There are only a few experts in our industry who have extensive experience in material and transport planning as well as expertise in international projects. We join Sandro Thalmann, Team Leader Materials & Logistics, to take a look behind the scenes of his day-to-day work.
After his commercial training, Sandro was drawn to live communication, which still fascinates him today. After a brief stint in marketing, he remained loyal to materials planning. In 2008, he took over the scheduling for lighting and rigging at Procon, now PRG, and worked with Habegger for the first time. Seven years later, he moved to a smaller company, where he was also responsible for the workshop and transport.
The job offer from Habegger followed in 2018 and today Sandro heads the Material & Logistics team.
In short: we are the central interface for material and transport planning. If something doesn’t work for us, production comes to a standstill. We are responsible for ensuring that all material is in the right place at the right time.
With almost 20 years of experience, I know the project peaks and recognise synergies in order to purchase materials efficiently to cover several projects.
This includes liaising with suppliers, obtaining quotations and advising specialist planners in order to optimally utilise our own materials. Through our daily work, we incorporate valuable experience and input into investment decisions so that our equipment pool is optimally equipped and we can increase the contribution margin – for example, we have ROE LED walls, HOF touring trusses and ROBE moving lights in stock.
Material & Logistics Team f.l.t.r.: Sandro, Christian, Nicolas, Julia, Jan Eric
We are a team of 5: Christian and Jan Eric take care of the materials planning for the more than 40,000 parts in the warehouse, while Julia and Nicolas are responsible for all transport and our vehicle fleet, consisting of 6 trailers (20-tonne trucks), 4 delivery vans, 2 trailers and 19 cars. They all pursue the same goal: that the material is in the right place at the right time.
I’m proud of the team! Everyone works independently and I can rely on everyone 100%. It’s also a perfect fit on a personal level.
A few years ago, we were still a 1-2-man show. With the current team size, we can work much more efficiently and accurately. For Art on Ice, for example, we took over the complete transport logistics for all suppliers this year – a special challenge that we are very pleased about.
Laughs and says: a thick skin is part of it! We are the final authority in the production process when we receive the final information. We often stand between production and the warehouse. It’s a stressful job that requires a lot of flexibility and a thirst for knowledge – we learn something new every day and constantly have to acquire new expertise.
The variety of my projects, the daily challenges and the adrenaline rush when a solution is needed quickly – that’s what I enjoy and what gives me job satisfaction. And none of this would be possible without my troubleshooting team.
No two days are the same. In day-to-day business, I’m often more in support mode. I spend a lot of time on the phone and in close dialogue with the engineering departments, the warehouse team and the project managers in order to identify potential challenges at an early stage and resolve them quickly. Fortunately, the office and warehouse are under one roof – the walk is only one minute, which allows us to maximise efficiency.
Customs is a key issue for projects outside Switzerland, which is often associated with many hurdles and time-consuming details. The same applies to overseas projects, where we work closely with partners from our network to create synergies or gain new suppliers when we are in production in new locations.
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