A leading global Swedish manufacturer of door systems for B2B customers had been acquiring companies for several years. This growth strategy led to an expansion of the product portfolio and production sites. In order to increase profitability, the owner planned to streamline the product portfolio and relocate production from Germany to the Czech Republic.
After the sudden departure of the previous project manager, the interim manager took over as an experienced expert in international production relocations and restructuring. The aim was to completely relocate production by the end of the year and hand over the existing production site to the owner in a renovated state. The dual challenge posed by these two objectives significantly increased the complexity of the project.
Relocation of four product groups recorded in a detailed project plan
In the first four weeks of the mandate, the interim manager gained a comprehensive picture of the initial situation through discussions and visits to the two sites. In doing so, he identified a number of challenges. These included, for example, the very heterogeneous structure of the digital systems along the entire process chain from production and development to sales and operational setup. In addition, the service level had to be maintained despite the transition.
The core of the assignment was the smooth relocation of production from four of the five product groups previously manufactured in Germany to the Czech Republic - without any delays in delivery or loss of quality. To ensure this, the interim manager developed a comprehensive project plan in MS Project. This involved three series products and one new product, which was planned jointly in the German and Swedish development departments. The first examples of the product innovation were produced in Germany. The actual production start-up took place in the Czech Republic.
Run-out planning in Germany and start-up planning in the Czech Republic
In the project plan, the interim manager defined the relocation dates and the associated detailed tasks. This included the phase-out planning in Germany and the corresponding start-up planning in the Czech Republic. He also managed to produce a product with a very high order intake for four weeks in parallel at both locations during the ongoing relocation.
Productive working culture through intensive exchange
At the beginning of the assignment, there was a lack of common understanding at both locations for the different working methods and requirements for the production of the door systems. In order to create a productive working relationship and ensure the necessary level of detail in production, the interim manager initiated an intensive exchange at all levels.
At each relocation step, employees from the Czech Republic were trained at the German plant. Once the relocation was complete, specialists from Germany traveled to the Czech Republic to assist with the production of the first customer orders. This ensured a largely smooth transfer of knowledge and compliance with high quality requirements right from the start. The personal encounters and direct involvement in the relocation also helped to maintain the motivation of the German employees who had already been made redundant until the end of the project.
ERP and PDM systems and other heterogeneous digital processes synchronized
Once the project plan had been drawn up, the interim manager took on the challenge of synchronizing the company's heterogeneous digital processes. During the analysis, he realized that simply copying and pasting between the different ERP and PDM systems was not possible. Together with employees from both locations, he converted the order-specific drawings into 3,600 standard drawings and formulas for the ERP system in the Czech Republic, which enabled reliable parts list creation there, among other things. At the same time, he worked with the teams to ensure that the parts lists from both ERP systems were compared for the first production orders and adjusted where necessary. Each adjustment improved the consistency of the parts lists and therefore also the product quality.
At the start of the project, the Czech plant was not connected to the configuration and ordering software of the sales units in several European countries. The interim manager and his team synchronized the existing product configurators with the ERP system and trained the local teams in order entry at the Czech plant.
Increased degree of automation and optimized material flows
In a further sub-project, the interim manager analysed the production processes together with experts from both sites. Based on the results, the degree of automation was increased, material flows optimized and production layouts structured more compactly. This now contributes significantly to shorter throughput times, lower costs and improved quality.
Large logistical effort for parts relocation to the Czech Republic
The logistics of the parts relocation were challenging. In order to ensure a smooth production start-up in the Czech Republic, a sufficiently large quantity of individual parts (around 4,500 items) had to be provided from the German plant. In addition, all components had to be fully recorded in the ERP system. The remaining individual parts could only be sent to the Czech Republic once production in Germany had been completed.
The timely and sufficient relocation of spare parts was also of great importance for the ability to deliver. This sub-project was particularly complex because only four of the original five product groups were to be manufactured at the new site. At the same time, however, there were extensive spare parts delivery obligations to existing customers that could no longer be served by the closed German site. In total, more than 5,000 items were affected. In consultation with the plant managers of both sites, the interim manager identified around 3,000 critical items for the old production and relocated these to the new site in the Czech Republic.
The relocation involved considerable logistical effort: A total of 38 material and six machine transports were carried out to the Czech Republic.
