Interim management
Interim COO at Urban Arrow
Late September 2020 I received a call from one of the founders of Urban Arrow – a fast-growing premium cargo bike brand within the Pon Bike Group, based in Amsterdam – to come and help them out. Their COO was not going to be available for a few months and they had a lot of urgent issues to work through and priorities to consider:
- Launch of a high-end 10-year anniversary version of their Family bike.
- Increasing demand for bikes and other COVID related impacts on their operations.
- Strained relationship with their long-term assembly partner (developing its own cargo bike!).
- Advanced plans to move to a new office and 6,000 sqm operations facility.
A week and two meetings with the board later (the two founders and the CFO), I started, with a clear set of goals and expectations, on a 4 days per week basis.
After taking some time to get to know the team and the wider organization, and reviewing the different issues and priorities, we agreed on the different initiatives the teams had to focus on. First and foremost, finalizing contract negotiations with two new assembly partners (in Greece and Lithuania), and getting those up and running. With that came the work of supplying them with the right parts, BOM’s, production forecasts and orders, and establishing the delivery and payment processes.
This process brought to light a new issue that would take up much of my time and energy in the next few months. The Urban Arrow BOM’s were not complete and accurate. Before, it had never been a problem as their assembly partner for 10 years (almost next door, in the Netherlands) had always filled in the blanks and resolved things on their own. Now, it was creating significant issues with getting production going at the new partners, and with the quality of the bikes.
Fast forward eight months:
- We reassigned a planning analyst to be dedicated full time to master data (parts, etc.) and setting up BOM’s together with the product team (and hired a new planner).
- We redesigned the NPI process, with clear milestones and hand-offs between Product, Design, Development, and the Operations teams.
- We created BOM reviews and feedback loops with each assembly partner, to quickly identify and resolve any issues.
- We defined new safety stock levels, and optimized inventory of more (common) parts, to resupply assembly partners quickly and avoid stoppages in the assembly process.
In general, we had to upgrade the supply chain planning processes, to account for three assembly partners instead of one, and to assign the right product and orders to the right partners (in the right quantities at the right time). Fortunately, Urban Arrow already had a talented Planning & Purchasing team and they needed limited direction and oversight to take their process and tools (mostly Excel, and some Exact) to the next level. All of the above greatly helped also with the launch of the Urban Arrow Family 10-year Anniversary Edition, a beautifully re-imagined, limited edition Family bike that went to select distribution partners in 2021.
To scale up the overall production volumes, and manage any downside risks, we had to do more than just add production capacity, create better BOM’s and improve planning and purchasing processes. We had to create deep insights into stocks and movements of parts, sub-assemblies, and finished goods across the supply chain. And a process to review demand, supply, and inventories, in the context of the financial plan, coupled with the ability to make sound decisions against those parameters and then follow through on those decisions. This, of course, is a cross-functional S&OP process, which I have designed and implemented multiple times before. Together with an external agency that helped us with streamlining data and reporting, we established the first S&OP reviews within 2-3 months.
Finally, there was the unique project of moving house, from the Contactweg to the Gyroscoopweg, both in northwest Amsterdam. Besides it being a dated office location, there was very limited space at the Contactweg for storing parts, and the development and assembly of bikes. Moving to the Gyroscoopweg was going to be essential for realizing the growth ambitions of the brand. My role in the project had multiple aspects:
- Vetting the design of the layout of the operations facility (6,000 sqm).
- Overseeing the actual move (together with the office manager).
- Hiring a new assembly manager & grow the team, within Operations.
- Getting the operation up and running at the new location.
- Installing a new WMS and integrating that with the ERP.
All in all, a strenuous, time-consuming project that really tested Urban Arrow’s leadership and teams at a time of rapid growth (also in number of employees), and while fixing supply chain, quality, and other process issues. The result, however, was a wonderful, new, future-fit location, an energized team, and an opportunity to save cost and gain speed by insourcing several processes (incl. storage of parts and sub-assemblies, and assembly and customization of B2B cargo bikes).
Finally, in May-June of 2021, the COO started to slowly come back into his role. As the entire organization and the role had transformed considerably, I coached and supported him for three months, to be fully ready to take on his role with confidence again. His team now counted 35 people, instead of 12 (mainly due to a lot more people in warehousing and assembly), and several (new) processes had been introduced or changed. He needed to let go of some of his old ways and focus on managing managers and cross-functional peers, to be successful once again.
This interim role was a great opportunity to learn about a new industry and business. It was great to see how I could quickly add value, both in working with the board on strategy and transformation, with peers on end-to-end value chain processes, and in coaching the young and eager Operations team. As such, my time at Urban Arrow was very rewarding and a great personal development experience.
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