Production
Production systems
Production systems: the heart of a company
Your production and value-adding processes form the core of your company. It is therefore important that your production system fits your company perfectly and that your plant structure is efficient and flexible. Value-adding production can only be developed from a holistic view of the company structure and the relevant customer and product requirements. How is production organized at a higher level? How have capacities been strategically planned? And which processes have already been optimized?
We structure the various aspects of your production system according to this principle and based on these circumstances. In this way, we optimize your planning and control systems, improve your personnel deployment planning and efficiently integrate your quality management.
Production organization
How to optimize the structure of your production
Nowadays, customers not only expect a wide range of variants, but also flexible offers. At the same time, companies need to produce as efficiently as possible in order to remain competitive in the long term. But how can you optimize your production?
We work with you to analyze your entire product portfolio. From this, we derive how your products and assemblies can be structured in the best possible way. We then integrate the results into your company structure, for example by making make-or-buy decisions.
In a further step, we also determine a suitable production structure based on the developed assemblies. This ensures that your production is extremely flexible and that the key parameters in the manufacture of your products are not neglected at the same time. We have supported a wide range of projects in the field of production organization in various industries. We therefore have the in-depth experience to provide you with optimum support.
Service packages
- Analyze relevant product characteristics and define product groups
- Determine optimum assembly structure
- Select, develop and evaluate manufacturing concepts based on the assemblies
- Developing a holistic production concept
Your benefit:
- Targeted alignment of your production to the essential needs of your products
- Objective evaluation of existing and optimal design of new production systems
- Meeting the diverse needs of your customers through responsiveness
Philipp Kappus
Production Manager
Talk to us!
Would you like to optimize your production system to meet customer needs and product requirements? Please contact me and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
Strategic capacity planning
The best possible planning of your capacities
The theoretically planned capacity often differs significantly from the actual quantity of units produced. It is a very complex task to plan capacities in detail and as precisely as possible. However, this is essential in order to correctly dimension warehouses as well as production and assembly areas, to meet the quantities demanded and at the same time to be able to utilize machines and systems in the best possible way.
With our experience from numerous projects in this field, we support you in mastering this challenge. To do this, we first analyze the current situation based on the existing production capacities and the required quantities. We then dimension storage and production areas. In doing so, we take all technological restrictions into account to ensure the smooth interaction of your machines and systems.
Service packages
- Record quantities for relevant product variants
- Calculate production capacities on the basis of production steps and times
- Determine available capacity of machines and systems based on technological restrictions
- Coordinating the capacities of machines and systems
- Dimension the necessary storage spaces in finished goods and buffer warehouses as well as production areas
Your benefit:
- Harmonious interaction of production technologies without congestion or ripple effects
- An overview of due investments in machinery and equipment at all times
- Awareness of impending capacity overruns
- Basis for factory or manufacturing footprint planning
- Examination of scenarios for necessary expansions depending on growth
Order management and material provision
Align your production to the needs of your customers
Every manufacturing company wants to be able to fulfill its customers’ orders on time. However, this is often made more difficult by restrictions and requirements arising from production. It is therefore often a major challenge to align production processes with customer ordering behavior.
We approach this challenge with a clear, systematic approach in order to gradually and optimally align your production with the needs of your customers. To do this, we examine exactly what framework conditions your internal processes are subject to and what your external requirements are. Based on this information, we define a production strategy from which a production concept can be derived, which we develop together with your experts.
The concept is created with a clear focus on the KPIs that are important to you, such as throughput and cycle times or batch sizes; depending on the product group, different order types (make-to-order, engineer-to-order, make-to-stock, etc.) can be defined for production – depending on requirements. We also use our in-depth experience in the area of work preparation to support you in controlling your production process in the best possible way to ensure an efficient workflow. The ultimate goal is to ensure that all processes in production are coordinated with each other and interlock with the greatest possible efficiency.
Service packages
- Analyze customer ordering behavior
- Define order types for production per product group
- Determine target throughput times
- Determine optimum batch sizes
- Optimize individual production steps
- Derive process-related requirements for material provision
- Dimension buffers and stocks
Your benefit:
- Alignment of your processes with strategic goals
- Interlocking production and customer needs
- Reducing inventory and avoiding waste through overproduction or unnecessary work steps
- Maximize production efficiency through coordinated processes
Personnel deployment planning
Make your staff a success factor
Demographic change and global competition for talent are increasingly causing a shortage of personnel in the industry. It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies to recruit qualified specialists for open positions. However, as wage costs continue to rise at the same time, it is becoming all the more important to make optimum use of existing capacities.
