Can you introduce yourself?

My name is Naiara and I come from the north of Spain, where I studied International Commerce, just before focusing my studies on Logistics in Madrid.  

I have been working in the field for six years now, the last two of them at ALTEN Belgium.  

What is your expertise and how did you acquire it? 

For the past six years, I have been working in logistics within two different sectors. As I have previously worked in Supply Chain Management, I am able to oversee a broad range of activities, spanning from purchasing to end-customer. During the last two years within ALTEN, I have specialised in produced vehicles transportation, from the production plant to the last point of stock before reaching the dealer. I’ve had the opportunity to understand the truck market first-hand, moving on to short sea vessel operations later on. 

What does a typical day look like in your position? 

Every day is different in logistics, and that is the most interesting aspect of my job. I continue to learn from different areas of the business, and from various departments in which I am becoming more involved.  

Although every day presents something new, it is part of my routine to follow-up with the employees involved in the production plants and storage areas, to detect if there are any current short-term issues. If this is the case, I am the first person to clarify, visualise, and escalate the problem to management. 

Since lately I have been more involved in client projects, I also inform stakeholders of the progress made and define the next steps to reach project completion. 

Can you tell us about one specific project in which you were able to highlight this expertise? 

My current project is not only refining my expertise in supply chain management, but also helping expand it to project management.   

Having a wide knowledge of the company’s supply chain gave me the opportunity to be part of the process of implementation of new vehicle models, as well as guiding the root cause investigation of complex difficulties or deviations from ideal processes. 

Going more detailed, I could move from an operational position to being the team’s representative in the launch of a new vehicle model. Last summer, my client introduced the biggest vehicle in their portfolio, and I have helped set up logistics: following up on yard standards (Max stock, stocking areas’ definition, logistics partners’ management), working with the systems’ team to understand the information flows, and creating processes from scratch to ensure that the transportation could take place in a controlled and correct way.  

Another example is an interdepartmental working group I’ve launched a few weeks ago, with the purpose of understanding a complex information flow, and standardising and improving it.   

What is the most challenging aspect of your job/area, and how do you approach overcoming it?

Without a doubt, the most challenging aspect is the constant seeking for improvement, which has enhanced my communication skills with stakeholders. This has helped me to stop and give myself time to visualise where I currently am, where I would like to go, and define the steps to be taken to get to the “ideal situation”.  

In addition, managing internal projects takes me out of my comfort zone, and makes me grow professionally, giving me more visibility and knowledge of the business, and seeing logistics from a different perspective. I strongly believe that both receiving feedback and having a supportive manager are the key to success when approaching internal projects. 

In what ways do you continuously seek to improve your skills and stay updated with industry trends? 

I believe that both growing a wide network of knowledgeable individuals and social media can be quite useful for this. If you are constantly curious and staying informed, the number of industry changes that come as a surprise will be highly reduced, while the opportunities to improve your skills will increase.  

In my opinion, remaining open to interesting new projects is key. We all feel the fear of being out of our comfort zone, but that is what will make us grow and learn. 

What aspects of our company culture do you find most motivating or inspiring?  

I really enjoy the fact that events for all kind of personalities are organised! Since I have always worked with a client, this was the way I got to meet colleagues from the back office or working with other clients. This made me realise how multicultural the company is, which makes it easy to integrate for people coming from abroad.   

If you could describe your work philosophy in one sentence, what would it be?

Listen, learn, and challenge both coworkers and yourself. Nobody started their first job as an expert and knew exactly what to do. Having the theoretical knowledge is a small piece of the cake when talking about professional career. From my point of view, the best way to get up to speed is: first, listen to your coworkers. Understanding the team’s objective or purpose, as well as their expectations towards you are key to be effective and precise. Second, learn from your team. Be curious, not only about your assigned tasks, but also about whatever may affect your scope. Finally, once you’ve listened and learnt from them, challenge the procedures, tasks, and directions by proposing ideas or improvements that you believe could be beneficial for the team or company.