On the 6th of February 2019, 18 SuLo members took the opportunity to visit JYSK at the head office in Braband, Aarhus.
The program of the day started at 13:30h with a warm welcome by Louise Munkholm Bendsen. Louise gave us a short introduction to JYSK, JYSK Nordic in particular, and the superordinate Lars Larsen Group, named after its famous founder Lars Larsen. Louise introduced the separation of JYSK Nordic, JYSK Franchise and “Dänisches Bettenlager” and the different countries and regions each of the companies covers.
Heine Sort, Flow of Goods Director, followed with a presentation about the work and organization of the flow of goods department. He started by explicitly explaining the challenges JYSK as a retailer faces and the importance of Supply Chain Management, through which JYSK can add value for its customers. He talked about the growth strategy and the importance of growth for the company. Compressing JYSK’s supply chain into its essential parts, he managed to descriptively explain to us challenges like the long lead times from their suppliers in Asia and seasonal fluctuations in demand. Additionally, Heine explained the organization of the Flow of Goods department and each part’s tasks, skills, and challenges. Answering a question from the audience about the relevance of IT in today’s jobs, he ensured us that a combination of the business understanding on the one hand and a skillset in IT, on the other hand, are what is needed by companies like JYSK.
The next presentation was offered by Amalie Rosenvinge, newly promoted as Supply Planning Team Leader. Amalie told us about her journey from an intern to a student assistant, then a Forecast and Replenishment Planner and now Supply Planning Team Leader. She explained the tasks and projects she worked on. A focus was on the integration and implementation of new software to support planning and decision-making, as this was one of her biggest projects and challenges at JYSK.
Niels Hald Kristoffersen, Process Improvement Specialist in one of JYSK’s biggest distribution centers, talked about the challenges JYSK faces in its distribution centers. As mentioned above, JYSK follows a strong growth strategy, which means, that capacities in the distribution centers always have to keep up with the growth and rising number of stores to supply. Niels told us about the huge project to build and extend the distribution center and provided us with some facts about capacities, amount of orders processed and others regarding the distribution center. Furthermore, he explained the challenges that came with the introduction of the online store and concepts like “Order Online Pick Up in Store.”
We thank JYSK for the opportunity to get to know the company and tasks, challenges and projects about logistics and supply chain management.
Category: Company visit
Company visit Salling Group
On the 28th of November, SuLo had the opportunity to visit Salling Group. After a warm welcome by former Logistics and Supply Chain graduate Carl Martin Munkholm and a morning coffee, our program started with several presentations.
At first, Niels Katholm Christensen, director of Logistics Development, introduced us to the company and talked about Salling’s expectations for future employees. Afterward, Anders Nyegaard, participant of the graduate programme at Salling Group, gave us insights about his life and daily tasks at the workplace. He introduced us to his current project in which he optimizes the way of using and integrating collies in the warehouse processes. This was supported by video material. Later in the day, while exploring the logistic facilities, we could recognize where exactly his project is targeted towards.
To gain an even broader insight into the work of Salling Group, Jonas Hovesen, Senior Strategic Procurement Consultant in Salling’s Commercial department taught us especially about how to strategically prepare and conduct supplier negotiations. Furthermore, Mie Bendtsen, a third-semester student in the master’s program of Logistic and Supply Chain Management at Aarhus BSS, talked about her experience as an intern and student assistant. Through her contribution to many projects at Salling Group, she could provide us with a comprehensive perspective on what it means to be a student in the company. Finally, Carl Martin Munkholm explained his journey from Aarhus BSS to Salling Group to us.
The second part of our company visit was the tour through the warehouse. We put on the yellow security vests and followed an experienced colleague through the buildings. He taught us about all the different sections and didn’t hesitate to touch on some of the complications Salling Group encountered when building the warehouse. It was very interesting and impressive to see how far industry 4.0 has already brought us. In huge sections, the warehouse was fully operated by computers.
Company visit at Danish Crowns
On the 5th of March 2018, 25 SuLo members visited Danish Crowns production facility in Horsens. We were greeted at the entrance and got the grand tour of their facility. All the way, from when the animals enters the facility, to the end, where all the cut meat leaves in cages.
