Retired from Ford Motor Company in September 2022 after over 31 fantastic years in various leadership positions in Europe and USA. Looking forward to the next chapter of my personal and professional life.Dirk Willmann was the Director Material Planning & Logistics (MP&L) at Ford of Europe, located in Cologne. He received his Master in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dortmund, Germany and eventually started at Ford Motor Company. He is an operations & strategy professional who brings extensive knowledge in business strategy, supply chain management and production planning.In his 30+ year career in the global automotive industry Dirk held various management positions in Europe and USA, where he gained experience from working in integrated global teams and cross functional management groups for manufacturing, purchasing and sales. In his previous role as director of MP&L for Ford of Europe he managed a complex, global supply chain, which included the full scope of logistics and production planning (translating sales demand into production schedules) across Europe, and shared responsibilities for operations in the Middle East and Africa, and Ford's joint ventures in Turkey. As European head of Ford's MP&L department Willmann managed and shaped the global supply chain of an OEM, which became increasingly complex in the context of political and economic unpredictability. He managed long pipelines of inventory, navigated complex customs issues and anticipated manufacturing and logistics constraints or disruptions. To become fit for tomorrow, considering the pressure on resources and cost of logistics, Willmann needed also to invest into new technologies to improve material flow and packaging engineering, and a digital supply chain. This included constant network analysis and truck load utilization, cross dock flows, delivery frequency and carrier performance, as well as ocean container packing and shipping.The future of logistics will be exciting due to further collaboration, automation and data analytics. The enablers are increasing computer power, cloud technology and connectivity.