Dr. J.M. (Jaap) Vleugel

In flux

During a master course lecture many decades ago, my eminent professor in Macro-Economics (Huisman) once told us to be prepared to work in a completely different area after your graduation. His advice came in a period of economic crisis. It echoes J.A. Schumpeter's view on innovation and economic development and their joint impact on the labour market. Following his advice, I developed a more than average ability to adapt to new circumstances.

Awareness and effectiveness

The pay-off of this is job readyness and security, albeit not in the same job or place. Many people are overspecialised and become static over time, which may suit their employer (for some time), but  the individual may loose its ability to adapt to the requirements of an ever changing world (cf. Ch. Darwin). In an operational sense, agility and above average (time) management skills allow one to switch field and focus, perspective or scale level or combine these on-demand. EQ-skills, in particular listening without judging and other psychological principles are vital tools in decision-making. Being genuinely interested in what is driving other people is a prerequisite for successful interaction and personal effectiveness, in particular with young(er) people.
     As native Dutch I also fully understand the psychological, cultural and political meanings of the Dutch language. Coaching students is also much easier compared to a situation in which you have to rely on English only.

Experience and decision-making style

During my career of over 47 years I have learned to deal with a wide array of topics. I was in research for more than 20 years, when I gradually switched to education. This was some 12 years ago. Just like in Amsterdam, it started with a very limited agenda as befits a researcher (which I still am). At both very different universities I have acquired over 20 years of experience in bachelor, minor, master and EngD education. I am a very practice-oriented person with a hands-on mentality, which really helps in interactions with fellow engineers and technical students. I have learned to appreciate interdisciplinary cooperation, which is much different from my mono-disciplinary experience in Amsterdam, but also not generally found in this university. I seamlessly cooperate with colleagues from AR (AR, MBE, DCM), AE (SAT), ME (MME/MTT, P&E), TPM (T&L), IDE and AMS. What helps here is modesty and eagerness to learn from other people and their methods and experiences and share your own assets.
     Decision-making can be frustratingly slow and ineffective in an academic environment, in particular because of the tendency to (unnecessarily) deep-dive into a subject and then loose the overview and purpose. I prefer and apply a managerial style, where you make informed, fast and effective decisions and arrange a direct follow-up. I learned this broadmindedness and decision-making style from my visionary professor-manager-networker (Nijkamp) in Amsterdam. That is why professional autonomy is so important (cf. M. Weggeman).

Critical role in education

Working with much younger people is a desirable activity, but it is many times more demanding than research. My role in MSc TIL-education has become a very critical one. In 2013 I had 2 thesis students, while in 2024 I reached 30. This high number is due to a doubling of the number of TIL students, the quality of supervision offered and the leave of many colleagues, who were only partially replaced. Since I had already worked with most of them, it was natural to take over their fields in order to keep these alive and thereby the range of applications of the TIL program. But, this should not have been my role. Mandatory courses like the design and thesis project, which run all year, are particularly affected. All in all it feels like the workload increased tenfold. I have supervised and examined nearly 1300 students sofar. This number will be 'easily' surpassed next year. In education I act as a servant leader (S. Covey) to manage and motivate students. Providing individualized coaching of a high quality is a challenging art with such high student numbers.

What education should offer

Successful education introduces engineers to all the means that allow them to develop themselves as humans and professionals. Technical research should start with a sound problem analysis. This brings into light the decision-making challenges and requirements, which are the basis for the selection and development of socio-technical solutions for the dynamic problem (environment). This logic is very different from what is learned in most courses. There the problem is given and the aim is to make static calculations in a limited domain, an approach which has little in common with practice. Instead students should become critical users of theories, methodology, data sources and data processing tools and not absorb all this material as if it is the single and only truth.

