Taking over operational responsibility (in permanent employment) for a company in the manufacturing industry of automated storage systems
in the role of Plant Manager
Information about the Client / Employer
Company Type:
AG, listed on the Swiss stock exchange
Industry:
Automated storage systems in intralogistics
Size:
- Revenue: 120 Million Euros in the affected plant
- Number of employees: 490 employees in the affected plant, 3,100 employees worldwide
Situation at the Client:
Vacancy > in permanent employment
Information about the Mandate
FRAMEWORK PARAMETERS
Role:
Plant Manager
Period (Duration):
01/2021 to 03/2023 (26 months)
Area of Responsibility:
Management of the plant including Profit and Loss responsibility; Employee responsibility 261 employees; Budget responsibility approx. 15 Million Euros
Assignment
Main Assignment:
- Management of the plant with responsibility for P&L, production, operational purchasing, production planning, HR, work preparation, maintenance, technical investments, special projects
Sub-assignments:
- Leveling of final assembly value streams to achieve a reliable output of equipment ready to be shipped
- Physical and processual separation of series assembly and special orders
- Ensuring compliance with promised delivery dates with associated trades
- Implementation of capacity checks when loading orders into production
- Development of suitable KPIs regarding material availability, machine utilization, performance level
- Increasing flexibility of the ERP system/production control with regard to disruptions in the supply chain
- Development of digital missing parts management for flexible control of production processes
- Planning, project engineering and project management of plant expansion and automation
Measures
- Conducting value stream analyses in the final assembly value streams
- Leveling of cycle times and reorganization of employee deployment per value stream
- Weak point analysis in the entire production and assembly process
- Outsourcing of special orders into a separate, distinct value stream
- Implementation of shop floor management with relevant KPIs
- Minimization of missing parts through intelligent production control instead of gut feeling
- Increasing flexibility of the ERP system to consider both ideal framework conditions and disrupted supply chains
- Digitalization and visualization of missing parts management with Power-BI
Achievements
- Increase in production volume (output) by 34%
- Increase in plant revenue by 2.66 Million Euros per month
- Increase in productivity by 23.8%
- Increase in quality performance from 92.5% to 95.9%
- Reduction of missing parts by 78.7%
- Reduction of finished goods inventory by 39.6%, finished goods inventory value (WIP) by 1.58 Million Euros
- Reduction of storage time for shipment-ready packages by 65.3%
- Reduction in the number of delivery delays from 73% of orders to 0% = 100% delivery date reliability
Special Challenges
- Plant strongly oriented towards optimal processes in an optimal world
- Disruptions in the process landscape have fundamental effects on performance
- History based mindsets in the heads of employees and managers based on “It’s always been this way”
- Rigid ERP system based on optimal processes and supply chain > no agility
- Agile aspects and mindsets not known and understood
- Massive disruption of the supply chain causes an enormous number of critical missing parts
- Massive disruption of production processes, delivery reliability, order backlog
- Employees ring-fenced in their box of decades of experience > unhealthy routines in crisis
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