The e-commerce market is growing rapidly and PostNL continues to strive for delivery to the doorstep. The last mile of delivery is considered the most impactful part of the logistical chain. On top of environmental impact, the liveability of the city centre is challenged by bulky delivery vans rushing through narrow streets and blocking the way to deliver parcels in time. Municipalities have ambitions to expel unsustainable and big vehicles from their city centres, making it a pressing matter for PostNL to change its approach.    PostNL committed to deliver 100% emission-free and nuisance-poor in 25 Dutch city centres by 2025. Emission-free delivery is achieved through deploying an electric fleet, but nuisance-poor delivery asks for a strategy to reduce congestion and make traffic situations safer.  PostNL aims to deploy light electric vehicles (Licht Elektrisch VrachtVervoer in Dutch) in the last-mile but is unsure what type of LEVV vehicle must drive on what road type to optimally reduce nuisance. The vehicle options are a bike-type LEVV and a truck-type LEVV as PostNL is unsure which one to choose and by testing both a full coverage of street-types is possible.    This research showed what information must be gathered for PostNL to decide what vehicle would cause the least nuisance on a type of street. The information helps them create routes for a vehicle-type which would cause minimal nuisance, while still being efficient. The information is used to create a model of choice theory, which helps PostNL decide what LEVV should drive on what street to reduce nuisance. A roadmap shows how this model is digitised and automated to be future proof. Lastly, a communication strategy is made to make sure the system is communicated clearly along the process chain.   Desk research and interviews showed that by focusing on safety and congestion as nuisance, liveability is increased no matter the area within the city. The potential in reducing this nuisance while still being efficient was confirmed in a physical test with both LEVV-types compared to a traditional bus. Two vehicles were selected as models for the design (Fulpra Roll bike and CargoLEV truck).    A survey showed a higher satisfaction rate in customers who received their parcel through sustainable delivery, together with a high vehicle awareness this shows a potential benefit for PostNL in happy customers and reputation.    A first PDCA-cycle (Plan-Do-Check-Act) was used to build the reasoning for choosing one vehicle over the other. City centre streets were categorised into six archetypes, on which every vehicle was judged on its potential to reduce nuisance while parking and driving.    The theory states that if a vehicle can drive and park nuisance poorly, it is the most efficient one as it can move fast through traffic and find a parking space in front of the door of the delivery, reducing walking time.    The second PDCA-cycle showed how this theory can be made into a model of choice which can be used to create routes in all cities.    Weighing factors drop density, street direction, stratona weight and traffic intensity are needed for a weighted calculation to benefit important streets in the calculation and advice. The shape of this advice and how it must be communicated along the process chain concludes this cycle.  In the last design cycle a tactical roadmap is created that shows how the system evolves into an adaptive and pro-active route planning tool supported and improved by future road work data and driver feedback.    PostNL ended up with a substantiated theory on vehicle choice and a roll-out plan for using it. Another benefit of this research for PostNL, besides supporting LEVV implementation, is that it supports the argument within PostNL for the value of nuisance reduction as a main KPI besides efficiency.    ... Read more

The growth of a supplier is restricted when buyers have unmet expectations and thus frustrating experiences during the dyadic (between two parties) interactions. Hence the establishment of buyer-supplier relationships is limited. The organisational challenges of a supplier have a negative impact on the conveyed service quality. Customer orientation can create superior value for the customer and thus the service quality.

This graduation thesis approaches the challenge from the underexposed perspective of the supplier. The assignment aims to design a framework for supply organisations to enhance and implement customer orientation in buyer-supplier dyads. More specifically, it analyses and designs how the conversion phase of a Dutch service supplier, Pezy Group, can be more customer-oriented. In the context of the case study, customer orientation is the extent to which the supplier prioritises the customer’s expectations and applies its knowledge of the customer in the organisation to create a positive experience. The conversion phase is defined as the process of translating the buyer’s development request into a proposal for executing the project. The proposal concerns the service Pezy Group offers, in this case, integral product development projects.

From the analysis, it becomes apparent that different customers and their intended interaction result in various expectations and requires the supplier to organise their processes accordingly. A design goal is formed based on the defined and selected buyer-interaction archetype Structured Sophie. A framework is developed utilising participatory design methods, resulting in archetype specific customer journey of the conversion phase and an implementation roadmap for Pezy Group. Multiple validation sessions were organised to measure the expected impact of the future scenario on the customer orientation and thus service quality. Internal and external participants were selected (n=12) to evaluate the customer journey of the conversion phase using Likert scales.

The results showed that the proposed design changes of the customer journey contribute to Pezy Group’s enhancement of customer orientation in buyer-supplier dyads. Archetype Structured Sophie has a product development request focused on conceptualising, gathering insights, and intending a transactional relationship for the execution phase. The results of the validated design indicate that for Pezy Group to enhance and implement customer orientation, the following organisational changes must occur. This thesis concludes that a change of roles, in which the operational support is empowered to establish and manage the Sophie buyer-interaction archetype, will enhance the experienced customer orientation. This change is enabled by the support of the account responsible and the usage of standardised proposals during the process.

The delivered archetype specific framework concludes that the conceptual customer journey and implementation roadmap, once executed, increases the service quality of the buyer-supplier interactions, supports the conversion phase related activities, and may indirectly contribute to the degree of profitability of Pezy Group. Implementing the proposed changes by change management methodologies is recommended, as indicated in the roadmap. Since this graduation thesis is based on one case study, future research is required to investigate the generalisation of the recovered insights and the designed framework.
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Due to globalisation and technological advancements, the world is becoming increasingly complex. Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environments have called for organisations to become more agile in order to survive and compete in such changing environments. Large organisations are at particular risk for becoming stagnant due to operational inertia. In order to combat this and achieve agility, dynamic capabilities are developed. These capabilities allow an organisation to more effectively and efficiently change to incoming threats or opportunities. Such changes create uncertainty and insecurity amongst employees which translates into higher employee turnover and decreased performance. Stability therefore needs to be provided for individuals, while achieving dynamacy for organisations. This paradox of dynamic stability drives research into understanding relationships and effects caused by
disruptions. Covid-19 is used as an extreme use case in order to create these understandings. After primary and secondary research conclusions were developed, a conceptual framework was developed in order to orchestrate capabilities. This aims to help speed up the time taken for opportunities/threats to be translated into outcomes. This also aims to help improve the depth, diversity and accuracy of these outcomes.
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