WirtschaftsWoche, a German business trade publisher, have awarded Concept, a consulting firm, with first place in the Manufacturing and Operations category of the Best of Consulting SME 2022 competition for Concept’s digitalisation of the Altendorf Group’s store floor management.
To satisfy the rising demand and increased order volume for edgebanding machines, Altendorf’s Hebrock-brand needed to find a solution to increase output in production. Since extended delivery times were not an option, the machine builder tasked Concept to find a solution to the problem.
Concept therefore developed three scenarios as a basis for decision-making. Implementation started just one month after the assignment. Within the summer break, which lasted only three weeks, production within the existing buildings was converted to line production and the factory halls were equipped so that the machines move continuously from station to station with a uniform cycle time.
Parallel to the establishment of line production, the store floor management was digitalised. Business intelligence (BI) cockpits were used to create transparency for sustainable stabilisation and establish detailed, synchronised assembly planning.
This makes work more efficient, as the previous time-consuming “paperwork” is no longer required. Employees now easily record process data via tablets. This makes the assembly situation transparent so that adjustments can be made quickly if necessary.
The likewise newly established continuous improvement process (CIP) helps to consolidate the standards and optimisations achieved.
Peter Schwenk, CEO of the Altendorf Group, has praised the project: “As a machine builder, we have achieved the goal of increasing production output from the previous 2.8 machines per day to 5 machines in a short space of time, accompanied by a significant increase in the efficiency of existing capacities: a great advantage in times of shortage of skilled workers.
“The hands-on mentality of Concept’s consultants, their good cooperation with our executives and the convincing work they did with those involved in the assembly, contributed significantly to achieving this excellent result within a few months.”
“Best of Consulting” award by WirtschaftsWoche is based on practical successes, as implemented consulting projects are compared with each other. To achieve the highest score, a project must be convincing in four areas: the professional and communicative dimensions, the reality effect, and customer satisfaction.
