Improved production and storage efficiency

Achieve a structured and sustainable increase in performance

Manufacturing businesses are facing increasingly intense national and international competition. By way of an efficient Lean Management consultation, it’s not just defending a company's market position that matters, it’s also about expanding it by adopting a targeted approach. Quality, cost and delivery capacity in particular are decisive competitive factors for European high-level remuneration regions.

Reduced product life cycles and an ongoing squeeze in attainable prices in the marketplace are leading to increased cost pressure. The continuous availability of products is also a prerequisite stipulated by customers. In order to retain a consistent level of competitive ability, sustainable improvements in efficiency by way of a clearly defined mission statement along with cascaded KPI systems are, on the one hand, necessary. On the other hand, efficiency must be continuously improved while maintaining a consistently high level of quality through the avoidance of waste, ensuring that production stays on schedule, and by installing work systems characterised by flexible design.

Sustainable improvements can only be delivered by adopting an holistic Lean Management approach. When making adjustments to your production, it is critical that value-creating processes, the organisational environment (e.g. planning and control) and members of staff are considered and monitored together. Any necessary improvements can subsequently be implemented with a view to improved future performance.

Metroplan-Approach and methodology

Our origin determines our approach. As an experienced advisory and planning office we adopt a data-focused, structured and fact-driven approach. Metroplan establishes transparency as a first step, and stabilises your processes. Improvements are only then implemented sustainably, before ultimately being transformed into a standard.

We always adopt a tailored approach and support you in any way possible in the pursuit of your objective. Our service offering – the introduction and implementation of Lean Management – is guided by the current challenges and most pressing issues facing you and your business:

We execute a potential assessment in order to clearly and independently identify and quantify problems. This subsequently generates a tailored approach allowing for the sustainable exploitation of those identified sources of potential.

Certain selected measures aimed at improving quality, cost and delivery time are initially executed as part of a pilot phase, depending on the sources of potential identified. For example, we can solve the following problems together with your members of staff:

  • a high rejection rate as a result of incorrectly assembled component parts ➜ Error avoidance by adopting a Poka Yoke solution, the consistent implementation of the seven quality tools to achieve continuous quality improvement
  • The same errors occur repeatedly ➜ Identification and elimination of the underlying cause by implementing a structured solution, PDCA or 8D method
  • Production costs are too high ➜ Definitive identification and elimination of waste, drafting a scheduled material flow with the help of Value Stream Mapping
  • Warehousing costs are increasing ➜ Avoidance of excess production through the consistent application of the “Pull Principle”
  • Detailed operational order sequencing, in order to minimise tooling times ➜ Execution of SMED workshops to deliver a significant optimisation in tooling times
  • Current progress in production remains unclear ➜ 5S measures aimed at establishing transparency standards, the introduction of visual management and Shop Floor Management
  • Customer orders can only be delivered with a delay ➜ Line-balancing and levelling in production planning, in order to reduce production time

We also develop and implement an holistic production system, in order to develop your company into an adaptive, learning-centric organisation with clear target alignment. This involves designing the production system in accordance with the principles of Pull, Time, Flow and Zero-Errors. A Shop Floor Management structure is established as a basis for achieving continuous improvement.

Customer benefits of a Lean Management consultation

You can also enjoy further benefits from working together with us, in addition to our many years of experience and high level of expertise:

  • A clear and tailored roadmap developed together, which is based on solid analytical work
  • Measurable and visible improvements in your production
  • All members of staff are integrated into the process, during which they receive extensive training and instruction on your processes and ways of working
  • We are also the right partner for you when it comes to significant changes in your plant layout and the associated planning and execution tasks
  • We establish structures aimed at delivering continuous improvement and develop your company into a learning-centric and adaptable organisation
  • We accompany you throughout your journey, from the initial optimisation project through to an holistic production system