Graduation: Developing Customer Learning Programs for Service Desk Engineers

About the graduation assignment

Our service desk operates 24/7 to remotely support Vanderlande customers and ensure their systems remain fully operational. We work in a five‑shift model, with L1 engineers collaborating closely with various 2nd‑ and 3rd‑line solution groups. L1 engineers are responsible for customer communication and for steering operational activities to meet the agreed service levels.

Over the past year, overall performance has declined. The leadership team believes that establishing a structured approach to continuous improvement within the shift teams is essential to restoring the desired performance levels. To achieve this, we aim to explore and assess methodologies such as the Toyota Production System (TPS) and Obeya as potential frameworks for embedding continuous improvement practices into our daily operations.

Description of the department

The Service Desk EU–APAC consists of 1st‑, 2nd‑ and 3rd‑line engineers who operate 24/7 to resolve incidents, manage problems and execute changes for more than 500 customers worldwide. The department comprises around 150 employees based in Australia, Germany and Veghel.

We work in a fast‑paced operational environment where maintaining system stability is a daily challenge. As part of the team, you will join live operations and participate in regular stand‑ups, contribute to real, business‑critical use cases, and have the freedom to explore and develop your own improvement ideas.

Tasks/responsibilities

• Understand the service desk processes, operational targets and bottlenecks
• Validate and design a TPS and Obeya approach to steer continuous improvement in service desk teams
• Create and run a pilot environment to apply and evaluate the approach

Your profile

• The student has prior experience in continuous improvement concepts
• Curious about logistics and how we service customers
• Proactive mindset and not afraid to work together with different teams
• *Mandatory enrolment to a Dutch Education System & resident of The Netherlands

internship@vanderlande.com