Netherlands Study Tour 2019

During our study tour to the Netherlands we spent a day at RDM Rotterdam, which is designated the hub of innovation of the future; I happened to run into an all-electric retrofit food truck which caught my eye. Giving people once in a lifetime experience, not only is the food truck A-star Instagram picture ready, it is Zero-Emission!

After a guided tour of RDM Rotterdam, admiring the views of the harbor where new Dutch merchant ships used to be rolled out to set sail. Let’s call this a Dutch harbor! Long before the term Supply Chain Management entered our lexicon, the Dutch here, built massive steamers which set sail for America shipping and bringing goods.

From a shipyard to the innovation hub of the future, which have successfully produced some good companies, a variety of ideas are being tested on the sight. The one that strikes me the most, is the exchange of ideas among different companies that have set up shop in RDM Rotterdam. The tour made me think hard on how the Dutch have continued to reinvent themselves throughout the years, a very relatively small country. This is what towns and cities across Great America need, to train and retrain our workforces for now and the future, I got an idea.

Port of Rotterdam ECT – where we witnessed live port action of massive container ships being un/loaded, some of the port is automated including unmanned container carrying AGVs. We sat through a presentation that pointed out different areas of the port and its functions. Great experience, true innovation, I guess this is what it takes to be number the one port in Europe!

Picture with the squared!

We were privileged to be hosted by TATA Steel Rotterdam, after which we spent lunch networking with some of their senior staff members. In the end, one of the senior staff members confessed to me that our questions have really made him start thinking about the future of TATA Steel Europe.

A day at Erasmus University Rotterdam (Transito), hanging out/networking with students from their MSc in Urban, Port and Transport Economics after a great lecture on Brexit and the implications on supply chain.