more than 250 engineers working on the maintenance and repairs of a number of airliners, which fly in their aircraft especially for maintenance – initially, since 1988, especially the smaller cargo and passenger aircraft of, for example, Embraer, Fokker, Bombardier and ATR, but recently also larger aircraft. Work on the Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 will start before the end of this year. ‘Last year we invested several million euros in a new hangar to grow with the market,’ says director Constant van Schaik. ‘We now also have room for larger aircraft there. And so these also come now. This means that we will continue to grow.’

Samco’s neighbour is Collins Aerospace, the world’s largest manufacturer of numerous aviation components. ‘We were here even before Samco’, says Harold Counet, manager and chairman of the Maintenance Boulevard Foundation. ‘From here we supply almost all airlines’ maintenance services in the region. Airliners fly in their aircraft especially for maintenance. Photo: Samco Collins has 80 such centres in the world to supply custoMaastricht Aachen Airport is also tively inexpensive land for parking mers quickly. Speed is crucial in an ideal location for Samco. ‘There aircraft. this world. Logistics must be 100 are plenty of parking spaces here A major reason for maintenance percent correct, because airliners for aircraft coming in for maintecompanies to come and stay here plan maintenance and repairs nance. In addition, our central is the aviation technology training very tightly. It costs a lot of location in relation to internatioprovided by Leeuwenborgh, locamoney to keep a plane on the nal airports enables us to have ted at the airport itself. ‘We contiground for yet another day.’ parts quickly delivered. The supply nuously hire preparatory and Maastricht Aachen Airport is an chain is very important in this senior secondary vocational ideal location for Collins Aeroindustry. Maintenance is tightly education students with a basic space for several reasons. ‘Because planned, airliners do not keep education. We then train them of its accessibility and good their aircraft on the ground any ourselves as certified mechanics’, infrastructure plus a number of longer than necessary.’ explains Constant van Schaik. airports nearby, because of Samco Samco is not the only company to ‘These are six-year programmes next door and because educatiohave opted for the South Limburg for the licensed students, but there nal institution Leeuwenborgh airport. Recently KVE Composites are also short apprenticeship proprovides well-trained people. We opened a branch there, as did grammes for preparatory seconhave now grown to 130 employelogistics service provider AIS. dary vocational education students. es, almost all of whom are aircraft Maastricht Aviation Aircraft SerWithout Leeuwenborgh it would engineers.’ vices (MAAS) built a second hall be very difficult to find enough less than two years ago to serve candidates.’ Harold Counet more customers. This originally expects a further expansion of the F British company, with branches in boulevard in the coming years. Germany and the USA, provides ‘There is still too little maintenandozens of aircraft with a new coace capacity worldwide. We expect threat of cybercrime. Besides ting every year. The central locatimore airlines to land at Maastricht ASML, organisations like Heerlen on is also an advantage for MAAS. Aachen Airport. These are often municipality, Catharina Hospital, In addition, director Fran Carew long-term contracts, meaning VDL, DAF Trucks, Heijmans, points out the short waiting times, long-term employment.’ AIVD and TNO provided an the available slots and the relawww.samco.aero, www.collins.com insight into their IT security initiatives. IT-Circle Nederland is the Govers umbrella organisation for regioGovers Accountants/Consultants Accountants/Adviseurs nal, closed IT-Circles, within Our rankbehoren among the industry Onzeclients klanten tottop de in toptheir in hun which affiliated organisations or we support development sector, of wij their ondersteunen huntowards ontwikkeling share IT knowledge and experienreaching their potential. This is achieved daar naar toe.fullest Dat doen we door een hoge ces. Employees of participating through our de in-depth knowledge of the value kennis van waardeketens, door focus organisations meet IT colleagues chains, a focus on performance en improvement op performanceverbetering, door actieve and active orientation towards thevan development oriëntatie op de ontwikkeling nieuwe from other organisations in order of new business models attractive earnings businessmodellen metwith aantrekkelijke to actively share knowledge, ask models. verdienmodellen. for advice and participate in peerreview sessions and company Beemdstraat 25 Beemdstraat 25 TT +31 504 504 040 (0)40 2 5042504 visits. In addition, employees can 5653 MA MA Eindhoven Eindhoven FF +31 504 599 040 (0)40 2 5042599 broaden their perspective through Postbus 657 EE mencke@govers.nl Postbus 657 mencke@govers.nl temporary exchange projects. 5600 AR AR Eindhoven Eindhoven W I www.govers.nl www.govers.nl www.ITcircle-Nederland.nl

IT-CIRCLE: MEETING THE THREAT OF CYBERCRIME TOGETHER IT security is critical. However, whereas to date we simply built walls around information, the Eindhoven region is opting for a different approach. Working together is the motto. In partnership with Eindhoven Cyber Security Group (ECSG) and ASML, ITCircle Nederland invited its members to take a look behind the scenes of IT security in the Eindhoven region. In late March, the IT-Circle Event ‘IT-Security, a joint effort’ was held. Aernout Reijmer, CISO of ASML and host of the event, talked about creating a risk-aware culture and the importance of collaboration within the entire chain – in other words also with external parties – in order to be able to continue to meet the increased

Special Issue - April 2019

SHORTCUTS EINDHOVEN ENGINE KICK-OFF: SHORTENING TIME-TO-MARKET, ATTRACTING TALENT Translating knowledge to marketready innovation is a process that often takes too long. For this reason, a year ago people like Maarten Steinbuch (professor at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and scientific director of High Tech Systems Center (HTSC)) and Guustaaf Savenije (CEO of VDL ETG) took the initiative to set up the Eindhoven Engine. ‘The Engine is an entity within which PDEngs, PhDs, students at the University of Technology and higher and intermediate-level vocational colleges work together with engineers from one or more firms’, explains Katja Pahnke, general manager of the Eindhoven University of Technology High Tech Systems Center and one of the drivers of

the Eindhoven Engine, which had its official kick-off on Monday 15 April. Since the Engine was announced, a number of projects have already been launched in which people from both the educational and industrial chains are working together to achieve ‘exponential acceleration’; because collaboration is taking place in parallel, at different levels, both fundamental and applied. Cross-pollination between those parallel projects, at a single location, is expected to result in rapid acceleration. ‘Currently, a typical PhD project takes four years; a typical Engine project will take two to three years’, explains Pahnke, defining an important goal of the Eindhoven Engine.

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For example, within the framework of the Eindhoven Engine, Philips, Maxima Medical Centre, Catharina Hospital, Kempenhaeghe and TU/e are working together on a method for diagnosing the effect of sleep apnoea on the development of atrial fibrillation. In a project entitled ‘Advanced piezo-electric wafer stage for next generation litho-graphy and metrology application’, ASML and TU/e are working together on research into the use of lightweight and compact piezoelectric actuators (instead of electromagnetic actuators, as now) in the next generation of chip-production machines. And under the name Brainport Smart District, work is going on to develop the ‘smartest and most sustainable smart city in the world’ in the Helmond neighbourhood of Brandevoort. To this end, a consortium has been established, the Brainport Smart District Foundation, bringing together Eindhoven University of Techno-

logy, the University of Tilburg, Brainport Development, the province of North Brabant and the municipality of Helmond. Another objective of the Eindhoven Engine is to bring talented young individuals, often from outside the region, into contact with the business community at an early stage and to tempt them to establish a career in Eindhoven. Hence the funding for the Eindhoven Engine from the ‘Regional Envelope’. In March of last year, the cabinet announced that it would be investing 130 million euros to improve the attractiveness of the Eindhoven Brainport to potential employees, to be matched by 240 million euros from within the region itself. The Eindhoven Engine has been awarded 15 million euros over five years from the ‘Envelope’, which will be supplemented by an expected 60 million euros from the region itself. www.eindhovenengine.nl

CHEMELOT GELEEN EXCEEDS ALL EXPECTATIONS education to higher professional education to university education. There are currently an average of 850 students on the site, a number that will rise to 1,000 this year. ‘An ecosystem with all possible facilities’, says director Robert Claasen of Chemelot. ‘The entire chain – from R&D, education, pilot and demo factories and large-scale manufacturing industry – is represented on one site. We have set Chemelot the target of being climate-neutral by 2050. All factories on the site and campus must then operate on green electricity and biogas. Generated by solar power and wind energy, supplemented by, for example, gas from fermentation plants.’ Feasible, considering the growth plans? ‘Companies in a region like this are particularly agile. At the time, we switched from coal to chemical. And with success – just look at everything that has got off the ground here. In the 1960s the Netherlands built the infrastructure for natural gas at a record pace, with thousands of kilometres of underground pipelines. And now we are taking the step to green energy. The knowledge is there, the techniques are there or we can develop them, it’s now a matter of perseverance.’ Robert Claasen does expect other parties, including government authorities, to participate and invest in offshore wind farms and the construction of the necessary infrastructure. ‘We have started a programme with all companies to make production more economical and efficient. The green light has been given for a biogas plant that converts pig manure into green gas. Sabic is studying the option of having the naphtha crackers run on green electricity. This year Ioniqa Technologies will start the construction of a plant to process PET bottles, a project in which Coca-Cola, among others, has invested. Plastic Energy is investing in a plant to convert plastic waste into raw material for the naphtha cracker. So it’s not wishful thinking.’ www.brightlands.com

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Special Issue April 2018

They are nearly complete, the two Brighthouses on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus in Geleen. Each five storeys high, 7,500 square meters of floor area; a 30-million-euro investment. For the time being enough to satisfy the need for space. ‘For the time being’, says Bert Kip, CEO of the campus. ‘We can barely meet the demand of interested companies from home and abroad. The campus turns out to be more attractive than we expected. That is why we are already looking at opportunities for expansion in a northerly direction.’ The total number of jobs at Chemelot Campus and Chemelot Industrial Park is approaching 8,000. All Chemelot activities together generate a turnover of approximately 10 billion euros per year. ‘In the years following the start of the Campus in 2012, we still had to go out to find tenants. Now the companies come to us and it is sometimes a challenge to house them.’ The two Brighthouses are still in the finishing phase, but 90 percent of the spaces have already been let: to start-ups that are growing, to internal movers that need more space such as Isobionics, Sitech Services and the Brightlands Materials Center. ‘We made the right choices at the time,’ says Bert Kip explaining the success. ‘We focus on sustainability, new materials and cell therapy. Current topics where a lot is happening and where innovations are needed. And precisely a campus where knowledge and skills come together is a fertile ground for innovation.’ The Chemelot site covers an area of 800 hectares and consists of the Chemelot industrial park with over 60 factories and the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, founded by DSM, when that company switched from bulk to fine chemicals, Maastricht University and the province of Limburg. In recent years we have seen the arrival of training institutes on the site, spanning the entire continuous line of study from senior secondary vocational

ASML CEO WENNINK IN CONVERSATION WITH THREE KEY SUPPLIERS ABOUT THE STRENGTH OF THE SOUTH NETHERLANDS ECOSYSTEM

‘WILLEM’S OFFICE AND MINE ARE SO CLOSE TOGETHER WE CAN ALMOST WAVE TO EACH OTHER’ ASML, located in the Eindhoven area, is widely seen as one of the pearls of Dutch high-tech. Thanks to a unique product – a lithography machine – the company has managed to secure a very strong position in the chip manufacturing sector. An important factor in that success are the suppliers, quite a few of which are located in the immediate vicinity. This chain is rooted in a unique South Netherlands culture, characterised by, among other things, accessibility and transparency. A conversation with the CEOs of ASML, VDL and AAE and the COO of Neways.

THEMA STRENGTH THROUGH COOPERATION Innovation is nothing more than combining existing technologies to create something new. So it’s logical that innovations often arise when two or more different parties work together. Brainport Eindhoven is known as one of the smartest regions in the world, with companies that file a record number of patent applications each year. An important factor in that quality is the talent of the people who work there. But even more important is the culture of the southern Netherlands, in which collaboration is instinctive. The region and the industrial companies based there draw their innovative strength from that culture.

• An important factor in ASML’s success are the suppliers, quite a few of which are located in the immediate vicinity. • ‘It is precisely through working together in an integrated way, with suppliers who also participate in the development process, that ASML has been able to move up a gear.’ • And conversely, ASML has also contributed very much to the strength of the supply chain.’ • The South Netherland high-tech chain has a typical ‘Rhineland’ culture.

‘We want to devolve the development and manufacturability of our technology to our suppliers much more than we do now. We need to become more open towards the chain about that and make room for it in our R&D budget’, believes ASML CEO Peter Wennink, left in the photo. Beside him are Adrie van Bragt (COO Neways), Frank Mulders (CEO AAE) and Willem van der Leegte (CEO VDL). Photos: Bart van Overbeeke.

BY MARTIN VAN ZAALEN

efore we begin, we are asked to confirm the time at which the interview will finish: CEO Peter Wennink of ASML has until exactly half past eleven. After that, he needs to leave posthaste for Schiphol to catch a flight to Barcelona for a meeting with a ‘major South Korean customer’ on the margins of the world’s biggest trade show and conference for the mobile phone industry, the Mobile World Congress (MWC19). A typical conversation with a customer, of a kind he has often, he makes clear: ‘It’s about the technological progress we are making, about the prospects for their next generation of chips. They want to use our EUV technology for that.’ This year, ASML will supply 30 EUV systems – extreme ultraviolet

Special Issue - April 2019

machines – each of which can produce 155 wafers per hour. ‘But these are machines that still need to be fully developed, in partnership with the customer. We will also be discussing the changes EUV will entail for the other steps in chip production. To this end, we also maintain close contacts with the OEMs of the other components of the chip production lines, in order to innovate together and so improve the reliability of the whole. We are talking about an ecosystem that is distributed across the world, with lots of parties in the US and Asia.’

KEEPING EUROPEAN HIGH-TECH STRONG A cybersecurity specialist at Clingendael recently told the Financieele Dagblad that ASML ‘is attacked more than anyone else’. ‘Whether that is strictly true I don’t know’, says Wennink, ‘but the fact is that we are

subject to online attacks, like every major technology firm. The same goes for our key suppliers, although they may not know it.’ A few of those suppliers are also present at the discussion. One of them, Adrie van Bragt, COO of electronics manufacturer Neways, is aware that his company is also regularly approached by parties from Asia about the technology they make for ASML. ‘Naturally, we always refuse those kinds of requests, for information about the type of PCBAs (printed circuit board assemblies, ed.) we manufacture for ASML. And we report them to ASML, as agreed. But it does show that we are on the radar of the Chinese. That’s why we need to avoid a situation in which we can only buy our bare PCBs from China. We must make sure we keep large parts of this technology in Europe. For that reason, purchasing in Europe is also part of our policy, and we don’t just look at price. In order to ensure that the Chinese don’t have that technology entirely in their hands in the future’, says Van Bragt. Wennink nods in agreement: ‘As part of that, the Southern Netherlands ecosystem also needs contribute to keeping European high-

tech industry strong, by growing and investing here.’

STRENGTHENING EACH OTHER The regional ecosystem is at the root of the success that the chip machine manufacturer has built up over recent years, believes Willem van der Leegte, CEO of VDL Groep, developer and integrator of the wafer handler and the vacuum chamber (‘vessel’) for the EUV machine, respectively. ‘It is precisely by working together in an integrated way, with suppliers who are also part of the development process, that ASML has been able to move up a gear and acquire its position as the global market leader in chip production machines, the one that calls the shots. But conversely, ASML has also contributed very much to the strength of the supply chain.’ ‘What the suppliers deliver for us in this region is absolutely world class – for example, the work VDL does for us in the field of mechatronics. As a result, we were able to move up a gear and get ahead of the rest’, Wennink observes – to an audience made up of three of his core suppliers. Besides VDL and Neways there is also AAE, responsible for the development and production of several modules in the vessel. AAE is represented by CEO Frank Mulders.

ACCESSIBLE There are six of us at the table, including the journalist and the VDL press officer, in the office of our host Willem van der Leegte, to jointly reflect on the strengths and challenges for the South Netherlands ecosystem. During the interview, Wennink lives up to his role as chain director and frequently takes the lead in

‘And we value a good atmosphere. We enjoy working together and go out for a beer together’, says Willem van der Leegte, on the right in the photo.

everything to do with the accessible way of working together here. It’s about trusting the supplier and helping them take the lead, while still providing assistance. Elsewhere in the world, the consequences of such a large-scale incident would have been much more drastic.’

TRUST You also see that close bond now that the time has come to evaluate the fire, adds Willem van der Leegte: ‘For example, compartmentalising has proved very important: make sure you locate your components and processes in as many different places as possible, separated by fire barriers. We are going to draw lessons from that ourselves and reconfigure our development and production areas. That’s very important, because only if a customer has faith that their technology is in good hands can they permit themselves single sourcing of unique products.’ ‘We can only deliver the required economies of scale’, adds Wennink, ‘if particular development work doesn’t have to be performed by two or three suppliers but only by one. Which means we only have to direct one party. One party which, by definition, only provides a relatively small part of our technology requirement, in order to retain a healthy mutual dependence.’

‘Changing the DNA of our engineers is not easy’

answering questions. ‘The integrated nature of the chain here has its origins in the Philips family. The foundations for much of the knowledge we still draw on today were laid by them. The open manner in which we are able work together with our suppliers here is unique. Of course, we also have our partners in Taiwan and Singapore, but due to the time difference and the distance, the character of those collaborations is bound to be different. Whereas Willem’s office and mine are so close together we can almost wave to each other.’ To illustrate that bond, the ASML man points to the way they together solved the problems caused by a major fire in early December at Prodrive, another big supplier based in the region. ‘Immediately after the fire, we started working together intensively in order to solve the problems as quickly as possible. That has

GOING OUT FOR A BEER The Southern Netherlands high-tech chain has a typical ‘Rhineland’ culture, which prioritises not only the interests of shareholders but equally those of customers, suppliers, employees and society, plus government and research institutes. Mulders: ‘This transparent way of working together, less legalistic, is typically Western European. You see it Germany too. It is a model that people in the US and Asia are looking at with interest too. But adopting that model will be difficult for firms elsewhere in the world. We are talking about a

deeply rooted culture. There, they are more focused on achieving short-term results.’ ‘A culture is always highly regionally-based. The culture in Amsterdam, but also in the East of the Netherlands, is already different to the culture here’, says Wennink, who has many relatives in Overijssel. They do understand loyalty to the company and how to work together, but here we are happy to express our dependence on one another. ‘And we value a good atmosphere. We enjoy working together and go out for a beer together’, chimes in Van der Leegte in his Brabant baritone.

