Yvonne Dortmans has been Project Manager Procurement at Damen Naval for two years. She leads the team that is responsible for purchasing materials for the construction of the Combat Support Ship and for the midlife upgrade of HNLMS Johan de Witt. As she says herself, it’s a great job.

Procurement – purchasing – is crucial for every shipbuilder. Without a well-performing department purchasing the systems and parts for a new-build ship, you will get nowhere as a shipyard. Yvonne Dortmans knows this all too well.

“Did you know that the sum of our purchase contracts make up more than sixty to seventy percent of the costs of a ship?” she says as explanation. In her role of Project Manager Procurement, Yvonne works closely with her colleagues from Engineering. This cooperation is crucial for the purchasing process to run smoothly, because Engineering specifies what needs to be purchased. “During negotiations, they always have to look closely at the technical requirements that need to be met by the products we purchase.” Negotiating the price is just one of the aspects of securing a contract with a supplier.
Formulating the right framework conditions and covering risks are some of the other important matters that Yvonne has to deal with. “As a buyer, you must first of course make sure that, from all the quotations received, you select the right supplier with the required knowledge and experience,” she notes.

At Damen Naval, there is an excellent cooperation between Purchasing and Engineering, says Yvonne. This means that buyers and engineers are in close contact with each other. “While I have a lot of purchasing experience from previous jobs, I’m not that technical at all.”
“It is good to know that you can fall back on the specialist knowledge of the hundreds of engineers within our company who know so much about technical matters.”

“We have a brilliant team. We are busy, but the working environment is great. We expect to sign no fewer than 150 purchasing contracts for the CSS. That work is divided among the team of buyers that I manage. I also manage a number of contracts myself; I recently signed one for the purchase of the rotating cargo cranes for the CSS.” She adds laughing: “So I’m a kind of contributing foreman…”

Items purchased by the Procurement department range from combat, propulsion, pumps and cranes to electrical systems, steel plating, paintwork, walls, floors and furniture.

We have a brilliant team. We are busy, but the working environment is great

“What’s great about this job is that everything you buy, you actually see on the ship later on. In my previous job, I was a purchasing director for a building materials company. We bought things for a certain amount, and then immediately sold them on for another amount. When I walk around a ship under construction, I look around and think to myself: ‘This is the tangible result of our work’.

That gives such a nice feeling, especially in times like these when everyone – because of the coronavirus even more – is behind a screen and has to keep their distance. You see everything taking shape on a ship, you look at a part and think: ‘I bought that myself’… It’s extremely motivating!” She is proud of a project that was completed last summer. “Colleagues from Procurement and Legal Affairs started an improvement process: we put together a new ‘Project Terms & Conditions’. It turned out to be a sizeable project – a big wad of paper with all the clauses and legal terms: the fine print of a contract.

In principle, we can now apply these new T&Cs – as we call them – to any project.”

In her previous job, Yvonne says she was always on the road. “My car was my home, so to speak. I worked a lot in the Randstad, having to stay in hotels, I wasn’t home enough. I actually really wanted to work in Zeeland, where I already lived. The job at Damen Naval gave me that opportunity, and I am very happy about that. I’ve got my private life back.”

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