Situation
Between August 2020 and December 2020, our Interim Manager was commissioned to carry out the transformation in the Supply Chain & Production area towards operational excellence at our client’s main German plant. Targets for its mission were defined in the areas of inventory reduction, production efficiency and Industrial On Time Delivery (OTD). In addition, a strong focus on soft skills, initiating cultural change and increasing accountability was part of his roadmap.
Challenges
The environment in which the interim manager worked was a highly manual production, mainly project-oriented, with strong technical and product-related skills available, but without process description, cross-functional collaboration, consistent continuous improvement processes and a lack of individual and collective accountability.
Action
In the last month of his assignment, the interim manager was also asked to work on the process analysis with regard to a new ERP implementation and a conversion of the production process from MTS to MTO. In a short space of time, he succeeded through a fact-driven analysis, a deep dive into understanding the existing disruptions and the compilation
cross-functional teams around a common operational goal:
- Align the teams with the challenges and a common problem-solving approach
- Implement KPI-driven daily performance reviews to identify impending disruptions early and find a quick solution
- Visual management implementations for key processes and KPIs
- Increasing individual responsibility
- Set up specific processes to deal with production disruptions outside the normal production flow
As part of the fundamental process analysis, the most important process inefficiencies were identified and the overarching future processes were defined, measures outlined and the transition to the new processes initiated.
Result
During his tenure, production output increased by 40% with the same number of employees, thanks to a reduction in missing parts, greater collaboration and focus. New operational processes were implemented in the area of material flow. A number of meaningful KPIs were identified and implemented to increase process and operational performance.
The work of the interim managers was fundamental to achieving the sales targets set for 2020 and creating the necessary basis for future process and operational improvements. His very practical approach and excellent cooperation with the teams made it possible to introduce the necessary change in mentality and increase individual responsibility.
The early indicators in the areas of materials management, supply chain and production showed a strong improvement over the period of its use. The result of his work was transferred to the newly hired Operations Manager, and our interim manager ensured the future continuity of the implemented improvements.
Through his structured analysis, his quick understanding of the various key processes, his results- and action-oriented daily work and his strong interpersonal skills, our interim manager made this mission a great success for our client.
