Customer Story

Damen reap benefits of Novacura Flow with nine month ROI anticipated

November 8, 2017

Damen Shipyards Group is a global company with more than 50 shipyards, repair yards, and related companies worldwide.

Based in Gorinchem in the Netherlands, Damen has built and designed more than 5,000 ships and delivers up to 150 vessels annually.

​At the company’s distribution warehouse, they recently switched to using Novacura Flow, with very positive results. Damen were looking for a more efficient system that could take care of their logistics flows. The company will initially use Novacura Flow for inbound and outbound logistics and stock monitoring, but will also be able to incorporate their other processes in due course. A quick Return on Investment of around nine months is anticipated.

In our previous system, we couldn’t change anything by ourselves and had a lot of issues and mismatches between our ERP and scanning application.
Arjan van Doorn
Damen, Project Manager

Arjan van Doorn, Project Manager at Damen, describes the background to the decision to go with Novacura Flow. 

We started using an application in our warehousing activities around four years ago. However, we found that the application wasn’t able to reach our changing requirements. We changed our processes and in the end our software supplier wasn’t able to understand the information.
Arjan van Doorn
Damen, Project Manager

Damen also found that, because their previous supplier was based in the US, there was an issue with technical support and maintenance. The distance and time difference between the US and Europe led to a problem with slow response.  Novacura first paid Damen a visit in December 2015.

Two operational working flows were created onsite in just two days. This created the confidence to further investigate the possibilities of Novacura Flow. Damen then decided to have a Proof of Concept, to be sure that they were making the right decision. This took place in February 2016, and involved carrying out some time measurements comparing the old system with Novacura Flow.

At the site in Gorinchem, Novacura has now created two flows for changing user settings, ten inbound and ten outbound flows, and eight flows for stock control.  The solution being used in the Netherlands is based on the initial design created by Novacura for handling boxes and pallets.

Having seen how easy Novacura Flow has been phased in at their home base, Damen is now set to install the solution at more of its shipyards, including in China and Vietnam.

There are so many more possibilities for us now, as the system supports collaboration, As the number of actions is minimized and no data inconsistencies are created in the IFS ERP, the timing and handling is reduced by around 50% compared with the previous system. Currently we are in the ‘starting phase’ so we are improving our processes more and more.
Rick van der Landen
Damen, Solution Manager

The major advantages will follow by implementing Novacura Flow at all of the Damen  locations. They achieved the best result when use the new system in the complete supply chain.

Users are seeing the possibilities and are enthusiastic if we update a flow with their feedback. This gives us a positive feeling and makes us proud that we introduced Novacura Flow within Damen.
Rick van der Landen
Damen, Solution Manager

Personnel at Damen’s distribution warehouse have been impressed by how swift and easy Novacura Flow is to use. The system was quickly accepted by internal staff as the screens were simple to read and resulting in a better performance.

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