MORE OPEN Only in this way can the Eindhoven ecosystem bring down the cost of non quality sufficiently for ASML’s customers. Wennink: ‘If our fully developed Immersion machines have an outage for just one day at a customer’s site, that can easily cost them two million dollars in lost revenue. Then I get angry phone calls or e-mails from my customers: ‘Why has this happened and how are you going to solve it?’ Escalations like these still take place frequently. Even if customers don’t always recognise the fact, our engineers are not all-round geniuses. They are people who are above all focused on developing new things. They come to me with lots more ideas than I have R&D budget for, even though I have 1.9 billion to spend annually. So, it’s better if we focus exclusively on the functional design of our technology.’ ASML wants to devolve the extended development and manufacturability of that technology to its suppliers far more than is currently the case. ‘We need to become more open towards the chain about that and also make room for it in our R&D budget. But changing the DNA of our engineers will not be easy’, says the CEO, alluding to one of his missions. Adrie van Bragt weighs in: ‘It demands of us that we demonstrate, for example, that we are best-placed to select the electronics components ourselves and not – as is currently often the case – having to use what ASML lays TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

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down. We need to show that we can do the onward development of our PCBAs for ASML independently and better. Then we will really be adding value for ASML, and that requires that we keep on investing in partnership and mutual trust.’

LINKING TOGETHER In truth, Wennink’s mission consists of ‘linking together development and production’. A task also facing the suppliers represented here, at their own level. Mulders: ‘Developing without having our own product is not in our DNA as a supplier, but that is what we are aiming to do. We want to form a group of free thinkers who can more easily talk the same language as the engineers at ASML.’ ‘In order to work towards an ecosystem’, chips in Van der Leegte, ‘that is all about invented by us, not invented by me.’ Mulders of AAE: ‘Precisely in order to bring together developers and the production department, when we refurbished our buildings in Helmond, we installed as many glass walls as possible. So that the engineers can see the production lines directly, and vice versa. That really helps.’ That brings the discussion to the issue of the labour market. Mulders points out that the level at which his people are working is different to that of the engineers and constructors at ASML. That fact somewhat takes the edge off the problem, says Wennink. ‘Ninety

Peter Wennink: ‘We can only deliver the required economies of scale if particular development work doesn’t have to be performed by two or three suppliers but only by one. Which means we only have to direct one party.’

percent of our people are university-trained, a good proportion have PhDs; fewer than ten percent do not have a university background. Among our suppliers, that distribution is different, so you might say we are not fishing in the same pond. Our suppliers employ the master craftsmen, ‘the golden hands’ we so badly need in the chain. They are becoming ever scarcer, too.’ But at the same time, the aim is for ASML and its chain to converge in terms of knowledge levels. Which makes the existing shortage in the labour market real and urgent, says Van der Leegte: ‘The region’s attractiveness to

knowledge workers, foreign as well as Dutch, is not great right now. The housing deficit is huge, which means accommodation costs are very high. Increasing the attractiveness of this region deserves more financial support from the government – particularly when you are aware that, as I have often pointed out, Amsterdam receives 195 euros per person in municipal funding from central government whereas here in Eindhoven we get 1.53 euros per person. Last year the cabinet did earmark 130 million euros to enhance the region’s attractiveness in terms of accommodation and the living environment, but it was a one-off

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Special Issue - April 2019

grant and had to be co-financed. That kind of support ought to be ongoing.’

IMPROVED EFFICIENCY When prompted, Peter Wennink puts forward another solution: designing processes more efficiently so that scaling up does not necessarily require additional people in the same proportion. ‘Under the name Our New Enterprise, ONE, we are working on a business process re-design aimed at achieving substantially improved efficiency by 2025. The entire process from placing an order right up to delivery still dates from a time when we were a much smaller-scale business. It’s full of inefficiencies.’ The solution lies not just in information technology. ‘In the coming years, we will be putting a lot of money and energy into a far more integrated, software-based, standardised backbone.’ That will replace the current unique in-house-programmed ERP system

Ensuring accessibility. And that is so characteristic of this region, notes Van der Leegte. It is no coincidence that – like his predecessor and father Wim – he has his office in a relatively small building, so that you can practically walk through the front door and straight into his office. ‘That way, you create the accessibility that makes this Brabant ecosystem so unique in the world.’

MARGINS Finally, the journalist brings up what he calls a ‘less cosy topic’: dividing up the margin within the chain. ‘Why do you think that is a less cosy topic?’, Frank Mulders shoots back. ‘When it comes to dividing up the cake, things often get less cosy, because everyone wants the biggest piece’, the Link man suggests. How-ever, no one takes the bait. ‘Trust in your partner is a mathematical function’, begins Wennink: ‘Competency times reliability times transparency, divided by selfinterest. If the selfinterest gets too big, confidence goes down. Selfinterest is a matter of managing risk and rewardsharing. The distribution has to reflect the value that a supplier delivers. If it delivers more value, it is entitled to a bigger margin and it should get it. That is why we are very transparent towards our customer Intel, for example, about our own cost structure and margin.’ Mulders has his own definition: ‘Margins are not divided; by definition, you get the margin you deserve.’ ‘That’s why the margin a vital supplier like Zeiss makes is almost as good as our own, much higher than the margin of the built to print supplier’, points out Wennink. ‘Which is why I tell our purchasing department to also consider the quality of the collaboration between us and the supplier.’

‘And we value being able to enjoy working together and going out for a beer together’

which has continued to expand over the years. ‘But’, he stresses, ‘more important to the business process is properly laying down and implementing how our people can work together efficiently. That can be done by means of standard processes, with standard IT as support. Configuration management, for example, is something we can do using standard software. Although we create unique products, we are otherwise a regular company that can work with standard IT. ‘Standardise!’, is my mantra as CEO.’

ROLE OF THE CEO With three CEOs and one COO sat around the table, it is appropriate to ask about the role of the top boss within that integrated chain partnership. Wennink immediately downplays his significance: ‘The CEO is the most overrated role’, he says. It is above all one of being a ‘connector’. ‘Someone who is able to create a good team. A condition is that, as a CEO, you completely believe in your strategy, because people have a sixth sense for that.’ Mulders concurs: ‘The CEO is like a conductor who, above all, must be able to get the top musicians in his orchestra to work together well.’ ‘He must bring together the different disciplines, the development department and the factory first and foremost, and connect them with one another. That requires an atmosphere in which people feel safe enough to be critical towards each other’, says Neways man Van Bragt. ‘Industrial people like talking about the facts, the nitty gritty, but the CEO also needs to put a lot of effort into maintaining the people side’, Wennink observes.

EXPLAINING CLEARLY Van der Leegte adds, with characteristic matter-of-factness: ‘We are proud of our long-term relationship with ASML. Of course, we discuss the margins and we explain our position clearly. If you carry out development work for the customer, everyone understands that you cannot bear the cost if things go wrong but not share in the extra revenue if things go well. You wouldn’t last long as a supplier if you did. If you explain that clearly, your partner will understand. Having customers like ASML is very good for our image. Plus, we learn from customers like that. Incidentally, the same is true for them.’

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ADVERTORIAL

LET’S HAVE A FURTHER INTRODUCTION... The Brecon Group is certainly not unknown in the southern Netherlands. Over the years Brecon Cleanroom Systems has realized tens of thousands of m2 of cleanroom in Veldhoven and in many other places in this part of our country, very often in companies that are suppliers of the well-known ASML.

Housed in a modern building in Tilburg (built under its own control in 2017), the Brecon Group is working hard to penetrate internationally as one of the leading companies in this very special market segment. For many years Brecon was not really well known because it was primarily working for BMV in Veldhoven. Tens of thousands of meters of cleanroom, almost exclusive building in the semi-conductor market, is beautiful but of course also somewhat onesided and therefore economically dangerous due to its high dependence. That is why the Brecon Group has changed its course in 2014. Brecon made a breakthrough with the development of a truly newly developed wall and ceiling system, particularly applicable in the so-called GMP cleanrooms in e.g. the pharmaceutical, medical and food markets. “In recent years we have been able to build cleanrooms with this beautiful modular system at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Mead Johnson Nutrition, MSD in Boxmeer, the compounding pharmacy in the Princes Maxima Centre and at the moment we are working hard on the realisation of a GMP cleanroom at a well known Pharmacy site in Amsterdam! These are just a few of the projects we have built. This is still leaving aside the other projects that are currently on order.” says Frank Moelands, technical director within the Brecon Group. Geerd Jansen, commercial director, as well as responsible for Brecon International, joins him: “It’s great to see that we have been so successful in introducing this product to the Dutch market. Modular building with fully prefabricated panels is the future. Clients want to see results quickly and have no mess in their existing working environment. This is possible with the BCPS product. It looks like we are working with a kind of LEGO panels but the result is a solid construction, entirely flush executed in steel or HPL. No more plasterboard with glued HPL, but clean and reusable modular panels, fully custom-made in advance and installed quickly. The system is tested and approved with full GMP certification by the Fraunhofer Institute in Leipzig, also known as the internationally recognised IPA certification system”. So has the Brecon Group said goodbye to the semi-conductor (related) market? Frank Moelands: “By no means! Our experience and knowledge within this sector ensures that we are asked to build semi-conductor related cleanrooms both nationally and internationally. At the moment we are working hard to realize a cleanroom project of about 3,000 m2 in Bayern Germany. But also in Sillicon Valley USA we will soon start building!”

“The food market and the pharmaceutical industry are enormously challenging markets on an international level. But it is also fantastic that we have recently been able to build the first two large cleanrooms for Anteryon and KMWE, both recently established in the BIC (Brainport Industrial Campus). It's great of course that the Eindhoven region has been given the status of Brainport, after many years of consultation and discussion with the Dutch state. It's always nice to be able to boast a little about the success story in the Eindhoven region abroad and the connection Brecon has built up as a company with this region”, says Geerd, talking with ever-greater enthusiasm about the developments at the Brecon Group. So can we still expect important developments from the Brecon Group? “We are working together to see how we can offer our customers a fully walkable lighting unit with a special feature that makes it possible to switch very easily from normal LED light to UV light. We hope to be able to write more about this soon. But also new is the 'cleanroom decorative film', a printable film without any kind of outgassing, which offers a different ambiance in the otherwise so chilly cleanroom space. Or what about an airtight daylight tube, with special patented properties, it provides daylight in a workspace often only provided with artificial light. Many people perform better and fall ill less quickly if they can enjoy daylight, and it also saves energy costs!” Still in the atmosphere of enthusiasm we are guided to the exit of the beautiful industrially designed building and with our heads full of new information we greet Frank and Geerd and wish them good fortune with the many challenges!

www.brecon.nl

THEME STRENGTH THROUGH COOPERATION CONSORTIUM WORKING ON SMART LOGISTICS AT BRAINPORT INDUSTRIES CAMPUS

‘NATURALLY THERE IS A BUSINESS MODEL, BUT EVERYONE INVOLVED IS REALLY STICKING THEIR NECK OUT’ The ‘Factory of the Future’ calls for sophisticated production, including smart logistics and packaging management. The Brainport Industries Campus is home to a consortium working together on Advanced Manufacturing Logistics (AML). How do you achieve a state-of-the-art AML system on campus, with logistic flows that optimally support production from start to finish, day and night? ‘What do we need to achieve this? Absolute faith in what we are doing and a lot of mutual trust.’ BY LUCY HOLL

lowly but surely, Brainport Industries Campus (BIC) is growing to become a unique place for high-tech industry. BIC is primarily focused on production featuring a high degree of diversity and complexity in low volumes. Everything is new at the campus near Eindhoven Airport. There is a plenty that needs to be worked out, including the logistic flows and packing methods. BIC is bringing together more and more companies under one roof and is definitely not a regular multi-tenant commercial building. ‘It is not a random collection of firms; we are building a true ecosystem here in which companies and also educational institutions work together and innovate together’, says Frank Jonkers, regional sales director of Rubix. BIC is the site of the ‘Factory of the Future’ innovation programme. There are several field labs here, including the Advanced Manufacturing Logistics field lab. Participating in them are Rubix, IJssel Technologie, KMWE, Brainport Industries, Faes Packaging Concepts, Yaskawa, Grenzenbach and the universities of Eindhoven and Rotterdam.

ON THE RIGHT TRACK The magic words here are: 4PL and 4PP 4th Party Logistics and 4th Party Packaging. The chain directors make sure everything in the supply chain that is connected with logistics is kept on the right track and arrives and is eventually sent out optimally packed. The parties involved in the AML field lab have been thinking intensively for some time about optimum supply and the best way of working for all the organisations at the BIC. For example,

From left to right: Ben Hamers (Faes Group), Bart Vorselaars (Rubix), Bart van Dijck (Faes Group), Meino Noordenbox (Rubix), Frank Jonkers (Rubix) and Johan Faes (Faes Group). Photos: Bart van Overbeeke

in this project IJssel is optimising the IT processes and sending the large volumes of required data to the cloud. Rubix has been a top player in Europe for years, including in the delivery of (spare) parts and industrial supplies and the performance of maintenance on machines. Faes Group, and specifically the business unit Faes Packaging Concepts, looks at the role of packaging or rather smart cargo carriers, with all sorts of coding and RFID technology. KMWE, an expert in advanced milling, sheet metal fabrication and assembly, is one of the main drivers behind the campus.

UNDERSTANDING THE HEART OF THE MATTER ‘Connectivity is key here. That requires strong partners who understand the heart of the matter’, says Johan Faes, CEO/owner of the Faes Group. Smart industry calls for cooperation and thinking outside the box. KMWE was already a customer of Faes Group. Faes joined the AML field lab because what is required here goes far beyond supplying packaging. It is about handling products throughout the chain. ‘There are not yet too many situations in which we can apply our far-reaching ideas about 4PP’, says Ben Hammers, commercial manager at Faes. ‘That way of thinking is not yet really embedded in manufacturing industry.’ The parties started by first exploring in detail what they actually meant by AML at BIC. This

resulted in very open conversations involving sharing ideas, identifying synergies and deciding on the design of chain management. Johan Faes: ‘The first concept we came up with was ‘making life easier’, followed by ‘servitisation’, and now we are talking about optimally facilitating the ecosystem.’ Companies want to outsource their non-core activities and really focus on their own core. ‘They want to deploy their – scarce – professionals in the most targeted way possible.’

GOODS IN AND OUT 24/7 Suppose supplier KMWE receives a big order. Soon after, by definition all kinds of things need to be supplied for production. This requires the purchasing of parts delivered to exactly the right place at exactly the right time, packed (or unpacked) in such a way that everything can be processed efficiently. And when the product or module is ready, it needs to be taken away and shipped to the customer in the right way and in the right packaging. How do you do that intelligently, not only for KMWE but for all the parties at the campus – and preferably largely automatically, including the use of AGVs (automated guided vehicles) that move through the BIC along their own paths and following their own routing? The production department needs to be able to count on the supply, removal and storage of TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 15

Special Issue - April 2019

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BIC is bringing together more and more companies under one roof and is definitely not a regular multi-tenant commercial building.

CONTINUATION OF PAGE 13

materials and tools, returns and end products at exactly the right time, to/from the right machine, 24/7. Throughput times are falling, reliability is increasing. Residual flows are returned for reuse. Meino Noordenbos, CEO Benelux of Rubix: ‘We are building a kind of blockchain, a platform in which all the processes are linked together and information is continually coming from the cloud to regulate those logistic flows. We have made it work from ERP system to ERP system with all the goods, money, information and core processes’.

WATCHING Staying with the KMWE example: the firm purchases materials from all over. ‘We can watch everything quite openly: there is complete transparency in terms of parts, prices and other order information. That takes a little getting used to for everyone: a firm can continue to operate in a closed, separated way, or open up the information to its partners. Ultimately, we purchase all the parts they need to build their products as optimally as possible.’ The smart packaging is the responsibility of Faes, while KMWE purchases its own steel.

HANDLING LOGISTICAL COMPLEXITY Edward Voncken, CEO of KMWE: ‘Logistics at the campus are handled by a single central provider. This is based on the belief that the logistics processes between companies can be organised much more efficiently. We want to take logistics to a new level, just like technology. The supply chain is becoming ever more complex. A larger number of companies adds value. We aim to handle that logistical complexity by working together in smart ways. We want to move towards delivery and collection of products just in time and in exactly the right place. By definition, cooperation means sharing knowledge and information in a smart way. All the systems must be tuned to one another. Previously it was fragmented, from now on it will be much more coordinated.’

This openness ultimately results in purchasing benefits and a reduction in the number of suppliers. Bart Vorselaars, key account manager and overall project manager at Rubix: ‘Naturally, we respect agreements which KMWE has with its suppliers. But we want to take purchasing to the next level by using smart technology for KMWE and all the other parties at the campus.’

INFORMATION HUB Ideally, the service providers will have access to all the order flows of all the companies at the BIC. A logistics control tower is being built, a central information hub that will gather and integrate information from all kinds of sources and present and distribute it in a manageable way. Alongside the logistics control tower, there is a sub-control tower for packaging management. Johan Faes: ‘Based on the detailed information in the cloud, we can take action. In the past, you sent each other

and trust in one another. ‘Plus the odd contract’ adds one of the partners at the table, to laughter. It’s so different from how it was before. ‘We take ownership seriously and we don’t take liberties. It’s not about profit maximisation in the short term, it’s about working together closely for years. It’s a bit like a marriage.’ All the parties that use the logistic services available at the campus must be prepared to share data. In the future, that might become a condition for locating at the campus, but it isn’t the case yet. A lot has already been developed and prepared in the field lab. A roadmap has been drawn up for how to achieve a state-of-the-art AML system. Ben Hamers: ‘We have a kind of menu with all the options in terms of logistics and packaging. Organisations at the campus can make use of that and buy services. We offer a basic package but also custom services.’

