The big, oval zero

Thursday, October 1, wasn’t a particularly cold or warm day in Denmark, but it was a day suitable for celebrating with ice cream as William Cook Europe’s (WCE) backorder levels finally hit the big, oval zero.

A desirable downward trend

At the beginning of 2020, the rather ambitious target for WCE’s backorder levels was set to an average of $350,000. A target that seemed difficult to hit when, in May, WCE was looking at a backorder level of $1.2 million.

However, over the summer, the numbers began showing a consistent downward trend as we started to reap the benefits of the initiatives put in motion to limit the levels. As such, since June 25, the numbers have been firmly fixed at a level below target and since September 9, the levels have been below $100,000.

Not that we are in the business of counting days, but the trend actually continued its downward spiral for a total of 101 days, until we finally hit the oval zero on Thursday, October 1, which immediately prompted the best kind of celebration Danes can possibly imagine—ice cream for everyone at our site!

Within hours, a couple of old-fashioned Danish ice cream trucks—the quintessence of Danish “hygge” (a Danish word that describes a feeling or moment that is special and provides contentment)—pulled up at our two sites in Denmark, and employees lined up for free ice cream. We were sure to make sure that everything was properly set up and all COVID guidelines were observed.

Solving problems and celebrating successes together

Aside from the global efforts and the heavy support from all global operations, a huge part of the explanation behind the WCE numbers can be found in the structural changes and proactive initiatives that WCE has been focusing on over the course of the year.

The “e-board”, which is a virtual board around which all support functions, from Maintenance to Procurement, have been gathered on a daily basis, has made it possible to face and fix issues and challenges quickly. This means that we have not been experiencing a lot of long-winded and complicated issues as the organization has been looking at the daily operations from a joint point of view and has solved any potential problems together from the beginning.

Furthermore, we have not been exposed to any adverse events or major setbacks due to external issues in the market. From a timing perspective, the pandemic has prevented major launches from initiating, which have often impacted stock and backorder levels in the past, along with a slight decline in some sales.

In the face of the pandemic and fluctuation in sales, we have not let this dampen our spirits and our excitement about being back on the backorder track. We solve our problems together and we celebrate our successes together—that much is true!

A huge thanks to Production personnel, Maintenance, Procurement, Production Support, Production Documentation, Management Support, Manufacturing Planning, managers and supervisors, and all the other team members and support functions that made this accomplishment possible!

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