“WKK has a long term relationship with most of its suppliers.”
Name: Debbie van Berkel
Position: Operations
Branch: WKK Netherlands
How did you come to WKK?
By an advertisement in the newspaper.
What’s been your experience with building vendor relationships and business partnerships?
WKK has a long term relationship with most of its suppliers. We often take advantage of that. Especially during the covid period we experienced the importance of such relationships. We have been able to make some good arrangements and could secure the stock levels after a rather short period with out-of-stocks. The business partnerships we have with Hongshang, ABB and Jacob are valuable. Their high quality products and specialism contributes to the professionalism of WKK.
In your current or previous role, how did you keep operations running smoothly?
In my previous role it was just purchasing, which I did some years on my own. After some years there was too much work for one person and by hiring an extra employee the Purchasing department was established. Some years ago we noticed that the name Purchasing did not cover all activities and the name has been changed into Operations. Purchasing, warehousing and transport are our responsibility. The department grew and currently we are with five. A team of very experienced and dedicated employees to whom we owe the smooth operation.
How do you stay up to date with trends and technological innovations in your industry?
Partnership became an important trend in purchasing. Achieving growth together by joining forces.
This certainly applies to the partnerships WKK has established in the past years.
In terms of technology, we are using Power BI more and more to monitor the stock levels and to determine the quantities which should be purchased to cover the next period. With a future implementation of Business Central for sure we will benefit from new functionalities.
Why do you want to work for our company?
After so many years I still never experienced a dull moment at WKK.
The challenges, the nice team and the pleasant working atmosphere, it gives me energy.
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now in the future?
Hard to predict the future, but as it looks right now I hope I will still be working for WKK.
