Afbeelding
Dennis graduated seven years ago from Logistics Management and has spent that time gaining a lot of experience in the company where he now works. He first came into contact with the Prysmian Group during his internship and then, when he graduated, he started work as operational planer in the ‘finished goods’ warehouse, where he saw to it that the material was delivered to clients on time. He's now Supply Chain Director. “I've pretty much seen everything over the years when it comes to supply chain management in the Prysmian Group and I've been able to carry out a variety of operational tasks in the factories in Emmen and Delft. It makes my current position all the more interesting because I can draw on all the operational knowledge I've gained and now actually influence the decisions that get made.”
Career path
Dennis has held a number of different positions within the Prysmian Group that overlapped with his studies. After his time as operational planner, he went on to work in the central planning department in Emmen. “I was responsible for planning the delivery of raw materials to the factory and was involved in Lean Six Sigma improvements. Lean Six Sigma involves constantly looking at how you can improve quality in the production cycle. Working with various other departments, such as Research & Development, HR and operators, we would pick a potential area for improvement each month and come up with a solution. As central planner, I was also responsible for the whole logisitics process for implementing the solution. I'd learnt to work with Lean Six Sigma while I was studying and that really helped.” After Emmen, Dennis worked for a while as production planner in Delft and from that position became supply chain manager in Delft before moving on to his current position as supply chain director for Prysmian.
Supply chain management
“My work is now very diverse. I'm responsible for operational logistics as well as sales and planning. The Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process involves us as supply chain department translating market demand into the operational planning for our factory. In the process, we speak to clients so as to get a good picture of what the market is demanding of us and whether we have enough production capacity to meet this demand. Once we've sketched the plans, we then arrange all the operational logistics. The demand for electricity, and therefore cables, has risen strongly over the past 18 months so you can imagine the demand is sometimes greater than the supply. It's up to me and my team to manage everything ‘from sand to client' (so from raw material to end product) as well as possible. Added to that, we have to make sure our supply reliability isn't strained. As supply chain team, we're an important link between business and operations.”
Increase in e-commerce
“I spent some time looked around for the right degree programme. Many of my school classmates opted for broader programmes such as marketing management or finance and control, but I was interested in the shift from physical to online shopping and how the supply and sales needed to be run from increasingly bigger warehouses. So I opted for logistics management. It's a choice that worked out well for me. I especially realised this when I first started my internship and really experienced the workfloor. It was so important to have that internship because that's when you really learn how to play the game.”
To find out more about the programme, check out the Logistics Management programme page or request the programme brochure.