We take a holistic view of your production system – and that expressly means that we also support you in proactively counteracting the shortage of skilled workers and optimizing your personnel deployment planning. We want you to make the best possible use of your employees – this also ensures greater satisfaction, especially among specialist staff.
In order to achieve this goal, we examine the requirements and framework conditions of your current personnel situation in detail. Based on this, we work with you to develop a suitable catalog of measures to deploy your specialist staff in a targeted manner and attract new talent.
Service packages
- Determine personnel requirements – depending on available specialist personnel and degree of automation
- Analyze and evaluate different shift models
- Develop measures to increase the attractiveness of jobs
Your benefit:
- Efficient use of your existing staff in production
- Technically and economically optimized degree of automation
- Increasing the attractiveness of the workplace and employee satisfaction
Production planning and control systems
Always one step ahead of your customers’ ordering behavior
There can always be short-term, even sharp fluctuations in your customers’ ordering behavior for a variety of reasons. To prevent this volatility from having a negative impact on your company, it is important to be able to anticipate changes with reliable forecasts.
At the same time, however, it is of course important to be able to offer a consistently excellent service and to offer and ensure on-time deliveries. Only with fast and effective processes for production planning and control can they achieve such a high level of responsiveness.
We support you in setting up these processes, defining coordinated planning rhythms and clear responsibilities. Optimized order intervals are then also part of the best possible coordinated control logic. In order to anchor these processes permanently, we can also advise you on finding and implementing a suitable software solution.
Service packages
- Analyze customer and sales requirements
- Develop a procedure for production planning and coordinate it between sales and production
- Determine capacities and derive optimum utilization in production
- Evaluate, select and implement a suitable product planning system
Your benefit:
- Identification of bottlenecks
- Optimized processes to avoid bottlenecks
- Planning reliability in production
- Avoidance of waste through optimal utilization of production capacity
- Improved orientation of production to the needs of customers
Quality management
High product quality for first-class customer satisfaction
Our society and the markets are undergoing an ongoing process of change. This also means that customers often have justified and higher demands on products and services than in the past; the resulting quality requirements pose major challenges for many companies.
If you want to proactively meet these demands with your company, a focused strategy for quality management is a great help. We recommend Total Quality Management (TQM), a holistic method that focuses on quality.
To implement TQM, we work with your employees to define a quality strategy that is aligned with your corporate objectives. It is anchored in your production system by identifying the central points of your quality control (incoming goods, intermediate inspections, final inspections, etc.) that are optimal for the individual processes. In this way, we enable quality assurance that is as effective as it is efficient. The optimized quality of your products makes it possible to satisfy your customers in the long term and permanently – with positive effects for your business success.
Service packages
- Derive quality objectives from the corporate strategy
- Defining a uniform image of quality within the company
- Develop and optimize quality assurance processes
- Integrate key quality control points into existing production processes in the best possible way
Your benefit:
- Creating a common understanding of quality within the company
- Creating an awareness of quality among the workforce
- Quality assurance optimally embedded in production
- Avoidance of waste through early defect detection
- Increase in customer satisfaction
What are production systems?
A production system is a network of structured strategies, principles and methods for manufacturing products. It largely determines how a company produces.
A production system makes it possible to both standardize and document production processes. This makes working methods more efficient and increases the success of a company. A well thought-out production system must always be tailored to the specific needs of a company in the best possible way.
Why do production systems exist?
Production systems are a central component of every manufacturing company. They enable production to be structured optimally, capacities to be planned precisely and customer requirements to be met. Fluctuations in ordering behavior can be counteracted with the help of efficient planning and control processes.
At the same time, a holistic view of the production system includes the best possible deployment of personnel. And finally, it is essential to optimally integrate efficient quality assurance into production in order to ensure its long-term success.
What best practice examples exist for production systems?
Methods that have proven themselves in practice can help to successfully optimize production systems. One of the best-known concepts for this was developed by Toyota, but is not only suitable for the automotive industry.
The Toyota Production System (TPS) aims to minimize the waste of resources during the manufacturing process. Therefore, only what the customers need is produced according to the pull principle. This means that everything is produced just-in-time. The focus is on punctual deliveries and high product quality.
