Meet Dries Lioen
After I graduated from high school, I had the desire to become an engineer. Consequently, I began my engineering bachelor at Ghent University. As a specialization I chose Electromechanical Engineering. During those 3 years, I realized my interests are rather in the field of Supply Chain, Operations Research, Data Science etc. than in subjects as machines, mechanics etc. That is why I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.
Why Solventure?
Doing an internship is not mandatory in my Master program, yet I believe it is a big added value to your curriculum and cv. It gives you a first practical work experience and helps you in your further career. I learned about Solventure at an information event, organized at the University, where they explained who they are and what they do. Considering my interests and the close link with my Master studies, it was a logical choice to apply here. The young team is an attracting factor and the job as consultant seemed interesting, so after a couple of mails/calls/appointments everything was set for a great, 6 weeks lasting experience during my summer holidays.
Design and S&OP process mapping of waste treatment at Indaver
During my internship at Solventure, I have supported the team on an S&OP project at Indaver, a waste treatment company with facilities in Belgium, The Netherlands, Ireland… They want to implement an integrated S&OP process with a more accurate forecast on a broader horizon to better anticipate demand and detect capacity issues as soon as possible using RCCP. The goal is to improve the customer service level and reduce the firefighting costs. The specific challenge I worked on was the modelling of the RCCP (Rought Cut Capacity) process.
First it was important to get to know the processes of Indaver and to visualize the material flow between their different facilities. Indaver is not a classic manufacturing company in the sense that they do not buy the necessary supplies to make their products for meeting the demand, but it is rather the other way around: demand is taking waste in and then the waste needs to be treated. Visualizing the flow both within and across facilities, gave us the necessary insights to determine where the bottlenecks are located and on what the capacity should be planned.
A lot of questions and challenges arose each week and those needed a solution. A very interesting and insightful manner to achieve these solutions are the workshops organized at the customer site. I had the opportunity to attend the third RCCP meeting where open topics were discussed and decisions were made to make progress with the project. One of the important topics was whether there existed a link between the in- and outgoing flows of a transfer station and on what steps in the process capacity should be planned.
Further, as a response on the request of Indaver to come up with a working prototype, I helped the team in selecting a relevant dataset and setting up the model. During the last 2 weeks, I also participated in the preparation of the upcoming workshops about operational planning.
Gained knowledge
Over the past 6 weeks, I have learned a lot about working at Solventure. I now have a much better understanding about concepts like S&OP, RCCP, Supply Planning, Demand Planning… Additionally, I noticed the importance of good and clean data in order to be a reliable asset for the company. I dived deeper into project work and the daily life of an S&OP consultant and was able to put my already gained knowledge into practice. Yet, I also tried to absorb as much information as possible from everyone of Solventure, especially from Gilles De Wulf and Willem Van de Velde, who I would like to thank for their guidance and support.
It really was an interesting experience and to everyone with interests in supply chain and production planning, I would recommend reaching out to Solventure to discuss the opportunities they can offer you!