STICKING YOUR NECK OUT

‘We can watch everything quite openly: there is complete transparency’ purchase orders and order confirmations; now we get that information from the cloud.’ In terms of packaging, these days reduce, reuse, recycle are built in right from the start, adds Ben Hamers. ‘Which movements are there from A to B, which materials are needed, how can we design that in the most sustainable way? We are building a uniform packaging range with the minimum number of different packaging types and carriers.’ By carriers, he means, for example, AGVs, pallets, crates and wheeled containers.

It is a question of making a start and continuing to improve together. Hamers: ‘All of these efforts demand huge investments. Naturally there is a business model behind it. But everyone involved is really sticking their neck out to make those investments, in a real belief that it’s going to work out.’ Vorselaars: ‘Naturally we looked at examples elsewhere. There is a lot of talk about AML in Germany; in the Netherlands, there is a will to work together and really make it work.’ Of course there are bottlenecks: for example, developments in machine automation, mobile robots and AGVs are coming thick and fast. ‘We need to keep on ensuring that everything stays compatible.’ Bart van Dijck, project manager at FPC: ‘We know what we’re doing and where we want to get to. It calls for a lot of thinking outside the box, but in a couple of years you’ll see more of this.’ And perhaps the parties involved will roll out their AML system for the BIC in other high-tech clusters.

HURDLE All the parties involved in the field lab acknowledge that data-sharing is often still a hurdle to be overcome. How do we do that? Isn’t that scary? What will we be sharing? This approach at the BIC calls for absolute faith

www.rubix-group.nl www.faesgroup.com www.ijssel.com www.kmwe.com www.brainportindustriescampus.com

Special Issue - April 2019

THEME STRENGTH THROUGH COOPERATION

NEVER A DULL MOMENT AT BRAINPORT

BY PIM CAMPMAN

Not a day goes by without something happening at Brainport Industries, the high-tech ecosystem within which the 107 – or are there already more? – suppliers that are members of the cooperative play a crucial role. John Blankendaal, Managing Director of Brainport Industries and Marc Hendrikse, CEO of NTS (and until autumn 2016 President of Brainport Industries) on the value of that southern Netherlands ecosystem.

MARC HENDRIKSE, NTS CEO:

‘BUILDING MACHINES THAT VERGE ON THE IMPOSSIBLE’ arc Hendrikse is driving. ‘Yes, we are certainly busy. And the downturn in the semicon market in Asia is causing plenty of commotion. Never a dull moment.’ A good lead-in to the first question: in that volatile market, can you plan more than, say, three months ahead? ‘Not really. We do have an annual plan looking up to a year ahead, but you know when you draw it up that it’s not going to turn out that way. We develop and make products for end customers, the OEMs. If they sell more, we get to supply more. And vice versa: if their sales drop, we have to hold back. That’s the chain dynamic, and it calls for continuous tuning and planning adjustments.’

Managing the supply chain for very complex products is a big challenge, I once heard you say. ‘Yes it is. Over the past 15 years or so, the process accuracies in our customers’ machines, and hence the positioning accuracies required of us, have only increased. Whereas before we talked in terms of micrometres, we now talk in nanometres – and in the latest machines from ASML in some cases even in picometres. Those are machines that verge on the impossible. You can understand that the first version is not yet quite finished, and also that you will be hit with a flood of changes. That process of working together to constantly re-establish an equilibrium in a market that is itself volatile makes things tricky, but also challenging and fun.’ And in the Brainport ecosystem, you manage to achieve that with a very large number of players? ‘A very large number, and increasing all the time – not just firms that make stuff, but also firms that specialise in cleaning that stuff and in assuring processes. And they all have to achieve the same level at the same time. Because if one element is missing from the chain, the product won’t be right. That means we have to constantly help each other to raise

Special Issue - April 2019

the bar a little higher each time. Which is not easy, especially as there is a lot of pressure to get the product to market quickly. That increases the risk of hitting a manufacturability problem along the way – and of changes having to be made. Building a prototype is not usually the problem. The real question is, can you build one or two machines per week, at a good cost price? It’s more and more about engineering on the fly: you design a product, build it, verify that it does what it’s supposed to do and then you have to implement all kinds of changes in order to be able to manufacture the product within a regular process.’

Marc Hendrikse, NTS CEO: ‘At NTS, we are competing with Frencken and VDL-ETG in Singapore and China. That tells you something, doesn’t it?’ Photo: NTS

As co-founder and former president, do you believe the Brainport ecosystem helps firms get a grip on that process? ‘Absolutely: 1) you know one another, which makes contact and coordination easier. And 2) through the meetings we hold and the projects we do together, you get a good sense of all that is going on within those complex development and manufacturing processes – and who you can do projects with. Perhaps the most important thing is that you build up trust in each other as suppliers. Which means you can work together without first having to lay everything down in contracts. The attitude is: I know you well, I know what you can do – we’ll work it out. Given the time-to-market that is expected today, that is very important: by the time you have discussed everything

down to the last detail and formalised it contractually, the next change will have arrived.’ Which disciplines does Brainport need to focus on in order to remain a world leader? ‘Cleanliness, definitely. Because those accuracies are all increasing so much, you need to be top of the bill in terms of cleanliness. We also need to focus on accuracy itself, and on manufacturability. I think we Dutch high-tech suppliers have a unique combination of skills that makes us very attractive to international OEMs. At NTS, we are competing with Frencken and VDL-ETG in Singapore and China. That tells you something, doesn’t it?’

JOHN BLANKENDAAL OF BRAINPORT INDUSTRIES:

‘WE HAVE NAILED THE RIGHT AREAS TO MAKE REAL STRIDES’

‘T

here’s been a lot of buzz here’, says John Blankendaal from his new location at the Brainport Industries Campus (BIC). The building, which

measures 65,000 m2 and features an imposing entrance, is already just about full – ‘and over time we will be adding four or five more buildings at least as big’, says the Managing

Director of Brainport Industries. Convincing proof that the BIC concept – encouraging innovation by bringing together parties from high-tech manufacturing industry – works. Helping to deliver that mission is the ‘Factory of the Future’ innovation programme, which today numbers 65 companies and research institutes in its ranks. The seven Smart Industry field labs on campus are part of that. ‘The way to think of field labs is as experimentation environments, in which companies and research institutes, using state-of-the-art shared facilities, together take the next step in specific areas: production automation in the Flexible Manufacturing field lab, chain digitisation in The Smart Connected Supply Network field lab, and so on. At Brainport Industries, we want to be the frontrunner in Smart Industry on this campus.’ According to Blankendaal, Dutch high-tech manufacturing industry is in excellent shape seen from an international perspective. ‘I am positive about the future, although of course I would say that. But, seriously: I think we have nailed the right areas. Everything is in place to take really big strides in low volume, high complexity manufacturing industry.’ Are all links in the chain equally well represented in this region? ‘It would be good to have more large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the

Brainport region. That forces us to look outwards. OEMs located further away source worldwide. That’s why we have to make sure we are on their radar. Hence our internationalisation agenda. We have now been active in southern Germany for three years. There are a lot of strong high-tech companies there, not only in automotive but particularly also in medical technology. We are involved in activities with firms and business clusters in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg which are relevant to us. That cooperation is only increasing, and it is bringing results. Take the recent acquisition of 4Plus in Erlangen by Sioux.’ Does this region have an Achilles heel? ‘Yes, the limited availability of human capital. The people in our companies are well trained – and we are doing all we can to make them even better. But we simply have too few of them, we really do have a shortage of professionals. Over the next few years, more baby boomers will be leaving the labour force than school leavers joining it – and the birth rate is so low that this will continue to be a problem in the long term if we do nothing about it. Fortunately, we are: we are working with foreign workers, with sideways recruitment and with migrants/refugees. That shortage of people is forcing us to be innovative and develop new production technology, to

John Blankendaal, Managing Director of Brainport Industries: ‘Everything is in place to take really big strides in low volume, high complexity manufacturing industry.’ Photo: Bart van Overbeeke

further automate and robotise manufacturing processes, so that fewer people are needed and the limited number of people we have can be used for the right things. We need to display creativity and common sense in dealing with this issue.’

Special Issue - April 2019

STRATEGY VDL NEDCAR IN BORN: WORKING ON A NEW BUSINESSMODEL IN A RESETTING AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR

IMPRESSIVE HISTORY, CHALLENGING FUTURE For more than fifty years passenger cars have been built in Limburg, all in all more than five million by now. While the requirements of the automotive industry have changed dramatically in that half century, Born still proves to be a good location for the automotive industry. Paul van Vuuren and Jan Tulkens, board members of VDL Nedcar, explain and look ahead at a currently diffuse future. One, now three other Mini models and the BMW X1. ‘BMW wants to be able to continuously change models and personalise a car as much as possible, according to the wishes of the individual customer. And working on demand, on the order of the customer. BMW also wants a plant where it can build many different models, for split production, if the capacity of a dedicated plant elsewhere is fully utilised. This plant in Born has shown great flexibility over the years.’ Since 1967, 25 different models of different makes have been built on the line. From DAF and Volvo to Jan Tulkens (left) and Paul van Vuuren, board members of VDL Nedcar: ‘One day the demand for cars will decline, but not in the next few decades.’ Photo: Bram Saeys Daimler, Mitsubishi and now BMW. ‘And often several models at the same time. A large BY MARTIN VAN ZAALEN distribution hall. VDL Nedcar has recently part of this flexibility comes from the quality made grateful use of the many square metres of the people in this region, who are infused of storage space, to build up a stock of parts hen you drive on the A2 to VDL with a down-to-earth, no-nonsense mentality. large enough for about five to six weeks of Nedcar, you will see a high green Together they roll up their sleeves.’ production of the Mini One and the Mini wall looming shortly before the Countryman in anticipation of a hard Brexit. Born exit. It turns out to be a huge The parts come from British suppliers located WELL THOUGHT-OUT LOGISTICS around the BMW site in Oxford. The car proIn order to make the best possible use of this duction plant in Limburg has been specially workforce, VDL Nedcar has a well thoughtset up to provide the extra capacity required out system whereby employees with specific • The VDL Nedcar plant in Born excels in at any given time for these and other models. qualities are on the line exactly where those flexibility. Jan Tulkens, executive vice president responsiqualities are required at that particular • Often several models are built together at ble for the production final assembly, sums up moment. ‘For example, due to the lack of a the same time. the added value of VDL Nedcar: flexibility. load-bearing roof construction, the Mini • Efficiency improvement is constantly Convertible is a more complex car to build. monitored. When a number of these vehicles are on the SPLIT PRODUCTION • The current uncertainty in the automotive line, specialists are deployed at specific It is precisely the reason why BMW signed a sector has put a provisional end to a period contract with VDL Group in 2012. Briefly locations. We call them butterflies.’ of strong growth, also in Born. before that, VDL Group had acquired Nedcar; And what applies to the workforce applies initially only for the production of the Mini equally to components and modules that have

Special Issue - April 2019

z to be installed. The company does not only want to be in full control if there is a chance of a hard Brexit, but every day of the working week. ‘For this reason, we already take over responsibility for components and modules from the supplier. We provide the transport and keep track of all lorries online. If a lorry breaks down somewhere or if a driver has to take a break, we make sure that a smaller lorry quickly picks up the instantly required delivery.’ And that can sometimes be a long haul. ‘BMW wants its suppliers to be as close as possible to its own dedicated production plant. At the same time, our client wants to work with single source as much as possible. For us, this means that we have many suppliers in Eastern Europe who primarily supply the BMW site in Regensburg. Or in Oxford.’ The trailers arrive in Born no more than two days before the cargo is needed for production. To be unloaded exactly at the part of the line where the parts in question are used. ‘Just in time and just in sequence’, as Tulkens defines the method.

IST AND SOLL In addition to flexibility, car construction must of course also be carried out at the lowest possible cost. For this purpose, VDL Nedcar gratefully draws on more than fifty

years’ experience, says CEO Paul van Vuuren. ‘BMW does not just want us to build its cars, but also to learn from us. Here we still use the skills acquired during the time when this factory was owned by Mitsubishi. We are familiar

four years, we have succeeded in achieving an annual efficiency improvement of 3 to 5 percent. Actually, by making the best possible use of the production capacity. We develop quality to a first time right of 75 percent or more,

‘The main concern is to get global production capacity where it is most needed at the time’

with Japanese management strategies such as six sigma and kaizen. With the Ist model of continuously improving the current situation. We now combine this with the German Soll model, focused on how it should be. We want our preparation to be very thorough, with the intention of then producing flawlessly. But because that is of course a utopia, it is very useful that we also know exactly how to minimise the errors by means of continuous improvement.’

with a cycle time of 61 seconds. Exactly every 61 seconds a car comes off the conveyor belt’, says Tulkens with barely concealed pride. To further colour in this performance, Van Vuuren indicates that at the same time the complexity of the cars is increasing by the year: ‘Modern cars contain 15 to 20 percent more components than those of twenty years ago. But the components are also much more complex. Many of these components contain CPUs and embedded software that must be properly programmed at the end of the line,

61 SECONDS In this way, the requirements of both flexibility and low costs can be met. ‘Over the past

TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 21

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depending on the specifications of the model in question. A complex process with a corresponding risk of errors. Just to download a software-based car radio and get it properly programmed, we had to add five workstations of 61 seconds process time each to the line’, the CEO explains. ‘In the coming years, a better utilisation of the enormous amount of big data that the plant produces must result in further process improvement steps.

FOUR CONCERNS It must contribute to VDL Nedcar being able to look forward with confidence to a currently uncertain yet demanding future. Uncertain not only because of the Brexit and the trade

Board member Jan Tulkens is a real automotive man who has been working at Nedcar since 1982, with a ten-year break at roof systems supplier Inalfa. Paul van Vuuren has worked in the sector for the first time since starting in December 2017. However, he was not a stranger to this sector. The former ING man was for years the financial sounding board to former VDL president Wim van der Leegte as chairman of the ING region Oost-

fication – in this case, the conversion of a car into a ‘driving laptop’, as Tesla executive Elon Musk once put it – makes the step towards autonomous driving easier. ‘All this makes it possible for completely new players such as Google, Polestar and Lightyear to join, who will probably not sell cars, but kilometres. Your car will then be in an app on your smartphone with which you can order the car you need at that moment in no time’, says Van Vuuren, who is not immediately afraid of collapsing demand if the shared

‘It would be nice if we could soon serve a second and a third OEM'

conflicts between the US, China and Europe, but also because of the electrification of the car. ‘The most important concern of OEM management at the moment’, says Van Vuuren, ‘is to get global production capacity where it is most needed at the time. The threat of import tariffs comes after that. So, OEMs are now reluctant to invest in new plants until it is clear to what extent capacity needs to be built in the country where the market is, to avoid levies. The third concern is the Brexit and the fourth the electrification and everything that goes with it.’

NEW BUSINESS MODEL With the latter he refers to the need for OEMs to work out a new business model, whose outcome will certainly affect VDL Nedcar. ‘An electric car has a much simpler drive train. What does this mean for all OEM engine plants? It means less work, and the question is whether it will still be accepted if production work is outsourced elsewhere – here in Born, for example.’ Moreover, it is still unclear which electrical drive systems will prevail: hybrid systems, battery-powered or those equipped with a fuel cell? In addition, electri-

car gains popularity. ‘The global population will continue to grow in the coming years. A population that is also becoming more prosperous with a continually growing demand for mobility. One day the demand for cars will decline, but not in the next few decades.’

GROWING PAINS The current uncertainty in the automotive sector has put a provisional end to a period of strong growth, also in Born. Last year was the fourth year in Nedcar’s history in which more than 200,000 cars were produced. In the second half of 2014, the year in which production for BMW started, that number was ‘only’ 30,000. A very rapid ramp-up indeed, which was only possible by increasing the number of staff accordingly: from 1,450 in 2014 to 7,200 last year. This number has now dropped by more than a thousand people after BMW announced production cuts last autumn. In Born, this decline was anticipated by building up a flexible staff complement. Relieving the growing pains that are still felt requires much more energy from Paul van Vuuren.

Brabant and in that role closely involved in the acquisition of Nedcar by VDL in 2012. At the same time, he led various reorganisation processes for ING. So Wim van der Leegte’s request to him to take on the role of CEO of VDL Nedcar was a logical one. ‘Paul is the mediator and motivator we need to take VDL Nedcar, together with our colleagues in Born, to the next phase’, says president Van der Leegte, explaining the appointment.

ATTENTION TO HR ‘Such rapid growth, with so many new people in such a short time, from the Netherlands but also from Germany, Belgium, Poland, even Syria – there are 67 nationalities here – causes miscommunication and tensions in the workplace. At the same time, this organisation had to become much more commercial and get used to the idea that it is no longer a well embedded subsidiary that can ask the parent company for extra budget to make up for any deficits. This is a vehicle contract manufacturer, who has to serve its customer optimally at the lowest possible cost’, says Van Vuuren, explaining why he currently pays a lot of attention to HR matters. This involves a new assessment system, establishing clear consultation structures, setting up leadership and talent management programmes, convening round table meetings, etcetera. ‘Very important, because ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’, he says, quoting the American consultant Peter Drucker, whose quote was made famous by Mark Fields, former CEO of Ford.

SECOND OEM However, VDL Nedcar does not have to weather the turbulence in the global automotive industry all by itself, as the company is of course part of the VDL Group. Jan Tulkens says, ‘With companies such as VDL Steelweld, VDL Enabling Transport Solutions and of course VDL Bus & Coach on board, we possess a great deal of knowledge of building vehicles, including electric ones. It’s not for nothing that for three years we have been joining the BMW designers before each production start of a model.’ The current contract with BMW ends in 2023. Paul van Vuuren and Jan Tulkens are confident that the partnership with BMW will be extended. Nevertheless, contacts are ongoing with other potential clients, including in China. ‘It would be nice if we could soon serve a second and a third OEM. Not necessarily with the construction of a complete car. We are also already diversifying, for example by offering the construction of a complete module. We must safeguard our independence and hence our future.’ www.vdlnedcar.nl

Special Issue - April 2019

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Special Issue - April 2019

The Dutch company Preceyes developed the world’s rst robotic system for eye surgery. While the opera ting surgeon is looking through a microscope, he is operating a joystick whose motion is transmitted to a robotic arm. The robot scales the motion down. This means that when the surgeon moves the joystick by a centimeter, the tip of the robotic arm moves only a millimeter. Meanwhile the other hand performs manual tasks as required. The motions of the robotic arms are performed by the highprecision drive systems of maxon motor.

