Bilfinger Tebodin gives guest lecture at Avans Hogeschool

02/09/2021

On February 1st, Rik Frusch, Manager Project Services and Project Manager at Bilfinger Tebodin, and Jeroen Triepels, Regional Director at Bilfinger Tebodin, gave a guest lecture at Avans Hogeschool in the city of  ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands. The lecture introduced the case study second year Industrial Engineering students will be working on during the coming period.

The case study students will be working on is to design and create a business case around a soda factory. Bilfinger Tebodin has been participating in this for several years, since it is our core business to design production facilities. It is also interesting for students to hear experiences and practices from an engineering company.

After a short introduction of the speakers and Bilfinger Tebodin, the lecture started with some theoretical background about the structured approach for industrial CAPEX projects. This so-called stage gate model is a phase model that ensures well-argued decision making while avoiding unnecessary costs. Besides the technical content, also a lot of attention was put on stakeholder management during these types of projects. Both internally, within the project, and externally to the surroundings regarding emissions, noise, permitting, etc. Next, the speakers further explained the stage model with practical examples at two customers from Bilfinger Tebodin in which the stages were presented in a clear and concrete way. To conclude the lecture, the speakers provided the students with some information about other projects while highlighting the role of an Industrial Engineering.

The lecture was a great success and led to many interesting questions from the students. For example about the use of simulation software, about decision making on board level regarding the go/no-go of projects, how projects come to an optimal return on investment and how to go along with changes that might come as a project progresses. The students were also interested in some of the personal experiences of Rik and Jeroen, asking them questions such as what the most challenging project they have executed was. The interaction with students afterwards was an added benefit to the information provided during the lecture.

Bilfinger Tebodin has been providing lectures for Avans Hogeschool for four years now. We take our responsibility of educating the future generation serious and highly appreciate Avans’ efforts to make their curriculum more practical to prepare students for a possible future occupation. These lectures are also very valuable to students, since they offer networking opportunities that over the years have resulted in successful internships within Bilfinger Tebodin.