STUDENTS WORK ON PLANNING TOOL.

It all began a hundred-odd years ago with horse-drawn carriages. Today, Olde Kalter is a renowned regional player in the transport, groundwork and traffic and mobility sectors. The family business makes smart use of the insights that students have to offer. Co-owner Leon Visscher talks about his company’s experience with student talents.

“I first came into contact with Innovation Hub Tubbergen a few years ago,” Leon says. “They told me that they got a lot of valuable insights from students. That sounded interesting, because I was dealing with an automation challenge of my own around that time. Through the Innovation Hub, I got in touch with Tim Jongman of Novel-T SMART . He felt our challenge would make for an excellent study assignment for the Industrial Engineering & Management program. To this day, the automation solution that the students came up with for us saves us a ton of time and money. As this collaboration worked out so well for us, I began to think about what other challenges we faced that students might be able to help us with.”

Tool for process optimization

Leon recently submitted a second challenge: to develop a planning tool for process optimization in traffic engineering. Leon: “We place a lot of traffic signs around roadblocks. There are quite a few steps to go through between receiving an order and actually placing the signs, which leaves a lot of room for error. A work planner might not realize that everything was ready and waiting for him, for example.” Students were tasked with developing a planning tool that would make this whole process more insightful for all stakeholders. “One project group immediately got excited about out challenge and went to work on it. The tool they developed for us lets us see at a glance what projects are ongoing and what the status of each project is. In the past, there was a lot of confusion and projects were sometimes forgotten about. With this tool , we can hold each other accountable. It has made things much easier for us.”

Absolutely worth it

Fine results, then. “The process was not particularly demanding for us either,” Leon continues. “We described our challenge as clearly as possible and our work only really began once a project group was assigned to us. You may have to grease the wheels a bit at first because the students don’t know your company, but things will start to run smoothly before long. The project group came by for half an hour every week to spar with us. It is absolutely worth the time you invest. Even if it had taken more time, that would have been fine by me. It was great to see the students tackle our challenge head on. Our current work method is fairly labor intensive. With their analysis, the students were able to accurately identify the bottlenecks and give us the insight we need to improve our process.”

Always valuable

Leon is very excited about the study assignments. “You can really tell that the students pour their hearts into it. There is no lack of dedication. To date, I have always been happy with what the students have come up with. Even if that is not the case, you will always end up with something that you can build on. A partnership like this leads to new ideas. You can always get something useful out of a study assignment. It is never without merit. It is amazing to see the students really try to come up with a good solution. Off the top of my head, I can easily think of a few new challenges for next year!”