Today it is the Day of the Employee. An important day on which we would like to put one of our employees in the spotlight. This time it is our esteemed colleague Jan Tragter. This year Jan has been with NEDCON for 40 years. A special milestone. Read more below about how Jan went from the drawing board to setting up his own Business Unit.
Inside sales and the drawing board
It was 1983, I had completed my mechanical engineering studies and was working at the time as a paver. In October it was getting colder, so I reported to the Start employment office. They asked me if I felt anything for the position of inside sales representative at a warehouse furnishing company. To be honest, I had a dusty association with warehouses and racking, but now I know better. We often hear that people have this association, but as soon as they step foot inside of our office, this image changes immediately.
I started at inside sales, but after two weeks I moved to the drawing board. On March 1, 1984, I officially joined the company as number 52 on the payroll.
I processed all the orders that came in. Processing the orders at that time included the whole process, so structural engineering, detail engineering, project management and coordination assembly. This caused me to become quite all-round.
Head of Engineering
NEDCON was growing rapidly. The organizational structure was changed to Commercial Technical Teams (CTT). These consisted of salesmen, inside sales and draftsmen. We also got Commercial Technical Support (CTO) including all supporting departments such as product development, structural engineering, testing, special large projects, marketing, standardization. In 1996 the organization was split up. Two separate departments were created namely, Sales and Engineering. And from 1997 I was allowed to lead the Engineering department and thus became Head of Engineering. From mid-1998 I was also involved in the search and selection of a new ERP package, which eventually became SAP. I was automatically appointed implementation leader for this package.
During this period, I also strongly advocated for the establishment of project management, but I was probably a little too early. At the time, employees felt that sales remained responsible for the project. As of 2000, the need was seen and the world of NEDCON would now be unthinkable without project management.
Head of Commercial Technical Support
Due to some struggles, in 1999 I was asked to become head of the Commercial Technical Support department and become involved in product development, standardization and (technical) sales support. I always see opportunities and so again I grabbed this one with both hands, although this meant that leading the implementation of SAP come to an end.
One of my first big products was a unique rollover system. We called it DRX at the time. Everyone was so enthusiastic that around 2000 we had already sold 4 major projects. Two of these projects were in the UK and two in the USA. The product was not quite finished, but we went for it. Due to some imperfections in the product, I alternately spent a lot of time in the UK and USA from 2001 to 2004.
From 2005, production was also placed under the CTO department and I was involved in the development of machines and tools. Together with Milan Barton I started the project of purchasing 2 large production lines that are still important in our production in Pardubice today.
Meanwhile, we also had a joint venture in Russia. From mid-2006 till fall 2007, I was in Moscow and/or Vyshny Volochok for 1 week every month to provide support. After many adventures in America, Russia was a very different experience and this one perhaps suited me better. Through the contacts in Russia, we also got to Belarus and Georgia. In Georgia we even made it to national television at the opening of a complex for which we were a candidate to supply a shuttle system!
Until 2012, I held this position, with great pleasure. I got great satisfaction from stakeholder satisfaction, both internal and external.
Business Unit Manager Resellers
In 2012, the organization structure changed. The CTO department was reduced to two people and my position was eliminated. The organization was divided into the 4 business units as we still know them today: System Integration, Key accounts, Resellers and the Delivery Team. I was asked to head the Resellers department.
The Resellers act as intermediaries between NEDCON and the end user. NEDCON did have a number of Resellers at that time. Our former locations in Poland, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Slovakia and Hungary served as Resellers.
Within 1½ years, we also had 2 account managers in Germany and Austria. Then we went full steam ahead to build up the Reseller network in Germany and Austria. This went so well that we eventually had to make a choice as to which Resellers we wanted to continue with.
In 2013 we made a selection of standard products for our Resellers. This standard selection was to ensure that a large part of our Resellers' needs could be met. It took a lot of effort within NEDCON to get people to trust standard and fast procedures. However, we now see that about 90% of the number of orders and almost 50% of sales come from this stock!
There are still many opportunities for Resellers in Scandinavia, Central Europe and the Balkans. At the moment we do not yet have the capacity to expand here and they remain 'incidents'.
Also within the Resellers department I have always derived great satisfaction from the appreciation of the customers, with whom I enjoy sharing my extensive knowledge of our industry.
Business Unit Manager Robotics
In addition to my duties within Resellers department, I started exploring a new market over 3 years ago, namely the Robotics/ AMR (Autonomous Mobile Robot) market. The robots operating the racks should solve global personnel shortages.
In the coming period, I will continue to be involved in Robotics. I want to try to establish such ties with the market leaders in Europe and the USA that this will become an important 4th pillar for NEDCON's sales.
This year you have your 40th anniversary with NEDCON. Why have you been a loyal NEDCON employee for 40 years?
My simple explanation is that at times when I was thinking of something else, new challenges came my way within NEDCON. I have always grabbed these with both hands.
How do you see the future of NEDCON and the industry we operate in?
I see a bright future for NEDCON. We are lonely at the top in our industry. A big challenge is the competition and the associated price pressure, which may push us even more towards engineered solutions. We need to stay sharp on costs within the standard racking market, as this is one of the largest and most stable markets in which we operate.
During my 40-year career, I have seen the shift from manual to automatic. With the increasing variety of products, storage will move from pallets to totes and trays. I think e-commerce will continue to grow after the big "boom" during the Covid period, but people will increasingly go for easily scalable solutions such as Robotics or Auto-store.
