My story
For the past eight years I've helped teams — from operators on the floor to senior directors — continuously improve logistics processes and the entire Nike campus (more than 5,000 people). I did that as a facilitator, trainer and manager.
My coaching and facilitation are built on 17 years of experience in logistics (transport, distribution, warehousing) and supply chain (flow planning), grounded in my background as an industrial engineer. I bring insights from business management and finance together with a simple, realistic view of how companies can move forward with their customers and people. I do that through strategy sessions, process improvement programmes or training.
Why Imperfection?
I'm a perfectionist by nature. That used to hold me back: I'd read a book and everything had to be exactly right. That just frustrates everyone. Since then I've learned to be more pragmatic: perfectionism drives me forward, and experimenting and making progress on the floor is how we get there. Process improvement isn't theoretical perfection — it's trying, failing and learning as a team. Then succeeding.
My first manager taught me something important: we're just moving boxes here. Yet many managers struggle to use their common sense: complicated processes, endless meetings and KPIs that have little to do with measuring success.
Results in practice
Over time I've learned to deliver results based on a few simple truths: leadership, simplicity, a little better every week. At Nike I improved efficiency, lead time and on-time performance (OTIF).
Example 1: Raising delivery performance from 87% to 98%. How do you make sure four distribution centres deliver product at the right moment to offer the customer a single delivery?
Example 2: Halving the lead time of a 25-year-old process from 8 hours to 4 hours. It cost nothing. Quite the opposite: the shipping department had to spend less time hunting for urgent cartons and could staff the right number of people.
A simple approach
A plan without fuss usually works best:
- What is the problem, and how big is it?
- Who are the people who help us fund, explain and improve things?
- How can we test and verify our improvements first, before we help people?
That also taught me that leadership matters, as does a clear strategy. That's not rocket science either: it's about being clear with yourself and your people.
Process improvement is not done alone either. You need the right people. You don't need talkers, but people who want to move forward, bring experience, and dare to make mistakes and want to learn.
Something for you?
That brings me to you: does your operation need more clarity, but do you need a sounding board? Or do you want to teach the people in your organisation how to achieve better results without a lot of talk? Then we can set off together: sparring, hitting the floor to look at your problems, or coaching and training your people. Over the past few years I've trained and coached dozens of coaches, managers and directors in practice, so I bring that experience with me directly.
We do that by getting to know each other for half an hour. If it clicks, I'll come and look at your processes. After that we discuss what our joint journey looks like. Simple principles, common sense. Not 10,000 Lean techniques, just the core of the matter.
Active as a sparring partner, coach and trainer on site in Limburg, (East-)Antwerp and Flemish Brabant.