Today was a very early start, as we traveled to the Royal FloraHolland warehouse. This company holds the largest flower auction in the world, covering a major part of the entire Dutch trade. I got all my steps today at this warehouse alone. It was like a never-ending Home Depot, roughly the size of 250 football fields. As soon as you entered, you could see that the warehouse was bustling with workers that were rushing around in small carts. These were loaded with tulips, daises, and much more. One thing I found interesting at Royal FloraHolland was the automation of the flower carts. There were flower carts autonomously sorting themselves into areas where workers could then pick them up. Additionally, there was an enormous system that carried the boxed flowers to another location. The engineering of this feature saves the company time and labor.
After visiting the flower auction, we traveled to a family-owned tulip farm in the countryside. This farm is near the coast on a flat, sandy landscape. The reason for this location is the water level. Since the water level is so high in the Netherlands, especially along the coast, the farmers have no need for an irrigation system. An important distinction about the farm is that they mainly harvest bulbs, not flowers. These bulbs are harvested in the summer and sold so that other farmers, landscapers, and customers can plant the bulbs in the fall. Interestingly, the bulbs are planted before the winter because they actually require cold weather to grow properly. Another useful tip for growing tulips is rotating where you plant them every year. This prevents bacteria growth and ill flowers.
Altogether, I learned a lot about the business of selling flowers. Dean Jansze, the third-generation farmer who owned the farm we visited, mentioned he adjusts his sales accordingly to the market. Even though he harvests bulbs primarily, he sometimes sells the flowers if the market is favorable. A cool note about seeing the farm and a distribution center is that I was able to see the full concept to customer model of the flower business. A large theme of this trip is analyzing supply chains, and today we were able to see one of the farms that supply to the distribution center (of which supplies to customers). Additionally, I learned about the sustainability of growing flowers. When harvesting the bulbs, the rest of the flower is used as compost for the farm. Similarly, as mentioned before, there is no water waste without the need for an irrigation system.
After the flower activities, a group of us walked around the city and learned more about the culture of Amsterdam. One thing that we noticed is that a lot of houses in Amsterdam are slanted (picture the leaning tower of Pisa). One reason for these slanted facades is the newer additions of floors. These additionally added floors add weight to the building, which is bigger than what the original builders calculated. This results in supports that are weaker and the building sinks. In other cases, the quality of older supports deteriorated and yielded the crooked result.
Tomorrow I look forward to visiting MX3D — a company who 3D printed a bridge! It should be very educational and related to my studies at Pitt.
Until then, dankjewel!
