I’m on the move again. This time, I’m venturing into palm oil industry, well not exactly, I’m still in SAP line. This time around, the challenges of business processes in this industry are very much different as compared to my previous project. More or less, it has a manufacturing background and thus it has to utilize couples of unfamiliar SAP modules such as Production Planning (PP) and Quality Maintenance (QM).
Let me brief on the background of the company first. IOI group is a well known palm oil player not just in Malaysia but internationally as well. From humble beginning, it has grown to be the third most powerful player in the palm oil industry just next to Sime Darby and Wilmar (Singapore). To be able to move up to a higher value chain in this industry, IOI has acquired Loders Croklaan from Unilever Group (Netherlands) in 2002 in which, the latter has the specialty in quality fats and oils in the food industry. In essence, rather than focusing on upstream activities alone, IOI has the ambition to champion in the downstream activities as well which is lucrative in the long term run but requires more innovations as compared to upstream activities. Thus, the acquisition was a strategic move in order to jumpstart the ambition right away. Today, Loders Croklaan is part of IOI group under IOI plantation and downstream segment. Worldwide, it has presence in all over continents and the main plants are located in Rotterdam (Netherlands), Pasir Gudang (Malaysia) and Chicago (USA).
This is where I came into the picture. Loders Croklaan is a very advanced organization I must say. I admire their innovation, efficiency and not to mention their work ethics. Based on the SAP system that they have currently, it simply shows how far and sophistication they are in executing their work daily. Almost all business processes have been incorporated into the SAP and yet, they still keen to improve with various SAP projects set in the horizon. I think one of the barometers for the SAP sophistication that they have is via utilizing SAP XI extensively in their system. Well, at the moment there are two important ongoing projects I’ve been involved so far, one is called 4G project for Pasir Gudang plant and another one is called AMRO project for Rotterdam plant. In general, both plants are utilizing the same SAP modules, SD,MM,FICO,PP and QM. However, due to different business requirements in each country, there will be two set of implementations need to be done as I mentioned earlier 4G and AMRO. Working with Dutch counterpart has been a worthwhile experience. I’m trying to be as efficient as they are and most importantly productive. I need to come at 9 and go home at 5 but the quality of work produced in the span of 7 hours must be at par or better yet more with what they can produce. This is efficient and productive. The great thing about this culture is how it could improve the family values in my life as I could spend more time with my beloved family. Over the years, I’ve learned one thing, money can’t buy you happiness. I think the core definition of happiness is when you are surrounded by your beloved ones all the time. Also, takes care of your health too. Nowadays, it’s not surprising to get a heart attack at a young age. Live your life because it’s worth it as the radio said.
So, I definitely will enjoy my career here at Loders Croklaan . The process of learning never stops, thus I intend to absorb as much as I could in my new horizon.
