Teun Hendriks

Energy Transition Architect at TNO-ESI

Additional Speakers

Klaas Wijbrans

Navigating the Dilemmas of Reuse

Bio.
Teun Hendriks is a systems engineer and architect with extensive experience in complex technology and infrastructure systems. His work focuses on applying Systems Engineering to address the challenges of the energy transition and helping organisations make better architectural decisions in the early phases of system development. He has worked internationally across sectors including semiconductors, automotive, high-tech systems, and energy infrastructure.

Authors.
Teun Hendriks, Klaas Wijbrans, Jacques Verriet, and Rob Ekkel

Abstract.

Why Do We Keep Reinventing the Wheel?

As Systems Engineers, we are good at finding better solutions. The harder question is: why do we keep solving the same problems, even when a good solution already exists?

Have you ever found yourself thinking:

“Didn’t we solve this already?”

“Why does every project seem to reinvent the wheel?”

Have you ever been asked to review, redesign, or justify something that was supposedly already standard? During the FuESSE study with Dutch grid operators[1], we encountered a striking example. A standard service building had already been designed and successfully deployed. Yet the next project started by commissioning another design by another contractor. The solution existed. The discussion started over again.

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. Similar stories emerged across requirements engineering, testing, modular building, governance, and supply-chain collaboration.

Many organisations invest heavily in standardisation, Systems Engineering, Product Line Engineering, and reuse. Yet the same discussions keep coming back. Standards are tailored. Exceptions accumulate. Ownership becomes unclear. Successful solutions remain isolated successes instead of becoming common practice. The challenge is often no longer finding a good solution. The challenge is helping organisations adopt it.

Why Good Solutions Don’t Spread

This workshop is for Systems Engineers who, like us, are tired of having the same discussions over and over again. Discussions about standards, exceptions, ownership, reuse, and project pressure. Discussions in which everyone agrees that a solution exists, yet nothing really changes.

This is not a workshop about another method or framework. Instead, you will explore why organisations keep reinventing the wheel and identify what prevents good solutions from becoming common practice in your own environment.

The Questions Behind Reuse

Working with peers from different sectors, you will investigate recurring challenges such as:

When should a project adapt to a standard, and when should the standard adapt to the project?
How much variation is valuable, and when does it become an accumulation of exceptions?
Why do some improvements spread while others remain isolated successes?
What can you do when the same issue returns project after project?
How do you build support among engineers, architects, project leaders, and managers?

From Lessons Learned to Lessons Reused

Drawing on experiences from the energy transition, aerospace, high-tech, and other engineering-intensive sectors, we will examine why improvements fail to spread and why organisations keep returning to the same issues. A central theme throughout the workshop is the role of the Systems Engineer. Beyond requirements and architecture, Systems Engineers can help make trade-offs explicit, challenge unnecessary variation, transfer lessons across projects, and strengthen organisational learning.

Together, we will develop practical insights that you can take back to your own organisation:

practical ways to respond when a project asks for “just one more exception”
stronger arguments for standards, reuse, and long-term thinking
ideas for turning lessons learned into lessons reused
insights from peers facing similar challenges
one concrete action you can apply in your organisation next month

The real challenge is not creating good solutions. It is making sure your organisation does not have to solve the same problem again next year.

Bring a case that frustrates you. A standard nobody follows. An exception that became the rule. Together, we will uncover the patterns behind these situations and learn how others have addressed similar challenges.

Whether you are known for proposing new ideas, challenging exceptions, or asking uncomfortable questions about recurring problems, this workshop is for you.

[1] See FuESSE study report (in Dutch): TNO-2026-17446 Modulair Bouwen voor de Energie-Infrastructuur