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FOTO: ROBERT BREMBECK FÜR WIRTSCHAFTSWOCHE, SÉBASTIEN SINDEU / IPTC
TECHNOLOGY CONTEST – “THE BEST PRODUCTION PLANT”
The professors at Insead and WHU see
things the same way. “That you can no
longer produce in Germany is a myth,” says
Huchzermeier. The crucial factor is the
management. “It must understand how to
make something out of particular skills
like state-of-the-art engineering and a
good level of education”. The simple jobs
will certainly wander away, “but whenever
they succeed in coupling high-quality,
differentiated products with first-class,
customer-specific service and short
delivery times, these plants are practically
unbeatable”, adds Insead production expert
Christoph Loch.
A study by the TCW Transfer Center for
Production Logistics and Technology
Management run by Munich University
professor Horst Wildemann confirms that
assessment. While companies relocating
reduce their costs more strongly than companies
optimising their production in
Germany can achieve, they also have to
accept significant drawbacks. For example,
their products spend more time on their
way to the customer and they lose flexi-
SRI RADIO SYSTEMS
Operational strategy
Product development (not present)
Supply chain management
Organisation and personnel
Service and partner management
Continuous improvement
*Schweinfurt plant
Deficient
Adequate
Satisfactory
Good
Excellent
bility and quality (see chart, page 88).
“Anyone approaching it intelligently can
also create competitive value chains here”,
says Wildemann, summing up. Like the
winning plants:
■ They pursue a clear strategy, constantly
set themselves new goals and check their
attainment.
■ They don’t chase after market developments,
but develop top-class products
faster than the competition.
■ They collaborate very closely with their
suppliers and customers. The objective is
a perfectly synchronised production chain,
in which customer orders set the
machinery in motion and control it.
■ They adjust their production to the
demand smoothly and without added cost
using flexible working time models.
■ They manufacture individual products
instead of mass commodities. Despite the
number of variants, they don’t lose control
of costs. The trick is highly flexible systems
and a versatile workforce.
THE KEY SUCCESS FACTOR, however, is
the employees. “If you let their creativity
go to waste, you’ve already lost”, says Loch.
“In the top plants the managers set the targets,
but leave realisation to the workforce”,
adds Huchzermeier. They control the processes,
check quality and maintain contact
with suppliers and customers.
If you take those principles to heart, you
don’t need to worry about the competition.
That was confirmed by
an empirical evaluation of
the contest by Insead
and WHU, which
shows that the winning
plants grow much
faster than the average
in their industry - by up
to 30 percent.
2.PLATZ
From September there’s
another opportunity to test
one’s own punch. That’s
when the next round of the
contest for “The Best
Production Plant” starts.
From then on, potential candidates
can print out the
questionnaire at www.bestefabrik.de.
Insead professor
Loch hopes for lively participation.
“Most production
plants are now lean. What is
still missing is sufficient
innovation. That needs to be
the next wave of attack”, he
demands.
DIETER DÜRAND
RESCUERS WIST (left), KAMPMANN
Tuned plant for maximum performance
WINNING TEAM
SURROUNDING
ADJIMAN
(CENTRE)
Set clear goals
FRANCE
DEFINING DIMENSION
WWhere his plant’s strengths lie?
Marc Adjiman, director of the
Valeo plant in Nogent-le-Rotrou
in south-eastern Normandy doesn’t need
to think for long: “We’re a young, dynamic
team which is open to change.” The
boss of 850 employees, who on average
are younger than 40, wants to apply the
“latest production methods” and be the
defining dimension in the group around
the French automotive equipper Valeo
( 9.4 billion revenues). The plant produces
heating and air-conditioning systems
for cars. Customers include Renault, PSA,
Rover and Toyota, among others.
AT 37 YEARS OF AGE, ADJIMAN sets his team
clear goals: productivity should increase
every year by up to ten percent. One third
of the improvements are achieved
through engineering projects. Teams
brainstorm about how a system can be
redesigned in such a way that it can be
assembled in five instead of eight minutes.
Every employee is involved in the
thought process. “That employees’ ideas
are accounted for in changes is praiseworthy,”
says Stephen Chick, professor at
the business school Insead in
Fontainebleau. The Insead jury selected
the Valeo plant as France’s best production
plant in 2005. Especially worth
mentioning, according to the experts, was
the collaboration with customers. Beside
fast and reliable delivery, part of the
strategy is to follow the carmakers to the
low-wage countries. When major customer
Renault called on the Normandy
managers to supply the Renault subsidiary
Dacia in Romania, Valeo built an
offshoot in Mioveni. “We work there at
the same performance level as here,” says
Adjiman, who also runs the plant in
Mioveni. The engineer wants to keep as
many jobs as possible in France: “We have
to compensate for our high labour costs
by better performance.”
ANNETTE RUESS
NR.15I 7.4.2005 I WIRTSCHAFTSWOCHE
91