newsletter - Elmo Rietschle
newsletter - Elmo Rietschle
newsletter - Elmo Rietschle
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Interview<br />
What are customers willing<br />
to spend their money on?<br />
Rainer Schiessle, Director of Operations and Managing<br />
Director in Schopfheim since the beginning of the year,<br />
is pursuing a clear aim to eliminate waste.<br />
Things are moving in production – delivery times<br />
are getting shorter again. Why?<br />
There are several reasons. On the one hand we have<br />
concluded the Factory Improvement Program, which<br />
as we know aimed at speeding up and streamlining<br />
the complex system of production logistics, and on the<br />
other hand some areas have already undergone a procedure<br />
to optimize processes under the „lean“ motto.<br />
What does „lean“ actually mean in this context?<br />
The most important aim is to eliminate waste. Here we<br />
must join together with production employees to work<br />
out how we can completely do away with unnecessary<br />
procedures or at least change them fundamentally.<br />
Typical examples here are insufficient streamlining,<br />
uncoordinated production stages and idle times.<br />
How do we achieve this aim?<br />
To do so, everyone must join forces and take a critical<br />
look at procedures. It is absolutely amazing how<br />
quickly employees involved come up with solutions as<br />
soon as they have grasped the basic idea. During the<br />
past few weeks we have actually already made great<br />
progress – among other things, we got together in a<br />
workshop at weekends and analyzed, reviewed and<br />
re-defined processes in a team. And then immediately<br />
put our ideas into practice.<br />
This was also an issue during Barry<br />
Pennypacker‘s visit?<br />
A slight understatement. In actual fact our new boss is<br />
an absolute specialist here and during his tour around<br />
the production areas in Schopfheim, he showed us<br />
exactly how to go about doing some rethinking.<br />
According to statistics from the Internet, only<br />
about 20% of all the companies in Germany apply<br />
the lean principle. Are we in fact outsiders or simply<br />
faster than all the others?<br />
The answer is quite clear: The others will need to follow<br />
suit if they want to keep their costs under control. What<br />
is really important here is that Gardner Denver will not<br />
only optimize production; all the other areas, including<br />
administration, will learn how we eliminate waste.<br />
Many managers will say that there is definitely no<br />
waste in their field; instead there is sooner a lack<br />
of resources.<br />
The term waste needs to be defined more closely<br />
here. The decisive question we all need to ask is:<br />
„Are customers willing to pay for this?“<br />
The first six months have been accomplished.<br />
Conclusion?<br />
I received a warm welcome everywhere I went and<br />
met committed, active teams with which we will be<br />
laying the foundations for success in future. The task<br />
on hand is big - and very interesting.<br />
Thank you for your time.<br />
Rainer Schiessle