“After my Master’s, I knew which strategic questions to ask”
TIAS EXPERIENCE
“In my current job, I still make daily use of what I learned during my Master of Operations and Supply Chain Management at TIAS.” These are the words of Fraukje van Kuijk-Veens, Global Demand Manager at Nouryon. “A year ago, I was looking for a new career direction. While considering what would be a good fit for this Master’s degree, I discovered lots of options. I turned to one of my favorite modules, Operations Planning. That was a good starting point for me to apply for the job I have now.”
Wise words
When Fraukje began contemplating a new career challenge, she was managing the Logistics department at AkzoNobel’s Arnhem plant, her first real job after gaining a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering & Management. “After a year and a half, I had it set up so that everything was running well. I was ready for something new. The site manager and HR told me that to advance at a multinational corporation, you need a Master’s degree. I could attend whatever Master I wanted through the company. ‘However,’ the director cautioned me, ‘make sure to pick something you enjoy, because it’s going to cost you a lot of your free time and energy. If there’s a Master that would look fantastic on your resume, but doesn’t truly spark your interest, don’t do it.’ Those were very wise words.”
All the ins and outs
Fraukje explored her options, considering various Masters and also going for several interviews. “My first interview at TIAS to discuss the Master of Operations and Supply Chain Management immediately gave me that feeling of, ‘Oh, this sounds good.’ I liked the subject matter and the way the program was designed around modules with three consecutive days of lectures, so that you can apply what you’ve learned in practice right away. I mainly wanted to broaden my knowledge. My work was very centered on logistics back then. I was aware of what was going on at the plant in a general way, but without knowing all the ins and outs. While I had a handle on the bits of operations and purchasing that concerned me as the Logistics Manager, I could only guess at the underlying plans and strategies and all the possibilities. I also wanted more insight into the financial side of things. Most of all, I wanted to be able to see the big picture,” says Fraukje.
“I wanted to be implementing improvements myself instead of waiting for others.”
Learning to think strategically
“Before then, I participated in improvement projects, but I wasn’t driving them or coming up with analyses as such. I wanted to learn how to think more strategically and make use of models, so that I could implement my own improvements instead of waiting for others to come along and take the initiative. Although I didn’t take on this Master with a specific career goal in mind, I did end up partly ignoring the recommendation to stick with my existing job until I was done. After six months, I received an opportunity to start working as Production Manager alongside my duties as Logistics Manager. That would make me responsible for overseeing the entire process at the plant; both production and logistics. I decided to go for it.”
Why TIAS
Fraukje’s decision to go with TIAS was determined by the total package. “Solid content, with great professors for the various modules. I’d read their articles in industry journals, and their books were the ones on my shelves when I was doing my Bachelor’s. TIAS also takes care in how participants are admitted. During my first interview, they were very clear about how much of your free time the Master’s takes up and warned me to think about what I was getting into. The questions were quite blunt. ‘How will you make this work? What’s your private life like? Do you have the resources you’ll need?’ I felt that was unique to TIAS. It gave me confidence. After all, it means you’re starting off well-prepared. Of the group I was in, three people bowed out after two or three months. The rest all made it. TIAS’s reputation helps too, of course. Another thing I appreciated is TIAS’s commitment to quality throughout the program. We were asked for feedback after each module. TIAS actively ensures that the quality stays high.”
Name Fraukje van Kuijk-Veens
Position Global Demand Manager for the Paints & Coatings division at Nouryon, a chemical company that split off from AkzoNobel in 2018. In this role, Fraukje is responsible for estimating the next two years’ sales figures as accurately as possible and supplying the associated sales data to the right colleagues to allow for coordination of inventory, capacity and investments. Program Executive Master of Operations and Supply Chain Management
“The Sustainable Supply Chains module helps you to stop seeing corporate social responsibility as a threat, and instead embrace consideration of such factors for their operational relevance.”
“I got to apply certain insights immediately at AkzoNobel’s Arnhem plant.”
