Jason Koevoet - Project Manager - VDL Steelweld Breda

After graduating in Industrial Engineering and Management, Jason Koevoet also completed a master's degree during his full-time job at VDL Steelweld in Breda. His master’s degree had to be completed on a part-time basis because he often had to visit customers in America If you think that this must have been a busy period, Jason is also a reservist in the army in his spare time. This passionate project manager has worked at VDL Steelweld for six years and talks about his experiences.

How did you end up at VDL Steelweld?

"During my Bachelor’s, I was looking for an internship. A classmate told me about VDL Steelweld in Breda and the research he had started there. This research had to be continued, so I started where he left off. The topic of the research was revising the status report that is given from the project teams to the management team. The existing process took a lot of time and a project manager still had too much influence on the final result of the report. It had to be an impartial and easy to generate process in order to produce the report. Now the process is easy to follow, everyone has a better insight, and the right documents are in the right place. This makes the work clearer and faster".

And then you got stuck at VDL Steelweld?

"During this process I already noticed that VDL Steelweld is continuously working on improvement processes. The nice thing about my job is that, in addition to my regular projects, I have a lot of personal input into these processes. VDL Management listens to your ideas and they often let you take on the responsibility of process improvement strategies.  This does not necessarily only have to be technical issues. Sometimes it is also about the human side of the company or process improvement".

What does a day in the life of a project manager at VDL Steelweld look like?

"After our sales colleagues win an order, a sales transfer takes place. This means that the sales team transfers the customer's requirements to me as project manager. I am then responsible for finding a solid, multidisciplinary team. This team always includes mechanical, electrical, robotics and software specialists.”

What makes working at VDL Steelweld fun?

"There is always very intensive cooperation with a customer, which makes it nice to work here. I plan a project and include all disciplines in the team. Collaboration is then very important. The complexity of a project is then divided into different activities. Plans become tighter and tighter and the technology goes faster and faster, so we have to be flexible and be able to react quickly. At VDL Steelweld we are very good at this. A mechanic is just as accessible as the CEO. As a result, you can always ask any questions and thus make quick decisions. In the end, all the pieces of the puzzle fall together at the right moment, and we have achieved our goal as a team".

Have you noticed that VDL Steelweld is part of the VDL Groep?

"We also work a lot together with VDL Nedcar, another VDL company that produces cars for BMW. We are currently working on a safety project there. We also have many specialists within VDL Groep. That's great, because we can easily contact other VDL Companies  quickly if we need something like a steel construction, for example. Another advantage is the Young VDL Events. These are held several times a year, so you can exchange experiences with VDL colleagues from all of the companies in VDL Groep.”