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Tom Van De Velde

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Director Distribution Operations, VF Europe

80 points

Senior manager with 18 years of professional experience in plant, production and logistics management in different sectors such as apparel and fashion, textiles and automotive. I provide a combination of a pragmatic, structured, analytical approach with well developed people management skills. Mastering details while keeping a helicopter view.

July 10, 2011

Tom Van De Velde and 18 other people answered this question

How can I tell if I'm a micromanager?

Think about the time you spend on working with your team memebers in
1. solving the problem
2. guiding them in the process of solving the problem themselves
2 should be the biggest part of your time spent.
When a team member talks to you about a problem ... more

General Management

Human Resources

March 9, 2011

Tom Van De Velde and 2 other people answered this question

What are the top KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) your business uses to measure its performance?

Hi Jessica,
I'm with Eric on this, KPI's are surely company specific, maybe even business unit specific.
I have experienced that within one company with several distribution centres, KPI's were used in a different way. What I learned then is that the definition of what you ... more

General Management

Feb. 24, 2011

Tom Van De Velde and 10 other people answered this question

What are the top questions to ask every potential employee during an interview?

Hi Lauren,
Two questions I never fail to ask are:
1. Could you give me the name of your best colleague in your previous employment? Let's suppose the candidate answers "X". By really asking for a name, this question and the following one are not hypothetical, but ... more

General Management

Human Resources

Feb. 22, 2011

Tom Van De Velde is now following

Feb. 22, 2011

Tom Van De Velde recommends this answer by Scott Priestley

Why is ERP change management so difficult?

Michael,
Managing change in relationship to an ERP initiative, or any enterprise-level initiative requires proficiency in several areas that many organizations lack prior to the intiative: Effective employee communications, training management, process optimization and an ROI framework.
When an ERP team is assembled, many times no ... more

Change Management

Feb. 22, 2011

Tom Van De Velde and 2 other people answered this question

What are the most important change management issues associated with ERP?

An important one I came accross during multiple ERP implementations was the conviction that lived in the company that the way they did things was the best way to do them, and the only way it could be done in that company. A result was ... more

Change Management

Enterprise Resource Planning

Feb. 16, 2011

Tom Van De Velde recommends this answer by ken hudson

Team meetings: Are they the most efficient way to communicate to a team?

Actually i was suggesting that it depends on the purpose of the meeting. If it is just to share information than electronic channels can be better e.g. email.
If the purpose of the meetings is something other than that than meetings can be still quite ... more

General Management

Conference Calls

Feb. 16, 2011

Tom Van De Velde is now following

Feb. 16, 2011

Tom Van De Velde is now following

Feb. 12, 2011

Tom Van De Velde and 8 other people answered this question

What are some of the most critical mistakes people make when outsourcing their logistics?

Great comments so far. Some additional thoughts:
* Be clear about the reasons why you're going to outsource. Be realistic about the expectations.
* Know you're chosing a partner for the long term - you don't want to go changing logistics service providers every year. So ... more

Logistics Mgmt Outsourcing

Logistics Solutions

Feb. 12, 2011

Tom Van De Velde answered this question

What are some good industry trade shows for global logistics?

There's more than one option available...
Some you might have a look at:
* http://www.transportlogistic.de/en
* hannover messe more

Events and Trade Shows

Logistics Management

Feb. 9, 2011

Tom Van De Velde and 10 other people answered this question

What are the benefits of having an internal logistics department vs outsourcing?

Very good answers on this question till now. Somme added thoughts:
* To Paul's point: I think transportation is an easy one to outsource as well.
* An advantage of keeping logistics internal is maybe a higher degree of flexibility you have. It is often ... more

Logistics Management

Logistics Solutions

Operational Costs

Feb. 9, 2011

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