DIRECTOR OPERATIONS (EXPERT FOR PROCESS DEVELOPMENT, SOURCING, OPTIMIZATION AND RELOCATION OF PRODUCTION / PLANTS

Relocation of an entire production site from Germany to the Czech Republic, including successful technical realization until handover and production start-up on site.

• Planning and implementation of the site closure in Germany including socially responsible staff reductions.
• Consideration of the different operating procedures DE/CZ (Operational Setup).
• Integration/customization of different ERP and PDM systems.
• Ensuring product quality, delivery reliability and know-how transfer.
• Relocation of 4 products (1 new start-up) including the associated spare parts.
• Relocation of spare parts for non-transferred products (2,800 items).
• Optimization of material availability and delivery dates.
• Project result: budget -7%, payback (amortization) -13%, scrapping DE -28%.
• Project now serves as a benchmark for future relocations at ASSA ABLOY.

Strategic Footprint project: Relocation of production from Vietnam to Hungary. Relocation of Aluminium profile production to Hungary plant, inhouse production for all EU plants.

• Requirements for disassembly and assembly equipment, defining and order transportation topics.
• Disassembly Equipment, Transport of 42 container (40 feet) to Hungary.
• Prepare infrastructue (gas, electricity, building, etc.) and assembly equipment in Hungary.
• Qualification of worker and validation of 128 new extrusion toolings.
• Consider local reqirements / laws (e.g. CE conformity).
• Technical release of total equipment, handover to series production.
• Details of equipment: total length 140 m, output 10.000 to p.a., total investment 18 Mio. EUR, saving 3,6 Mio. EUR p.a.

Strategic process development: Increase automatization level due to implementation of robots and cobots.

• Replace of manual process with full automated robot solutions (11 customized equipments, cost reduction 1,8 Mio. EUR p.a., increasing quality 20-25%).
• Develop of pilot applications for handling and packaging with robots, weldind and riveting with cobots.
• Rollout of pilot applications in further 3 plants (EMEA) as a standard application (lesson learned).

Sourcing global production equipment: develop a strategic production concept, define production processes for assemblies and prepare orders.

• Translate customer specifications into production processes.
• Estimate tooling, equipment investments, manufacturing costs and technology.
• Define strategic concepts for production equipment and sourcing strategies.
• Source custom equipment from requirements through supplier recommendation.
• Align the strategy with global production plants.

Sourcing global production equipment: define strategic production processes and lines, source custom equipment.

• Translate customer specs into production processes.
• Estimate tooling, equipment investments and manufacturing costs for assemblies and technology.
• Define strategic concepts for production equipment and sourcing.
• Source custom equipment from requirements through installation and plant release.
• Set up custom equipment, optimize production processes and oversee pre-series production.

Make or Buy: Remove the capacity bottleneck in the parts cleaning process.

• Define process requirements for different products.
• Describe the technical requirements of the product.
• Increase capacity through process optimization.
• Define make-or-buy decisions, considering investment, logistics concept, inventory, and manufacturing costs.
• Recommend and implement the make-or-buy strategy.
• Optimize production, lot size, and inventory; source additional equipment; and outsource extra production capacity.

Manufacturing/production layout planning for a flexible and scalable greenfield production system.

• Define general conditions and project targets with the Institute for Factory Planning in Hannover (IFA).
• Describe the current plant situation, identify potential through simulation, and define improvement steps.
• Outline targets and influencing factors for the simulation model and evaluate results.
• Determine production requirements and assess technical specifications.

Industrialization of the AGR production line and increase automation level.

• Source customized equipment.
• Monitor the project and manage supplier and final approvals of equipment.
• Increase production capacity and automation level (manufacturing cost reduction, cycle time from 40 to 6 minutes, two-year advantage over competitors).

Relocation of the childseat production from Germany to Malaysia.

• Documentation of the production documents.
• Description of the process input and process limits.
• Training and qualification of Malaysia employees in Germany.
• Restart the production equipment in Malaysia and considering cost and timing targets.
• Training of the employees in Malaysia and release of production.
• Payback <1 year, reduction manufacturing costs - 30 %.