Kivit Steel Construction: with Liemar, we make great strides in process improvement

Kivit Steel Construction realizes high-quality, certified steel products. Piping, equipment and steel structures, with or without certification, for demanding industries such as the petrochemical, power plant, copper and zinc industries. Being certified for various CE quality marks, including the specific design standards, and the variety of qualifications of the employees make Kivit Staalbouw a truly unique player in the steel industry.e. Nevertheless, this company also works with Liemar to its full satisfaction.

Few other companies in the market are as broadly oriented and deployable as Kivit Staalbouw. It is a multidisciplinary organization where customers can place everything: piping, equipment construction and steel constructions, made from various (exotic) types of steel and manufactured using various welding processes. Moreover, Kivit Staalbouw regularly works on turn-arounds; time- and capacity-bound projects where quality is literally of vital importance. They often carry out the large projects with large groups of people up to 250 FTEs. Every day they have 175 people at work. The planning, project control and financial monitoring of these is becoming increasingly important.

Kai Kivit, general manager of the Kivit Group (consisting of Kivit Staalbouw and MCL apparatenbouw): '2020 was the first full year in which we worked with Liemar. Not long before that, Jan van Hapert stood at our reception at exactly the right moment with a bottle of beer under his arm. We talked to each other about the possibilities, had contact with other users of the software and went for it together. The Kivit Group delivers standardized high quality. So for us it is always paramount that we are facilitated in this. LiemarX is a straightforward ERP package, but with the right configuration it works very well and really supports us. Moreover, delivery reliability based on agreements made is very important to us. This is one of the values in which Kivit Staalbouw and Liemar find each other. In this way, Liemar helps us secure our quality.'

'Investing in the relationship, really understanding each other and then developing together, that's what we like at Liemar,' says Niels Oudenaarden, commercial director at Liemar. 'Kivit Staalbouw is an atypical steel construction company and demands something different from Liemar than, for example, steel companies that work in series. That also challenges us and keeps us on our toes.'

Lauren Deuss has been working at Kivit Steel Construction as head of digitization and innovation since July 2023. "I work on the basis of data. Making data insights and management reports is what I have been most involved with so far. Liemar immediately made that very easy and accessible for me, thanks to the fixed tables. Together with Barry van den Reek, technical director of Liemar, I quickly gained insight into our organization. This also allowed me to quickly get to work on data-cleaning, which means we are now making great strides in sharpening our processes and results.'

Booking hours, processing purchase invoices, rights structures ... Lauren has already been able to optimize a lot in her first months at Kivit Staalbouw. 'It is also very nice that, in terms of system administration, we can do a lot ourselves. The manuals that can be called up from the system offer practical support. Moreover, if I call with a question, there is always someone ready to help.'

Niels: "This is exactly the essence of what we like to do. We want companies to be able to work on their own data and their own processes. Our role is to facilitate them in such a way that they can continuously improve and sharpen this effectively. I think the phase Kivit Staalbouw is in now is super nice to see. They have mastered the program and are really building on insights and using data-driven foundations to optimize their processes.

Wishes for the future are also there. Lauren: "We already use quite a few modules from Liemar. In the coming period we will continue with the warehouse app, tightening up the planning and making wider use of the HR module. By analyzing the data we collect in Liemar, we can gain valuable insights that will help us make informed decisions, optimize processes and improve the overall efficiency of our operations.

About Kivit Steel Construction

Its unique specialty has already been mentioned above. The company is also known for the quality, flexibility and delivery reliability it has provided since its founding in 1985. With about 130 employees in its own organization and 45 employees in the flexible shell, Kivit Staalbouw works on diverse, often special projects.