Background

The company works mainly in the graphical sector with both domestic and international customers, and faces very high demand on delivery precision and quality. A shrinking market for volume products with high margins had put pressure on the company to focus on cost savings and achieve a higher operational efficiency, and it turned to Mantec for assistance.

Mantec performed a pre-study and identified three potential improvement areas.

Management system — the existing system was made up of a large, diverse set of follow-up and ad-hoc reports, which were infrequently followed up and lacked methods for deviation handling.

Planning — there was no planning function. A main plan had never been prepared, capacity planning had not been carried out with accurate data, and no detailed planning tools were in place to help rectify these deficiencies.

Productivity/machine utilization — there were various ways in which productivity could potentially be increased – for example by increasing staff utilization, or by working with shorter set-up times.

Implementation

To tackle the problems identified during the pre-project stage, Mantec and the client formed a project with three focus areas: management system, planning process and machine utilization. An active participation from different levels in the organisation was important to anchor decided solutions and routines, which arose from work carried out in sub-project groups with clear goals and time plans.

Management system

A number of elements were put in place to enhance the existing management system:

• · leadership training sessions were conducted to give leaders at different levels common values;
• · roles and responsibilities were clarified as a result of analysing organisation structure;
• · new KPIs were defined and reports and tools based on existing systems were developed;
• · a new planning structure (see planning process) and a new meeting structure were worked through and implemented; and
• · an action handling system for internal complaints was developed and implemented to provide better control and improve follow-up.

Planning process

A brand new planning process was developed:

• a new planning function was created. Roles and responsibilities in relation to order, pre-press and production were clarified;
• a rolling twelve-month demand forecast was developed;
• a master plan with manning and routines for capacity planning was implemented; and
• detail planning with simple change tools was introduced to create current run plans.

Machine utilization

A number of changes were made to increase flexibility and machine utilization:

• a new operational structure was developed;
• new methods and routines for larger changeovers, and clarified rules for starting, stopping and breaks were developed;
• new tools for continuous follow-up and deep analysis were introduced; and
• new tools were developed for each machine which gave operators the opportunity to directly follow up production waste in terms of time and scrap. This also had the effect of increasing commitment among the operators.

Results

The main benefits to the client of following through on the indicated change process have been:

• the creation of a more efficient and flexible organisation and a brand new planning process;
• the development of a clearer management structure with incorporated, flexible follow-up tools; and
• the introduction of a fixed meeting structure.

Background

The company is the leading general equipment rental company in the Nordic countries and in Central and Eastern Europe. A major part of its customer base is within the construction sector, but it also includes installation companies, industrial plants, shipyards, and national and local authorities. The company had experienced a rapid growth in turnover, and consequently increased employee numbers – but it did so without developing processes, procedures, management control systems, or key performance indicators (KPIs). There are approximately 300 employees in the business unit considered.

Implementation

During an initial analysis, ManTec evaluated business practices, carried out statistical and operational studies, and discovered that potentially significant improvements could be reached through:

• reorganising parts of the organisation, with focus on roles and responsibilities;
• reducing lead times and throughput times by improving coordination between departments;
• developing and implementing a management control system, to include KPIs and meetings structure;
• implementing Best Demonstrated Practice (BDP) and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) in the workshops;
• improving workflow planning and inventory procedures in the workshops;
• improving sales focus, through clarifying roles and responsibilities, and improving the pricing structure and tools for follow–up;
• designing team structure and supervisory management training; and
• centralising the coordination of equipment between their different geographical regions, to increase utilisation of specialised equipment.

Results

Successful implementation of the project means that the client is now able to:

• achieve more with fewer employees, as a result of a better workflow planning, procedures, and clearly defined roles and responsibilities in the workshops;
• be clear about which decisions to take, as a result of implementing the new management control system, KPIs and follow-up meetings, all of which helped management to develop a common view upon the business; and
• build on a foundation for a planned future ISO certification, as a result of properly documenting the business processes.

By the end of the project the client was fit for the future, with an improved culture and a more structured approach to business. Overall, savings equated to €1.3 million.

Background

The company is a geographically diversified group, being the market leader in eight countries in central and northern Europe, where they have

700,000 customers and 4,000 employees.

In spite of good financial results during recent years, the group-management saw potential for improving both the productivity and the quality of work in their “back office” operations, specifically in the operational core processes – customer service, order entry, service production and database management.

The overall objective of the project was to create a better and more cost effective platform for the future development and competitiveness of the group. The company also wanted to develop an internal “efficiency expert group” to support their future internal productivity and quality-related development work.

Implementation

The process started with a pre-study conducted by Mantec. The potential for productivity improvements was identified and an implementation plan was developed in close cooperation with management. Operational and financial goals for the implementation programme – equal to a productivity improvement of 20% –were defined.

The implementation processes started simultaneously in all countries and local processes were supported by a Pan European benchmarking programme, which allowed comparison of performance between the back offices, and helped to identify and share best practices. Key measures implemented during the project were:

• a common company-wide management control system was defined and implemented. This included the tools and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for first line managers to effectively monitor their back office resources; 
• a common set of back office KPIs was defined and implemented — making all parts of the organisation able to benchmark performance and identify best practices; 
• transparency of the back office activities was significantly increased, enabling effective and valuable cross organisational cooperation and knowledge sharing; 
• a systematic process to review customer credits was implemented; and
• the first steps were taken towards establishing an internal productivity group (Efficiency Experts).

During the implementation process, Mantec were able to work closely with company management and personnel to establish a common platform for back offices managers and a “mindset” for continuous operational improvement.

Results

At the end of the ten month implementation process, the operational improvements were evident. The major results of the project were:

• productivity improvement of 20% in the back office areas; 
• improvements/savings amounting to €4M which equate to a ROI of 400%; and 
• a real behavioural change in the approach of managers to productivity and quality relating to back office issues