Hands, Wheels, and Walls

thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services is growing by leaps and bounds, driven by a dynamic, people-centric ethos

With an unrelenting will on creating ingenious, cost-effective, and resource-friendly solutions to the challenges of the future, Thyssenkrupp AG is contributing to changing the landscape of global industry. The Essen, Germany-based global industrial and technology company, which generated sales of €38 billion in fiscal 2022-23, operates in 48 countries, and is in the midst of a profound transformation in which technological development is closely linked to the dynamics of change.

Their research and development efforts consist mainly in climate protection, the energy transition, digital transformation, and mobility. The company is convinced that the green transformation offers enormous potential for further profitable growth both now and, in particular, in the medium and long term, for example, in the areas of hydrogen, green chemicals, renewable energy, e-mobility, and supply chains.” The business activities of thyssenkrupp are bundled into five segments: Automotive Technology, Decarbon Technologies, Materials Services, Steel Europe and Marine Systems.

thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services (tkSCS), a daughter company of the business segment thyssenkrupp Materials Services, has been providing quality solutions, asset-based transportation, and warehousing and distribution solutions to the automotive, renewable energy, commercial construction, heavy industrial, ecommerce, and manufacturing industries in the U.S. and Canada since 2005.

These days, dynamic growth is propelling the company forward at a high speed. With over 90 sites throughout North America, they employ roughly 3,000 associates, operate in seven out of 10 major port cities, and are actively growing their footprint in foreign trade zones.

Cheryl Dooley

“The business has grown massively since 2005,” Cheryl Dooley, the company’s V.P. of Human Resources, told BOSS. “When I started in 2016, the business had about 700 people and about 100 temps. Now we have approximately 2,000 direct associates and 1,000 temps, so we’re averaging close to 3,000 employees a month.”

In addition to 30 years of experience in human resources, Dooley is a member of the Michigan Bar Association specializing in employment law. Dooley is tasked with developing the thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services’ team in the areas of talent retention and acquisition, HR policy and compliance, and organizational development. Her responsibilities cover all the people-related activities for 90-plus U.S. sites, as well as the Finance division in Canada, including the firm’s diversity initiative.

“One of the transformations that we’re working on is getting HR embedded with the business,” she explained. “Previously, ours was seen as more of an administrative function and I worked to change that. We have more people onsite at our largest locations to support the significant growth that we’re going through.” When Dooley joined tkSCS, the HR department consisted of just two people. Of the current roster of 18 HR associates, five are recruiters and the rest have responsibility for business HR in multiple locations.

In terms of both gender and racial diversity, thyssenkrupp Supply Chains Services’ is highly diverse. The diversity program reflects the organization’s clear commitment to the inclusion of people e.g. across the spectrum of race, gender, and physical ability. “It was very intentional, starting with the senior leadership team,” she noted.

“It’s something that we make a priority in our hiring, in our promotions, and in our training … we have had a big focus in the last year or so on leadership development to ensure we’re building our bench strength, especially as we grow so fast.”

President and CEO Christopher Merz took the thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services’ helm in 2021. With a strong background in business leadership, manufacturing, third-party logistics, and supply chain, he’s shepherding  the company to become an industry juggernaut. “Together we’ve created a team that’s taken a lot of the chaos and noise out of the system and we’re creating a very systematic approach to how we’re going forward,” Dooley said.

A future-focused triple threat

Because of the company’s size and scope, leadership developed a clever mnemonic to help customers better understand the business – Hands, Wheels, and Walls. Hands is the umbrella term for their quality segment, which provides quality inspection, sorting and rework, quality engineering, nondestructive testing, destructive testing, and body-in-white services to the automotive industry.

Wheels refers to its expansive asset-based transportation fleet, which maintains an average on-time delivery rate of 99%. “We have over 500 truck drivers all over the country,” she explained. Four primary locations are dedicated to transportation. Around 200 drivers work in a large transplant OEM assembly plant running parts between locations in the Southeast U.S.

