Our references

Restructuring

Chemicals (Plastic)
  • Market leading European producer of opaque plastic sheet with sales of around 180 mEUR, > 600 employees and 8 production sites
  • Sales down by more than 30% due to inefficient market presence, different business models with lack of integration
  • 1 year effort managed by our chief restructuring officer
  • Main levers: business team structure with clear responsibilities and rapid decision-making processes, created a margin management tool, optimized formulation costs, reduction of working capital by 9 mEUR, reduction of overall headcount by >20% via headcount programs and process optimisation initiatives in all plants

Capital Expenditures

Pharma
  • Global pharma company based in Germany with 10+ bEUR revenues
  • Investment review of a 100m EUR factory enlargement project in China
  • In 1 month design “pressure test” achieved -18% unit costs for new products
  • Main levers: planned uptime assessment to downsize packaging capacity, relayout of formulation area to reduce new building size, optimal sizing of manpower needs to reduce opex and size of social areas
Automotive
  • Commercial vehicles business of European car maker
  • Investment review of a 450m EUR new factory project
  • 70m EUR Capex reduction achieved in 2 months design review
  • Main levers: line balancing of main welding line in body shop to reduce waiting time and robot capacity, line balancing of assembly lines, elimination of automation in case of too long payback, optimal sizing of indirect functions to reduce opex and size of office building
Glass packaging
  • Global glass packaging company with 4+m EUR revenues
  • Constant furnace refurbishing project pipeline @ 30m EUR each
  • In 4 months design reviews achieved 30% Capex reduction on 4 refurbishing projects and created the first company experts team in capex optimization
  • Main levers: standardization of furnace design, low cost country sourcing of refractories, simplification of bottle-shaping machines requirements based on expected production mix and optimal mix distribution among factories
Industrial goods
  • Global industrial goods conglomerate planning a strategic investment for wind turbines components worth ~80m EUR, suddenly exploded to 300m EUR
  • Investment review to save project and turn around its business case
  • 2 months “pressure test” with 25% Capex reduction and modular investment design to allow the start with only 30% of initial investment
  • Main levers: profitability analysis of demand mix to eliminate low-profit/high-capex products, low cost country sourcing, reduction of size and simplification of building characteristics, line balancing

Operational Excellence

Industrial goods
  • Global manufacturer in the project business for power plant and ship engines, experienced with lean production system decides to start an Operational Excellence Program in all its business units worldwide
  • First pilot to reduce manufacturing lead time gives exceptional 40% reduction and creates excitement in all organization
  • Pilot implementation in 2 sites for 2 waves and a total of 6 months, leads average 15% productivity improvement and creates OE capabilities for first 10 change agents and line management
  • Main levers: takt production system, lean performance management, workplace optimization, root cause problem solving, project readiness and materials reviews
Home furniture
  • European furniture manufacturer based in Scandinavia with basic lean competence faces need to increase labor productivity and establish continuous improvement culture in its main factory
  • During 9 months, sequence of pilots in different areas of the factory with average productivity improvement by 18% while creating lean capabilities with technical and soft skills trainings for 5 change agents
  • Main levers: performance management system, relayout of customized product department with highly flexible production flow, OEE improvement for bottleneck machines
Car rentals
  • US-based car rental company decides to substantially improve customer experience during the rental process while not increasing personnel cost
  • 3 months project divided in 2 steps: lean assessment and optimization to free-up resources, redesign of customer-facing processes and implementation of lighthouses of excellence to extend to other facilities. Profit increase in pilot site by 30%.
  • Main levers: improved desk layout, performance management, service courtesy playbooks, car kanban system to select always the best car matching customer expectations, clearer signage and quick procedures at instant return

Digital Operations

Home appliances
  • European home appliances company present with different brands in Europe and Asia is building a new factory in Eastern Europe
  • The new factory should be its lighthouse production facility regarding productivity, customer orientation and innovation
  • During a 2-months project the client expects to receive the best factory design with layout, material flows, organizational structure and digital capabilities. Final design leads to productivity improvement vs. similar factory by 15%, Capex reduction vs. initial estimate by 10%, definition of 14 digital innovations and 5 pilots
  • Main levers for digital manufacturing: augmented reality assistance to maintenance, real-time assembly line productivity assessment and immediate bottleneck tracking, real-time performance management system, robots and cobots solution to increase automation in pre-assembly line from 35% to 65%
Multi-business conglomerate
  • Turkish conglomerate with business ranging from food, oil&gas to banking decides to start its digital transformation
  • First step is to conduct an assessment of digital capabilities in all its businesses, followed by the design of the new digital organization
  • The assessment discovers a heterogeneous landscape of capabilities and therefore claims for a tailored approach. A total of 229 initiatives have been identified, thereof 45 prioritized.
  • The new organization is designed with focus on all sufficient and necessary elements that an holding can provide to its companies to guide and support digital transformation without interfering into the business.
  • Main elements are: digital innovation councils, definition of roadmaps and targets, best practice sharing, participation to international research studies, creation of company test beds
Durable goods
  • Swedish company manufacturing durable goods is looking for the next s-curve in production costs reduction and goes for a substantial increase in automation level for the assembly process
  • During 1,5 months opportunity assessment, we have performed 10 site visits and analyzed ca. 600 workplaces, conducted 10 management workshops to prioritize automation solutions. Feasibility and pay-back criteria were used to define a short-list with ca. 50 solutions for detailed design.

Business Development

Industrial goods
  • European industrial goods multinational with strong presence in the oil&gas equipment industry is facing a strong reduction in the order book for the following years and decides to redesign the manufacturing footprint to increase cost competitiveness and customer service
  • Very heterogeneous and complex organization with very different businesses, geographies and historical legacy. This complexity reflects in the number of stakeholders and conflicting interests to align into one common design and way forward.
  • During a 3-months project, we first perform market analysis for each product line to create a solid volumes forecast, we visit 9 factories to understand capacity utilization and cost competitiveness, we assess core competences of each facility.
  • Recommendations are distilled into one optimal greenfield and several brownfield scenarios and are discussed in 12 management workshops, where a final “most-feasible” scenario is selected able to deliver 100+ mEUR of production costs reduction