Background

The company is part of a Swedish group which has more than 13,000 employees and is listed on the Swedish Stock exchange. It has approximately 1,000 employees including 600 engaged in Research and Development (R&D). A multi-site company with R&D and Production in four plants, its business is advanced technological products and systems for a demanding global market.

The company wanted to improve its business in the total Supply Chain, and asked ManTec to undertake a pre-study in Development & Technology. This was carried out using a combination of analysis and workshops with the management team in order to define areas of improvement. The main finding was that connections between line and project management were weak, which led to lack of control of projects and unclear roles and responsibilities.

Implementation

Based upon the pre-study findings, a project was defined jointly between ManTec and the client with the following objectives:

• reduce time to market;
• reduce lead times;
• improve project control (delivery performance and cost); and
• improve planning and cost calculation of projects.

Time to Market was addressed by improving the configuration of product structures and management itself, as well as the organisation of engineering changes.

Lead times and project control were improved by breaking down company goals and deploying them to the relevant levels throughout the organisation. This gave the management team better control, and the objectives of middle and first line managers were clarified. In addition, a Visual Management System was implemented, which enabled first line managers to get more involved and communicate better with project teams.

The need for more precise planning and calculation of all projects was addressed by setting up a Project Office. This enabled more effective organisation and better communication with Marketing and Sales.

Throughout the project, work on the main objectives was supported by group work and one-on-one coaching to improve leadership values and attitudes at all levels, and this was consolidated in the overall company by conducting workshops with the management team.

Results

The main benefits to the client of successfully implementing the project have been:

• delivery performance has improved from 70% to 95%; and
• overrun on projects has decreased accordingly.

The improvements correspond to a project ROI of between 300% and 400%.

Background

The company, which is part of a large international group, designs, develops and manufactures advanced military equipment. They are market leaders in Sweden and Europe and have a turnover of more than 3 billion SEK (€335M).

The factory under consideration has about 1,100 employees of which 600 work in production. All production is made to order, with a high degree of customer-specified equipment, and is run in project form. The unit had for a long period of time shown good profit, but was facing new demands of shorter lead times and high delivery precision, whilst at the same time the number of customer projects was increasing and there was a generation change among the personnel.

The company had previously worked with ManTec to carry out a successful change project in the development department, and now wanted to do the same with production and the aftermarket.

Implementation

ManTec and client staff mapped relevant processes during an initial analysis and identified a number of problem areas. The joint project was then defined and change work began, focusing on:

• establishing a management control system for production management;
• launching a management control system for shop level management;
• establishing ownership and work methods within purchasing, to secure an improved delivery capability;
• clarifying the process from development to production; and
• putting in place rules and methods for goods receipt and inspection.

Results

The main benefits to the client of establishing appropriate management control systems and interface rules have been that:

• the number of delayed purchasing orders has decreased by 87%
• production shortages have decreased by 80%
• the number of purchase orders is expected to decrease by 30% with no associated accumulation of capital
• late internal operations have reduced by 65%

Overall, cooperation internally within production and between other parts of the company has markedly improved as a result of the project.