Collaborating with sheltered workshops

Marcel van der Voort | Outsourcing Manager at Van der Valk Systemen

"It is a win-win situation. By outsourcing work to sheltered workshops, the people working there can develop further and we can focus on our core activities.” 

The demand for our systems for both the horticultural and the solar industry has exploded in recent years. This is naturally associated with various challenges:

• How can we optimise the production to meet this demand?
• How can we respond to sudden increases or decreases in demand?
• How can we spread the risks?
• Should we scale up or outsource? And what are the consequences?

And the constantly underlying issue was: how can we exercise corporate social responsibility in this area as well? The answer turned out to be neat and effective: outsourcing to sheltered workshops.

"In the past few years, we have further professionalised our collaboration with sheltered workshops. In busy periods there are days when 200 people are working for us.

Usually they do the mounting tasks, or cutting-punching machining and packaging. We work with several different sheltered workshops, each with their own specialism. And they are all located within a radius of 20km from our company in Monster. We are contributing to society in our region."

"In the past few years, we have grown enormously.  As long as we continue to grow, the sheltered workshops will grow with us!"

Listen below to what motivates Marcel van der Voort (Van der Valk Systemen) and René van der Gaag (Den Haag Werkt) to work together, and see our outsourced colleagues at work.