Background

The company, which has more than 4,000 employees including 1,500 in Sweden, is a world leader in its business. It is part of a large international group with approximately 40,000 employees world-wide,

One of the biggest plants in the group is located in Sweden with some 1,000 employees. It consists of seven manufacturing units, workshops (including a foundry), plus a number of staff. In spite of good profitability, management had set it tough cost-cutting targets, in order to be competitive with sourcing in Asia.

Implementation

Mantec conducted a pre-study in the workshops to find areas for improvement and estimate the improvement potential. Based upon the results of this analysis, a project was defined with the objective to improve productivity by 20% Two important prerequisites were that the company should participate actively via a number of internal consultants, and that Mantec should transfer knowledge, methods and skills on improvement processes throughout the project.

Mantec created a special project model for the work to be carried out, the so-called MWL-model (MoreWithLess), which consists of four phases – Pre-study; Identification; Implementation; Follow-up. This model was integrated with the company’s own Six Sigma-work (Define; Measure; Analyse; Implement; Control).

The project had the following sub-projects:

• establishing a daily management operating system (MOS) in the workshops to connect to the overall production MOS;
• instituting measurements of availability and efficiency, and monitoring of non-conformance;
• creating an action plan for improved productivity and reduced costs;
• establishment of a model for the improvement work;
• coaching in leadership for workshop managers and foremen;
• improving personal efficiency and time utilisation; and
• putting in place a model for measuring productivity on a weekly basis.

Due to the relatively large size of the project, it was decided to roll out the improvement processes successively in the plant.

Results

The successful implementation of the project has brought the client a number of benefits, including:

• workshop control has moved from ”per week” to ”per day” and the follow-up is now on a weekly basis rather than monthly as before. Or as one production manager put it: “We have moved from budget control to customer order control! I feel the pulse of my activity now and I am more frequently out in the workshop which is appreciated by all!”
• a model for the improvement process has been established and integrated with the ”Black Belt organisation”;
• productivity has (one year from project start-up) increased by 25% and is still increasing. Locally in the workshops there is a spread of between l2 % and 46 % improvement;
• the project ROI reached 400% within the first year;
• six internal consultants who participated during the various project phases have acquired a good knowledge of the methodology and techniques used.

The achievements in the project have been duly noticed in the group and as a result the Swedish plant was rewarded ”Chairman’s award for Operational Excellence”. In addition, the company has started up MWL in the Distribution Centre, supported by Mantec.

Background

The company, a global leader in the production of storage systems employing approximately 150 people, markets and sells products worldwide to both private consumers and business customers. For several years, the company fought rising losses. Operations were in need of comprehensive rationalisation and control instruments and management systems required strengthening.

ManTec was employed to drive this process of change.

Implementation

The project started with a preliminary study by ManTec, reviewing and analysing the whole company – including the sales offices and subsidiaries in Europe – over a three-week period. Based on this analysis, a number of subprojects were defined and the work of change started.

The key focus areas were:

• carrying out ABC analyses and calculations for customers and products (ie analysing the range of customers and products into groups which have different levels of significance, and which should be handled or controlled differently). Based on these analyses, both customers and products were consolidated, a process which increased the profit margin significantly;

• carrying out an analysis of suppliers and purchased material, as a result of which new contracts were negotiated and certain suppliers replaced. In addition, changes were made to material specifications;

• changing the organisational structure of the company, dramatically reducing both direct and indirect personnel costs, which had rapid positive cash flow effects; and

• implementing systems for operations control, which involved:

The organisation’s motivation for change was supported by training in the form of theory and a number of workshops. Similarly, the company was able to take ownership of the change process, and secure continuous improvement, because project work was managed through a project team.

Results

The project resulted in lasting behavioural changes and implementation of a number of new systems and working methods. As a result, costs were reduced and income increased through:

• increased profit margin, based on consolidation of customers and products;
  
  
• reduced costs for material purchased and freight; and
  
  
• reduced costs for direct and indirect personnel.

The company achieved positive cash flow even before the project was completed. After its completion, the company was able to report a positive result for the first time in several years.

Background

A significant capacity increase was imminent at one unit, as the manufacture of some of the group’s products was to be concentrated there.

At the same time, the company was wrestling with weak profitability.

To improve profitability at this time of volume growth, ManTec was engaged to carry out an objective and comprehensive analysis of operations.

