This mandate led the Dutch interim manager to a dairy cooperative with more than 80 branches in 36 countries and 24,000 employees worldwide. The annual turnover amounts to more than 12 billion euros. The location was a German plant with around 300 employees. The plant processes 2.5 million liters of milk per week on 15 production lines to produce yogurt, yogurt drinks and pudding. The annual production volume comprises around 160,000 tons of end products.
Aiming for better maintenance programs for maintenance-sensitive systems
Quality, safety, innovation and sustainability are of the utmost importance to the cooperative. Projects under the title "World Class Operational Management" have been running within the cooperative for some time. These WCOM projects experienced ups and downs and were even temporarily halted due to a lack of concrete results. the project was resumed in 2018. The overarching goal of this sub-project was to optimize production and thus create added value for the company, particularly in terms of availability, reliability and costs, through outstanding maintenance and servicing programs for (partially) outdated and maintenance-sensitive systems. At the beginning of 2019, 24 locations worldwide were selected to raise the maintenance organizations to the desired level with the help of external consultants and a train-the-trainer concept.
Project team subjects plant processes to an intensive audit and data analysis
The interim manager acted as a freelancer for a Dutch consulting firm in this project. The team developed a train-the-trainer concept with which the employees of the selected branches were to be qualified in several steps (4 phases). The plant in Germany was one of the first to be tackled intensively. The interim manager worked as a full-time coach at the company for 9 months.
At the start of the assignment, he formed a team comprising representatives from all areas of the company (from management to machine operators) as well as specialists from the parent company and the project manager from the consulting firm. Together, the team members subjected the processes in the plant to an intensive audit. Data analyses and many discussions at all levels of the organization rounded off the picture.
The interim manager then played a key role in drawing up a roadmap with a timetable for implementing the project. The roadmap was initially divided into 3 cycles of 4 months with a horizon of 12 months. A one-hour evaluation of progress takes place every week. The evaluations are short and to the point. Standards are available for reporting on results, obstacles and progress, which can be easily and quickly converted into key performance indicators (KPIs).
Mechanics and machine operators contribute significantly to major improvements
As soon as the project began, the data from production and maintenance turned out to be less complete and reliable than originally assumed. The project team therefore spent a lot of time collecting data and information during operation. This supposed disadvantage soon turned out to be an advantage. As the interim manager and other members of the project team spent a lot of time in the workshop talking to the mechanics and machine operators, the involvement of these employees increased dramatically. The employees were given the appreciation they deserved and were correspondingly motivated. They provided a wealth of information, helped to identify bottlenecks in the workplace and supported the project team in developing and implementing solutions.
Effectiveness of the production lines increased by 60 percent within 9 months
It was above all the many small improvements that raised availability, reliability, production capacity and quality to a significantly higher level in large steps. The project team was able to improve the effectiveness of the most important production lines by 60 percent within 9 months without any major investments. The technical availability of the systems increased from 50 to more than 80 percent.
This enables the plant to produce more in the same or even less time. Added value is also created by less overtime at weekends and the increased motivation of the employees, who quite rightly see the result of the optimization as their success.