STRATEGY DEMCON: FOCUSED ON THE SOUTHERN REGION, NOW FROM BIGGER PREMISES IN BEST

‘WE WANT TO LAND TWO TO THREE STARTUPS THIS YEAR’ It began as a challenge from his customer ASML: why didn’t Dennis Schipper set up a location in North Brabant for his firm Demcon? Wouldn’t that better in terms of collaboration and their connection with the region? Schipper couldn’t say no to that. And so six years ago, Demcon moved into an industrial unit in Son. Since then, the company has grown substantially and it is now housed in larger premises in Best, where there is room for startups like Hemics.

DOOR ANDRÉ RITSEMA

nd there was another reason to also to open an office in North Brabant, says Schipper. ‘There are lots of top tech people working in our region, people who are a perfect fit for us. But we didn’t want to move them all to Twente, where our head office is located. So if we wanted to have those good people, we needed to have a regional presence.’

MECHATRONICS Demcon was founded in Enschede in 1993 by Schipper and his partner Peter Rutgers, who knew each other from the University of Twente. Schipper had just completed a four-year PhD assignment on the opportunities and possibilities of mechatronics, the combination of collaborative engineering disciplines, such as electrical engineering and control systems engineering. Over the past 25 years, Demcon has evolved from a mechatronic design agency to a technology developer and manufacturer – partly through autonomous growth, partly through acquisitions. There is a Demcon Group, described by Schipper as a ‘high-end technology supplier of products and services’. The group numbers several firms, including Advanced Mechatronics, Metal Injection Moulding, Finapres Medical Systems and Production. Late last year, the company had 615 employees spread over five sites and a turnover of about 60 million euros. For all those years, Schipper says, the company has held onto its original idea: to be a technology firm where innovation is paramount and where content is more important than form.

TOO SMALL Of those 615 people, 120 are currently employed at the Brabant site, which opened last year in Best. The building in Son had become too small. The move makes it possible for Demcon to continue to grow in the region.

CEO Dennis Schipper: ‘Here we have room to bring in and coach regional start-ups as an incubator.’ Photo: Demcon

‘In the new building, we have more office space, bigger labs and a large cleanroom’, says Schipper. ‘And we have room to bring in and coach regional start-ups as an incubator – like we do in Enschede. That is a role that suits us well. It’s good for us and good for the region. It generates mutual insights and new knowledge. And we enjoy doing it. By the end of the year, we want to have landed two to three small firms.’

‘We can consolidate some more this year and develop steadily’ Demcon is serious about being here and playing a role in the region, says Schipper. ‘Whenever there are major developments or initiatives, for example from the Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (Brabant Development Agency), we are involved. We are part of the conversation, we put forward ideas and contribute our knowledge and experience. And we are also part of Brainport Industries, in which regional companies work together to increase their innovative clout.’

ACQUISITION OF HEMICS Schipper feels that Demcon also takes its responsibilities seriously in other ways. In late

December 2018, it acquired Hemics, a developer of technology for monitoring rheumatism patients which is based in the same region. Hemics has developed a Hand Scan product which can be used to diagnose (the extent of) rheumatism. ‘We had teamed up with Hemics in 2012 to develop products and jointly manufacture them. But their shareholders felt things were moving too slowly. They lost confidence and let the company go bankrupt. We thought that was a shame, because we believe the Hand Scan has great potential, being compact, patient-friendly and affordable. The Dutch rheumatism charity Reumafonds believes there is a demand for Hemics’s product, and various clinic have also shown an interest. So we took their people on and moved them into our office in Best. Over the time to come we will be looking into whether and how we can get the product onto the market.’ This year Demcon Best needs to develop further, says Schipper. He expects to have a workforce of about 150 people by the end of the year. That growth will come from a focus on existing markets (such as high-tech systems), but also by identifying new markets, such as industrial systems. ‘But I don’t think we will achieve the growth target of 40 percent compared to 2018 this year. And we don’t have to. We still have concrete acquisitions planned. We can consolidate some more this year and develop steadily, that’s fine too.’ www.demcon.nl/en/

Special Issue - April 2019

INNOVATION INNOVATIVE ENTREPRENEURS TALK IN LINK CAFÉ ABOUT THE NEED FOR INNOVATION

‘WOULD YOU HAVE DONE THE SAME?’ Innovation is exhilarating. But there are ways of getting more of a grip on things. That’s when what was once thought impossible becomes a reality, such as perfectly autonomous cars or 3D spectacle lenses with wonderful applications. To mention just a couple of examples from the Link Café. That meeting was held in the former Honig soup factory in Nijmegen at the end of March. ‘Totally new players have a great deal of influence on what our market looks like.’

vation. ‘Nijmegen is our biggest and best facdriver like Verstaptory’, says Maurice Geraets. NXP has invested pen with an autonotens of millions in it in recent years. NXP sees mous car is a major numerous social challenges and opportunities challenge that would to home in on using electronics. Artificial take the technology intelligence, Internet of Things, connectivity, to its outermost machine learning, edge computing, he says, limits. That final 10 listing the associated terms. That will call for percent automation smart chips for cloud solutions and devices. is 100 times harder An awful lot of chips. than the first 90 perThe number of transistors on a square centicent. But it should metre chip doubles every 18 months, so either happen sometime an electronic product halves in price or it can between 2030 and do twice as much. Those chips will equip the 2035. But who cars of the future with human eyes and ears, knows, perhaps we’ll and they’ll be connected to one another and end up with complethe Internet, be given camera functionality, tely different become electric. ‘Not merely from the concepts than are Joost van Abeelen, COO of Luxexcel: ‘That market inundated with major players and small perspective of a technology push, but because conceivable at margins isn’t an interesting one to start out in’. Photos: Gerard Verschooten this will see the industry addressing the chalpresent. That would lenges in the world, such as cleaner air, safer see us driving comdriving and greater attention to sustainability.’ pletely autonomously to Amsterdam – not to BY LUCY HOLL The 380 dollars’ worth of chips currently in a the city centre but to the RAI congress centre ould you ever see Max Verstappen car on average is set to increase dramatically, on the outskirts, for instance – thus avoiding driving an autonomous car? That insists Geraets. ‘An autonomous car at level the really big, challenging routes through a question is put to Maurice Geraets, global city.’ Smart Managing Director of NXP Netherpeople movers will lands, at the end of his presentation. Sure, is then take people into his response. He once heard Max and former the city centre. top driver Jan Lammers talking about it. Lammers would rather have the total certainty CHIPS, AN AWFUL of driving himself, he stated. Verstappen was LOT OF CHIPS a little more laconic. Driving on a Dutch Chip producer NXP motorway isn’t really driving anyway, so why (9.4 billion dollars not let that be done automatically, he said. annual turnover Obviously Verstappen would rather have the worldwide, 30,000 steering wheel firmly in his own two hands on staff, including 3,000 the racetrack. ‘But how long will it be until in the Netherlands) Verstappen is beaten by a self-driving car?’, has been fully indewonders one of the 60 or so participants from pendent from its forindustry and professional services. Quite mer parent company some time yet, Maurice Geraets estimates. No Philips for around two autonomous cars are the same. It is still 13 years now. Its site possible to develop a car that will function in Nijmegen has a Ad van Berlo, a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and founder of innovative pretty well automatically on the motorway 66-year history of design bureau VanBerlo in Eindhoven: ‘Distinguishing oneself by means of material value and prevent collisions. ‘Beating a Formula 1 production and inno- isn’t everything. What’s your immaterial value like?’

Special Issue - April 2019

five is the ultimate goal. Level two is what you see in clips on the motorway now. They contain hundreds of dollars’ worth of extra chips. That presents a huge opportunity for us, though also a great deal of responsibility.’

communication between cars is around already, but only for simple information and it isn’t yet transferable across the plethora of brands that exist.’

RETROFIT DOES NOT EXIST CROSSING IN AN ORDERLY FASHION NXP Semiconductors is the world’s number one in chips for cars. If the market mushrooms, then the company will need to invest heavily in order to defend or even expand on that position. NXP Eindhoven and Nijmegen spend a quarter of a billion dollars a year on their R&D. Autonomous driving calls for interplay between a large number of parties, including entirely new ones: Google with its Internet, Rijkswaterstaat, which will need to invest in technology capable of understanding those autonomous cars. Alibaba has Alicloud, a cloud platform for car entertainment. ‘These totally new players have a great deal of influence on what our market looks like. We need to get involved. The complexity is huge.’ Maurice Geraets shows a clip of a car righting itself on a slippery road surface fully automatically. As well as cars that communicate with one another and simultaneously cross a junction unmanned and without colliding. That’s not so much to do with AI or sensors, but rather with them simply telling each other what their intention is and negotiating priority. ‘It’ll be a fairly long time until this is possible, because that standardisation of

The big question is what could be done to expedite the autonomous driving market. It has a positive impact on road safety, on emissions, on road use. NXP is keen to solve social problems more rapidly and at the same time get more business from it. ‘When you look at the total chaos that exists on Vietnamese streets, then you’re forced to recognise that self-driving cars are still a long way away from coping with something like that. But on the other hand, you’d have had dozens of coaches and one car driving on 5th Avenue in New York back in 1900. A decade or so later the opposite was the case. More change will come in the automotive sector over the next decade than has come over the past 50 years.’ We do, of course, have a legacy on our hands: the average car in the Netherlands is now 10 years old and there are no retrofit solutions to incorporate autonomous driving technology. But there’s no need to panic now, as if 15 percent are capable of autonomous driving then that will already have a tremendous effect. After all, the traffic between these vehicles will adapt to those cars optimising their behaviour. Legislation will also need to move with the times. And then there will be many

FIFTH EDITION LINK CAFÉ Link Magazine’s fifth Link Café, sponsored by Siemens Industry Software and Berenschot, was held in Nijmegen at the end of March, in an old factory where Honig used to make its soups. This time round, the Industriële Kring voor Nijmegen en Omgeving was involved in organising the Link Café. The theme: ‘the necessity of innovation and the structures thereof’. Between the speeches the participants came to the table in an informal atmosphere and discussed questions presented by the speakers. In excess of 60 OEMs and suppliers attended the event. Joes Wigman, Managing Director of the Operations advisory group at Berenschot, conducted the afternoon session. www.nxp.com www.luxexcel.com www.vanberlo.nl www.plm.automation.siemens.com www.berenschot.nl www.iknijmegen.nl

people who are opposed to autonomous driving or the vast quantities of data collection surrounding it. An idea from the audience: ‘Maybe we should completely write off one TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 26

www.aaebv.com

Special Issue - April 2019

maximum of 25 euros technology to the optical lens market. We’re per lens for the focusing on low-volume, high-value products manufacturer. That first so as to prove the technology. We’re a market inundated sexy start-up, but we’ll always need to work with major players with partners with access to the end customer. and small margins And additional technologies will have to come isn’t an interesting from technology partners. It’s a major quest. one to start out in.’ Would you have done the same? Or would Which is why Luxexyou instead have chosen that mass market? cel chose the ophthalThe current industry will always be able to mic specials. Everyoutperform us. We’re the newcomers who still thing beyond a have a lot to learn.’ prescription of minus Ad van Berlo responds: ‘Respect for you as a Between the speeches the participants came to the table in an informal atmosphere and six and plus six is not bona fide tech start-up. But how can such a discussed quetions presented by the speakers. a mass market. The printed lens genuinely benefit the consumer? prices are a good deal Approach the user. Find out where the added generation for autonomous driving: those higher. ‘Great for us to test the water. And we value lies and look for a printer to suit that – people fixated on driving themselves.’ can fly under the radar somewhat, as the big not the other way round.’ boys aren’t as interested in this segment. We Another suggestion from the audience: ‘Be a started out with special lenses – with a high one-stop shop: the customer gets his eyes LAYER BY LAYER prismatic power, for instance. Or a pair of tested and says straight off what AR he wants Speaker Joost van Abeelen, COO of Luxexcel, spectacles for a pilot, with a reading segment added and then you just go ahead and print.’ is faced with significant innovation issues of at the top rather than at the bottom. An optiOr license the technology for use by other a completely different sort, he says. Luxexcel cian orders lenses from a lab that makes them. parties. This is definitely something Luxexcel was founded 10 years ago around a unique So that’s where we position our printers. We is considering, continues Van Abeelen. technology to make transparent components do things on a pay-per-print basis, in order to on a 3D printer. The company initially focuensure our new technology succeeds without sed on any and every market dealing with ARE YOU RELEVANT? investing too much in a lab.’ those types of component, but is now concenAd van Berlo, a professor at Eindhoven UniSo it is a great technology, but all you are trating on spectacle lenses. ‘Two questions are versity of Technology and founder of innoactually doing is replavative design bureau VanBerlo in Eindhoven, cing a current method and his colleague Bart Versteeg have done a of production, acknowlot of research in conjunction with TIAS into ledges Van Abeelen. design-driven innovation and so-called Which is why Luxexcel Creative Equity (measuring capacity for innostarted exploring the vation). The user plays a key role with all his question: what could demands and requirements. Van Berlo: ‘The be possible that is not world is complex and dynamic. How do you currently possible? keep up as an entrepreneur? We’ve got to ‘We started talking to continuously transform and innovate, but people from other what you produce does actually need to work. segments, looking for We’re very much an advocate of open innopossible combinations. If you’re printing vation. Not because it’s so fun and easy, but always put to us: how can you print a transpaquite simply because companies need each rent lens at all? Well, using printer heads that lenses, then could you stick another layer in other. Cooperate in clear alliances.’ build up the lens with really fine droplets layer between? Foil, for instance, which you could Change isn’t about me, myself and I, he adds. by layer. The material we use has great properactivate with a battery to turn your glasses into McKinsey surveyed 2,200 CEOs and – ties for the ophthalmic industry, including the a pair of sunglasses just like that. Or a wavelamentably – just 6 percent of them are happy correct refractive index. And very importantguide for augmented reality. There’s plenty of with their company’s own development and ly: no finishing work is necessary. Straight potential for AR, but not with those huge gogaway what comes out the printer is the correct innovation. Worse still, they don’t really gles on your head. A pair of glasses has now prescription and doesn’t need to be polished’, been developed for says Van Abeelen, who passes a sample round use in warehouses the room as proof. The second question put to and the medical sechim: is it the real deal? ‘Absolutely. We’re tor, with information already printing lenses for the commercial being plotted on the market in the US.’ lens. We take care of the lens prescription. That’s something that FLYING UNDER THE RADAR has us working flat That ophthalmic industry is big: at the end of out. The waveguide the day, 60 percent of all people need eye corwill be something for rection, at an ever younger age. This is a mass a partner to do.’ customisation product. Each and every lens is tailor-made and that is exceptionally interesting for 3D printing. ‘The sale price of a MAJOR QUEST lens varies from double figures to hundreds of What is the way foreuros. The wider market is served by Specward, Van Abeelen savers, Kruidvat, with their reading glasses, asks the room. ‘We’re An idea from the audience: ‘Maybe we should completely write off one generation for sunglasses as well as varifocals. We’re talking a busy bringing that 3D autonomous driving: those people fixated on driving themselves.’

Could you ever see Max Verstappen driving an automated guided vehicle?

Special Issue - April 2019

know what the root cause is. Van Berlo has one important question for the entrepreneur: how will you stay relevant with your products over the next few years? ‘Ostensibly a simple question. Look at three things: what are the capabilities of your staff like, the skills to develop? Is there a culture of innovation? And do you have a well-honed proposition: who are your customers, are you competitive?’ It’s about creating value. Distinguishing oneself by means of material value isn’t everything. What’s your immaterial value like: how are you framing and positioning yourself, what’s your drive, what do you belie-

ve in?’ Look at things from the perspective of the user: what does he need, how can the business adapt to meet that need?

INNOVATION ENGINE

‘At VanBerlo, we know how a company can lend its innovation structure’, says innovation strategist Bart Versteeg. Innovation is regarded as something vague, the fuzzy front end. ‘But if you know what you’re doing, then innovation really isn’t all that complicated.’ He shows a slide of the Innovation Engine: an innovation strategy is crucial, as is an innovation portfolio (where are your markets and customers?) and innovation processes (how do you structure your processes within the company?) and the innovation practice (what methods are you using?). And do you have your innovation governance in order? What measuring points are relevant? Bart Versteeg could keep listing questions: do people feel Maurice Geraets, Managing Director of NXP Netherlands: ‘Beating a Formula 1 driver like safe and free to put Verstappen with an autonomous car is a major challenge that would take the technology to its forward ideas? Is the outermost limits’.

company integrated within networks? These are often soft values, but they are extremely important. ‘If your innovation climate is poor, then your company isn’t innovative at all. Is there an opportunity to go against the grain or does nobody ever cast a critical eye over things.’ And note his words: if a company’s vision isn’t clear, then nothing new will ever be created. Further information on Versteeg’s research into the factors that determine a company’s capacity for innovation can be found in Link Magazine April 2019.

Special Issue - April 2019

SYSTEM INTEGRATION VIRO IS FOCUSED ON SYSTEM INTEGRATION FOR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS

STRONG AT SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE VIRO is a multidisciplinary engineering firm capable of covering the entire chain – from specification to implementation and commissioning of machinery or equipment – for customers. In recent years VIRO has bolstered its strength in electrical engineering & instrumentation and software & control, coming as it does from a mechanical perspective. Thus enabling VIRO to provide system integration both in industrial projects – where the scope has always encompassed the full installation – and in mechanical engineering – where system architecture and advanced control determine the added value these days.

