The Damen Shipyards Group has won the Dutch Logistics Award 2017. The shipbuilding group was praised by the jury for its high level of efficiency, among other things.
The Dutch Logistics Award, an initiative of the Logistics Management Association, was presented at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht on Thursday. Damen takes over from Auping, which went home with the prestigious award in 2016.
Modular construction
Damen first caught the jury's eye because of the modular solution it uses to build ships and the smart way it transports ships. For multiple shipments in Asia, Damen uses a heavy lift vessel to transport multiple ships at the same time. "This is very efficient - we transported 22 ships this way once," said Jason Bronscheer, Director of Operations Support at Damen.
The shipbuilder has also been working with modular shipbuilding for several years. By no longer building hull ships from stock, Damen avoids having to retrofit engines and other equipment and saves costs.
Employee engagement and innovation
The jury also praised Damen for the commitment of its employees. Every two years, for example, it distributes an independent survey to 9,000 staff in 33 shipyards around the world. In terms of innovation, Damen pays a lot of attention to its Research and Development department. "Damen has a very future-proof way of thinking; we take advantage of developments in IoT, robot technology and automation. In fact, we do everything we can to make our work processes as efficient and safe as possible."
The Dutch Logistics Prize
The Dutch Logistics Award was created by vLm in 1984 to
encourage innovation and professionalisation of logistics. In recent years, ASML, Wehkamp, IBM, Hema, Nike, Docdata and Auping, among others, won the prize.
