New structures, old strengths: Krefeld’s readying itself for peak season
From automation to a team reorganisation to a warehouse closure, there’s been a lot going on at Galaxus’s Krefeld site lately. In this interview, Site Lead Steffen Beniers explains what’s behind the changes and why his team is already thinking about Christmas shopping season.
Are there any changes in the works at our Krefeld site? What’s new?
Steffen: Starting in October, we’ll be automating parcel intake in the receiving area – a sorely needed upgrade after years of improvising. We’re also in the middle of a reorganisation process. In future, instead of having two large logistics divisions – inbound and outbound – we’ll have three departments. This’ll put more focus on individual processes and create teams of a more manageable size. The new team will be called Stow & Pick.
Alongside all of that, we continue to see steady, healthy growth at Galaxus Deutschland and at our Krefeld site. We’re constantly enhancing our processes, as well as improving workplace safety and employee satisfaction.
You mentioned automation. Is that going to cost jobs?
No, it essentially just means reducing the physical strain on our employees. Parcels used to need pushing along, but they’ll now be transported towards their destination automatically. We’ll be making more efficient use of the warehouse space, which makes sense from a workplace health standpoint too.
How many people currently work at our Krefeld site? Are you still looking for staff? We currently have 150 employees working at this site. As far as vacancies go, we’re looking for a Team Leader for the Returns department and a Security + Loss Prevention Officer.
How did the Hans shutdown go? (Galaxus warehouse on Hans-Günther-Sohl-Straße)
All in all, it was a lengthy process. We’d known for quite a while that we needed to part ways with our first German warehouse, so we were well prepared for the shutdown. We’ve now moved many of our Hans employees – the ones who wanted to move, that is – to Odilia (the Galaxus warehouse on Odilia-von-Goch-Straße). I think everyone who moved has settled in well.
The relocation went really smoothly, but much like when you move house, there’s still the odd thing that needs improving. We coordinated with the new tenant, everyone pitched in and we moved out by the agreed date. As Site Lead, I’m glad I can dedicate my full focus to Odilia now. Oh, and it was nice that we all managed to give Hans a good send-off.
Galaxus is currently building a second German logistics facility in Neuenburg am Rhein that’s six times larger than the Krefeld warehouse. What’s that like for someone like you, who’s been working at Krefeld since Galaxus Deutschland was founded?
Yeah, it’s obviously really exciting. Some of my team members and I have been involved in Neuenburg-related projects. We try to provide as much support as possible because, when we were getting operations off the ground eight years ago, people helped us wherever they could. The kind of support we got back then has become all the more important now. I mean, when we were starting out, we weren’t under quite so much pressure – we had to build up our customer base first.
And yeah, it’s just really nice to see how Galaxus is growing in all the countries it operates in. The fact that we need sites like Neuenburg is a huge opportunity for all of us and really exciting. We’re actually losing one of our Krefeld department heads to Neuenburg. It’s too bad for us, but I’m pleased for my colleague and happy that the company’s offering him the opportunity to relocate.
Have you guys started thinking about the Christmas rush yet?
We start thinking about the Christmas rush on 1 January! We’re kicking off a series of meetings in July, where we’ll regularly explore issues related to peak readiness. We want to make sure we’ve resolved any major issues before the year-end rush – for instance, our new automated system and the team reorganisation.
We regularly review forecasts in detail and coordinate with Purchasing, Marketing and other departments to ensure we have the right people, in the right numbers, in our warehouse at the right time. And, of course, we’ve also learned some lessons from last Christmas that we plan to put into practice.
Such as?
One major thing is onboarding new employees. Take the Galaxus site in Wohlen, Switzerland for example. They use a so-called «dojo» process (now known as the Welcome Centre process). This involves recreating workstations from the warehouse so that new colleagues can get to grips with our processes before they actually start the job. That way, we can determine who’s suited for which station in advance. We plan to set up our own «dojo» by Q4 to reduce turnover during the onboarding phase, avoid any surprises and free up training capacity.
Thank you very much for your time.
By the way, we’re looking for more staff in Neuenburg am Rhein. If you’re job hunting right now, it’s worth taking a look at https://www.galaxus.de/en/joboffer.
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