Implementation

During a preliminary study, ManTec identified a number of potential improvement areas, and so the company and ManTec jointly entered into an implementation project. The main measures put in place during the project were:

• the design and successful implementation of a new organisational structure in production, with the planning department and operations management located together;
• the design and successful implementation of a management system (Balanced Scorecard), in which the company’s overall goals were broken down into comprehensible numerical values at an individual level. The management system also included a system for follow-up and deviation management;
• the production of handbooks, in which both the systems and their users were described;
• the training of personnel in problem solving methods, increasing their understanding of efficient planning and follow-up;
• the development of personnel to improve team spirit, sense of cooperation and leadership skills.

Results

The goal of the project was to facilitate the desired volume increase and to reduce manufacturing costs per unit produced by 7-

8%, which on an annual basis would provide an increase in earnings of approximately 7M SEK (€0.8M)

The actual increase in earnings amounted to 12M SEK (€1.3M).

As a result of the clear success of the project, the company asked ManTec to work with more units within the group.

Background

The company is a world leader in load handling solutions for the automotive and other industries, selling their own brand products globally. At the factory under consideration, where approximately 170 manual workers are employed, the market situation was good. In fact market demand was much higher than the company could produce. As a result, order stock was continuously increasing and there was a need to increase production.

Implementation

The factory analysis carried out by ManTec identified a significant improvement potential in productivity. This potential could be realised through:

• improved production planning and manning patterns, to allow streamlining;
• improved material management and better interaction with suppliers;
• the development of man loading systems and personnel flexibility, including salaries and incentive schemes;
• the development of production time measuring and workloads;
• reduced lead time and throughput time, through reorganisation of workflow and better coordination between departments;
• the identification and implementation of Best Demonstrated Practice (BDP), Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) and work instructions;
• the development and implementation of a new management information system (to include tools and Key Performance Indicators), combined with variance reporting;
• the development of organisational and team structure; and
• supervisory management training and the development of leadership skills.

The planned production increase was also dependent on the ability of subcontractors to increase their production and meet agreed delivery dates. Consequently, during the project particular attention was paid to the subcontractor network, to ensure close cooperation and the synchronization of subcontractor production with factory production planning.

Results

A new management system, which included appropriate KPIs, was designed and implemented. A new base for standard production time was established. Cooperation and communication between management, supervisors and personnel was improved. As a result:

• total cost efficiency was improved giving a better margin per produced unit;
• production flow was more even and therefore it became possible to more readily and accurately predict overall production;
• throughput times became shortened; and
• delivery accuracy was significantly improved.

These improvements resulted in improved competitive edge for the company. In particular:

• by the end of the project, production levels reached 75 items per week, representing 85% improved production; and
• yearly results improved by €4.5 million, a project ROI of 680%.

Background

A manufacturing company in the European agricultural sector that has 220 employees and is an amalgamation of four smaller production companies. It had difficulty keeping up with market demand and was still influenced by the culture of the four craftsmanship-based companies.

The CEO therefore contacted Mantec and requested their assistance.

Implementation

Analysis showed that there was a need to transform the company into a modern goal-driven company with a focus on results. There was also a significant potential for economic improvement. The key changes put in place as a result of the joint project carried out by Mantec and the client were:

• implementation of a goal- and action-based management system with focus on action plans and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) at all levels, including daily production targets for the different production cells;
• consolidation of suppliers, and a rethinking of “make or buy” decisions to reduce total procurement costs;
• optimising the total logistics and production flow within the company. This included a large reduction of shortages;
• reduction of lead times;
• implementation of a new planning system based on visual boards in production, which helped to bring about fast daily action;
• identification and implementation of Best Demonstrated Practice (BDP) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP);
• improvement of sales management, so that Key Account Managers could monitor reached sales targets and sales activities by sales staff internationally; and
• instituting a total change of the company’s development procedures, by changing the way projects were conducted and by implementing “Integrated product development”.

Training and coaching of managers and their staff, combined with the implementation of the new Management Control System, meant that management at all levels were better placed to understand what was going on in the business, which in turn meant that objectives now could be achieved.

Results

By the end of the project, the client attained the highest production volume in its history – without increasing numbers of manual workers.. Other headline benefits to the client arising from the change programme have been:

• production flow is much smoother and with fewer errors; and
• development projects are now completed in a few months instead of running for years, and yield better results.

Overall, the company had a large stock reduction, a large productivity increase and a significant cost reduction.