5 questions for a technical purchaser at Van Raam - Video

1. Can you introduce yourself?

"I am Robert van Hal. I have been working for Van Raam as a buyer since December 2012. I take care of almost all purchases from China and Taiwan. Together with our purchasing team, we ensure that all materials needed in the production and assembly process are purchased."

2. What makes it interesting to work at Van Raam?

"There are actually several things. Colleagues, a great company to work for. Everyone is very willing to help each other. Especially now you have problems with the availability of parts. Everyone thinks along, everyone wants to think along. When I look at my own work, it's very dynamic at the moment.

Of course, the long delivery times are sometimes difficult. But to be able to solve it all the time, that's a big challenge. As I said, my package consists mainly of purchasing from Asia, China and Taiwan. Travelling there, meeting the people, looking at factories."

3. What is a common prejudice about your work?

"Maybe we can easily arrange everything from the computer. And very often people say 'but then you jus have to buy a bit more'. Look, you grow and whether you order 100 or 200, it takes half a minute on the computer. But in practice, of course, it is extremely difficult to continuously ensure that the numbers we want also come in.

I think the prejudice may be that the work should be relatively easy or that you can easily increase numbers, but there is a lot behind it that makes it difficult."