An indelible impression, a conclusive process, an indispensable service: it is our people who make that happen. Everyone within their own expertise and in their own way. In A Great Fit we talk to our employees about what makes their jobs so interesting. In this first edition: Mark Groothuis of Logistic Support.
Mark, tell me: what does your job entail?
Within Antar Shoe, I am the point of contact around all logistics processes. I also take care of innovation and development, such as discussions with carriers and suppliers of packaging materials. I am also currently supervising our intern Daan, who is studying to be a logistics employee. I am also a prevention officer, which means that I not only think along about how we can improve processes, but also come up with technical health & safety tips to work more efficiently and safely.
And how does your position contribute to the success of Antar Shoe?
In the logistics department, we are the last link in the order process. So it is very important not to leave any loose ends, because of course we want to make sure we have a closed process. When we as a logistics department do our job well, the retailer receives the products in good condition. Neatly and quickly. And if an order is placed before three o'clock, we ship it the same day.
What are the three most important characteristics of you as a logistic support?
Tackling, being flexible and working together. For us it is very obvious that the warehouse is tidy, but we regularly hear from drivers how tidy and clean the halls are. We have to be flexible because we have to deal with peak periods, for example when the slippers arrive in containers from Brazil. Then we are very busy with that, but the daily orders also go on. So many pallets leave here in a day, if something goes wrong with the carrier, we have to react immediately.
To keep that on track, we have logistics meetings every Tuesday morning, together with the office staff. Then we discuss which goods are coming in, what has priority and what other activities we can take up.
In March, you will have been employed for 12.5 years. Your anniversary is coming up!
Yes, fun! When I came to work here there were eight of us. Now there are more than twenty of us. We have celebrated quite a few anniversaries, which is always fun: you are really put in the spotlight and we have an outing that suits the person celebrating. That is also typical of Antar: we have very little turnover and the team sometimes feels like a big family.
What is your greatest moment at Antar Shoe?
Oh there are so many.... the outings we've had are real highlights though, from the ski trip to Austria to visiting the Grisport factory in Italy. So we also have a lot of personal contact with all colleagues, not just your own department. But also the Christmas drinks and outings with partners are very nice moments. And on the business side? When I started working at Antar Shoe, orders were still written by hand and picked piece by piece in the small warehouse. That was soon digitized and now we work with scanners for picking orders, which is necessary in such a large logistics center as we have now.
What does this digitization mean to you?
My work has become a lot lighter, haha! It took some getting used to at first, but now the scanner just 'tells' us where to go and what to grab, in the most efficient order. That also fits with Antar Shoe, we always ask ourselves how we can improve something better. I also like that part of my job: innovations. For example, we now work with a sealing machine for pallet shipments. Before, we were walking around sealing the pallet, now we can already move on to the next order while the robot is sealing the pallet.
What developments are we going to see at Antar Shoe in the future?
There are so many new technologies. RFID, for example, where a chip is embedded in the packaging with all kinds of important information about the product. That chip is read automatically and remotely, in order to follow and speed up the process. But also, for example, new scanners with a pistol grip, a kind of glove that you connect to the scanner so that your hands are free. We continue to develop, taking an extra step every day to achieve the very best service. That's what makes this work so great.
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