Managing Warehouse Operations at Hollander Barendrecht

Hollander Barendrecht is a logistics service provider and strategic partner for storage, management and distribution of fresh and chilled products.

Customer Hollander
Location Barendrecht
Segment Operations
Managing Warehouse Operations <span>at Hollander Barendrecht</span>

Assignment

In addition to approximately 260 PLUS supermarkets, since the summer of 2019, Hollander has also been responsible for the storage/transshipment of overseas fruit flows to 42 German DCs from Edeka. This is done from the 40,000 m2 DC with approximately 200 permanent and 400 flex employees.

The interim function Operations Manager includes the task areas/departments Transport, Orderpick, Expedition and Fustloods. MT members were the main objective to maintain the operational KPIs and to ensure a motivated team.

The initial assignment included:

  • Tariff negotiations with regard to Transport, both with external carriers and with suppliers for whom Hollander provides transport.
  • Establishing a team that works independently, whereby mutual communication between departments has greatly improved. Various managerial positions have been re-filled for this, mainly due to internal traffic flow but also due to external influx.
  • Improved and professionalized cooperation and communication with the client PLUS and employment agencies, resulting in more partnership.

The original assignment was extended and expanded. The internal candidate for the role of Operations Manager had to be prepared and the implementation of a new customer had to be carried out. The day-to-day management of the extensive operation for another leading customer also fell within the remit. In addition to continuing the above points, the following issues were addressed:

  • The Edeka (or start-up for the new customer) operation is stable, after a tough start with a completely new team, new WMS and a newly equipped DC.
  • In addition to the usual peaks around the holidays, Corona has caused huge peaks in the volume to be delivered. This required rapid upscaling of capacity in both people and resources.

Results

The role of Operations Manager was successfully taken over by the internal candidate. A program was started to further develop the team. Hollander Barendrecht was prepared to handle the high delivery volumes required and was made ready for the next steps.