The focus is on critical workstations whose challenges can be quickly solved and integrated into the work routine by implementing quick wins.
Reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve quality
Minimized unit costs with maximum product quality: This is the North Star for every manufacturing company. If the former increases profitability, the latter satisfies customers and creates loyalty. A factor that can no longer be taken for granted in times of ever shorter product life cycles and hybrid purchasing behavior.
Even if the basic objective appears obvious at first glance, the identification of potential and the design and implementation of suitable optimization measures is much more complex in practice. With our support, you will successfully embark on the path to operational excellence.
Operational Excellence
The three dimensions: Process, leadership and people
In our view, harmonious interaction between the dimensions of processes, leadership and people leads to optimum results in operations. OPEX projects often begin with the realization of existing uncertainties. The symptoms of inefficient processes, poor product quality or a lack of management structures are already noticeable in these cases, but the underlying causes are often unknown. For us, this is regularly the entry point at which an OPEX project begins. The core task in the first step is then to penetrate the symptom level and analyze the causes. We take great care to choose the right tone of voice in order to be understood and accepted by everyone from divisional management to employees on the shopfloor – this is the only way to anchor changes in the long term.
Extension of perspective
The alignment of modern production environments combines a holistic understanding of sustainability. Our OPEX analyses therefore take into account not only the economic, but also the ecological and social perspective.
Change Management:
Anchoring changes sustainability
Optimization is associated with change, and change in turn creates uncertainty at first due to learned patterns. For a successful OPEX project, this chain of logic must be skilfully broken. A central key is the proactive involvement of the people affected by the change. Defining a generally accepted leitmotif at the start of a project is a powerful tool for creating the necessary spirit of optimism.
Together, we go through the process of change and use our experience and helpful tools in a targeted manner to implement the necessary measures together with your employees.
OPEX-Quick-Check
Determine the level of maturity of operations
To gain clarity about the current situation, we recommend our OPEX Quick Check. During a compact on-site workshop, we use a standardized set of methods to find out what level of maturity your operational business has and where areas with potential for action can be identified. Joint value stream mapping, visual inspections and structured interviews are part of the repertoire. This starting point has proven itself several times in the past, as the complexity and extent of the challenges in ongoing operations are difficult to assess at a theoretical level.
When following up the results of the quick check, we attach great importance to evaluating the correlations and dependencies. This enables us to select the right project approach for you in the next step. This is the starting point for your individual project on the road to operational excellence.
Efficiency in operational excellence
The efficiency levels targeted with your OPEX project can be aimed at selective improvement initiatives or a program architecture for the entire production network. Transparency about the current bottlenecks and the measures and initiatives required to eliminate them is crucial to the project's direction.
Selective improvement initiatives
Process-orientated CIP projects
In this project approach, the perspective is extended to the individual workstation and a cross-functional analysis is carried out within defined boundaries. In the workshop format, causes are analyzed together and suitable optimization measures are derived. If desired, the implementation phase can be accompanied and a team with the expertise to solve problems in a structured manner can be left behind at the end of the project.
Comprehensive transformation projects
In the context of a transformation project, the origin of the challenges is of a fundamental nature and requires a comprehensive optimization approach. For example, various levers are identified throughout the entire order flow and corresponding optimization measures are successively implemented from order receipt to delivery to the customer. Targeted education and training measures (e.g. "train-the-trainer principle") are inherent to projects with this degree of change in order to achieve sustainable optimization rather than one-off effects.
Program architecture in the production network
The maximum level of applicability is the roll-out of optimization measures across several production sites. In this context, for example, we work in the area of company-wide standardization processes, which we set up together with you and then roll out across the board. Ideally, the first pilot projects are initiated, which are then rolled out across the board once they have been successfully tested. The cross-location work requires constant calibration of the catalogue of measures in order to be able to take individualities and possible deviations into account.
Lean Management as an integral element
Regardless of the efficiency of the individual project, the basic principles of lean management are an integral part of every OPEX initiative. Thanks to a coordinated portfolio of measures, all the cogwheels of the operational business interlock successfully. After all, even small interventions in operational business often lead to major changes in the working routine of the individual. This is why we always endeavor to closely involve the people concerned in the solution process right from the start of the project. On the one hand, this increases the acceptance of the solution through the direct involvement of those involved, and on the other hand, the competence for structured problem solving is learnt directly on the basis of real use cases.
Simon Vehof
Business Development Manager
Matthias Göke
Managing Partner
Matthias Göke // Managing Partner - Factory Planning