At their Wentzville, Mo., site they perform logistics for another large domestic OEM. “We take parts from the Tier 1s right to the factory, just in time,” Dooley said. “We do logistics work for one of the largest EV manufacturers in California and Texas. We have several hundred drivers in the Texas location, which is growing very, very rapidly.” Not only does thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services tailor their Wheels offerings to fit the different needs of its customers, HR takes a similar approach when it comes to hiring drivers.

“My recruiting team has two people that are strictly focused on truck drivers because that’s a very niche market and drivers will not respect you if you can’t talk to them in detail about the work they’ll be doing and the trucks they’ll be driving,” she said. Dooley and her team have also considerably slimmed the hiring time for new drivers, which typically might take 50 days, to only 12.

Walls, as you may have guessed, cover their warehousing, distribution, and forward logistics offerings. thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services operates over 11.5 million square feet of warehousing space in over 60 distribution centers nationwide. Their custom solutions are designed to improve product flow, order accuracy, visibility, and quality control. “We manage the warehousing for a large EV manufacturer in both California and Texas, and that’s tied to the logistics piece because the drivers take parts from the warehouses that we manage to the EV assembly factories,” she pointed out.

The company is currently managing roughly 10 million ft² of warehousing dedicated to solar projects. Services include drayage, outbound coordination, inspections, materials staging, and transportation management. “From an HR perspective this is very little work,” she said. “We will take in solar parts for a customer and hold them for anywhere from a few months to 12 months. “

Dooley’s team also handles hiring for a variety of industries. “We’re heavily into automotive, but we’re also diversified. There were times that we’ve stored Campbell soup products in a warehouse for several months because we also seek out opportunities to store materials for customers. That’s a win-win.” She added, “Part of the reason for the diversity is to minimize disruption when it happens. And as far as automotive OEMs, we support many of them, including domestic and transplant OEMs, one of the largest EV manufacturers, and multiple Tier 1s.”

Recently, thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services merged with thyssenkrupp’s Aerospace division, in a move to make supply chain more global. “We can get into the business of not just airplane manufacturing, but also providing Aerospace with a supply chain solution,” she said. “The goal there is to be a billion-dollar business within the next couple of years.”

As a V.P., Dooley is involved in the growth and development side of the business. “The leadership team has a bi-weekly pipeline call about what opportunities we have in terms of new business growth, and I am part of those discussions,” she revealed. “It’s not necessarily just about the people approach, but it’s also the financial impact because anytime you’re adding a business, there are capital investment considerations as well as tax implications to consider. Additionally, there is discussion around how easy or difficult staffing will be, the level of profitability, and the length of the investment. “

For an organization the size of thyssenkrupp Supply Chain Services, you might imagine that access to company leadership is limited. Not so. The Company promotes a culture of openness, fairness, and respect for all, with the theme from the President on down of “firm, fair, and honest” and “do the right thing.” The entire leadership team is hands-on, with a Gemba mindset of going to the problem to help work through it as a team. Dooley’s parting comment at the end of the interview was, “We work hard, but we have fun together achieving our growth goals through strong leadership and teamwork.”

—

engineering. tomorrow. together.

We meet the challenges of tomorrow with forward-thinking and comprehensive supply chain solutions. We revolutionize industries to make people’s lives easier and create a competitive advantage for our customers.

Specialties

Warehousing & Distribution, Sequencing & Sub-Assembly, Quality Inspection & Rework, Packaging & Kitting, Container Management, and Transportation Services

—

Corporate Office

22355 West Eleven Mile Road.

Southfield, MI  48084

Phone Number: 248-840-6919

Email: Cheryl.dooley@thyssenkrupp-materials.com

Homepage Link: https://www.thyssenkrupp-supply-chain.com/

Twitter:      https://twitter.com/tkmaterials_na

LinkedIn:    https://www.linkedin.com/company/tk-supplychain/