In a crisis situation, the interim manager took over the position of managing director at the Polish plant of a German group of companies on a temporary basis in 2018. The group is one of the top 50 in the German automotive supply industry and is a tier 1 supplier of drive shafts and joints. Its main customers are premium OEMs in Europe, Asia and North America. The manufacturers primarily install these components in their four-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive models.
The young Polish plant was to expand the company's range by taking on new products. The plan was to relocate the products, including production facilities, from an OEM in Germany, release them in Poland and then ensure customer supply to Germany. This project ran very smoothly. The situation threatened to escalate: High delivery backlogs, daily bottleneck coordination with the customer at management level, quality problems in production and considerable dissatisfaction among the site's management team were unmistakable signs of the crisis. The relocation project was in an extremely critical phase.
In the end, the management was restructured. As a temporary managing director, the interim manager was tasked with the following tasks:
- Stabilize customer supply
- Improve efficiency in production
- Gain back customer trust
- Lead through clear and authentic communication
- Continue the production relocation with realistic project management
- Develop the site including organization and processes
Implemented improvements through lean management and lean production
The interim manager started immediately, together with managers, employees, customers and suppliers to identify weak points. This revealed shortcomings in plant availability/OEE, quality inspection and on-site crisis management in particular. Within days, the interim manager developed an emergency plan with the teams. On this basis, a comprehensive action plan was created within 4 weeks, which included all areas of the plant.
The interim manager intensified the visualization of production using key figures and introduced a daily store floor round in production. Information was shared there and decisions were now made quickly. The visualization helped employees to monitor and increase output on a shift-by-shift basis.
The interim manager took a look at every production line and plant area during daily gemba walks with the managers. He had the managers define action and improvement measures, which were then jointly reviewed in terms of implementation and effectiveness. The interim manager used proven lean management and lean production tools, such as value stream mapping, to plan and monitor success.
Technical improvements and new production planning eliminate bottlenecks
In order to eliminate bottlenecks in the production lines, the interim manager appointed machine suppliers, specialists from the German plant and experts for difficult machining processes to the plant. Their expertise made a significant contribution to increasing throughput, reducing reject rates and achieving a much more stable quality performance through numerous technical improvements.
He also improved efficiency by ensuring that maintenance activities were no longer carried out ad hoc, but were scheduled, prepared and the operating personnel were actively involved. Additional internal training directly on site and courses at specialist companies also helped to build up a technically skilled team. Production planning now takes all maintenance work into account and reduces the number of set-up operations. Production time was temporarily extended into the weekend.
12 of 15 production lines relocated to the new site on time
Within 4 weeks, customer supply was ensured. After 4 months, the delivery backlog had been almost completely eliminated and the relationship with the customer had eased considerably. The reject rate was continuously reduced over the course of the year and production output stabilized at a high level.
After stabilization, the interim manager set the next phase of the relocation project on a new realistic timeline. During the mandate, a total of 12 of the final 15 production lines and around 80 of the final 100 part numbers were relocated in line with the program.
Management structure at the site set up for the future
The interim manager worked together with HR consultants to set up the new management team with Polish managers and employees (for logistics, production, project management, controlling, plant and management). He was able to fill the vacant positions with excellent candidates in close consultation with the German management. This also included the new Polish managing director, to whom the interim manager handed over his responsibilities after 17 months.
Beforehand, the interim manager had defined the corporate strategy for the site together with the German management. In this context, he implemented the necessary restructuring measures and business planning for the following years, which was secured by acquiring two new customer orders thanks to the plant performance achieved.
