Today the group visited Royal Flora Holland and later the Tuliperij Tulip farm. Royal Flora Holland was especially interesting because while distributing large amounts of flowers across the world they also hold live auction at their location and online. This is a key role in their model of concept to customer to develop their business with changing times. To open a new revenue stream the company implements the idea of flower auctions to allow consumers to compete with one another and drive up prices. Holding online auctions also allowed the company to have consistent revenue streams in times such as the pandemic. The warehouse we visited today also had complex automated systems that allow the company to transport many flower carousels at a time. The design is also specifically engineered to separate the differing types of flowers so they can be transported in a routinely manner and fashion. I found both of these ideas extremely interesting because of how I had never seen a flower shop like this before in the United States. The best way to describe this warehouse is a giant Home Depot completely filled with flowers on carts and employees driving around on small forklift-like vehicles transporting carts of flowers. I was probably most surprised as to how these employees did not run into each other. There were hundreds of employees driving around in small, confined areas with large flower containers behind them. Ultimately the Royal Flora Holland demonstrated both clever engineering accomplishments and business tactics on the early morning trip.

The Tuliperij Tulip farm also showcased the process of how tulips are grown, harvested, and sold to distributors. At the farm our tour guide described the process in which they grow tulips. Apparently, there are two different seasons, the normal flower season and the bud season. Their goal is to maximize the size of the bud and complexity and beauty of the overall flower. This process is completed through carefully breeding and observing different tulip species to reach the desired specimen. This process is completely foreign to the US because tulips actually need colder climates to properly grow. This is why the Netherlands is one of the main tulip distributors. Also our tour guide explained how many places in America that act as a distributor to the consumers carefully check the flowers on arrival and many times send back products, wasting a lot of money. Therefore, the company now makes sure there is an American representative at the tulip farm to avoid having the tulips getting sent back to Holland. Tuliperij Tulip farm also showcased their important flower harvest machines that allow the farm to dispose and compost their flowers so the plants may be inspected and tended to so that they can sell them. This showed and important use of engineering that is very important to a company’s success.