Background

The company, part of a multinational group, employs approximately 10,000 people and has a turnover of €3 billion. An initial analysis carried out by ManTec in one of three business areas indicated that significant savings were possible in purchasing because:

• long-term contracts and relationships with very low activity and unclear ownership led to price increases over time;
• the company had not exercised its purchasing power and instead used many suppliers of the same product or service, often at high prices;
• the company carried out no overview or scrutiny of the providers with which it had agreements, and this led to there being a large number of suppliers on the books;
• unclear roles and responsibilities meant that nobody was responsible for monitoring crucial factors such as price developments, how purchases were distributed, utility costs, supplier performance; and
• more focus was placed on getting the job done than on getting a good price.

Implementation

The project, conducted jointly by ManTec and the client, took place over eight months and comprised three main steps.

Firstly, a systematic review of all purchases was carried out to determine the pattern of purchases (spend analysis) and other data such as volumes, prices, and detail of current contracts.

Secondly, based on the analysis of spend, purchasing teams conducted in-depth analyses and drew up specific action plans relating to savings in both strategic purchases (creating value) and operational purchases (realised value).

Thirdly, contracts were renegotiated and implemented to finally realise procurement savings.

Results

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

• greatly reduced prices;
• long-term contracts with preferred suppliers and transparent estimates;
• clear sourcing strategies; and
• fewer suppliers for larger volumes.

Overall, the project exceeded its objectives and resulted in an ROI of 500%.

Background

Despite a dedicated workforce, overall profitability results were disappointing, mainly because of. significantly increased costs in general, combined with increasing competition.

The company decided to analyse and evaluate its overall organisational structure and operational processes, and engaged ManTec to help.

Analysis

In close cooperation with management at all levels, ManTec conducted a thorough analysis which indicated significant improvement potential in all departments. By involving the lower level managers an atmosphere of “let’s do something about it” spread, a positive attitude that was important for the implementation phase.

Implementation

The implementation phase of the project comprised six key areas:

Land Organisation – Redesign of organisational setup to focus more on profit and loss.

Commercial Ship Organisation – Upgrade of commercial focus from Route Hotel Manager to Commercial Head who is always on board. Reduction of management levels.

Route Closure – Analysis of current route footprint, resulting in the proposed closure of one route. Part of the project involved supporting the process to the pull-out date.

Pax Planning modules – Revitalisation of the forecast process and implementation of a “Day of Departure” tool which used data such as passenger numbers, passenger mix, and spending patterns.

Procurement – Analysis of spending to support the finding of future suppliers. Consolidation of catering suppliers. Reduction of on-board waste.

Management System – Implementation of a new operational management control system, both on ships and ashore. This improved the consistency of HQ management of routes and ships.

Results

In total, successful implementation of the project led to savings of over EUR 17 million:

• land and commercial ship re-organisation: EUR 3.5 million
• route closure: EUR 5.4 million
• from fixed to variable manning cost: EUR 5.6 million
• optimisation of procurement: EUR 1 million
• cross-organisational continuous improvements: EUR 2.1 million

Background

The company is an independent public company that carries more than 195 million train passengers every year. The Group has an annual turnover of approximately DKK 10 billion (€1.3 billion) and employs a staff of about 9,300.

The Technique and Maintenance (T&M) department has in recent years significantly improved, but increasing budget constraints make it necessary to move forward still further. The same constraints put pressure on the organisation to bring additional tasks in-house.

Years ago, the client started a LEAN process that brought many positive improvements. Now T&M wanted to boost this process, and Board decided to engage ManTec to manage and control the project.

Implementation

The client organisation was thoroughly analysed and potential improvement areas were found, including use of management systems, planning, and organisational structuring. The analysis also provided an overview of activities, staffing and non value-adding periods.

The client wanted to eliminate the long-standing culture where there was little or no logic concerning the distribution of tasks, and instead focus on customer needs and then organise its activities based on those needs. This required leadership behaviour to change, and first line managers needed to change from being very administrative to being operationally effective.

Each change was carried out with a high degree of employee involvement, which helped to give the entire organisation ownership of the implemented changes. In addition, employees were trained in Best Demonstrated Practices and 5S (an established Japanese manufacturing philosophy that focuses on effective work place organisation and standardised work procedures).

Results

The key results of following through the change programme were:

• several depots were closed as a number of simple tasks were consolidated;
• the organisation became more transparent, with better internal communication, and known target figures;
• the management team became more proactive, and began to develop and optimise their own areas;
• efficiency increased by about 40%; and
• customer experience and service quality improved by 5%.

Overall, the project ROI was 280%.

Background

The freight market was turbulent, with falling freight rates and a poor outlook. Based on a successful project in a different segment of the company, the company decided to engage ManTec to conduct an analysis of ship operations, estimate improvement potential and come up with a project action plan for implementation of the improvements.

Analysis

The analysis indicated significant improvement potential in all departments, both on-shore and off-shore. Based on these findings, the company decided to continue into the implementation phase.

Implementation

The implementation phase of the project comprised six key areas:

Manning on board – Reduction of manning to safe manning levels on all ships.

Maintenance – Institution of a planning and productivity culture. Implementation of a new maintenance system.

Bunker optimisation – Undertaking more than 60 actions to change on-board behaviour.

Turnaround time – Creation of a KPI to measure and improve loading efficiency.

Supply Chain management – Creation of a through supply chain system to include demand planning and process automation.

Management system – Design and implementation of a new governance system across all 28 ships and land terminals. This included the creation of five KPIs to be recorded and measured on a daily basis.

The project also supported the selection and implementation of a new preventive maintenance system, a complete new ship portal system connecting ships to shore, and a new supply chain system.

Results

In total, successful implementation of the project led to savings of over EUR 14 million

• manning reductions: EUR 1.6 million
• maintenance improvements: EUR 3.2 million
• improvements in supply chain management: EUR 4.6 million
• bunker and turnaround optimisation: EUR 5.1 million

Another important but less quantifiable benefit of the project has been that on-board staff now feel much more a part of the overall business, because of better communications and relationships with land-based colleagues.