Putting theory into practice
Looking at the program content, Fraukje thinks all TIAS’s promises in this respect have held true. “For me, the promise that we’d be able to apply our lessons right away was the most important one. That has proved very beneficial. “Moreover,” she adds, “you learn a lot about your own organization. As your knowledge expands, you become capable of seeing the big picture. You can tell, ‘this is the direction I want to go in,’ or ‘this is why we’re doing it this way.’ And I really did get to apply certain insights immediately at our plant in Arnhem. There was the module on continuous process improvement, for example. I applied the method we were taught to a minor malfunction at the plant, and it gave us the solution we needed. You get to see the effects of the theory in practice immediately. That feels amazing.”
Relationship with Purchasing and Finance
“The connections they made between my own field and Purchasing and Finance in particular were very enlightening. I saw and understood much more. The real eyeopeners for me were the modules where we started to comprehend the various concepts and our own impact on things. In my current role, I’m the one who tells Purchasing what we expect to sell so they know when to have the raw materials available. In my previous role, I was responsible for achieving production targets using what raw materials we had. I get to see the consequences of my actions from both sides now. It doesn’t hurt that experience has taught me exactly what kind of chaos will result if you miscalculate sales. With the benefit of improved insight into correlations within your organization, you start asking different questions, such as, ‘Are we sure these are the right figures? Do they make sense? Do we really understand this?’ The general financial insights we were taught have proved helpful both in my previous position and my current one. It’s been extremely useful.”
Asking the right strategic questions
At first, Fraukje wasn’t clear on whether her strategic development had been all that significant. “I had a different perspective on how things worked at the plant, of course, so I was doing things differently, but was there any actual strategy involved? I asked my colleagues for their opinion. They told me that yes, they could definitely tell the difference compared to before my Master’s degree. They said that whereas before, I basically went with the flow, I was asking very different questions now. I was drawing on other sources to help confirm specific data, for example, ‘Hey, if we say we’re seeing shortages, why doesn’t that appear to apply at all in this other industry? Is that information correct? Shouldn’t we be more critical or trying to think out of the box more?’ I knew which strategic questions to ask.”
“If the program hadn’t included Sustainable Supply Chains, I wouldn’t have chosen the TIAS Master.”
Corporate Social Responsibility
To Fraukje, the module on Sustainable Supply Chains and corporate social responsibility was non-negotiable. “If the program hadn’t included this topic, I wouldn’t have chosen the TIAS Master. This was already an important concern at AkzoNobel ten years ago. The topics under discussion were familiar to me, as our company was already working on related projects.”
Interesting from an operational perspective The most interesting part of that module was the chance to see how other companies were doing and the solutions people were proposing. It expanded my knowledge of the subject and I found it very useful. My understanding of the concept improved a lot. I became more aware of why this is necessary. Ever since, I make sure to incorporate CSR when I’m looking for potential solutions and have continued to monitor developments. The last ten years have seen plenty of changes, of course. The module helps you to stop seeing corporate social responsibility as a threat, and instead embrace consideration of such factors for their operational relevance. It can be costly, but ultimately, it also pays off because your continued existence is more assured.”
Master thesis: Improving overall equipment effectiveness together
Fraukje did the research for her Master’s thesis at AkzoNobel’s Arnhem plant, where she was responsible for managing both logistics and production at the time. This research was aimed at increasing Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) from 58% to 75% using a benchmark. Fraukje: “Everyone there thought I was crazy. Maybe I’d make 60%, but more than that just wasn’t possible. In the end, I got the whole plant involved and I made it happen! It’s been ten years now and the operators are still talking about it.”
Every fifteen minutes, five minutes were lost
Much of Fraukje’s research time was dedicated to collecting and cleaning up the manufacturing data. She also interviewed all the shift crews to find out what they thought was costing the most manufacturing time. Fraukje’s colleagues in Production concluded that the greatest losses were due to malfunctions and the need to clean the machines. Fraukje: “Once I could finally analyze the data, it emerged that in fact, five minutes were being lost every fifteen minutes. I went back to the shift crews to investigate possible causes. That revealed that one cause was a specific rinse step where the operators didn’t have a clear idea of what was happening and whether things were actually proceeding as they should.”
