Real-life cases and my solutions

Initial situation and mission:

• Equipment manufacturer integrates daughter company into mother company
• After integration, customers turning away, employees leaving company, loss of know-how
• Mission: to rebuild business by internal restructuring and winning back customers

Actions and initiatives:

• Hiring and introduction of new personnel, structural work on roles, responsibilities, and processes
• Visits to customers around the world, work on customer relations to win back their confidence
• Focusing on high margin products, also optimizing the crucial triangle of cost-time-quality

Accomplishments and results:

• Re-building of business structure with clear orientation and focus on revenue and profit
• Winning back key account customers in the USA and Europe, expansion of customer base in Asia
• Successful business turn-around with significant positive EBITDA starting in second year

Restructuring

and

Business

Turn-around

Initial situation and mission:

• Newly released software for production control not working properly, processes and data basis inconsistent
• Necessity to align and optimize data flow, machine-internal software, and human work processes
• Mission: change-over from analog to digital work-flows without interruption of ongoing production

Actions and initiatives:

• Lead cross-functional team to analyze existing work processes and manage the transition phase
• Define software specifications together with IT, define appropriate test sequences
• Introduce timeline for project, conduct regular team meetings to review compliance with schedule

Accomplishments and results:

• Introduction of the new process control software into production without losing any production time
• Cost reduction in production by increased yield through reduction of scrap and rework
• Implementation of business processes for further technical and software related change management

Digitalization

and

Conversion

Towards

Integrated

Factory

Initial situation and mission:

• Several months before planned close-down and relocation of site, production manager quits job
• Production workers without leadership, unplanned production stop much prior to ramp-down plan
• Mission: ensure production and adherence to delivery schedule, assure site relocation schedule

Actions and initiatives:

• Optimize shift schedule, assure work processes and quality control to fulfil plan
• Work closely with employees, HR, and temporary employment agencies, plan ramp-down scenario
• Production wind-down and closure of site, industrial relocation, assure ramp-up at new site

Accomplishments and results:

• Stabilization of production at old site, including increase of output by factor of ten
• Holding of key experts until very last day, early integration of 30 new employees at old site
• Ramp-down on plan, relocation, set-up and production start at new site, overall downtime < 2 weeks

Interim

Plant

Management

with

close-down

of Site

and

Relocation

Initial situation and mission:

• Internationally active company with production sites in Asia, Europe, and the USA
• Similar products are manufactured at different sites differently, resulting in diverging cost structure
• Mission: definition of a product portfolio and introduction of clear and consistent work flows

Actions and initiatives:

• Visits to all production sites, analysis of technical and personnel preconditions at the sites
• Clearing up the data base of all product relevant data, assuring appropriate tracking and follow-up
• Work with employees worldwide to align work flows as well as choice and usage of materials

Accomplishments and results:

• Standardization of the product portfolio by introduction of company wide production guidelines
• Cost transparency for all production sites, implementation of cost-down roadmaps
• Introduction of cross-site procedures for know-how transfer and best-practice sharing

International

Product

Management

Initial situation and mission:

• An old-established family enterprise loses its family head, founder and CEO
• Successors are familiar with technical details, but lack knowledge of business and company management
• Mission: take over CEO position temporarily, combine with training and coaching for successors

Actions and initiatives:

• Conduct joint inventory of present business situation and review of factual framework conditions
• Discuss today’s requirements for business management, compare to the needs in the sixties
• Lead up to realization of over-aged company with outdated market appearance

Accomplishments and results:

• New structuring of focus points of work, definition of roles and responsibilities of all parties involved
• Practicable restructuring of company, definition of required positions and filling them from outside
• Successful change-over to new generation of owner-CEO, realization of chance for adapting to market

Coaching

of

designated

CEO