“I appreciate all the possible career paths in DeLaval”

Sarah Steingraeber, Manager Project Sales, has experienced the teamwork and culture in DeLaval, and is now heading her own team where she is focusing on the group and improving ways of working. Read her story and what she and her team do! 

Sarah joined DeLaval in March 2015 after she saw that a Swedish company was hiring in the Hamburg area in Germany. As she just finished her studies in Sweden, this caught her attention. “I started to look into DeLaval before I applied as an intern, and luckily I got the job,” says Sarah. Since then, she has had another role in Gallin, Germany, before her current one.

Teamwork is key

As a Manager Project Sales, Sarah manages a team of nine, and her day-to-day tasks focus on keeping track of the status of VMS orders, among other things. “I start the day by following our backorder situation closely, following VMS deliveries and lead times. Overall, me and my team ensure that the net invoicing at the end of the year can be done. I communicate status updates and possible changes with our stakeholders in the different market areas, such as Product Management and several others. In the last 12 months, we have faced many challenges because of issues with the deliveries from both internal and external suppliers. Unfortunately, this has led to project delays, while having a huge order book at hand,” says Sarah.

Throughout her years in DeLaval, there is one key experience Sarah remembers a bit extra. “The SAP roll-out in the Wroclaw factory in Poland. It was a huge opportunity for me to learn new things and meet colleagues from a variety of DeLaval sites. The main takeaway from that project was to really see how it all comes together well when we work as a team. The exchange between our different distribution centres, factories, and offices both strengthens and optimises the outcome. I really got to realise how dedicated and knowledgeable everyone in DeLaval is, and that is something I really take with me from that project,” she says.

And the team mentality is something Sarah has incorporated with her own team as a manager now. The team consists of a mix of talents that all stem from a profound knowledge of SAP. Having a diverse mix of skills enables Sarah’s team to analyse and take on tasks from several perspectives. “My team’s mission is to make sure that projects, essentially sales order from customers, are being delivered to farmers according to the requested date – what we call ‘on time in full.’ We are currently working on standardisation of our ways of working. This includes the introduction of the platform Gallin process to the whole team as well as the local sales organisations. It means that our warehouse in Gallin works as a shipping point for projects, which is an improved way of handling project sales orders. The overarching goal is to improve the throughput time of VMSs – our milking robots – on our platform in Gallin and external consolidation platforms. As we are working in a very dynamic environment, we continuously drive smaller improvement initiatives,” she says.

New ways of working

“A strong teamwork culture was on display last year when we had the supply situation piling up and a very difficult supply situation of VMS projects. The local sales organisations had a very difficult time and despite facing many challenges, they kept up great communication and were calm and helpful. The factory was also a big player in finding new solutions, coping with new material availabilities almost daily together with supply management. And again, when processes weren’t in sync anymore, the teamwork between entities became even stronger,” says Sarah.

The culture in DeLaval is something that Sarah points out when asked why others should consider joining our company. “Join us, definitely do! DeLaval has a fantastic company culture, and you will feel the professional yet very friendly atmosphere everywhere. I also appreciate the many different career paths one can find at DeLaval. We are a very diverse company that really cares for our colleagues,” says Sarah.

Going forward, Sarah looks forward to many inspiring projects. “There are many projects in the pipeline that are of great interest. Foremost, of course, is the new enterprise platform that will define our future way of working. This is particularly interesting to me and my team, as we work a lot in the systems that are going to be replaced,” Sarah concludes.

Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your story and the great work you and your team do!