Jacob Vlasma, Site Manager at VIRO Hengelo: ‘We work closely with the customer, particularly in the initial phase of a project, to gain solid insight into what he wants and to immediately be able to validate whether that corresponds to what it is we’re developing.’ Photos: VIRO

BY HANS VAN EERDEN

IRO has 700 staff, and in addition to its head office in Hengelo (NL) has another four sites in the Netherlands, three in Germany and one in Austria. The international engineering firm specialises in engineering and project management and is specifically focused on product engineering, mechanical engineering and industrial projects. VIRO was well-known as an engineering firm with a mechanical engineering bent, but it has always worked in a multidisciplinary fashion within the compass of industrial projects. So says Edwin Brunenberg, who heads up the Industrial Projects department in Echt. ‘Taking care of electrical engineering and instrumentation technology, plant design, construction and architecture, we cover a wide range of disciplines for clients in such

market segments as chemicals, energy and paper. We always look at the factory or production facility as a whole, which needs to be operating at maximum efficiency by generating maximum output with minimal downtime. In order to be able to achieve this, you need a complete overview in engineering, and you can’t fixate on technical details.’ Likewise, a broad, ‘holistic’ view is required in mechanical engineering, explains Jacob Vlasma, Site Manager at VIRO Hengelo. ‘High tech is developing rapidly, and time and again the interactions between the various subsystems are greater in scope, thereby increasing the complexity of projects. A development we’re happy to keep pace with, as it gives us more of a challenge in our work. Which is why we’ve bolstered our strength in hardware engineering and routing, for electrical engineering and instrumentation, as well as in software engineering, for the control, all in all summed up as SIM (Smart Industrial Machinery). This makes us a fully fledged partner for our customers, enabling them to concentrate on their specialisms. We have mastered the surrounding disciplines, including throughout the supply chain. Our customer does the system integration for his machine, we do it for the module or partly completed machinery that we supply to him.’

and develop a concept, and sometimes we carry out a feasibility study for the new product or system first.’ If there is confidence in the new product, then VIRO will flesh out the specifications by questioning the various stakeholders at the customer’s place of business – from management, production, testing department, etc. ‘Headed up by a system architect, the team translates the query into a functional overview: what functionality is required for fulfilment of the specifications to be possible? We flesh out that functional overview into a system design. In this regard, we come to the table with the various disciplines to acquire and maintain a picture of the interaction between the subsystems. By working in sprints and producing demos, we regularly check whether that information has been properly understood, thus preventing an uncontrolled increase in the range of interpretations. We also see to it that the supply chain is connected up early on in the development process, enabling parties to contribute their thoughts on the feasibility. After all, we do get prototypes and small series built, but our ambition isn’t to start providing series production ourselves. We’ve got a good team of project managers and system architects in place for the purposes of managing this engineering process. Combined with the TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 31

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING As a multidisciplinary engineering firm, VIRO uses the famous V model for mechanical engineering projects, says Vlasma. ‘A lot of customers are working with it too. It helps us to keep a proper record of the engineering processes and to share the right information with the right team members at the right time, internally and at the customer’s site. We work closely with the customer, particularly in the initial phase of a project, to gain solid insight into what he wants and to immediately be able to validate whether that corresponds to what it is we’re developing.’ It all starts with the customer’s query. ‘Sometimes we put together the specifications

Edwin Brunenberg, Head of Industrial Projects department at VIRO in Echt: ‘Within industrial projects the focus was always on system integration, with a lot of time in the concept phase being devoted to harmonisation between the disciplines.’

Special Issue - April 2019

CONTINUATION OF PAGE 29

personal contact with the customer, it’s this process management that makes us strong.’ That said, Vlasma is keen to keep expanding staffing of hardware and software engineering. ‘The aim is to get the department to grow to around 55-60 FTE by 2021.’ The recent takeover of software firm Dacon ECP ties in with this ambition (see the Dutch-language April edition of Link).

INDUSTRIAL PROJECTS The V model approach has been common in the industrial sector for quite some time now, adds Edwin Brunenberg. ‘Within industrial projects the focus was always on system integration, with a lot of time in the concept phase being devoted to harmonisation between the disciplines. Because in industry they’re used to chopping up the actual engineering and production of equipment into chunks and assigning these to different partners or contractors. What’s more, we’re seeing a trend towards the end customer having less and less technical knowledge. Meaning that within a project we’re having to shield the customer – at both a conceptual and detailed level – from technical problems that he’s no longer in a position to anticipate. In the case of machine or process safety, for instance, some modifications to existing equipment mean that safety can no longer

be guaranteed.’ When it comes to approaching system integration, the worlds of mechanical engineering and industrial projects learn from one another within VIRO, says Brunenberg. ‘They might seem to be worlds apart. The accuracy to within millimetres in a processing plant, for example, is nowhere near enough for a semiconductor machine. There is a match in terms of process, however, particularly when it comes to project management and the disciplines of control technology and electrical engineering. One thing we are seeing, though, is that a control system needs to last for 10-15 years without modifications being necessary, whereas updates are possible much more rapidly in mechanical engineering.’

NEW TENDERING MODEL Process engineering is somewhat more conservative than high tech, explains Brunenberg, though VIRO does of course home in on new technological developments for this sector too. ‘Control systems are becoming smarter, meaning that the intelligence of machinery or equipment doesn’t need to be as high. And mechatronics is increasingly superseding “old-fashioned” actuators.’ But he does not anticipate a revolution erupting around Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things (IoT). ‘The technology has been available for quite some time now. Although the sensor technology has become less expensive and

incorporating big data is now extremely straightforward, it’s still rare that I’m surprised by a brilliant perspective or a genuinely new business case. The knowledge and expertise and the technology for IoT is there, so now the thing to do is to start thinking outside the box.’ What is spectacular is the changes in terms of the relationship with clients for industrial projects. Brunenberg is referring to the tendering model and illustrates this by way of a project for TenneT, operator of high-voltage electricity grids. The project pertained to the engineering of new switching and distribution stations and in particular to the renovation of the existing stations too. ‘It used to be that we’d have to engineer these stations in line with detailed instructions from TenneT on how they needed to be built. In the model from UAV-GC (an integrated contractual form in which the responsibility for the design is shifted from client to contractor, ed.) we’re largely able to decide on the details ourselves, based on the requirements drawn up by the client. It goes without saying that we need to demonstrate that the result satisfies all requirements. VIRO was the first engineering firm to adopt this new way of working for TenneT. That took a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but together with the client we achieved a good result.’ Talk about integration. www.viro.nl

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Special Issue - April 2019

INNOVATION ‘HEALTHCARE MEETS INDUSTRY’ TALKING PARTICIPANTS EXCHANGE INSIGHTS AND CONCERNS.

THE PRIVACY EXCUSE AND FRAGMENTATION ARE OBSTACLES TO INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE Innovation, social and technological, is absolutely crucial in order to keep the healthcare system in the Netherlands, with its ageing population, at a high level and accessible to all. The sector is well aware of this, and a number of healthcare institutions are working on the issue. But real progress will require a major change of direction – within the sector, among health insurance companies and in government. A common platform, in which the care sector, the interest groups around it and med tech work closely together in order to make ‘1 plus 1 equal more than 2’: that would make a huge difference.

BY PIM CAMPMAN

his is the conclusion from the round table Clockwise, starting on the left: Chris Doomernik (director Health Valley), Valer Pop (CEO Life Sense), Marie Louise Vossen (director GGzE), discussion on 19 March Bert Tournois (CEO TDI), Willem Schellekens (Papayagogo, ING innovation), Chris Borgers (CFO Hittech Group), Marion Blohmenröhr (director held in the former boiler programme management at Synthon), Stanley Alards (director Healthcare ING Large Business), John van Ginkel (publisher Link Magazine), house – now partly converted Gert Jan Braam (Industry sector banker, ING), Gerrit van der Beek (CEO AME), Niels de Bruin (owner/CEO CLB Integrated Solutions), into a brasserie – on the site Jeroen van de Pas (director Philadelphia), Janne Brok (director Sioux LIME), Renco Kraak (director Industry, ING South-East Region), Thomas Plochg (director NPHF, federation for health), John Bierings (CFO Koraal), Arjan Karens (general manager Philips VitalHealth), of GGzE, Eindhoven mental Paul Mencke (partner Govers Accountants, moderator) and Pim Campman (reporter). Photos: Bart van Overbeeke health services. The organisers, ING and Link Magazine, have keeping everything as it was. Let’s have the brought together thirteen parties for this sophisticated. ‘You can get a long way by using guts to be a bit less conventional sometimes.’ ‘Healthcare meets Industry’ TalkING session. technology that already exists.’ They animatedly shared insights and also concerns. Paul Mencke (a partner at Govers TOO FAR A HUGE MOUNTAIN OF DATA Accountants) was the moderator, with Stanley But: driving innovation in the care sector is Jeroen van de Pas, a director of Philadelphia Alards (Healthcare director for ING Large very difficult. In the discussion about the first Zorg, agrees: ‘When I started at Philadelphia Business) as his sidekick. proposition put forward by Mencke, the three and a half years ago, everyone was central question is: how do you handle patient talking about AI and big data. I’m not saying data, not least in the light of new AVG-legisnothing happened, but in healthcare data is IMMENSELY CHALLENGING lation that makes citizens the owners of their primarily used for management purposes. In What can I do, what do I want and what can data? GgzE director Marie Louise Vossen sees we do for each other to tackle the not insigterms of data analysis, we are still in the stone undesirable effects: ‘The board of the GGZ nificant challenges facing the cure & care age. Yet we are sitting on a huge mountain of Benchmark Foundation (which uses patient sector: offering high(er) quality care that is data, which could enable us to make much data to compare the quality of care instituaccessible to everyone, while the demand for bigger improvements.’ One reason for this tions, ed.) is calling it a day, because some care increases and a shortage of health care inertia, he and others say, is that government idiot has figured out that there may be a providers occurs. and health insurance companies are not privacy problem. Everyone is getting the All the participants wholeheartedly agreed providing ‘a single euro’ for innovation. ‘We jitters: “Oh God, imagine if someone takes that part of the solution lies in social innothink this is so important that we should be a care institution to court.” The consequence vation, such as improved working methods reserving a substantial part of the money for is that we can pretty much throw away most in order to be able to do more with less and our normal activities to fund it. Despite the of the data collected over the last five years. reduce the workload. And technological significant resistance to the idea, we continue This has really gone too far.’ innovation offers plenty of opportunities for to advocate that.’ Thomas Plochg, director of In her view, data and data analysis are essenimprovement. Robotisation, artificial intellithe NPHF healthcare Federation, also sees tial for the ability to innovate in smart ways, gence (AI), Internet of Things, big data – all data as an enormous driver of improvement. informed by patient needs. ‘We are not going were discussed. Even if, according to Gerrit ‘Although discussions about this issue are to solve increased healthcare consumption van der Beek (CEO of Eindhoven-based and care costs and the shortage of people by AME), it doesn’t all have to be terribly TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

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often reduced to privacy aspects. Privacy as an excuse not to change.’

COMMERCIAL MARKET Plochg raises another point: ‘Those huge corporations that are leading the way in data mining and analysis are also eyeing up the care industry. Imagine companies like Facebook, Apple and Amazon offering healthcare. It’s great that you can manage your health yourself, but a dominant commercial healthcare market has its own risks. Before you know it, we could be facing an elitist market, from which the lowest socio-economic class, the very people who can benefit from care the most, are excluded. And secondly: the business model of a company like Facebook is to sell on data they acquire for free. As a federation, we are definitely concerned about that trend towards ‘Big Brother is watching health’.’ In terms of data ownership and privacy protection, a lot is going to change. Alards cites PSD2 legislation, Vossen the ‘personal health environment’, a digital tool that gives citizens access to their own health data and enables them to collect, manage and share it.

LIFEBLOOD ‘Data is our lifeblood. Without data, we would not exist’, says CEO Valer Pop. The med tech company markets a wireless non-invasive method that quickly cures women of urine loss, something that is common after a pregnancy, for example. ‘We do that by measuring when urine loss occurs and which pelvic floor muscle is most damaged. Based on that data – and on parameters like age, weight and activity during urine loss – we suggest a training programme that accelerates the healing process, and we also monitor that.’ A smart data solution, underwear with sensors and a training programme are what Life Sense’s success is based on. ‘When we started out in July 2015, the healing process took sixteen weeks on average, with a success rate of 60 percent. Our method has improved that to six to eight weeks and 85 percent.’ And what about privacy? ‘We don’t sell data, we don’t ask for names and addresses – but we do ask for permission. And we get it, because who wouldn’t want to contribute to rapid healing in tens of thousands of women all over the world?’

SIGNIFICANT HEALTHCARE CUTS The software company VitalHealth – known as Philips VitalHealth since its takeover in late 2017 – supports healthcare networks engaging in multidisciplinary collaboration in the primary and secondary healthcare chains in some 30 regions of the Netherlands. General manager Arjan Karens: ‘We do that by better coordinating colla-boration around clients, measuring the results and actively involving citizens and patients in their care processes. In doing so, we offer clients a

single good, secure care access point. An example of a healthcare network is the Oss-Uden-Veghel region. A few years ago, VitalHealth set up an open platform there linking together all 140 GP information systems in a network based around chronic care programmes. The GPs work closely with Bernhoven hospital in this region with 300,000 inhabitants. Thanks to the cooperation in the care network, the hospital has achieved a reduction of 16 percent in production, despite patient growth of 6 percent. Moreover, patient satisfaction has increased.’

FROM AFTERCARE TO PRE-CARE When it comes to datasharing, many care professionals are still hesitant, agrees Karens. ‘We need to make sure they understand the added value of data-sharing. Take chronic patients such as diabetics; they need a lot of attention from GPs. The protocol is to visit the GP four times a year. But what do we see? A lot of patients in the ‘safe zone’ visit their practices far more often than that. With our self-care solution, this category of patients can keep track of their own blood sugar levels at home, massively reducing the burden on GPs. In Alphen aan den Rijn, the number of visits for patients with a cardiovascular risk went down from four to one per year. So yes, data-sharing can help organise medical practice more efficiently.’ To which Plochg responds: ‘What links my seventy federation members to-gether is that we want to move from aftercare to pre-care. Our healthcare system is fantastic at dealing with acute and chronic problems. That success is also a danger; clinging to it could well bankrupt our healthcare system. What we need to move towards is prevention, a healthy lifestyle.’ Later he adds: ‘Allow me to be provocative for a moment: let’s look at diabetes from the opposite perspective – it’s simply lifestyle medicine. GPs would be better off sending 75 percent of their patients to the greengrocer’s rather than the pharmacy.’

A BRIDGE TOO FAR What comes up again and again is the fact that there are many issues to be resolved when it comes to data collection and analysis. Chris

Doomernik, director of Health Valley (a national network that brings together parties in the healthcare sector and inspires them to innovate more quickly), responds to an FD article that host Mencke has put on the table: residents of a new neighbourhood in Helmond are being offered the chance to reduce their housing costs by giving up data. ‘I think persuading people to share data, maybe without understanding the consequences, is unethical. For me that’s a bridge too far.’ Plochg responds: ‘That ship has sailed: the whole of social media is based on doing just that.’ And also: ‘Data storage can have a stigmatising effect and have a big impact on the rest of your life.’ Karens tries a different tack: ‘If, as a society, we want better and smarter care for our population, we will have to facilitate easier and secure sharing of medical data.’

‘I ACCEPT’ COOKIES ‘If a healthcare institution had to ask patients’ permission to use every item in their files, they would be swamped by the resulting administration. That is a huge threat to good care’, says Bert Tournois, CEO of TDI (a company that participates in promising high-tech TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 35

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firms in the agro-technology, food and medical sectors). Willem Schellekens (project manager at ING) raises the opt-in debates and all those ‘I accept’ cookies that pop up day in, day out. ‘If you were to read through all of them to find out what you are and are not accepting, it would take you months. It’s not realistic.’ Sidekick Alards downplays the issue: ‘Isn’t there a whole generation growing up who don’t care about all of that?’ Janne Brok, Director of Sioux LIME (the mathematics group of technology company Sioux): ‘I think it’s perfectly possible to draw up guidelines and conditions at the interface of data and ethics to deal with data in a good way.’

is accepted or not.’ Karens disagrees: ‘There definitely are doctors who are well aware that they need to do things differently and better, and who actively provide input – and who can persuade their profession to follow them as thought leaders.’ Pop affirms: ‘If you want to market new technology, go to the teaching hospitals first. There you will find doctors who want to be ahead in their field and who will be interested.’

TIME-BOMB FRAGMENTATION We are already deep into the TalkING session when Paul Mencke puts forward a second proposition: ‘There is a lack of intensive cooperation between technology firms and the healthcare sector; that inhibits innovation in healthcare.’ Doomernik sees a shift from technology-push to taking the needs of patients and healthcare professionals as the starting point. ‘That is a positive development, not least because high-tech solutions are often not needed. What’s really important is that

human touch. Beyond that, she sees a lot of fragmentation: ‘Although the walls between the sectors are still quite high, there is cooperation. But it is almost always between one hospital or healthcare institution and one or a few companies. It is far from being selfevident that other organisations will join in. That means initiatives remain small in scale and costs remain relatively high.’

DOCTORS’ STRANGLEHOLD ‘Intensive discussions with institutions and patients/clients is the most effective way to come up with the best solutions’, says Niels de Bruin (owner/CEO of CLB Integrated Solutions, which supplies and maintains innovative care solutions such as alarm distribution systems). Tournois: ‘We have fallen flat on our faces a few times by developing new equipment only for doctors to turn around and say: ‘Yes, but that’s not how we do it’. They don’t want a better device, they want to hold on to their gold standard. That doctors’ stranglehold decides whether your technology

According to Vossen, the main driver for organising healthcare fundamentally differently is the fact that the human resources. ‘The shortage of staff is a time-bomb; right now we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. We really are going to be up against it in the care sector. It will force us to embrace technological innovations. They don’t have to be new innovations, because so many incredible smart new things have already been developed. The problem lies much more in implementation and scaling up in healthcare.’ Alards notes that 99 out of 100 care customers don’t have an innovation budget. ‘As a banker, I say: come up with a business case, then if contributes to innovation we can finance it.’ Of course that means sitting down with your care administration office or health insurer: innovation isn’t just about adding new things, it is also about daring to downscale what is not profitable or can be replaced through innovation. That usually brings costsdown’.

COMMON PLATFORM Van der Beek: ‘For healthcare institutions, the focus is care, for universities it is scientific research and publishing, and for business it is making money. If you want me to do something for you and I can see there is no money in it, my answer is: “Sorry, but I’m not going to do it.” Because we at Brainport are so good at working together, we can offer end customers a strong value proposition and turn 1 plus 1 into more than 2. We also need to instigate that collaboration between the care sector and industry. It won’t be easy, but it would really be a step forwards if they could establish a common platform.’ Brok: ‘Bringing together ideas from the care domain with what is technologically feasible; I believe that interaction is not yet properly organised in the healthcare sector. There is much to be gained in that regard.’

