Seeing Things Clearly: A Success Story by STAUFEN.AG
Barberini GmbH‘s success story can be summed up briefly: While the company was still reporting substantial losses in 2015, the company has undergone a significant restructuring since 2018, and has been showing a steady profit since its re-alignment. But, let‘s start from the beginning. The German subsidiary of the Italian eyeglasses specialist manufactures lens blanks for sunglasses and other special eyeglasses at its Grünenplan plant, which is between Hanover and Göttingen in Germany. The story, which ends happily, started as a crisis in 2015: The German company was not meeting the expectations of its parent company. The Italian parent Barberini S.p.A. had acquired the manufacturing operating from Schott AG in 2010. It planned to expand its production depth, ensure its own supply and get control of the quality in general.
Barberini GmbH‘s success story can be summed up briefly: While the company was still reporting substantial losses in 2015, the company has undergone a significant restructuring since 2018, and has been showing a steady profit since its re-alignment. But, let‘s start from the beginning. The German subsidiary of the Italian eyeglasses specialist manufactures lens blanks for sunglasses and other special eyeglasses at its Grünenplan plant, which is between Hanover and Göttingen in Germany. The story, which ends happily, started as a crisis in 2015: The German company was not meeting the expectations of its parent company. The Italian parent Barberini S.p.A. had acquired the manufacturing operating from Schott AG in 2010. It planned to expand its production depth, ensure its own supply and get control of the quality in general.
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A view from the outside<br />
reveals problems<br />
The first thing that theStaufen <strong>AG</strong> analysts noticed in 2015 was<br />
that the percentage of material costs compared to overall sales<br />
had dramatically increased and that they were clearly too high<br />
for a company structured in this manner. Production resulted in<br />
a disproportionate amount of rejects, the yield of eyeglass lenses<br />
that were in fact high quality was too low. Off hand, no one was<br />
really able to provide a specific reason why this was happening,<br />
because the production processes were not at all transparent. At<br />
second glance, quite a few inefficient processes were revealed<br />
within the company. Employees were more likely to improvise<br />
that to systematically search for the reasons behind the quality<br />
problems. The result of this was that technical problems such as<br />
machine settings and deviating process parameters remained<br />
hidden. No integrated and structured problem-solving process<br />
had been implemented.<br />
Staufen <strong>AG</strong> quickly found that structured problem solving, consistent<br />
adaptation and implementation of parameters combined<br />
with clear leadership and responsibility structures contributed<br />
significantly to remedying the crisis. Shop Floor Management was<br />
introduced to improve and simplify communication. It played a<br />
major role in understanding changes in production in a transparent<br />
and timely manner and to take appropriate countermeasures<br />
quickly and successfully.<br />
8 <strong>STAUFEN</strong>. | BARBERINI
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