An Eastern European mechanical engineering company hired the interim manager as production manager to optimize production. The company was struggling with problems such as low productivity, high reject rates and high staff turnover. The mandate was extended after an initial, successful phase and the interim manager was put in charge of technical management.
The tasks for the interim manager were roughly defined as follows:
- Increase productivity and quality of the assembly lines as quickly as possible
- Support the implementation of a corporate concept to increase productivity and profitability
- Advice and technical and commercial support in implementing the concept
- Reorganization of the company and continuous process improvement, including in the direction of Industry 4.0.
Special agreements due to staff shortages and against high fluctuation
In the past, series production was the company's "cash cow". In the first phase, the interim manager therefore concentrated on improving the productivity and quality of the assembly lines within a short period of time.
In any case, series production was suffering from a lack of staff and high staff turnover. To make matters worse, the company had had to take back a large delivery of several thousand parts. The repair and dispatch of these batches tied up a lot of qualified personnel, who in turn were lacking on the assembly lines and in quality assurance. The interim manager overcame these challenges in the short term by negotiating special agreements with the management for the employees - in other words, the salaries were increased slightly. This alleviated staff turnover in particular.
Automation and lean methods stabilize series production
In the further course of the mandate, the company invested in automation that relieved the burden on staff in the long term. At the initiative of the interim manager, the company also implemented various lean tools. The interim manager trained the employees to such an extent that the company was able to continue on its lean path.
Quality assurance and overall equipment effectiveness significantly improved
One of the longer-term challenges in the project was to improve the processes in the company's own aluminum die casting and the overall equipment effectiveness in machining production. At the same time, the reject rate had to be reduced in order to meet production schedules and process existing orders.
To this end, the interim manager introduced daily production and quality meetings. He implemented a quick response quality control (QRQC) system with participants from quality assurance and production. This control formed the basis for further quality improvements for internal supplier parts. The interim manager also initiated the optimization of the testing machines integrated into the assembly lines. He introduced more efficient quality assurance controlling and equipped the final inspection with new, simpler and more reliable inspection programs.
Fault rates on inspection machines and reject rate significantly reduced
These measures rapidly reduced the fault rates on inspection machines and the overall reject rate. Further improvements were achieved by the interim manager working with the teams to optimize the workflows within the assembly islands using standard worksheets.
Measures increase contribution margin by 14 percent
The success of the project became apparent after just a few months. Overall, the process improvements initiated by the interim manager increased productivity by 15 percent. At the same time, working capital was reduced by 9 percent. The overall error rate in series production fell by 16 percent. Overall, the amount covered increased by 14 percent as a result.
