Fokker X Data Science Lab

This series is for and by data professionals. We talk to data professionals, managers and founders at our partners about the data challenges their organisations face. We look back and ahead. Where are the opportunities for data science? And how does Data Science Lab help? You can read about it here. We kick off the series with none other than Wouter van Dis. Wouter van Dis has worked for 29 years at Fokker Technologies, the Dutch aircraft parts manufacturer. He has been manager of Advanced Analytics for the past 4.5 years.

Hi Wouter, you’ve worked at Fokker for 29 years, including the last 4.5 years as manager of Advanced Analytics. How have you seen the organisation change over the years?

I have indeed worked at Fokker for 29 years. It’s a great organisation! Things are very different from when I started at Fokker Aircraft. Back when we built aircraft, manufacturing planes was our core business. In recent years, our work has mainly involved manufacturing aircraft parts for companies such as Boeing and Airbus. With the arrival of the new owner, logistics and services have become core businesses for us for the first time.

Can we go back to the beginning for a moment? How did Fokker get started?

Do you want me to go all the way back to Anthony Fokker? Anthony Fokker was an aviation pioneer. He flew the Spin around a church in Haarlem. That was unique at the time (1910). What’s particularly interesting is that Fokker became the largest aircraft manufacturer at one point. He died in 1939. Although Anthony Fokker was an aviation pioneer, he was not in favour of using aluminium. Even so, aluminium was the standard for a long time. Today, aircraft are made from composites.

You’re currently responsible for the data & analytics department. What are the most important changes you’ve made and steps you’ve taken, and which topics do you see becoming important in the coming years? When I took on this role 4.5 years ago, I didn’t quite know what I was getting into. I’d always had a thing for data; that’s typical of people at Fokker. The Microsoft Office suite is widely used here, and that’s still the case. We’ve made a start in our department. Some of the data is in the aircraft, and we need data engineers and data scientists to code and analyse it using Python. We’re seeing promising developments in this area. It’s clear to everyone in our organisation that this is the future. Four years ago, things were different: I encountered quite a bit of resistance from our IT organisation. Back then, the focus was more on managing office applications. Now, it’s shifting towards how we work.

"I want to know which component will fail tomorrow on my client’s aircraft"

The former manager was already saying, ‘we need to do more with data and digitalise so we can work more intelligently’. We can move further towards predictive and prescriptive analytics. I want to know which component will fail tomorrow on my client’s aircraft. That’s a topic I find very interesting for the coming years.

We should try to give users as little raw data as possible, and instead provide more conclusions and assistance to help them make better decisions. How will we do that? We have a few ideas now.

Where are the opportunities for data science at Fokker?

I see an opportunity in reliability management. We want to know which components will fail in our customers’ aircraft in the future. Predictive maintenance plays a big part in this. It’s very interesting to us, and we need a lot of IoT data for it. We also see opportunities in logistics, where we need to make principle-based decisions using control towers. Imagine choosing between three solutions, with the consequences of each laid out, such as the lowest gross margin or the best customer service. You can then make a more informed choice. There’s a lot of intelligence and automation behind this, of course. My heart is in reliability management, but I think it will remain somewhat in the background over the next few years. Logistics is the priority right now. That means bringing data in in a structured way so we can analyse it and make decisions. That’s our focus for the coming year.

How have you found working with Data Science Lab.?

At the start of our collaboration, I realised that our organisation didn’t yet have the knowledge we needed. I needed data professionals with expertise in areas including machine learning. I looked for organisations with a development programme for data professionals. This isn’t a field you can simply pick up; you have to invest in people’s development. That’s how I found you, and it felt right from the start.

We have an arrangement where the data professionals work for us four days a week and spend one day a week in the Lab. studying and developing their skills. That’s how it started, and it works very well for me. After the acquisition of Pantha Holdings, expanding our analytics capacity was a logical next step. The team now consists of two data scientists, a data engineer and a BI specialist. After a year at Fokker, they’ll become employees. As well as helping me find, retain and engage data professionals, Data Science Lab. gives me a source of knowledge, experience and expertise to draw on.

What was the biggest lesson you learned as the manager of a data analytics department?

You need to be a hands-on manager to understand what the field involves. Some knowledge of programming is helpful. But at some point, you need to step back from coding yourself. As a manager, I’ve learnt to take small steps and, above all, not to try to move too fast or do too much at once. Change takes time.