Griet Engelen & Jack van Vliet
Making a refinery sustainable? Expansion of high-quality gas storage? Designing and building better loading facilities for a terminal? For the talented project engineers of KH Engineering, it is precisely this diversity that provides a strong project and knowledge base. With a close-knit team of excellent people, KH Engineering works on very diverse projects. The managers of the Projects Department, Griet Engelen in Belgium and Jack van Vliet in the Netherlands, tell more about the special projects of KH Engineering.
‘In total, our department employs 46 project engineers and project managers, of whom 32 work from Schiedam and 5 from Amsterdam. We work closely with the 9 colleagues in Antwerp across the business units.’ ‘That's right,' agrees Griet Engelen. ‘We exchange assignments, knowledge, expertise and people and challenge each other to better performances.’
Monitoring the final objective
‘What we do differs per project,' continues Jack. ‘It varies from a mono-disciplinary project that takes a week to a multidisciplinary project of fifty thousand man-hours.’ Griet: ‘We make the offer, coordinate all activities in a project and keep the bigger picture in mind. Because we work according to an ISO 21500 certified uniform method, customers can count on a good project structure. We manage the professional disciplines, which each take care of their own part of the project, keep an eye on the final objective and monitor the budget and planning. You should imagine that we make use of all the technical disciplines within KH Engineering. Within the project, the engineers often work from their own technical discipline on the bigger picture, under the responsibility of a project manager from our department. The Project Engineers play an important role, especially in large projects. They are the indispensable link between technology and project management, making this role within the projects department indispensable and often the key to successful project management.' ‘We are very flexible and can scale up if required, we can take on large and complex assignments, but also work very pragmatically and keep the scope of work limited. Exactly what the client and the project needs.’
Responding quickly and empathising with the client
According to Griet and Jack, the strength of the department lies in the ability of KH Engineering to adapt to the environment and the wishes of the client. ‘A good project worker is like a chameleon,' Jack explains. ‘KH Engineering jumps in quickly and immerses itself in the client's organisation, as well as bringing in the necessary engineering knowledge immediately. Our clients are happy with that. What else makes them happy? With our project people, you can really talk about technology. They are not 'top-down' project managers; they focus on a smooth-running process and have strong substantive knowledge. We select our people on that basis. That works well; it's not for nothing that we have clients who have been loyal for years.’
Engineering Procurement & Construction Management (EPCM)
Long-term relationships form an important basis for the department in the various markets. Like the relationship with a large pharmaceutical company. Jack: ‘We have been providing detailed engineering and construction management to this client for many years. And in an EPCM collaboration, we realised a large expansion project for the production of pharmaceuticals.’
‘In Antwerp,’ Griet adds, ‘KH Engineering has been involved for 25 years in improvement and sustainability projects for one of the largest refineries. And for a large storage and transhipment company, we realised EP and construction support in their expansion project to become the largest independent gas terminal in Europe.’