‘SMART NAPPY’ In the view of Chris Borgers, CFO of the Hittech Group (a system supplier of high-tech products with ten companies in Europe, Asia and the US), the healthcare sector would be wise to focus on social innovation. ‘With regard to technological innovation, the care sector needs to establish the right connections with the high-tech world, with its OEMS, many start-ups and private equity capital. It should then be possible to tackle the challenges we face, so that the Netherlands remains – however critical we sometimes are of our healthcare system – a top 10 country in healthcare.’ Blomenrohr (director programme management of the Nijmegen pharmaceutical company Synthon) stresses: ‘Break down prejudices, put yourself in the other person’s shoes and see what concrete steps you can take.’ ‘That’s a really good point’, chips in Van de Pas. ‘Among the technology firms, I get a sense that ‘innovation belongs to us’. But there are also a lot of good things happening in the care sector that entrepreneurs can learn from. Like the ‘smart nappy’, which we developed in co-creation with a data expert and a nappy manufacturer. It puts an end to the routine of changing nappies at regular intervals during the night; allowing many a client to enjoy some badlyneeded sleep.’ In conclusion, Paul Mencke declares, ‘A great evening, animated conversations and, who knows, the calls to forge connections may lead to something beautiful.’ One participant sums it up like this: ‘I’m very enthusiastic. I could start something with anyone here at the table.’ www.healthvalley.nl www.lifesense-group.com www.ggze.nl www.tdi-bv.nl www.ing.nl www.hittech.com www.synthon.com www.ame.nu www.clbintegratedsolutions.nl www.philadelphia.nl www.limebv.nl www.nphf.nl www.koraalgroep.nl www.vitalhealthsoftware.nl www.govers.nl

Special Issue - April 2019

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CHAIN INTEGRATION MARKET PRESSURE PROMPTS IAI AND ITS SYSTEM SUPPLIERS AAE, MTA AND MEVI TO GROW TOWARDS ONE ANOTHER

SHIFTING IDENTITIES A few years ago IAI industrial systems, manufacturer of personalisation machines for passports and ID cards, began professionalising its supply chain. The supply innovation engineers from Topinc are providing support with this. The aim of intensifying the operational cooperation with system suppliers was to help accommodate the anticipated growth. The recent mega order for machines for the production of the next-generation US passport is putting even more pressure on the chain: closer cooperation in engineering and standardisation are now high on the agenda. A report of a discussion, initiated by Link Magazine and Topinc, in which IAI dares to make itself vulnerable. At the table at IAI in Veldhoven, from left to right: Leon Hol, Manager Business Line Production Automation, AAE; Frank Mulders, CEO, AAE;

BY HANS VAN EERDEN

Robert Manders, Managing Director, MTA; Eric Peeraer, Director of Operations, IAI; Bart Crols, Managing Director, IAI; John Willems, Sales Director, MTA; Koen In ‘t Ven, Director Sales & Operations, Mevi; Jacco Colen, Managing Director, Mevi. Photos: Bart van Overbeeke

AI’s machines are veritable technological gems, with unique features designed to guarantee security or prevent forgery during the process of personalising passports and ID cards. Like the passport photo engraved into the special polycarbonate of the data page, or the photo or numbers perforated into a card using laser technology. No less complex is the environment in which IAI is operating: government assignments, global system integrators and national printing houses for security documents. ‘Following the takeover by HID Global, we really started focusing on personalisation machines and the biggest projects in the world’, says Bart Crols, Managing Director of IAI. ‘We might not be the cheapest, but our machines have features that other parties can’t provide. We can estimate fairly well whether we’ll get an order, but in terms of timing – i.e. when that order will come in – we’re always dependent on a very unpredictable tendering process’, he says, outlining the planning problem for IAI – in engineering, where most machines are largely customer-specific, and in production. ‘In order to be able to grow ourselves, we for the most part had to accommodate that growth within our supply chain. We’d been working with AAE for quite some time, but were looking for more strategic partners.’ These were MTA and Mevi. The three system suppliers build complete sections for the IAI machines, each with their own specific functi-

ENGINEERING-CENTRIC

to push it forward. IAI was always an engineering-centric organisation and it’s only in the past four years or so that our focus has been more on sales and operations. We ourselves need to keep innovating, for the features that make our machinery unique, and engineering will need to start cooperating more with our system suppliers and specialist technology

This cooperation with suppliers is unique in IAI’s world, says Crols. ‘And yet we still need

TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

onality, says Eric Peeraer, Director of Operations at IAI. ‘We put these together to make a complete machine, adding special modules if need be – for inkjet printing, for instance – and which we’ll then fully calibrate and deliver in line with the customer’s requirements.’

SUPPLY CHAIN PARTNERS Veldhoven-based IAI (55 staff) is part of HID Global, a worldwide leader in trusted identity solutions. IAI is a specialist in high-tech laser and inkjet applications for security and personalisation of passports and ID cards. The company develops and builds machines such as the BookMaster One and Bookmaster Pro and the CardMaster One. AAE in Helmond (330 staff) serves the market for low-volume, high-mix, high-tech machine manufacturing with its Advanced Systems and Production Automation business lines. AAE covers project management, (system) engineering and a wide array of precision industry, mechatronic and clean room competencies. Helmond-based MTA (about 100 staff) is dedicated to the development and serial production of complex mechatronic systems. MTA positions itself

as a full-service system supplier specialising in industrialisation and smart customisation. Mevi in Helmond (115 staff) provides machining, mechanical engineering and machine and equipment building, and is capable of supporting customers from concept development and engineering to implementation and commissioning. Eindhoven-based Topinc (6 supply innovation engineers) helps companies in manufacturing, high tech, construction and offshore to organise and improve their supply chain. www.iai.nl www.aaebv.com www.m-t-a.nl www.mevi.com www.topinc.nl

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firms.’ Leon Hol wholeheartedly concurs. ‘I spent three months working for AAE managing the Production Automation business line when the US order was imminent. We were already working closely with IAI, on a buildto-print basis. We had to do our utmost to push their orders through our organisation. Even though we saw opportunities to improve things in the product and hence also in production, and also had the engineering capacity to this end, just like the other two partners. For that US order there’s an ongoing discussion within IAI on certain input options. All three of us would like to contribute our opinions on those.’ Which makes sense, acknowledges Peeraer from IAI. ‘Our organisation is gradually starting to realise that. But the hardest part is the culture change.’

price, turnaround time and feasibility at the front end of the engineering process. Which would be the next level in outsourcing for IAI.’

CHALLENGE

Robert Manders, Managing Director of MTA, does understand the trepidation within IAI. ‘This form of cooperation requires a lot of trust. Going for the hybrid model makes it easier to maintain internal support.’ Robert Manders from MTA (right): ‘More configure-to-order will ensure more flow in the production process and a greater degree of calm in the chain.’ Koen In ‘t Ven from Mevi: ‘We’re eager to contribute our thoughts in as far as possible out of standard components engineering. We already spotted things that and modules. Then individual orders would could be done better when we received our require less engineering – order processing first orders for IAI. IAI, accept the challenge.’ would become a matter of configuration – Bart Crols takes up the gauntlet: ‘It used to be and components and modules could be the case that we’d forget to listen to other ordered and produced in advance, separate departments than our own engineering team from those orders. ‘As long as everything is and we didn’t factor in cost price and deliverstill being done on a project-by-project basis, ability into our designs. We have now learned HYBRID MODEL we’ll get repeat orders, but 30 to 60 percent that it’s not engineering but innovation that’s Hol is happy that the four parties’ manageredesign will be necessary each time. More the principal part of our work. So let’s try and ment and operations teams are now in dialoconfigure-to-order will ensure more flow in get more of the engineering into the chain.’ gue. ‘That didn’t happen before. We can help the production process and a greater degree Perhaps it could start simply with the of calm in the chain.’ question put by Jacco Colen, Managing Director at Mevi: ‘Are IAI’s engineers already visiting suppliers?’ LONG-LEAD ITEMS Rarely up till now, Eric Peeraer has The most significant pain at present is in the to admit. Manders picks up on this: purchasing of items with long lead times, a ‘If your engineers come and take a growing problem arising as a result of the look at what’s going on in us three’s worldwide industrial bubble. For certain types businesses, then it’ll make it easier of drives and guides, for example, the delivery for our technical people to engage in times are steadily rising. Peeraer: ‘Our Supply dialogue.’ AAE’s Mulders is keen to Chain Manager, Gil Heijmans (seconded to give this initiative tangible form: ‘We IAI by Topinc, ed.) is engaged in inventorying Frank Mulders from AAE (centre): ‘I’d like to have greater insight into the do want to discuss the module we’re the bottlenecks and looking for a formula that wonderful world of IAI’s customers, so that we can take dosed risk.’ supplying to IAI with the whole will be workable for everyone.’ Leon Hol is group, to enable all the parties’ engikeen to discuss the bottlenecks periodically: neers to look at it collectively, so as to learn ‘It’ll save a great deal of anxiety if we can each other, in engineering too. IAI’s core busifrom each other where there’s room for order in long-lead items in advance before an ness is in laser technology, features and softimprovement.’ order is actually placed.’ The financing needn’t ware, and we’re more than capable of supporbe a problem, say Koen In ‘t Ven and Jacco ting the rest – the non-core – based on our Colen from Mevi. ‘Any extra costs for stock engineering experience.’ Not that all of IAI’s FORECAST will be compensated by fewer last-resort meaengineering should be transferred to the Besides the cooperation within engineering, sures being required if certain items are not system suppliers, clarifies Frank Mulders, the current sticking point is the scaling up of being supplied on time. What’s more, we do CEO of AAE. ‘I don’t see it in such black and production, particularly the planning thereof. have confidence that the machines will be white terms. A hybrid model will enable you Peeraer: ‘At IAI, we’re keen to give the supply to send engineers from the system suppliers to chain clarity on the future through our nonpurchased, including those long-lead items. IAI to collaborate there with IAI’s engineering binding forecast. How are you finding that?’ It’s all about planning people, materials and team, allowing IAI to remain in control.’ The Koen In ‘t Ven: ‘The first order we got from other partners agree with this suggestion. IAI immediately put pressure on our delivery. TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 41 Koen In ’t Ven, Director Sales & Operations at We haven’t received a good forecast Mevi: ‘The advisable thing to do would be to yet. Our suppliers would really form the right partnerships in engineering.’ appreciate one. We’d like to use such John Willems, Sales Director at MTA: ‘We a forecast for scenario planning: want to provide our input for the TPD (techwhat do we need to do when a partinical product documentation, ed.). Preferably cular order comes in? For example, being involved in conceptual explorations do we need to reserve capacity in our already, to connect the system architecture flexi-shell?’ Willems from MTA with the industrialisation. That could prevent understands the dynamism in IAI’s things ending up in the machine architecture projects. ‘It would help to know what that we’d rather see were different, but potential orders are in the pipeline.’ wouldn’t have any influence over further His director, Robert Manders, argues Bart Crols from IAI (left): ‘We ourselves need to keep innovating and down the line. And enable us to address the the case for further standardisation challenges IAI faces in terms of an order’s cost of IAI’s machinery by building them engineering needs to collaborate with our system suppliers even more.’

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COMPLIMENT

capacity.’ There are some smart models that are conceivable to this end, says Mulders. ‘What I’d also like to have is greater insight into the wonderful world of IAI’s customers, so that we can take dosed risk. The period over which those long-lead items get called up from stock can be pretty long, as long as there’s commitment.’

The partners have no gripes about mutual commitment, Eric Peeraer illustrates. ‘We recently completed the site acceptance test for a large order in the UK. The customer showered us with praise, on the schedule we managed to fulfil too. We appreciate the open way in which we’re able to collaborate with you. Our growth wouldn’t have happened without your support. Compliments to our

partners and all suppliers.’ Frank Mulders returns the compliment: ‘The way you told us about your projects and included our people in that story is ensuring that they’re working enthusiastically on projects for IAI and are prepared to go the extra mile.’ MTA’s John Willems cites that UK order as a fine example of chain management: ‘The challenge for us all is to now repeat this performance for that big US order and other projects.’

TOOLS FOR CLOSER ENGINEERING COOPERATION IAI is speaking with supply chain partners to foster closer cooperation in engineering and further product standardisation. It already has the tools for collaborative engineering and management of modular product families in-house, states Hugo Botter, Managing Director of PLM Xpert. He is referring to Product Life Cycle Management (PLM), for the purposes of which IAI is using the PRO.FILE system. In this regard, PLM Xpert, the PRO.FILE Competence Center for the Benelux region, served as implementation partner. ‘This is the digitisation platform for managing all product data in a single source to keep the technical product documentation (TPD) properly under control.’ This product data backbone makes it possible to manage the TPD and share it with the supply chain correctly. What’s more, PRO.FILE has been integrated with

the ERP system ISAH at IAI, meaning that IAI and its chain partners are closely connected during work preparation, production and procurement. Long-lead items and standard modules can thus be released from engineering promptly for the benefit of the supply chain. Now that there’s a wish (a need) to work more closely together, it’s a question of working out how IAI will organise that, says Botter. ‘First organise, then automate. Thus enabling you to arrange the process in series, for example.’ This would see IAI giving suppliers access to the TPD, enabling them to come up with suggestions for improvement. ‘However, they could also set straight to work on concurrent engineering, with them working on the same TPD in a single team. To this end, PRO.FILE offers the check-in/check-out and locking options, as well as

the workflow and processes for controlling and managing the data and the milestones in projects so as to keep change processes under control. Authorisations for access to certain data within a life cycle stage, are easily set in PRO.FILE.’ Botter points out that the package’s strength is that it is easy to adapt it to advancing insight and changing procedures at IAI or in the supply chain. ‘Above all, it’s a question of configuration, and the user can do that himself, with PLM Xpert able to support with knowledge and advice. Such adaptations take days rather than months, with limited software adjustments being necessary. In that respect, PRO.FILE is extremely open and flexible for the user.’

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INDUSTRY 4.0 IGS GEBOJAGEMA ON ITS WAY TO INDUSTRY 4.0

MOVING TOWARDS MODEL-BASED MOULD MAKING IGS GeboJagema in Eindhoven produces high-tech injection moulds for drug delivery and in vitro diagnostics devices and for ophthalmic products (glasses and contact lenses). Its focus is on the healthcare market because high quality and a long product life cycle are the norm there. In order to comply with those requirements, the company works with accurate machines in automated production, uses a model-based method for design, manufacturing and inspection, and validates customers’ production processes.

information about surface finish and required tolerances. This generates time savings and quality improvements because information is no longer lost when converting 3D to 2D. The next step is to automate the programming as much as possible for production – CAM, which in turn allows for time savings and consistency in the programs. ‘Thanks to model-based manufacturing, the programmers do not need to program the same thing time and again; instead, as process engineers they can put more time into technology development, for example for new means of production or more efficient operations. Finally, we are moving towards model-based inspection. Based on the 3D geometry of a product, the measuring program is generated automatically, including the correct tolerances.’

VALIDATION With this integrated model-based approach, IGS has organised the product creation process efficiently. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. For this reason, IGS validates new moulds, explains Rob van den Brand. ‘For each customer, we demonstrate that the 'first out Hans Arts (left) and Rob van den Brand inspect a high-tech mould in the new Customer Service Centre, where IGS GeboJagema validates customers’ production processes for them. Photo: Bart van Overbeeke of tool' products meet the requirements. For some customers we go further, for example by conducting an operational qualification study, which involves BY HANS VAN EERDEN ‘That is extremely accurate for plastic. In carrying out long production runs on addition, the visual quality has to be very injection moulding machines in our factory, high. In medical products, even the smallest he development of a new drug can performing all kinds of measurements on the film residue as a result of a die that does not cost a billion dollars or more, explains products and providing the required docuclose perfectly results in rejection. For examHans Arts, sales director at IGS Gebomentation. The final step is the performance ple, in an inhaler there may be absolutely no Jagema. ‘It takes seven to ten years to film residues that can rub off. Moreover, we meet the stringent requirements of regulatory qualification, which always has to take place are often talking about multi-cavity moulds, bodies like the FDA. So a drug needs to be on within the customer's production environwhich make 8, 16 or even 32 products at the market for the next 15-20 years in order to ment. We can also take care of that if required: a time. They need to match exactly within a recoup those development costs. And all that setting up the complete production process very narrow range.’ time, moulds need to be manufactured and and performing all the tests. After that, the maintained to produce the plastic devices customer only has to press start.’ used to administer the drugs; for example, More and more customers, OEMs that manuMODEL-BASED insulin pens or inhalers for asthma patients.’ facture their own products or their system This high quality is based on the automation In addition, those medical products are suppliers, are opting to outsource as much as of the entire product creation process, subject to rigorous standards for quality and possible to IGS, Arts adds. ‘They take the view explains Arts. ‘We have been paperless since safety in production and documentation. 2015. The operator calls up the current drawthat their machines are there for production, With its highly automated production of ings on the screen. Previously, when using not validation – after all, it represents lost high-tech moulds, IGS GeboJagema (with paper drawings, changes were sometimes production and costs them money. So we get approximately 100 employees and 33 million missed. By going digital, we are also saying to do the validation in house and when custoeuros in turnover in 2018) is a trendsetter goodbye to those 2D drawings. From now on, mers buy a new machine for a new product, in this challenging market. The product when designing in CAD we will be working for example, they give it to us first. To perform tolerances are one hundredth of a millimetre only with 3D models.’ In model-based design, (10 µm) or less, says CTO Rob van den Brand. everything is in the 3D file, including the TO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

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M the validation we use the process optimisation methodology Pro-Op, developed by Cambridge University ten years ago, which we have developed further into our 'scientific moulding' concept.’

process engineers have developed an inspection protocol for the complete testing of all aspects of this machine. Makino, which, as a Japanese company is highly quality driven, has accepted it as the standard inspection protocol for their machine. We are proud of that.’

