RWG: Building Structural Continuous Improvement

Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) is facing significant growth and aims to integrate continuous improvement into its daily operations. Symbol helps RWG build competencies and directly link major improvement initiatives to strategic objectives. This brings focus and a solid foundation to continue improving more independently.

Challenge

Strong growth, increased workload, and a significantly expanding terminal.

Approach

Linking competency development, coaching, and consultancy to strategy.

Impact

More focus, 15 priority improvement tasks, and more structured process management.

Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG)

Rotterdam World Gateway (RWG) is a highly automated container terminal on the Maasvlakte in Rotterdam. Annually, RWG facilitates the throughput of approximately 2.4 million TEU (the standard measure for container capacity; 1 TEU equals one 20-foot container) towards the European hinterland.

Due to growth and high customer demand, processes, capacity, and equipment are under increasingly intensive strain. Maintenance needs have also accelerated. At the same time, RWG is facing a substantial expansion: the terminal will become about one and a half times larger. This requires smarter and more efficient processes, so that more work can be done with the same staffing level.

For RWG, the ambition went beyond executing individual improvement projects. Continuous improvement had to become part of the normal way of working. This means not only achieving improvements but also developing the right competencies within the organisation so that employees are increasingly able to identify, implement, and sustain improvements themselves.

First, determine what the organisation needs

The initial contact with RWG was through Bauke (Business Development Manager) at Symbol. In discussions with RWG, he, together with the organisation, mapped out the ambition and the challenge. Given this ambition, it was sensible to engage external expertise. On the RWG side, Ronald van der Male is closely involved in the development of continuous improvement. He has been with RWG for six years and has been Program & Innovation Manager since August 2025.

The choice for Symbol stemmed from the breadth of its offerings: from training and coaching to consultancy. Moreover, Symbol offered the flexibility to switch between these elements during the process, in consultation and according to the organisation’s needs.

The substantive collaboration began with a maturity assessment. Symbol conducted a CIMM scan, spoke with managers, and distributed a survey among all employees. This created a concrete picture of RWG’s current position, what the organisation needed, and where further development was required.

Not training for the sake of training

In the first phase, RWG wanted to consciously enthuse employees about Lean while simultaneously building the right competencies within the organisation.
This approach suited RWG: start practically, create enthusiasm, and build further on continuous improvement from there.
All managers therefore followed Champion & Lean Leadership training courses.
Subsequently, White, Yellow, and Green Belt programmes were implemented for various groups within the organisation. All more than 300 employees have now completed Lean training. “Lean had to become our normal way of working, so that we are ready for the future.”
However, training was not an end in itself. For each target group, it was determined what knowledge and skills were needed to view their own work differently, identify problems, and implement improvements themselves. The training courses thus formed one part of a broader development in which learning and application were consciously linked.

“Lean had to become our normal way of working, so that we are ready for the future”

Hands-on support

RWG and Symbol together formed a core team to guide and direct improvement initiatives. In addition to Bauke, Marijn and Sandra, among others, were involved as consultants from Symbol. They worked within the organisation and supported RWG with both concrete improvement projects and the further development of improvement competencies.
RWG employees largely remain in the lead. Symbol provides support with structure, methodology, coaching, and expertise. In this way, work is done not only on individual improvements but also on the organisation’s ability to continuously improve more independently.

From isolated improvement actions to strategic impact

Robert-Jan Uhlhorn, senior consultant and trainer at Symbol, subsequently became involved in the further substantive guidance of RWG.
As more employees started working on continuous improvement, dozens of improvement initiatives emerged within RWG. The number of initiatives itself was not the problem. However, some, particularly larger and more complex, improvements were carried out as something extra alongside daily work.
Therefore, it became important to explicitly link new breakthrough improvement initiatives to RWG’s strategic objectives. This ensures that the available improvement time is better spent on topics that directly contribute to the direction in which the organisation wants to develop.
Ronald and Robert-Jan spoke with the COO, CFO, and various managers to determine where the terminal expansion could create new bottlenecks. This identified 15 strategically urgent issues that now form the basis for new (Green Belt) breakthrough improvement projects.
This directly links competency development and organisational results. Employees work towards their certification and, with the same project, contribute to a strategic objective. This makes the improvement work more relevant for the organisation and more motivating for the employees involved. The strength lies in the people.

Strategy, implementation, and competency development

The strength of the current collaboration lies in its broad, integrated approach. Strategy, implementation, and competency development are central to this. These three elements are consciously linked within RWG. In this way, they reinforce each other and jointly contribute to integrating continuous improvement into daily operations.
Competency development takes shape through Lean training and employee guidance. Implementation occurs through the joint core team and concrete improvement projects within the organisation: strategically significant breakthrough projects and improvement initiatives where the employee is in the lead. Within this approach, new improvement initiatives are increasingly linked to RWG’s strategic objectives.
By combining training, coaching, and consultancy, Symbol can flexibly respond to RWG’s needs and purposefully switch between these three elements according to the client’s requirements.

Applying competencies to concrete improvement projects

The acquired knowledge is directly applied to operational issues.
For example, fault reports from cranes within RWG were collected but not yet structurally analysed. A Green Belt project investigated which reports needed to be addressed promptly to prevent downtime. This allows maintenance to be organised more preventively and less correctively.
Another project focused on external hiring within the rail process. A critical look was taken at the relationship between deployment, waiting time, and downtime. This provided more insight and led to a smarter, cost-conscious deployment of external capacity.
In this way, competencies are not developed in isolation from practice, but rather based on issues that are actually relevant within RWG.

Results

Development within RWG is still in full swing. Nevertheless, clear results and organisational changes are already visible.

Measure	Before	After	Improvement
Lean Competencies	Baseline measurement identified development needs	All 300+ employees trained	Competencies built at multiple levels
Improvement Initiatives	Some initiatives were “additional”	Structured guidance via core team	More focus and direction
Link to Strategy	Projects not always structurally linked	15 priority issues as basis for new projects	More targeted prioritisation
Continuous Improvement Process Management	Anchoring still in development	New Program & Innovation Management department	More structured management and embedding

RWG is increasingly connecting competency development, strategic improvement tasks, and process management.

Further embedding continuous improvement

With the new Program & Innovation Management department, continuous improvement gains a clearer position within RWG. The department will also be responsible for process management around improvement initiatives.
This creates greater coherence between strategic priorities, improvement projects, and employee development.

Together with Symbol, RWG continues to work agilely towards a way in which the organisation can further embed continuous improvement in its daily processes.
The form of support adapts to what RWG needs. Sometimes this requires training, sometimes coaching, and sometimes consultancy. The starting point remains the same: further develop competencies within the organisation and utilise employees’ improvement capabilities for issues that are strategically important to RWG.

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Want to make continuous improvement a structural part of your organisation?

Continuous improvement requires more than isolated training courses or improvement projects. It demands the right competencies, a clear link to strategy, and an organisation that can structurally sustain improvements.

Do you recognise this challenge within your organisation? Contact Symbol to discuss a suitable approach.

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