The final day for Logistics Manager of the Year is drawing ever closer. The countdown is on for the finalists: who will make the perfect pitch at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht and may call themselves Logistics Manager of the Year for a year? LogistiekProfs spoke to the candidates one last time. Why exactly should they win this coveted title?
Joris Keizers - Group Operations Manager at Veco
What makes Joris Keizers a Logistic Manager of the Year finalist? The talent to give new technologies a place within logistics. At producer Veco, the Group operations manager is responsible for the operation of two plants in the Netherlands and one in the UK.
When he joined Veco in 2010, Keizers found a company "that could make fantastically beautiful products". Keizers: "Customers were satisfied with the products, but less pleased with the delivery reliability and the communication about it." The bottleneck was in the lead time. Veco produces high precision metal solutions, including with electroforming technology. In this process, it often only becomes clear at the end whether all technical sub-processes have performed adequately. To improve delivery reliability, reducing lead times was inevitable. "That became my main focus," he says. By predicting where potential problems could arise, Keizers managed to increase on-time deliveries from 50 to 90 per cent.
The Group Operations Manager aimed for an even higher service level and, to do so, turned to Process Mining, a technique that comes from the world of Data Science and Big Data. "Going from 50 to 90 is easier than going from 90 to 95. The Six Sigma methodology we were using for that was not enough. I have a data-driven background due to my studies in Econometrics and was therefore always interested in new techniques like Process Mining. After an online course, I quickly saw what the technique could do for Veco."
Process Mining allows organisations to visualise and analyse processes based on information from various databases. "From that whole mess of data, Process Mining literally brings your process into focus. From there, you can immediately see where there is a lot of traffic and where congestion is. You can then put this alongside how you once conceived the process on paper."
Meanwhile, thanks to the insights gained, the processes at Veco are more closely aligned and the overall lead time has been halved. "Turning the insights into actual improvements only required a limited investment of a few thousand euros. The biggest steps are taken by making the various workstations work better together.
Keizers admits that working with Process Mining is a bit easier for him because of his mathematical background. "Still, my idea is that if you have knowledge and skills of supply chain, you can work with it. Moreover, not all employees need to generate the process flows. They only need to understand and interpret it. The nice thing is that later projects within Veco almost didn't involve me. Process Mining is quite easily transferable."
Keizers sees his participation in the election Logistic Manager of the Year as the perfect opportunity to make new techniques known within logistics Netherlands. "In that respect, the theme 'cross-border' fits me like a glove. In logistics, we always have to look across the border for new techniques, also from other disciplines. Within the supply chain, we are now looking across departments, but we need to look beyond that."
Olaf Vreeburg - Head of Operations at HelloFresh
With a background in HR, Olaf Vreeburg (32) may seem like the odd man out in the final of Logistic Manager of the Year. Yet that background is precisely what makes him approach logistics in a fresh way. "The unconventional path I took fits the unconventional chain we have established with at HelloFresh."
Vreeburg works as Head of Operations at HelloFresh, a meal box company. Over five years ago, he was still working in Google's HR department in Dublin. HelloFresh became his first introduction to logistics, in an environment where pioneering was the order of the day. "5.5 years ago, meal boxes didn't exist at all. We introduced that concept overall and had to build a logistics cycle for that as well. From day one, that has been pioneering. I started in a cold store packing meal boxes and have since set up the entire operation. That switch from HR to logistics was quite tough, but I can say in retrospect that I succeeded quite well."
Meanwhile, HelloFresh claims to be the market leader in the Benelux when it comes to meal boxes. When setting up the logistics operation, Vreeburg and the HelloFresh team always started from the customer's wishes. "Of course we wanted to establish an efficient, cost-conscious and sustainable chain. But in doing so, we always worked towards the optimal customer experience." An example of this is the Sunday night delivery that Vreeburg introduced with HelloFresh. "That was very unusual at the time of introduction. On Sunday evening, chances are your customer is at home. In addition, we let customers choose a time window and we communicate by text message the exact time of delivery. Via track & trace, they can accurately follow the delivery driver."
From HelloFresh's point of view, these options are also advantageous. Your first delivery attempt is more likely to succeed, which saves time. "With fresh produce, that's simply important. It is the ultimate example of serving your customer optimally and benefiting from it yourself. Sometimes it also works to our disadvantage. Since customers can choose their own time window, the challenge is to make our route planning as efficient as possible."
In it, Vreeburg sees areas for improvement for himself. "CO2 emissions and urban congestion are continuous points of attention for us. In terms of transport, we are making great strides in this by deploying electric bicycles (solar-powered), for instance, or electric delivery vans. By building decentralised and sustainable distribution centres, we aim to reduce the number of transport movements. "
The title Logistic Manager of the Year also has personal value for Vreeburg: "In 2008, I did an internship in the HR department at LU. On walking into their biscuit factory, I was hugely fascinated by the processes. Now, ten years later, thanks to passion, I managed to get into logistics and participate in this election. Winning the title would be a wonderful achievement for myself. But above all, of course, for the whole team; I don't do it alone."
Hugo van Goor - DC Manager Schneider Electric
As DC Manager at Schneider Electric, Van Goor is responsible for the European distribution centres in Helmond and Wiehl, Germany (outsourced). He is also responsible for the regional DC in Venray, which handles distribution to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland.
In early 2016 - when Van Goor took charge of the Venray DC - the DC Manager decided to bring the Venray and Helmond sites under one management. "These distribution centres were only 30 kilometres apart, while they operated completely separately, each with its own management team. We turned that around. In the current situation, we have one management team responsible for both locations. So it can happen that someone works in Helmond one day and in Venray the next." This has brought a number of advantages to the operations. "Because we have harmonised things, we are now really one company. Exchanges are more easily initiated and there is no more competition between them." The results also show that: the productivity and quality of the DCs are currently the highest in the whole of Europe. Van Goor: "These DCs are running at the top of Schneider Electric in terms of safety and quality."
When asked what makes Van Goor the Logistics Manager of the Year, the DC Manager answers modestly. "I don't see myself so much as a logistics manager, more as a manager in a logistics environment. Moreover, I am a leader who operates at the back end. I discussed with my team whether I was the right candidate for this election. They thought so."
Van Goor sees managing teams as his greatest strength, along with his entrepreneurial mentality. "Schneider Electric is a big company, with a lot of support in the form of corporate programmes that we can roll out. If we ran all those programmes alone, we would never have achieved these results. It's important to always determine what is a good fit for us at the time. What I would do as an entrepreneur, I do here now. You get that freedom at Schneider Electric, as long as you get results."
What the title means to him? "I see it as great recognition for the work we have done in the past two years. I am the captain in that, just like the captain in a football team. That one doesn't do it alone either."
On 11 April, the Logistic Manager of the Year (LMvhJ) election will take place at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. The nominees of both LMvhJ and Young Logistics Talent will pitch on stage and be put to the test by chairman of the day Jan Dirk Stouten. Visitors can visit various knowledge sessions during the final day. The day will end with a networking reception. Would you like to attend? You can register via the LMvhJ website.