Mission accomplished: 75% OEE
“We created a control chart for the control room operators using software and told them that as long as the pressure stayed between the lines for the minimum and maximum values during the rinse, everything was fine. That one change allowed us to eliminate 95% of our lost time. Seeing everything displayed on screen let the operator figure out ways to optimize the rinse step. When everyone then starting doing the rinse the same way, we saved time and achieved our OEE target. Before I’d even finished my research, I’d accomplished my mission and my solution was being implemented at the plant.” She grins. “It did mean that after two months of increased productivity, the plant shut down through December due to this unanticipated ‘overproduction’.”
To measure is to know
80% of Fraukje’s master thesis consisted of data analysis, and she made good use of the various models she was taught during her Master. “I basically applied all the modules to identify ways we might be able to increase capacity for that little section of our plant. Applying the various models, combined with occasional brainstorming sessions on how to interpret the data, or about something that wasn’t showing up in the data but my gut said was important, gave me fresh inspiration. We used this as the basis for measurements, and that’s when we saw how fast improvements can be achieved once you’re on the right track.”
Supported by all
“The great thing about this research,” Fraukje continues, “is that we all did it together, with the whole plant. This is also why my thesis includes the names of all the operators and my colleagues from Technical Services. Everyone was closely involved. It was fantastic to see the effects on people at the plant, too. This was not the kind of research project that gets presented to management and then disappears in a drawer somewhere. The research findings had already been implemented. The operators said they loved having someone coming to them for help for once. And I didn’t have to spend time getting people on board. Once we had the control chart set up, the operators got to work right away. They included it in the handover for the day shift the very first night. I didn’t need to do a thing. Everyone supported the research and findings. That’s a sign of success right there.”
Part of a team
Fraukje emphasizes how her Master’s thesis depended on collaboration, and this is also reflected in her interactions and feeling of being part of a team together with her fellow participants during the Master’s program. “It’s pretty much a necessity. We all have times when we’re thinking, ‘Oof, not this again!’ or there’s something we can’t get figured out. That’s when you need someone next to you saying, ‘Come on, you can do it.’ We helped each other out. I appreciated that a lot. Eight of us still meet up once a year to have a meal and do an activity together. We also serve as each other’s sparring partners. When I was wondering whether to take my career in a different direction last year, I asked some of my former fellow students for advice. That’s actually one way TIAS really adds value. Besides the literature and knowledge gained, your network expands in very valuable ways. They also organize events which are open to alumni, and I get a lot out of those as well.”
Working on sustainability
After completing her Master’s degree at TIAS, Fraukje spent another seven years employed at the plant. Last year, she transitioned to business planning. “My Master’s degree made it easy for me to move in other directions internally. I could have picked Purchasing instead, for example.”
In her current role, it is mainly the market that inspires Fraukje to work more sustainably. “If I notice increasing demand for more environmentally friendly products, I may ask Product Development about ways for us to move toward more sustainable raw materials or packaging, for example. I’m mostly a coordinating figure; I pass on signs I see and occasionally make proposals. We operate in a global market, and different conditions apply in different parts of the world. If I see something new in our field going on in the US, I investigate whether this could be a good thing or a threat to our European operations. I try to make all the pieces fit together.”
Fraukje’s tip
“If you’re considering a part-time Master of Operations and Supply Chain Management, my tip is ‘just do it.’ It is an enjoyable and instructive program in multiple areas. Do take the time to think about how you’ll make it work. This is not something that’s over and done with in a few months. You have to be willing to make the sacrifice, and make sure your family knows what to expect. That will prove helpful later.”
Master’s program that offers immediate results in the workplace
As an Operations or Supply Chain Manager, you are constantly responding to rapid changes in logistics and the supply chain. Developments in areas such as globalization, digitization and sustainability create new challenges. With the part-time Executive Master of Operations and Supply Chain Management (MOS), you can stay abreast of the latest models and developments. You will be able to apply your newfound knowledge to your own operational or logistics situation straight away, producing immediate results. Download the brochure to discover if this is the program for you.
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