INVESTMENT FIVE-AXIS MILLING However well the process is organised, the machines have to deliver. IGS has for many years been using three-axis high-speed milling machines built by the Japanese firm Makino to produce high-quality moulds from hardened steel. The next step is five-axis machines, which have more degrees of freedom and can therefore make even more complex and accurate moulds. Two years ago, IGS entrusted that task to Makino, says Van den Brand. ‘They installed their new five-axis high-speed milling machine in our factory, the first in Europe. Together we worked for six months to bring the machine up to the desired level, and then another six months to incorporate production on that machine into an automated process. The effort has proved worthwhile – we have now added three more five-axis machines.’ Arts adds: ‘With an accuracy of two micrometres, 'regular' milling is difficult enough. In hardened steel with only air cooling – because water cooling causes contamination – and automated, too, it is almost impossible. Nevertheless, we succeeded. Our

Special Issue - April 2019

On the road towards Industry 4.0, IGS GeboJagema has been investing heavily for many years, particularly in new machines. Last autumn, the company also opened a new Customer Service Centre. This is where they

measuring machines. And we have also launched a study into the possibilities of 3D printing – for the third or fourth time. Using 3D-printing, followed by post-processing, we aim to make even more complex mould components and optimise internal cooling by printing cooling channels that follow the shape of the product. We are early adopters but we will only start production with 3Dprinting if three conditions are met: we can print materials such as tool steel, printing yields a homogeneous result and the accuracy is high enough.’

DISPLAY

‘Thanks to model-based manufacturing, the programmers do not need to program the same thing time and again’

validate the injection moulding machines, explains Arts. ‘We will be adding new machines, because we continue to track developments in injection moulding. New investments are also planned in precise finishing processes, such as hard turning, and in

Accuracy always remains an issue for moulds, also in the non-medical market. That market represented a modest 7 percent of IGS GeboJagema’s turnover in 2018, but it is useful in continuing to challenge the process engineers. A recent example is a head-up display for inside a car that has to have a form accuracy of three micrometres over the entire surface. ‘The display needs to have the exact same curvature as the windscreen, which is different in each type of car, so we will need a lot of moulds. We have been wrestling with the task of making the first mould for one of these head-up displays for a while and last month we succeeded.’ Another appealing display of IGS GeboJagema’s competences. www.igsgebojagema.nl

ADVERTORIAL

“THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME” ‘Headhunter’ Mercuri Urval has for many years been working for NTS, first-tier system supplier of (opto)mechatronic systems and mechanical modules for high-tech OEMs. The company is in the middle of a transformation process called ‘One NTS’, aimed at enhancing internal cohesion and customer focus. The right candidate for the position of managing director of the Development & Engineering division was put forward by Peter Duyvestijn, principal consultant at Mercuri Urval. “Peter is good at listening and asking critical questions; he understands the organisation and organisational culture a candidate will be coming into and what impact they will have there.” Peter Duyvestijn (left) and Hans Scholtz with an artist's impression of the NTS Campus in Eindhoven. Photo: Vincent Knoops

ercuri Urval supplies worldwide services including Executive Search, Assessments, Coaching & Talent Management. In the Netherlands, the firm fills posts at higher vocational and university level for management and specialist key roles, including supervisory board positions, in manufacturing and high-tech industry. To this end, the consultants at Mercuri Urval draw on their extensive network, based on a thorough analysis of the market and the role. They also use modern digital tools such as programmatic advertising to find suitable candidates, who naturally then undergo an assessment. The consultants continue to support successful candidates with coaching and advice on their further development if necessary.

LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP The case of NTS illustrates Mercuri Urval’s method, says Duyvestijn. “We maintain a long-term relationship across the breadth of their organisation. They are ambitious and are building a Development & Engineering division at the front of the supply chain for high-tech OEMs in the region and far beyond. They were looking for a managing director for that division. Based on a thorough analysis of the role and the market, we drew up a profile, keeping a critical eye on feasibility.” CONNECTING AND ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERSHIP The profile perfectly matched Hans Scholtz, says Duyvestijn. “Hans is good at seeing connections in a large and diverse organisation like NTS and he aims for synergy and cooperation. His hallmarks are connecting and entrepreneurial leadership. Based on a common interest, he pursues added value, internally and for the customer. In doing so, he is good at maximizing the talents of his people. Apart from this, he is a model for engagement. Hans was really the right person in the right place at the right time. He has brought new enthusiasm and momentum to the organisation and the contacts with customers.” DYNAMISM Hans Scholtz previously worked for an OEM in Eindhoven as the R&D director. “I wanted to get back to what gives me most energy: product development and all the dynamism that goes with that. I chose NTS for two reasons: the passion for technology and the wide range of customers, from major OEMs to small start-ups. The interesting thing about Development & Engineering (D&E) is that it is a kind of ‘lynchpin’ between different companies within NTS. Efficient collaboration is only possible if we clearly agree on a single approach.”

VALUE PROPOSITIONS D&E is gaining a clear profile, internally and towards customers. “With the help of six value propositions, we want to communicate what we are and aim to be good at”, explains Scholtz. “We defined them by looking at NTS from the customer’s perspective. Those value propositions are system development, value engineering and design for manufacturing, customerspecific positioning systems (mechatronics), digital printing, optical design and prototyping.” LISTENING AND ASKING QUESTIONS Peter Duyvestijn remains closely involved in filling posts within the rest of the NTS organisation. For instance, he has already put forward several candidates for management positions and is now looking for a business development manager in China. To the satisfaction of Hans Scholtz: “What I value about Peter is that he listens so well and keeps asking questions in order to really understand what the candidate needs to do, the organisation and culture they are coming into and what is important to the organisation. He understands the responsibilities of that person, what impact they need to achieve and what their role will look like in a few years’ time. This allows him to quickly find very good candidates, thanks to his excellent network. Once they are in post, he continues to keep his finger on the pulse.” ATTRACTIVE EMPLOYER Hans Scholtz is still busy developing the value propositions. “It’s quite a challenge, because we are busy with our day-to-day work. At the same time, I want to make our organisation more visible to customers and also in the labour market as an attractive employer. We may have less of an allure than a large OEM, but it is actually very interesting to work in the supply chain, I have since discovered, thanks to Mercuri Urval.”

Mercuri Urval Leusden / Eindhoven / Rotterdam T +31 (0)40-26 69 800 (Eindhoven) E info.nl@mercuriurval.com I www.mercuriurval.com

PROCESS IMPROVEMENT LVD RESPONDS TO REDUCTION IN LEAD TIME WITH SUPPLY

‘ONE PERSON NOW DOES THE WORK OF SIX’

Time-to-market is one of the most important weapons for manufacturing industry as it continues to globalise. For this reason, the OEMs keep on raising the bar for all the suppliers in the chain. That includes the sheet metal companies, which are investing heavily in fully automatic, digitised laser cutters and punching and bending machines. Belgian machine manufacturer LVD is responding to the demand and has seen its markets grow in 46 countries, including the Netherlands.

• ‘Sheet metal working has gone high-tech. You need high-tech machines for that.’ • ‘Machines with an attractive design are the top sellers.’ • ‘The software integration is even more important than the machine.’ • ‘We present ourselves as a supplier and a partner.’

isn't, because you always have to account for springback. And that is different for every material, every size and every thickness. LVD manufactures press brakes that can control the process in real time by integrating Easy-Form® laser technology; with built-in laser scanners and the associated software. Sheet metal working has gone high-tech. You need high-tech machines for that.’

DESIGN IS IMPORTANT Kurt Debbaut, product manager and software specialist at LVD, is Kurt Debbaut (left) and Maurice Hayen with one of the bending machines. Debbaut of LVD: ‘We don’t want to keep parts or enclosures in stock, we want them delivered just-in-time. HLT manages to meet all those requirements.’ Photos: Stefan Koopmans naturally pleased to hear the words of praise. The more so because he represents a machine manufacturer that is tightening the BY JOS CORTENRAAD include bending and cutting machines from LVD.’ screws on its supplier. ‘We build laser cutters, A lot has changed in the field, says Hayen. he Rolls Royce of machine manufactupress brakes, shears and punching machines ‘We used to think bending a metal plate into rers.’ Maurice Hayen, founder and for manufacturing industry’, he explains. a particular shape at four points was managing director of the sheet metal ‘We use HLT for some of the casings and complicated; these days, six times that is no processing company HLT from Zeppeenclosures. The bar is indeed high. We want exception.’ Expectations have been raised ren, near Sint-Truiden in Belgium, is eager to top quality, casings that fit exactly, with just massively. Tolerances of a tenth of a millising the praises of LVD. Not surprisingly, as it the right recesses for the control panels, and metre and three tenths of a degree angular was his first customer when he started his no seams or bumps.’ And preferably nicely deviation are standard. The slightest deviation company in 2006 and remains one his biggest finished, too, because we want to please the in the angle of a bend means rejection. ‘Do customers. ‘OK’, he laughs, ‘but by now I have eye: a survey among LVD’s customers revealed you think it is simple to bend a piece of sheet a pretty good idea of what is for sale around that machines with an attractive design are metal into a perfect right-angle? No, it really the world. It is no coincidence that our assets the top sellers. ‘Is design really important for

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s a machine that produces parts somewhere in the workshop? Apparently so – the customer decides. That's how it works. We also demand fast, just-in-time delivery at competitive prices. We deliver our machines worldwide and work to very tight schedules. We don’t want to keep parts or enclosures in stock, we want them delivered just-in-time. HLT manages to meet all those requirements.’

DOING MORE IN-HOUSE LVD, which has its head office in Belgium, was founded in 1952 and has 1,250 employees. Due to a small domestic market on the one hand and strong growth ambitions on the other, from the outset LVD was strongly focused on exports and established its own sales offices at strategic locations. LVD now operates in 46 countries, with production facilities in Belgium, Slovakia, the USA and China. LVD is a demanding customer that is cherished by HLT in Zepperen. It represents a solid foundation, but Hayen is not putting all his eggs in one basket. The company strategy is based on growth, which is provided by a fast-expanding customer base in Belgium. The number of employees has risen to 25; last year, they decided to expand the warehouse by over 1,500 square metres. That expansion is almost finished, complete with spray booth.

‘We not only need more space to handle the order flow, we are also going to be doing more in-house. We want to outsource less of the post-processing – such as milling, welding and coating. Customers are demanding more and more ready-to-use products, but at competitive prices. Outsourcing sheet metal for painting means high logistics costs, risk of damage and lost time. That is why we are going to be doing more in-house.’

SOFTWARE INTEGRATION In order to avoid wasting time, Hayen decided to extensively automate production – in partnership with LVD. Last year, a new laser cutter was installed and integrated into the production line. ‘We cut a lot of sheet metal using the laser. But it's not just a matter of incorporating a cutting machine. The softTO BE CONTINUED ON PAGE 49

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EPLAN Experience Smart Industry: there’s no time to lose Smart Industry is seen as an innovation catalyst. However, some machine manufacturers still haven’t implemented it into their business processes. In this blog, you’ll discover why digital data exchange is essential and is at the centre of Smart Industry. Read more on www.eplanexperience.nl/smartindustry

CONTINUATION OF PAGE 47

ware integration is much more important. By linking the ERP system to the LVD software, we can now generate a quote immediately and practically fully automatically on the basis of a digital drawing. By linking all the data, including from the production department, we know exactly what the costs are and we can make very accurate subsequent costings – for the material to be used, but also for the set-up and effective hours that the machines will be running, the time that the welder is working on the product and the time it takes to coat

‘Only companies that digitise will be able to compete’

and paint it.’ In the old situation, the planning engineer had to look up everything every time, now the data is available instantly. ‘With the customer’s permission, the same data is used by our own work preparation department. Previously, our people would make their own design, which is now no longer necessary. All in all, we work a lot more efficiently and hence a lot faster. One person now does the work of six. That frees up time for the others to spend on acquisition, for example. There is plenty of work.’

SAVING MATERIALS Another advantage is the more efficient use of materials. ‘We combine the different orders, so reducing waste and enabling us to save over twenty percent on materials. Automating has given us some breathing space to continue to grow and enabled us to get a better picture of all the costs. Calculation is crucial in this business.’ HLT is one of the first sheet metal processors in Belgium to take such big steps. ‘We are seeing this trend in other countries, too, led by the Netherlands’, says Debbaut. ‘I think only companies that digitise will be able to compete. You need sophisticated ICT systems for that, to link together purchasing, sales, billing and production. We present ourselves as a supplier and a partner. Close collaborations, as with HLT, are important to us, because that way we know exactly what is going on in the market, what our customers’ customers want.’ www.hlt.eu www.lvdgroup.com

OC VERHULST: ‘CAPACITY SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED, FAULTS DOWN’ Drunen-based OC Verhulst develops and produces air conditioning systems for offices, institutions, factories, rental and the agricultural sector. ‘In all shapes and sizes’, says Hans Wijtvliet, COO at the company with over 120 employees. ‘They are usually commissioned by installation firms. They supply the specifications, OC Verhulst manufactures air conditioning plants, among other things. Photo: OC Verhulst including the required capacity and the other conditions. We are building more and more systems significantly more products than before, because customised for individual use. Grilles above workthe logistics around the laser cutter are more stations that blow hot or cold air, for example, efficient. The raw material is supplied automatically depending on the requirements of the user.’ and it is transported to different pallets immediately after the operation.’ CUSTOM SOLUTIONS This sorting takes place using a Touch-i4 tablet, Many of the orders received by OC Verhulst, part of which can also be used to validate the cut pieces Orange Climate BV, involve custom solutions. before sending them to the press brake. ‘Previously, Following approval of the quotation, all the compothat all took much longer. We now even have nents and electronics are ordered. ‘We customcapacity to do more cutting work for our sister make all the sheet metal for the air conditioning companies OC Waterloo and Vespi. The number of units . We do try to work with standard modules faults has also been greatly reduced.’ During the and we also have a range of base cabinets for the commissioning phase, LVD regularly adjusted the smaller applications’, continues Wijtvliet. ‘We work software. The final part of the link to the warehouse with our own configurator, so that we can very is currently being completed. A major incidental quickly assemble combinations and generate a benefit is a substantial reduction in electricity and quotation.’ In addition, OC Verhulst manufactures nitrogen use. ‘Another step in our automation and mobile systems and units for temporary use at optimisation, in other words.’ festivals, for example, or for drying spaces affected ONE MORE WISH by moisture. Those systems are standard, albeit that Kurt Debbaut of LVD: ‘The Cadman Suite programthey naturally come in different dimensions. ‘All in ming and management software optimises the all, we process about 1,400 steel plates in various process flow and hence shortens lead times. thicknesses and materials weekly, from which we Thanks to the integration of our software with the manufacture 18,000 different products on average LVD machines and the Remmert warehouse, every month.’ OC Verhulst has all the tools it needs to work in an Since last year, the plates have been cut to size integrated, automated and efficient manner in the using a laser cutter from LVD. ‘After ten years, we sheet metal workshop.’ were in need of a new laser cutter. We compared Hans Wijtvliet is satisfied with the partnership, but and evaluated three suppliers and eventually LVD’s he still has one wish. ‘It would be nice if a barcode Phoenix fibre laser came out on top. We were or QR code could be printed or lasered onto the particularly impressed by the software included. It is individual metal parts during or just before the linked to our ERP system and to the warehouse lasering. Attaching stickers takes time, as does system of the German manufacturer Remmert.’ removing them before coating. We are looking into MORE PRODUCTS the options with LVD. I'm looking forward to seeing The new laser cutter was installed in April 2018 and which solution we come up with. In the metals has been in full use since last autumn. ‘Implemensector, digitisation is never done.’ tation takes time’, says Wijtvliet. ‘And there are always surprises. But the bottom line is, we are very www.orangeclimate.com satisfied. We have more capacity and make

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SHORTCUTS MEGA TRENDS AND ‘WOMEN IN TECH’ AT MATLAB EXPO 2019 BENELUX The annual MATLAB EXPO for professionals and researchers from industry and academia will once again be held in Eindhoven on 21 May. The organisers are MathWorks Benelux, the makers of MATLAB and Simulink software for engineers and scientists. The programme has been organised around six mega trends, says managing director Marcel Stakenborg. ‘The first trend, ‘software is everywhere’, points to the fact that today’s machine manufacturers can differentiate themselves by using smart algorithms to optimise performance during the life cycle of their machines. Artificial Intelligence (AI), the second trend, plays a major role in this, in the form of machine learning and deep learning. Thirdly, these ‘machines’ are increasingly becoming autonomous systems, not only in the automotive sector but also in aviation, shipping and logistics, e.g. drones.’ The digital transformation is also high on the MATLAB EXPO agenda, in the context of Industry 4.0 and Smart Industry, and that requires – trend number 5 – cloud platforms. The final trend listed by Stakenborg is the ‘electrification of everything’. Optimising electric motors is therefore a major challenge.