On the journey through the facility we experienced that, there are many machineries involved in the production, but there are also a lot of tasks that cannot be executed by machines, due to the precision of the work (cutting). Therefore, there are a huge load of manpower running the facility, almost 1800 people were working there.
At our stay we were further introduced to the operations of the supply chain, and how Danish Crown are managing their supply chain and production planning.
Company visit at Dansk Supermarked
On the 7th of February SoLo had the pleasure to visit Dansk Supermarked Group. The day started at 9:00, where the participating members were greeted by Supply Chain and Logistics Graduate Carl Martin Munkholm. Carl and three of his associates gave us some inspiring presentations of their working in DSG, alongside with the variety of tasks that comes along with the job there.
Their presentations included the providing and handling of different projects conducted during the workflow at DSG. These presentations made a clear connection between the material thought on our master’s program in Logistics and Supply Chain Management and the real world.
Last but not least we got a guided tour at DSG almost fully automatic warehouse facility. At this warehouse we saw all the different processes in action, perfectly coordinated to reduce risk of picking errors while maintain a low throughput time, while in practice demonstrating the complexity of the systems and processes within a warehouse of the scale of DSGs.
Company visit at Dansk Supermarked
On March 16th, SuLo visited Dansk Supermarked Group. We were greeted by Supply Chain graduate, Kristina Hove Østergaard, who introduced us to DSG and told us about her role, as a graduate, in the organization. Later,Mette Margrethe Poulsen, head of e-commerce logistics, as well as two former interns, joined us for a talk about the important role of e-commerce logistics in the DSG Supply Chain, as well as the challenges that follow.
After a break, we proceeded to get a tour of one of DSG’s large warehouses where we saw first hand, how big of an effort DSG put into warehouse optimization and the potential benefits of doing so. We, among other things, saw how DSG through coordinated order picking, reduced the risk of picking errors while maintaining a low throughput time.
Company visit at LEGO
On the 27th of February 2017, 25 members of SuLo visited LEGO in Billund. Tine Markvad Vind introduced us to the history of LEGO, the core values of the company and told us about the different struggles the LEGO company had been facing in the beginning as well as in recent years.
After lunch another employee told us about the supply chain in LEGO. He informed us how they have tried to implement strategic changes in different parts of the supply chain to reduce time waste and remain competitive. He explained how different links in the supply chain operated including factories, warehouses, packaging and forecasting as well as how LEGO has improved their service level towards their retailer customers.
Towards the end of the visit we were brought to a LEGO factory and shown how the machines and robots operate on their own with only a few people in the factory doing the necessary maintenance required.
Company visit at Pandora
On 4th of February 2016, 38 SuLo members, 1st and 2nd year students, visited Pandora in Hamburg.
The program was as following:
7 am: Left from BSS
11:30 am: Arrived at Pandora. A general introduction of the company followed + introduction of all the managers.
The students were divided into small different teams and visited all the parts of the warehouse in rotations. They were shown all the machines and processes, explained about their strategies and ideas. The “departments” included in the tour were:
- Warehouse: All the processes in the warehouse, including the Reverse logistics + Optimization methods
- Business Intelligence: Reporting tools, utilization of Advanced Excel + Production Planning and Optimization
- SP/SP: Logility (their supply planning tool) + Inventory control + Forecasting
- Lean Six Sigma: Project Planning + Supply Chain Design + Production Planning
- Hallmarking: Advanced Excel + “Supply” management + Production Planning
- Transportation: Supply Chain Design + Advanced Excel + Distribution and Transportation
The closing part contained a little exercise where students were supposed to see themselves in the manager position and answer the question: What would have you done differently over the years in Pandora? With emphasis on its weak points.
5:30: Left Pandora and came back to Aarhus.
Company visit at Dansk Supermarked
On the 27th of October, 35 members of SuLo visited Dansk Supermarked, Aarhus. Logistic Manager, Mette Margrethe Poulsen, introduced us to the history of the retail company and its various carrier opportunities. Additionally, we had the pleasure of meeting four graduates, who told us about their task and responsibilities within DS. After a short break, we got an interesting tour in one of the enormous high-technology warehouses of DS, where we saw how packaging was optimized through modified pallets and box sizes, among other things.