TASKS: It is my job to ensure that we have all the necessary spare parts available at Kongsberg Maritime’s locations in New Orleans, California and Houston. I am the Team Leader of two warehouse employees and one logistics coordinator. We process all orders for spare parts, both the ones received from clients and internal orders from Kongsberg Maritime. Apart from some managers, we in the logistics department are the only ones that have access to our warehouses. It is therefore we who supply the engineers with the materials they need.

SKILLS: I have been at KONGSBERG for almost 9 years. A friend of mine who worked here recommended me for an interview. I got the job and started out working with invoicing. I then transferred to After Market Support, working with service projects and invoicing. From there I moved on to working with spare parts. This has given me broad experience and I am knowledgeable in most aspects of After Market Support.

TOOLS: We use the ERP system Dynamics AX 2012 for almost everything we do. It is our main system and one that is used at almost all KONGSBERG facilities. We utilize Dynamics for all order processing and spare parts transactions. I was part of the team responsible for learning the system and training other employees in our office when the system was rolled out. It was certainly a challenge, but I now benefit from knowing the ins and outs of the software. This makes me more flexible and capable of handling all kinds of tasks, not only the everyday ones.

TARGETS: I really enjoy my current job. There are always different projects to start on in case there is too much routine work. At the moment, I am working on helping to establish a new warehouse in Panama. Helping with this process is a big thing for me, you get to assess which parts should be warehoused and which routines are best suited for the office. Project tasks like these really interest me. Being a Team Leader has at times been difficult, as I’m the type of person who likes to do everything myself. When I was appointed Team Leader, I had to learn how to delegate work to other people. It is important to let them prove they are up to the task and develop their skills. This was something I had to work on. KONGSBERG’s management development courses have been invaluable in this respect, helping me to think like a manager and achieve results through other people.   

HIDDEN TALENT: I actually went to school for interior design, which is also what I worked with prior to KONGSBERG. I had envisioned a career within this former profession, before realizing that I wanted something else. However, interior design still interests me. We recently bought our own house and I really enjoyed working with the decorating. I believe I know which colors go together, although, as we learned at school, people have different tastes.