MathWorks supports high-tech industry with its tools and services in responding to all these mega trends. Stakenborg: ‘In the MATLAB EXPO programme, we respond to these trends and demonstrate concrete examples from industry. Simulating system behaviour early on and setting up digital twins can save a lot on physical prototyping and maintenance. Real-time Impression of the MATLAB EXPO 2018 Benelux. Photo: MathWorks Benelux monitoring of machines expert from industry, Albert van MathWorks, will reveal how AI is in the field provides data for anaBreemen. transforming the global industry lyses that help make predictions New this year will be the ‘Women in his keynote speech. Stakenborg: about their behaviour in the futuin Tech’ session during the lunch ‘It’s all about insights. There is re. This approach can help reduce break. ‘As a local host, I really always a demand for domain the total cost of ownership.’ Comembrace this initiative, which pressor manufacturer Atlas Copco experts and thanks to our tools, started at MathWorks in the US,’ they can start using AI without will address this topic in more says Giorgia Zucchelli, who will be having to be software experts. detail. Start-up Lightyear is responsible for the session in Those tools enable them to developing a car driven by solar Eindhoven. She studied electrical implement and integrate AI energy and therefore needs to applications into the entire system engineering in Bologna (It) and, optimise the energy flow between after obtaining her PhD, she came end-to-end.’ As in previous years, solar panels and the car’s electroto the Netherlands to work for managers from key industries are nics. ‘At MATLAB EXPO, LightPhilips Research and NXP. For the welcome to join the Management year will be demonstrating how it past ten years, she has been Dinner. This year’s theme will be is speeding up the development working as a product marketer at ‘AI-Driven Engi-neering’. The process using our tools.’ With MathWorks Benelux. ‘We want to dinner, in the format of a roundregard to the application of AI in provide female delegates and table discussion, will be hosted by machine manufacturing and presenters with a networking enviMathWorks and Link Magazine mechatronics, Sameer Prabhu, ronment for like-minded women, and moderated by an AI domain industry marketing director at to meet, share knowledge and collaborate with female industry peers. From my business travels, during which I have met many engineers around the globe, I have learned that the Netherlands offers a good climate for female million by the region itself in now received financial support engineers. However, there remains improving the attractiveness of from the Brainport Eindhoven scope to increase the proportion Brainport Eindhoven to potential Regional Deal are intended to of women in technology.’ During employees through the Regional contribute to this. They are the session, delegates will hear Deal. The money will be chan1. Dedicated Conference Center from technical industry experts nelled to the three pillars of the feasibility study, 2. Strengthening about their work and the use of Regional Deal, i.e. ‘Distinctive Dutch Technology Week, MATLAB and Simulink. Provision of Facilities’, ‘Attracting 3. Strengthening Glow event, MathWorks is aiming for ten to and Retaining Talent’ and 4. Design Museum (Evoluon 2.0) twenty participants at this ‘women ‘Innovations with Societal feasibility study, and 5. Increasing only’ event. They can sign up for Impact’. The Brainport Eindhoven the visibility of start-ups. this free session when they register Alongside the five new projects, Regional Deal has a term of four for MATLAB EXPO. Zucchelli there is follow-up funding for years, plus a further four years to summarises: ‘I encourage all implement the projects. three others: ‘Accommodating female delegates to sign up for this Creating a pleasant living envigrowth in education and develofirst ‘Women in Tech’ session.’ ronment for residents and a good ping hybrid learning environwww.matlabexpo.com/nl/2019.html business climate for firms is very ments’, ‘Services Holland Expat (registration) important for the region’s develCenter South’ and ‘PhotonDelta’. www.mathworks.nl opment. The projects which have www.brainport.nl

FACILITIES AT BRAINPORT EINDHOVEN BOOSTED BY REGIONAL DEAL Following the start of the first 13 projects funded from the Brainport Eindhoven Regional Deal in 2018, financial support has now been awarded to five new projects to enhance the region’s economic standing. Many of the projects are designed to contribute to improving amenities in Brainport Eindhoven; this is a decisive factor in attracting talent. With investments from the Regional Deal, cultural and sports facilities can be upgraded to better reflect the region’s international competitive position. In total, €130 million will be invested by the cabinet and €240

Special Issue - April 2019

SHORTCUTS HÄNEL SMART HIGH-RISE WAREHOUSE Hänel, a worldwide supplier of smart vertical warehouse lifts and rotating storage systems, has installed three new Hänel Lean Lifts for KMWE at Brainport Industries Campus for the storage and management of fixtures, drilling and milling tools. An operation that previously took up 300 square metres now covers an area of around 50 square metres thanks to the installation of compact warehouse lifts 10 metres tall with a footprint of 3.60 x 2.80 metres, containing 28,000 storage loca-tions. Two lifts are designated for the preparation of tools, a third for the storage of fixtures. This saves space and, moreover, is faster and more manageable. Reinier Atzema, Hänel’s regional manager for the Netherlands: ‘We have been talking to KMWE for a long time. In order to achieve a smart concept, we mapped out the existing working method and translated it to an optimised and

future-oriented solution, with built-in overcapacity.’ How it worked before was, say 50 specific tools were needed for a particular metalworking application. ‘Consulting a big stack of paperwork, the employees would collect all the parts and put together the tools. That whole collection process is now highly automated.’ Using a picking list, the required containers and tools are taken from the shelves in the optimum manner. Thanks to batch picking, multiple tasks can be carried out at the same time. The operators receive all kinds of instructions for picking via LED pointers. The tools are put onto carts in different boxes, ready to be prepared. Everything takes place safely, efficiently and ergonomically. The employees have a real-time view of what is in use or available. Completed parts and assemblies go to the production machines at the right time on

carts. Sooner or later, that job will undoubtedly be done by automated guided vehicles, Atzema expects. ‘The lifts have now been in place for several weeks and can be loaded with the many different tools. It’s great to see how far precision industry has got with Hänel Lean Lifts at Brainport Industries Campus. Photo: Hänel systems like Lifts are controlled using Hänelthese.’ Each Lean Lift has two Soft: this is linked to the TDM working apertures: both the work software (for production equippreparation department and the ment management) via the Hänelmachine operators can put in and Soft SOAP WebServices interface. remove tools from it, with everywww.haenel.nl thing being recorded. The Lean

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BRAINPORT DEVELOPMENT: INNOVATIVE PARTNERSHIP YIELDS NEW BUSINESS MODELS Brainport Eindhoven is a worldclass technology region. Hightech and design go hand-in-hand with high-end manufacturing industry and entrepreneurship. As the high-tech growth accelerator of the Dutch economy and part of the technological backbone of Europe, Brainport Eindhoven is an international leader in innovation. The economic development agency Brainport Development works with many partners to further strengthen Brainport. Close collaboration and knowledge-sharing in the region, but also with international companies, characterise the open innovation culture that makes Brainport the growth accelerator of the Dutch economy. In order to maintain its international leadership position, Brainport Development encourages collaboration on innovation with foreign firms and organisations. The development agency sees innovation collaboration as the way to establish long-term, high-quality strategic partnerships that lead to trade, growth and investment. It does so by contacting networks of companies abroad on behalf of a group of Brainport companies. By investing in strategic relationships like this, companies and research institutes in the Brainport region gain access to knowledge and expertise outside their own ecosystem and to hard-to-reach potential customers or partners abroad. A good example of this strategy is the Additive4Industry programme. This programme focuses on innovation collaboration in the

field of industrial Additive Manufacturing, such as 3D printing. Two years ago, Brainport Development contacted the Mechatronics and Automation cluster in Bavaria in southern Germany. In order to build up a strategic relationship, Brainport Development brought together the Dutch parties Brainport Industries, AMSYSTEMS, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Eindhoven University of Technology and AddFab with this cluster. Three innovation projects have now been identified in order to tackle specific R&D challenges in the field of 3D printing with Bavarian firms and research institutes. By building a long-term relationship, both ecosystems gain an understanding of each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s networks, knowledge and expertise. This is accelerating the innovation process of 3D printing. By entering into strategic relationships like this, Brainport Development is creating a rich breeding ground for the long term in which innovation partnerships can grow to become successful, enduring business models and partnerships. This is not limited to 3D printing â&#x20AC;&#x201C; this strategy can be applied to all kinds of technologies. The experience which Brainport Development has gained with the Additive4Industry project will create more entry points into the German economy. Brainport Development is continuing to work with the German cluster to extend and scale up the existing partnership. www.brainport.nl

SHORT Rademaker Group has acquired the assets of the Dutch developer and manufacturer of handling systems for the bakery industry Divardy Construction B.V. and Divardy Automation B.V. Divardy is specialised in tray handling systems, specifically focussed on the traditional bread industry. With components within their delivery program, with a

focus on transport, depanning, cleaning and food appliance, Divardy can offer solutions in turn-key projects which are now outsourced to third-party suppliers. Furthermore, the handling systems of Divardy are complementary to the current handling program from the Rademaker Group. www.rademaker.com

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Special Issue - April 2019

Brainport industries is a supplier network of more than 100 high-tech companies active in high-mix, low-volume, high-complexity in the Netherlands. Brainport Industries provides a fertile ground and a solid structure for collaborative projects whether they are related to technology, market or people and represents the interests of its members on political level.

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SHORTCUTS SIMON BAMBACH MARKETS PROMISING GRAPHENE APPLICATIONS IN EUROPE

During his career with first Philips and then VDL – latterly as corporate VP North America – Simon Bambach (62) has often been to North America to visit customers and potential customers. On one of those trips, he came into contact with the Canadian firm GLC, a start-up specialising in developing applications for graphene, a material with special properties. There, Bambach saw innovations that impressed him greatly. Because VDL was unable to find an application straight away, he recently took the plunge and started his own company – Simotec – to market the Canadian graphene applications in Europe. ‘After being in business for others for 40 years, I still harboured the desire to go into business for myself one day. To that end, I managed to acquire the Europe-

an rights for three Graphene applications from GLC.’ One of the applications involves adding pure graphene to coatings in a particular way. ‘This makes the coated material more durable and also superconducting to electricity and temperature, which makes it better at transferring cold and heat, for example’, says Bambach, who envisages applications in the automotive sector in particular, for coating engine parts. A second application is the use of graphene oxide to purify water. Graphene also has the property that it can be ‘programmed’ to bond with particular elements in a liquid. The same phenomenon can also be used to purify air. ‘Before it can be used as a fuel, the methane released by biogas plants must first be cleansed of sulphur dioxide, the gas that causes the rotten eggs

smell. Currently, large, expensive filter installations are used for that purpose. I think we will be able to offer a much cheaper, more effective alternative.’ Bambach did not rush into his decision to invest in these applications. His knowledge of chemistry is limited to what he remembers from his secondary school days. In order to properly evaluate whether he really was onto a winner, he approached André Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, Dutch and Russian scientists who won the Nobel Prize in 2010 for their discovery of graphene. ‘They were very excited, too’, says Bambach. The only thing still standing between him and marketing the applications is his lack of knowledge of chemistry. ‘I will shortly be spending another week with the R&D people in Canada to make sure I properly understand how the applications work. I don’t have to do any of the development work myself, but of course I have to be able to tell a good story to potential customers.’ Yet his ambitions extend beyond marketing the three applications.

Simon Bambach: ‘After being in business for others for 40 years, I still harboured the desire to go into business for myself one day.’ Photo: Simotec

‘Because I think there are more opportunities, I want to also focus on application development with Simotec and employ specialists to that end. That’s why I am currently looking for an investor with faith in me, confidence in the technology and enough money to move things forward quickly. I see growth opportunities for this company, but at my age I don’t have all the time in the world to seize them.’ www.linkedin.com/in/ simon-bambach-601a1/ www.simotec.nl

DELIVERY RELIABILITY PRIORITY NUMBER ONE FOR HERAEUS ELECTRO-NITE – AND THEREFORE FOR SUPPLIERS Delivery reliability is priority number one for Heraeus Electro-Nite, supplier of sensor systems and measuring instruments for the global steel industry. Finding suppliers who act quickly and come up with solutions is a real challenge for Heraeus. But then the multinational came into contact with Dekimo and Cortexon!

DEVELOPING TOGETHER Dekimo develops the electronics and makes the PCBs, after which Cortexon takes care of the mechanics and assembly into a complete measuring instrument. Heraeus Electro-Nite then handles the sale. Business Unit Manager Marcel van de Sande (Cortexon) explains: ‘Our customer-specific electronics housings are, if necessary, equipped with the most suitable cooling technology. They can withstand extreme conditions – from heat to dust.’ CUSTOMER FIRST Cortexon often cooperates with customers during development processes. This also applies to the Heraeus Electro-Nite project. Van de Sande: ‘This has created a culture where the customer comes first. We don’t mind if things are changed. We are very flexible and can switch quickly.’ MENTALITY Heraeus Electro-Nite is happy to work with Dekimo and Cortexon. ‘Because they both co-develop and co-produce, our development

From left to right: Luc Lammerant (Heraeus Electro-Nite), Marcel van de Sande (Cortexon) and Tom De Smet (Dekimo). Photo: Bart van Overbeeke.

processes are better aligned with production’, says Luc Lammerant (Industrialization Manager Heraeus at Electro-Nite). ‘They have the technological competencies to support us in innovation. And the mentality to continue until a good quality solution is found. You don’t see that often.’

www.cortexon.com

Special Issue - April 2019

SHORTCUTS TURNKEY DELIVERY OF CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT AT BIC EINDHOVEN The Brecon Group has delivered a new 1,450 m² cleanroom for KMWE Group at the Brainport Industries Campus in Eindhoven. ‘This complex project has been completed literally and figuratively flawlessly: entirely in line with planning and without any delivery issues. This is thanks to the excellent cooperation between the PP4C Partners: Deerns, Kuijpers PHF Services, WERO Cleanroom Reiniging, CMI and Brecon’, says Geerd Jansen, CEO of the Brecon Group. Brecon also recently built the 1,850 m² cleanroom for Anteryon at the campus, commissioned by ENGIE. This was the first controlled environment project at the BIC. Many high-tech companies moving to Brainport Industries Campus need cleanrooms. The

Brecon Group is currently holding talks with several newcomers who want cleanrooms with various specifications. That’s good for PP4C, but also for the Brainport region. The consortium delivers turnkey cleanrooms for the food, automotive, electronics and pharmaceuticals industries. KMWE supplies mechatronic products which are assembled in cleanrooms. The company operates in the medical sector, the semiconductor industry, industrial automation and aviation. CEO Edward Voncken, who is also one of the people behind Brainport Industries Campus, has big plans for his new production hall at the campus covering a total of 30,000 m². Professional Partners for Clean-

Cables and connectors Embedded computing Fibre optics Frequency control

Many high-tech companies moving to Brainport Industries Campus need cleanrooms. Foto: Brecon Group

rooms ‘PP4C’ is a strategic alliance between a number of professional firms in the national and international cleanroom market. PP4C originated from the realisation that it is essential for clients to be able to count on reliable partners throughout the cleanroom construction process, from design to construction. PP4C is

IoT and Wireless Magnetics Photonics and Imaging Power

an initiative by Brecon Cleanroom Systems BV, a specialist in cleanrooms and the creation of complete ‘turnkey cleanroom’ projects. The alliance has since amply proved itself with more than 25 successful turnkey projects over the past four years. www.brecon.nl

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Special Issue - April 2019

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COMPANIES AND PSV TEAM UP A PARTNERSHIP TO PROMOTE BRAINPORT EINDHOVEN PSV will join forces with some big Dutch companies next summer to start an innovative co-operation. ASML, Philips, High Tech Campus Eindhoven, VDL Group and Jumbo Supermarkets will commit themselves as premium partners of PSV under the name of Metropolitan Region Brainport Eindhoven. They will collaborate in the field of innovation, vitality, entertainment, development and recruitment of talent. All parties share the ambition to put the Eindhoven region on the map as global leader in knowledge, hightech development and innovation. ‘This is a first in the history of top sport. We will create a new ecosystem and the way we will do it is characteristic of the

interconnection in this region’, says PSV General Manager Toon Gerbrands. High Tech Campus Eindhoven Managing Director Jan-Willem Neggers is one of the driving forces behind the innovative co-operation. ‘The Campus participates in the ‘Champions League’ of inspiring ASML, Philips, High Tech Campus Eindhoven, VDL Group and Jumbo Supermarkets will commit themselves under the name of Metropolitan Region Brainport. Photo: Brainport business locations when it concerns developing new technologies and name recognition of this region companies on our Campus to put building international networks.’ and support the companies. themselves in the spotlight. ‘And The connection between leading That’s what they fully deserve. they need to do so, as they are as Brainport companies and PSV employers in a ‘war on talent’ with We would also like to promote a offers a unique opportunity for good business climate and create internationally leading regions favourable conditions for estasuch as Silicon Valley’, explains blishing businesses at Brainport Neggers. Eindhoven, which is an important ‘As the face of the high-tech sector in Brainport Eindhoven we like to starting point of our co-operation.’ stick our necks out to increase the www.brainport.nl

NORTH BRABANT PROVINCE FIFTH IN EUROPE FOR PATENT APPLICATIONS

Brilliance in engineering

The number of patent applications submitted to the European Patents Office (EPO) by Dutch firms grew by 1.4 percent in 2018. According to the EPO’s annual report, this represents a second year in succession of steady growth, following a fall two years ago (-4 percent in 2016). With 7,140 patent applications, the Netherlands ranks fourth among the 38 member states of the European Patent Office and eighth worldwide. Most Dutch applications relate to medical technology and machine and

equipment manufacturing. Almost half the applications originate from North Brabant. As for the number of patent applications filed with the E PO relative to the number of inhabitants per country, which can be an indicator of a country’s innovative strength, with 416 applications per million inhabitants the Netherlands is in second place after Switzerland. The Netherlands is followed by Denmark (number 3), Sweden (number 4) and Germany (number 5).

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Special Issue - April 2019

SHORTCUTS BRABANT COMPETITIVENESS BAROMETER: A BROAD NEW DEFINITION An innovative way of representing Brabant’s regional competitiveness that takes into account the degree to which the economy is sustainable, innovative and socially inclusive. Because neglecting the importance of sustainability, inclusiveness and innovation means risking both competitiveness and quality of life in Brabant. For this reason, BrabantKennis, BrabantAdvies, Telos and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM) have been developing the Brabant Competitiveness Barometer over recent months. The world outside Brabant has an impact in terms of economic decisions and opportunities. Digitisation, new geopolitical relations and climate change are creating new dynamics. However, it is not only this new world (dis)order that is putting the region’s economy to the test. There are also major challenges facing Brabant specifically, for example in the

areas of sustainability and solidarity – what will that mean for competitiveness, for example? Which adjustments do policymakers in Brabant need to make? How can threats be transformed into opportunities in a timely manner and which facts and insights can we set a course by? Brabant lacks a coherent, systematic and dynamic understanding of the relevant facts. The new barometer fills that gap. It consists of interlocking social, economic and environmental circles that together represent Brabant’s competitiveness. The Barometer gives an insight into Brabant’s performance on a number of indicators within each circle. The first measurement shows that Brabant ranks highly on many indicators, such as economic growth, R&D investment, income and the housing market. But Brabant is not always in the lead.

Special Issue - April 2019

Social: Societal foundation

Economy: Regional innovation and welfare

Environment: Living environment and spatial quality

Future challenges

An example is the regional labour market: well-educated people in particular relatively often move elsewhere to work or study, whereas these people are badly needed in the knowledge economy. The Barometer also makes clear that the educational level of Brabant residents is lower on average than in the Netherlands as a whole; the percentage of 30-34-year-olds with a higher vocational or university degree is 45.5 percent, putting the province in seventh place. And then there is the

demographic trend that, over the coming decades, many more people will leave the working population on reaching retirement age than there are young people joining the labour market. The four organisations involved emphasise that the first version of the Barometer is a prototype. The strength of the Barometer lies in repetition. It is not the snapshot but the whole movie that will give an insight into the development of competitiveness. www.bom.nl

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