The ‘KPU-bedrijf’ (Clothing and Personal Equipment Company) is the clothing company of the Dutch Armed Forces and is responsible for all the clothing and equipment of employees. This also includes the ceremonial outfit; a special military uniform that is worn for special occasions, such as Prinsjesdag (the Dutch national holiday ‘Budget Day’)

“In preparation for Prinsjesdag, and on the day itself, large groups of military personnel are dressed in ceremonial dress. However, not all of them know how the cord sash should hang or how the feather should be placed on the headgear. With GPAL we can use video instructions to provide this information much more easily on a large scale.”
– Myriam, communication advisor at KPU-bedrijf

On a day like Prinsjesdag, the KPU-bedrijf has to assist large groups of military personnel in putting on their ceremonial outfit correctly. The KPU-bedrijf, in cooperation with MIND, has therefore started to use simple video instructions to explain how to wear the ceremonial outfit. 

Making short instructional videos 

A permanent film team is hard at work making instructional videos on the ceremonial dress. With the help of a dressed mannequin, short videos are made in which it is explained how the uniform should be worn, in what order one should put it on and which special attributes belong to which regiment and which rank. In total, more than 100 videos will have to be made to explain the specific requirements for each regiment and each rank.

“Making short videos per topic also has advantages for the military officers. Suppose you just want to know how to put on your lanyard, then you can watch a short 30-second video with the relevant information, instead of having to watch a whole 4-minute video.”
– Myriam

In just one month 13 videos have already been made and every tuesday more videos are added by the team. 

Two examples of instructional videos made by KPU-bedrijf

 

Knowledge assurance and information provision 

The short instruction videos on the ceremonial dress are not yet being shared, but hopefully they will be used next Prinsjesdag to provide the many military officers with the right information. Digitizing the knowledge on the ceremonial dress code also has another purpose. Namely, the videos are used to easily secure knowledge within the organisation. 

“By making the instruction videos with GPAL, we can better safeguard knowledge and pass it on to new employees. Simultaneously, the videos ensure that you can acquire knowledge in a fun way; a video is simply much more fun than reading.”
– Myriam

Positive expectations : Prinsjesdag next year 

Next year, the KPU company wants to deploy the instructional videos around Prinsjesdag (if it is possible with the COVID-19 virus, of course). The exact format has not been decided yet, but one possibility would be to hang a QR code at each regiment.This QR code can then be scanned with the GPAL app and immediately shows the instruction videos that explain the uniform and the attributes that belong to that specific regiment. 

“On Prinsjesdag we always try to help all servicemen as much as possible with the ceremonial outfit, but with only three men this is a lot of work. I think the videos could support everyone in the run-up to Prinsjesdag, so that the military officer in question can learn more about how to wear his or her uniform.”
– Myriam

The KPU company is still busy making all the instructional videos, but we are already looking forward to next year’s Prinsjesdag!