Along with the logistics team, he keeps the daily flow of goods moving. From the receipt of shipments from all over the world, their storage and onward journey to production. This ensures that every part is in the right place at the right time – including the timely arrival at the customer’s premises after assembly.

Numerous individual components must be made available to the colleagues in production for them to build a bike according to the assembly order. Orders out of the ordinary and small order units entail the absence of a standardized procedure. “Depending on the situation, sometimes the job requires more speed, other times it’ll be additional flexibility. But the common headline will always be accuracy,” Marc tells us.

On our walk through the warehouse, we quickly understand why that is: With aisle upon aisle of storage racks and cardboard boxes, you can only stay responsive and agile if you have registered, stored, and labeled with precision every step of the way.

Availability and provision have to always be planned in the short, medium and long term. “To be able to do this, I have to keep a flexible mind. Something doesn’t work or turns out different? Okay, what can we do instead?” Marc says. “That’s also part of what makes this job exciting for me. It’s a bit like juggling, and each ball has a different weight.”

Together we walk over to his office, and he takes a new parts list from the printer. We want to know, how one ends up becoming a logistics manager. “Vocation,” Marc laughs. “This wasn’t my original career path; I did various other things before bikes. But at some point, you have to find the common denominator for what’s important to you and what you bring to the table. That’s how this all came about.” He beckons a colleague from the door, they clarify two or three specifications. “Everyone at GBN can contribute according to their own personal strengths. Not everything is set in stone, we interact in a very fluent and flexible way. What I do affects the whole team. For me, every day means 100% teamwork.”

By the way, Marc used to deliver newspapers as a teenager, by bike, of course. And funny enough, the exact same street where GBN is located today was part of his paper route. Maybe he was on to something after all when he was talking about vocation before.

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