The value of systems- (design-) engineering and education

In design, thesis and EngD projects, students experience the value of their education when working in a professional environment. By studying decision-making and internal communication, students experience how many professionals thrive on experience instead of collecting and using real process data, next to other regular, sometimes fundamental, flaws in professional decision-making. Students also learn about the pros and cons of what they learned during their study. Not all of it is practice-oriented, which can sometimes be very frustrating, as you may temporarily feel empty handed or have to change method or direction. You learn to stay afloat, provide dedicated 'solutions' and manage expections of your stakeholders. The final leg of a study program stays in the memory of graduates for decades. The same graduates may also become future commissioners.
Lecturers can also learn from their students to improve themselves and their courses; it helps to regularly upgrade your course material.

Economics and technology

Economics is about decision-making in situations with constrained budgets and uncertainty. Technology is largely regarded as a black box and seen as a major means to generate financial wealth. In technical sciences humans are regarded as developers and users of technology. Our heavy reliance on technical 'fixes' to manage issues, which objectively are mainly due to wrong choices, like excessive behaviour (overconsumption, overproduction and exhaustion of natural resources leading to climate change etc.) means that technological 'development' is frequently used as an escape route, because the political will to change behaviour is lacking and strong lobbies exist to maintain this detrimental behaviour.
     'Let the polluter pay' is a basic and fairly effective principle in environmental economics. It may save tax payers large sums of money, yet it is frequently ignored because of equity concerns or hard lobbying. Instead, society spends large amounts on technology, which is good news for engineers and technical universities, but technology does not always provide what it intends or pretends. New technologies may have side-effects, introducing new problems. An example is the electric age (electric vehicles, heating) which goes along with enormous investments, environmental problems and wars (mining), while the net benefit is nebulous. A much smaller, yet relevant issue is automation in logistics, whose impact may be situation dependent. Engineering students should therefore always critically observe, estimate and evaluate all potential effects of their efforts.

Logistics as core business

After many years in railway research, some 12 years ago I made another career move into in logistics, learning on the job. There was a clear vision behind it. I realised that the potential for innovation and the options to reduce its climate impact are much higher in logistics than in rail transport. Next, many logistic decisions are in essence micro-economic decisions. Logistics could also be studied at the meso-economic (freight transport sector) or macro-economic level (contribution to national income), but these are less relevant for engineers. Those decisions involve technology in various ways, hence a key reason why logistics should be taught at a technical university and in particular in an interdisciplinary master. The majority of MSc TIL students have a logistics or network orientation, which offers a huge education market for specialised lecturers. The topic also provides excellent cooperation with other interdisciplinary colleagues, in particular at Mechanical Engineering. I have supervised projects about

• Advanced logistics: In- and outbound, warehouse (operations, (re)design), SCM. Primary road-oriented;
• Electrification (of transport): Energy supply (sources, facilities, networks, charging, cable manufacturing) and demand (asset management: vans and trucks);
• Aircraft technology: Maintenance (strategies), parts logistics, hangar and storage (re)design;
• Airport ground operations (land- and airside), technical services, building (re)design, accessibility;
• Maritime transport/shipping, container handling (terminals, hinterland), off-shore installations.
• Rail passenger and freight: Technology, operations/services;
• Intermodal transport: Services.

Other topics

Separately or combined with logistics:

• Asset management;
• Change management and quality control;
• Sustainability and climate impact: operations & policy;
• Transport~ and infrastructure policy and planning;
• Transport and traffic safety;
• Other transport and traffic (public transport incl. passenger rail, emerging technologies, scenario studies);
•  
• Built environment (housing, well-being, environment);
• (Techno-)economic and financial decision-making (cba, business cases) in railway- and sanitary engineering;
• Topics in transport-economics, spatial-economics and economic geography (location choice).

Board memberships

• Lokaal Overleg (V)LO, Technisch Werkoverleg TW, Vakbond FNV.
• Landelijke Advies Commissie - WO, Vakbond FNV Onderwijs & Onderzoek.
• KIVI Materials Handling and Logistics (TRL), executive secretary, 2013-2019.

[191224]