Learning factory - Developments on the shop floor

Implementing and designing an efficient manufacturing system is one of the most important tasks for company management; it is also our basis for keeping German manufacturing competitive in the long term and protecting jobs. This is essential given the context of globalization, which requires ongoing flexible adjustments to the manufacturing and management system – in other words all activities across the entire value chain, including suppliers and customers.

Factory managers and employees are currently experiencing this as a growing demand from customers in terms of volume, quality, deliverability and cost, as well as a permanent change in the factory’s organization, processes and products. It can only succeed if the employees on the shop floor are also motivated and qualified to actively contribute their practical ideas, suggestions and everyday experiences, and to learn with and from one another.

What are some of the typical problems that we see?

Our consulting approach

Our experiences with change and qualification processes in the factory show that the path to a competitive manufacturing system does not just involve anchoring individual methods/tools such as lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, Kaizen and TQM, etc.; above all, it also requires the management system’s basic principles and philosophy to be anchored in the company. In addition, people often overlook the fact that a manufacturing system includes the entire value chain and all of the company functions – from purchasing, sales, logistics and R&D and IE to manufacturing, maintenance and personnel, etc.

In other words, we need to develop and solidify a new understanding of the process, and of management, that puts the emphasis (back) on the value-added process and turns the management pyramid upside down.

Managers must see themselves as service providers, with cross-functional responsibility for a smooth value-added process that ultimately leads to satisfied customers.

Some methods and tools to support this process: