On the 13th of November we visited the IKEA store in Haarlem. We had an appointment with the Deputy Logistics Manager, Jeroen Karssen, to give us a tour through the logistics department of that store. Since the most interesting part of these processes happen in the morning, before the store opens, we agreed to go their early. So at 07:30 we arrived at the store. After being welcomed and signed in by the kind lady from the reception we met up with Jeroen and he invited us to start with a cup of coffee in the employee restaurant. Here we talked about everything that happens in the morning and what he is going to show us this morning.
After we picked up our safety shoes we were ready to go to the logistic warehouse and the loading docks where everything is taken from the trucks and put into the warehouse or marketplace. But before this we went through the showroom and Jeroen explained us how everything is categorized in different parts of the store. He also told us how some products are taken directly from the factory to the store without being stored at a distribution center first. For example a certain type of glasses which were manufactured in the Netherlands, then stored in a distribution centre in Germany to go to the Netherlands again. This costs a lot of time, effort and money and was therefore inefficient, so not the IKEA way. From the marketplace we moved to the loading docks where the trucks arrive with the ordered goods. From here they move the products to either the marketplace and showroom directly or store them in the warehouse, this depends on the capacity in each individual part of the store. Since IKEA wants to protect their concept we cannot go in to the details too much. But it was interesting to see how everyone from different departments kept updating each other constantly to reach their goals in the best way possible.
Afterwards we had an interview with one of the teammanagers Logistics, Jasper Geerts. He told us what it is that he does as a teammanager and what his style of leading is.He also explained some more issues of the logistic processes and how he works with his manager and the co-workes but also together with the other departments.
“More freedom for employees and the key is to motivate them. Also let them make mistakes sometimes. At IKEA employees are motivated to take their own initiative. But sometimes it is forgotten to communicate this. Also there are differences between the way of leading between each manager, so it is also important to be on the same track as your team about leadership and clearly communicate what you expect from your employees and what they can expect from you. Let them make some mistakes now and then and have them reflect on what went wrong and how they can prevent it from happening again. Talk about it, show them the right direction an see how they can do better the next time. Self reflection on activities. Find a balance between directive and coaching leadership is important but this can also create confusion among the employees.”