Six nervous finalists have now taken the stage at the Jaarbeurs. Today it will be announced who can call himself Logistics Manager of the Year for a year. Will it be Hugo van Goor, Joris Keizers or Olaf Vreeburg? And which of the young talents will go home with the title? Tijs van Driel, Jeroen Provoost or Lennart Stachowitz? A report.
The day will be opened by Stefan Kleijngeld, who takes the stage as a former JLT winner. "Has the title brought you much?", day chairman Jan Dirk Stouten asks him. Kleijngeld answers in the affirmative. Indeed, shortly after winning his title, he was appointed chairman of Jong Logistiek Nederland. "And that has made life even more fun," Kleijngeld says.
The Logistics Manager at WP Haton explains during the opening of the day what the theme 'Crossing Borders' means to him and the company. By connecting people, processes and technology, WP Haton has transformed from a supply-driven production of industrial bakery machines to a demand-driven service. The company works closely with suppliers to develop innovative dough solutions for customers. His advice for a future-proof company? "Drink a lot of coffee. Engage with each other and find out what you can do for each other."
Young Logistics Talent enters stage
After the opening, the Young Logistics Talent nominees took to the stage. Tijs van Driel, COO at carrier Save Your Package, is the first finalist to introduce himself in a short video. His feat and at the same time biggest challenge? "Ensuring quality in times of growth, without making the processes too complicated." Juror Duco Buijze asks him what has kept him awake in recent years: Buijze: "You are still young and have experienced tremendous growth with the company. That must not all have been very obvious." But lying awake is not something Van Driel does easily. "But things were difficult. Because of the enormous growth, we suddenly needed a lot of drivers. They had to be trained in a short time, which was tough. Once that was up and running, the local hubs arrived and the processes had to be set up for them. That's all incredibly fun, but also exciting."
Then it is the turn of Jeroen Provoost, deployed to Defence via Yacht. Here he deals with organisational improvement, mainly by putting the right people in the right place. "Logistics is often about the right goods in the right place, but it's all about the people." Juror Buijze called Provoost's achievement "clever". "Mainly because Defence sometimes has a somewhat stuffy, bureaucratic image. Jeroen has shown that change is indeed possible at this organisation." Provoost acknowledges, "As long as you have a good idea and can substantiate it well." What should logistics do to make the field 'sexy' again for young people, Buijze asks him. "The many facets that logistics offers are often unknown to young people. The idea of getting a package from A to B predominates. But it is precisely the collaboration, the connection that makes logistics sexy. We need to propagate that."
The next finalist, Lennart Stachowitz, has now been working at Ingram Micro in Waalwijk for 2.5 years. There he was responsible for bol.com's high-season preparations for the first few years. "With a customer growing incredibly fast, priorities change just as quickly. My talent is that I remain calm under rapidly changing circumstances." Does Stachowitz also think out of the box in his work, Buijze wants to know. "Yes, for instance, we once had no budget for a fully automatic packet sorter. We came up with a solution for that, at 10 per cent of the cost. I think that seeing possibilities is a typical example of out-of-the-box thinking."
Logistics Manager of the Year
Then the young talents make way for the LMvhJ finalists: Hugo van Goor, Joris Keizers and Olaf Vreeburg. Van Goor takes the lead and claims to be overwhelmed by his nomination. "As a manager who likes to work in the background, this election was a complete surprise for me. I therefore discussed with my team whether they thought it was a good idea." Nevertheless, the whole process was very instructive for the DC Manager at Schneider Electric. Under his leadership, the DC in Helmond won the Safest Warehouse Award and two management teams were merged. "The jury visits forced me to look back at what we have been doing over the past few years. Normally, logistics always goes on and you don't dwell on it. That was one of the best things about this whole election though."
Joris Keizers agrees. "Developments follow each other constantly," he says. Keizers also sees himself as a leader in the background. Once he was Dutch champion bobsleigher. "There I was always the pushover, so also in the background. But winning, I like that and that comes in handy now!" Keizers was nominated thanks to the use of Process Mining in Veco's factories. This technique is still rarely used in logistics, so the theme 'Crossing borders' fits him like a glove, according to the jury.
Olaf Vreeburg, Head of Operations, at HelloFresh also sees himself as an industry pioneer. At the time HelloFresh was set up in the Netherlands, the concept of meal boxes did not yet exist. "Because there were no rules yet, we were able to fill in everything ourselves. For example, by starting Sunday delivery. That was not done in the Netherlands, while Sunday delivery is very convenient. In the early days, I packed boxes myself and delivered the boxes by bike. That developed into a nationwide delivery network and I am quite proud of that."
Ambassador of logistics
Will today's presentations have any impact on the outcome of the election, the chairman of the day wants to know. "Yes, very much so," says the judges. "After all, the winner becomes an ambassador of the sector for a year. How someone stands on stage is therefore very important."
At 18:00 it will be announced who this ambassador will be. LogistiekProfs will announce the winner live here.
