Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Mr. Herman Lens, a seasoned veteran of the Testing, Inspection, and Certification (TIC) industry with over 35 years of experience.
Based in the Netherlands, Herman has navigated through numerous challenges, from managing over-budgeted offshore construction projects to establishing new inspection organizations from the ground up. His journey is a testament to the power of meticulous analysis, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of industry demands.
In this interview, Herman shares his wisdom on overcoming operational obstacles, driving innovation in inspection methodologies, and maintaining a delicate balance between short-term goals and long-term strategy. Whether you're an industry insider or just curious about the intricacies of TIC, Herman's insights offer invaluable lessons in leadership and operational excellence.
Hello Mr. Herman Lens. Pleasure to have you with us. Could you briefly introduce yourself to our wonderful audience?
My name is Herman Lens and I live in the Netherlands. I have been working in the TIC industry for more than 35 years.
.. can you share an example of a particularly challenging project you’ve managed and how you overcame the obstacles?
In these 35 years, I had many challenges. Of course in the beginning the challenges were not so big from extern view however big for me personally. I can remember one project were we had a lump sum agreement for the execution of NDT on a new build offshore construction. I had to take over this project because we were far over the budgeted hours. After some analyses, I discovered the scope was not well defined and we needed to re-negotiate and clear the full scope.
Later in my carrier I was hired by a gas production company, owning about 40 wells in the Netherlands, recently acquired from a big marked player. With the acquisition the inspection department was excluded and a new inspection organisation needed to be set up. My tasks were to set up a new organisation and meanwhile prepare a big shutdown. The shutdown had to take place three months after I was assigned to the project.
In both cases the way to overcome these challenges is to get a good understanding on the demands, take some distance and start to analyse the available information, prioritise and the just start working.
Mr. Hernan, you have been in the industry for many years. Can you discuss any recent initiatives or improvements that have had a significant impact on your operations?
I think here it should be defined what recent is. Inspection and NDT are in general quite conservative. When I look at the big initiative in the second half of my carrier for me the biggest improvements are Risk-based Inspection and implementation of advanced NDT.
Risk based Inspection really helps to focus on important objects for inspection resulting in a higher safety in process industry. On the other hand it leads to cost reduction because of reduced effort on the objects with lower risk.
If then also the advanced NDT is added in this context, we are able to inspect more effective and also giving us better possibilities analysing in service defects and giving better predictability on these defects to evaluate the fitness for service.
Of course these developments require a good technical understanding and often requires specialist to use the full potential. The main thing here is that the inspection departments of asset owners most of the time do not have resources to develop these specialisms.
… that’s amazing. How do you ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations in your operations?
TUV Rheinland is originally founded as a third inspection party with regards to safe use pressure equipment, this is in our DNA and culture. We do not have shareholders so profits are invested into our services making it possible to constantly improve our services and capabilities. You can imagine that we have a worldwide structure to ensure the compliance of our services. So this is a easy part in my role, I just need to follow the structure. Of course we will always keep our ears and eyes open in communication with our clients. This helps us to prioritise to the urgent needs.
A quick couple of questions that were requested by our audience……..
… what strategies do you use to motivate and manage your team effectively?
Mainly an open communication with all team members about the direction for TUV Rheinland Sonovation and involvement of the team members in operational decisions.
… what are the primary responsibilities of your role as Operations Manager?
I have P&L responsibility for TUV Rheinland Sonovation and responsibility for industrial services in general for the Netherlands. As a part of the role I have to develop the strategy for industrial services in the Netherlands together with the regional Western Europe management team.
… what are the biggest challenges you face in your day-to-day operations?
Currently our main focus is advanced NDT. In NDT there is no constant workflow. This results in lack of engineers in busy times and overcapacity in quite times.
… how do you stay updated with the latest industry trends and technological advancements?
TUV Rheinland Sonovation is the advanced competence centre for the TUV Rheinland group. We have more NDT level III engineers the NDT level II engineers. You can imagine this team is constantly following technical developments and exchanging information internally in a natural way.
For more overall developments TUV Rheinland has a global information system for the management reporting high level market developments. The most important however is regular contact with clients and relations. This gives the opportunity for deep diving in topics closely related to our business
… how do you ensure quality and consistency in the services provided by TÜV Rheinland Sonovation?
This is a good question. The service we deliver is often not regulated or standardised. The request we receive are in general challenging for the technical possibilities. For these we have to make specific procedures and sometimes even develop equipment for the execution. Pending on the criticality we can then validate the inspection on special prepared test pieces. We have an enormous amount of blocks direct available and have capacity to design and special blocks. We can coordinate the fabrication as well.
However sometimes clients only need some form of conformation. For this we have more or less standard procedures available we can use without too much preparation. In these cases we make sure the clients understands the limitations of the executed inspection.
… what is the one thing that you learnt at each of the organisations you worked in your professional journey?
This I found out myself the hard way. To feel comfortable in the inspection and NDT business requires a certain mentality and personality. If you do not have this, you will exit quite quickly from this business. On the other hand, if you feel comfortable in the NDT and inspection business, you will not feel comfortable in other business. This is what I learned when I decided to have an “adventure” in a other business.
It took me about 2 years to realize and re-enter in the Inspection and NDT. Her I also learned that in inspection and NDT the level of quality assurance and control and the way quality systems are implemented and used are much higher then in production companies.
Mr. Hernan, can you list down some key metrics you use to measure the success and efficiency of your operations?
Of course we have the typical KPI’s we use to measure our performance. However personally I always try to evaluate the performance of the team by looking at the requested services from clients. We find ourselves successful when new client returns with new orders or if existing clients are ordering more challenging inspections compared with previous inspections
… so, my next question is how do you balance short-term operational goals with long-term strategic objectives?
For me this is an ongoing circle. We evaluate our daily business to look for new strategic opportunities in our very quick changing and challenging marked. Together with the team we define or revise our strategic goals, naturally in compliance with TUV Rheinland global objectives. From there we define new short-term operational goals.
Personally I prefer not to work with specified KPI’s on these goals. In many cases to much energy then goes in these KPI’s and the KPI becomes the objective. I prefer to look at the overall objective.
Let’s traverse a bit into your personal life…
… what advice would you give to someone aspiring to become an operations manager in your industry?
Very simple: if you see things that can be done better at the management level, bring it up and assist your direct manager to get it done. Keep in mind this is to improve as a team and do not make it a personal goal. This will push the team forward and create new opportunities for all involved.
Mr. Hernan, how do you unwind yourself? What activities do you like to do when you’re on vacation?
In my vacations, I completely shut myself off. It is only in vacations I read books. I can get lost in a good book. In between I go on the hunt for nice pictures with my camera. I like to take pictures from old, sometimes broken things like buildings, cars and infrastructures. Do not expect great pictures, I need about a hundred pictures to take to have one that looks okay. But it is the hunt I like the most here.
Finally, what are your thoughts on OnestopNDT? Do you think our efforts to provide real, authentic and accurate content are helping the industry? Also, do you think our platform helps the community connect with like-minded people?
I would like to start with the last part. OnestopNDT is the place to be for the NDT and inspection like-minded people. The content is practical with a high actuality. In general, it might be a bit underrated by the other stakeholders in our industry. I think maintenance managers, maintenance coordinators and so on can find a lot of inspiration here to improve their maintenance strategy.
