“It can be the case that a long aluminium tube takes up too much space in the truck, but that in practice you only discover this because it is relatively light weight. The loaders and transport planning can be taken by surprise, but with my calculations they will soon be able to see this coming far in advance.”
Davy Schiricke is an Industrial Engineering and Management student, and has helped MCB to improve its reliability: “I looked over the shoulders of the transport planners and the loading master, to see how they break down lists and the problems they encounter. And how they can see if something can be transported in the truck or not.”
“While studying Industrial Engineering and Management at Fontys I studied MCB’s supply reliability, for each customer segment too. For the most important segment I looked at the most important components of supply reliability, like delivery time reliability. For customers where the deviation between the performance and the norm was greatest I investigated the reasons. Some deviations came to the surface, which meant I had to establish which were the main reasons: usually the loading process. So I specifically started to look at improvements for this part of the process.”
“My research resulted in two pieces of advice:
“I started interviewing colleagues from various departments: logistics, sales, you name it. I discussed delivery reliability with them, and from the available data I started a zero measurement: when is something on time? If the initial delivery date is the same as the invoice date? That is the definition of delivery reliability at MCB.”
“Following this, I implemented segmentation and I looked at how MCB’s performance differs for each segment. For the most important segment I zoomed in on the optimum performance there, that is most important for MCB. I spoke to account managers about customer wishes. Based on their input, I continued to investigate and I pursued the logistics element of reliability. Because that is what my advice had to deal with.”
“The supervision from MCB was good, my supervisor left but I got a great replacement: Ronald Pijs knows everything about logistics. MCB is a very low-threshold organisation, it’s easy to approach people and they are a great help. Actually everything went very smoothly indeed. But nothing falls into your lap, you do need to pluck up the courage to speak to people.”
“In conclusion: I started measuring and researching delivery reliability from a new measurement perspective, and I recorded my most significant points for improvement on paper. And this is of course great for an intern, that you are permitted to add value at a strategic level. Perhaps later on I’ll be able to implement this at MCB, with my course I have lots of options. So you never know, they might see me back here one day.”
