A HISTORY OF SUCCESS
JOHN KRELLER SHARES HIS LOVE OF HISTORY ALONG WITH SUPPLY CHAIN INSIGHTS While John Kreller has a keen interest in European military history, his first forays into the supply chain profession were less than strategic. Like many who choose it for their career, Kreller notes that he mostly fell into the field, almost as if by accident. “After high school I did a trip through Europe,” says the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario native. Kreller is now warehouse manager at Eaton, an intelligent power management company. “You kind of plan your future while you’re doing that. There were many things I was considering. Supply chain was not on the list at that moment in time. But again, as I said, like a lot of people I kind of fell into my career.” When he returned to Canada from Europe, Kreller began working on a production line at MTD Products, a designer and manufacturer of outdoor power equipment such as lawnmowers and snow blowers. When he realized that he wanted his career to take a different path, he enrolled at Wilfred Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario as a mature student. While studying there, he earned a diploma in Business Administration and Small Business Management. 10 APRIL 2022
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GETTING STARTED After that, when Kreller was about 22, he jumped into a job loading trucks at Al’s Cartage in Kitchener. That position, he now says, is where he began his warehousing and supply chain career. Kreller worked at Al’s Cartage for about a year, gaining experience before taking a warehouse job at Kaufman Footwear. His duties at that company included loading bins, picking orders, clean up as well as general labour tasks. He eventually moved into a shipper position. It was also around this time that Kreller got married and bought a house. After 10 years working at Kaufman Footwear, he made a switch to a position at Spaenaur in Kitchener, a manufacturer of fasteners and related products. Kreller found working with such hardware fascinating and enjoyed the courses the company offered that went into detail regarding the various components in the company’s warehouses. “I ended up running their secondary overflow warehouse which supplied the main building, which was located out in Breslau, Ontario,”
he says. “We did a lot of the receiving there, and putaway. I went through the “train the trainer” program for reach trucks and forklifts and basically became responsible for teaching staff how to drive the equipment safely. I was there for probably a year. I had just received a promotion to their order desk when I got the opportunity to move over to Research in Motion.” At the Waterloo, Ontario software company, Kreller began working as a shipper. He learned a lot about import, export and customs, as well as Blackberry’s products. He worked there for three-and-a-half years, enjoying the time as an employee of the company. But the organization was moving to a 24/7 shift rotation pattern, he says. The new schedule would mean difficult shifts, and Kreller couldn’t imagine going to work at, say, 7pm on a Saturday evening. Such schedules would cut too deeply into time with his family. As a result, in 2003, Kreller decided to leave Research In Motion. “A lot of good people came out of there,” he says of the company and its staff. “It was an excellent training ground for people in supply chain as well as other departments, so there is that facet of it.” Kreller’s next position was in a supervisory role at Kaperal Corp. in Waterloo. The organization was another high-tech company that built communications housings. He worked there for about six-and-a-half years, eventually becoming warehouse and logistics manager. In the end, the company’s Germany-based parent organization decided to move manufacturing to China. That decision meant closing its Canadian operation. Once that happened, Kreller worked for about six months at a medical equipment company called Excel-Tech. While he credits the organization for having the most diversified product he has ever shipped in his career, he eventually left for a job closer to home. That move led to a position at Rimowa North America, a manufacturer of luxury luggage, suitcases and bags. He spent seven years as a logistics and shipping manager at the Cambridge-based company. Eventually, Kreller landed his current position as warehouse supervisor at Eaton Corporation. He has 21 employees he supervises in 12,000 square feet of warehouse spread across the company’s manufacturing facility. “What’s interesting about Eaton is that they have what they call the “Eaton University, and it has all kinds of different courses that that they want you to take as part of their onboarding process, which I find very interesting,” Kreller note. “It’s a company that’s very interested in, and is a leader in, inclusion and diversity.” SUPPLY PROFESSIONAL
2022-04-11 1:30 PM
MIKE FORD PHOTOGRAPHY
BY MICHAEL POWER
