Interim Manager / Project Manager

• Production**

• Temporary plant and production management

• Optimizations of production planning

• Planning, organizing and implementing process optimizations at existing sites

• Planning, organizing and implementing new production sites or production lines

• Introduction and expansion of digitization and transformation processes at operating sites

• Strategic investment planning

• Building and energy management – ESG

• Restructuring and process optimization of products, lines and divisions along the entire value chain

• Project management/integration of new modules LEAN, KVP, MES

• Production controlling, performance optimization, cost savings, evaluation of in-house vs. outsourcing

• Technical and organizational introduction of new products

• Planning of manufacturing processes, single and group workstations, lines, complex and sequential processes

• Purchasing/Materials Management**

• Temporary head of purchasing

• Analysis and optimization of the value chain

• Inventory management – LEAN, KVP, purchasing success KPIs

• Supplier selection, evaluation and negotiations

• Contract and price negotiations

• Complaint management

• Leadership Responsibilities**

• Employee management

• Team development

• Change Management & Organizational Development**

• Support of change processes, technical, organizational, personnel

• Transition management

• Consulting & coaching

Project for a client in the food industry.

Objective: Develop the operational business, future-proof alignment of the site.

Activities:

• General and production-specific process optimizations
• Establish preventive maintenance and repair management with appropriate spare parts inventory
• Resolve investment backlog and drive sustainable reinvestments
• Promote cross-departmental collaboration, introduce initial agile projects
• Cost controlling
• Personnel management and development
• Analysis, concept creation and implementation of building and energy management

Benefit to the company:

• Increased machine performance and output
• Reduction of waste in materials, capacity and downtime
• Cost and performance optimizations – increased profitability
• Efficiency improvements through digitization, technologization and semi-automation
• Long-term employee retention through involvement and regular training.

Project for a client in the food industry.

Objective: Develop and implement recyclable primary packaging at the site.

Activities:

• Project planning in collaboration with suppliers
• Upgrade machines for flexible operation with different packaging materials
• Conduct various machine tests with documentation and iterations
• Parallel evaluation of materials and products by QA regarding quality, shelf life and legal compliance
• Step-by-step implementation into “real” production with iteration and improvement phases to maintain and increase performance and output

Benefit to the company:

• Savings in materials and raw materials, thus costs
• Improvement of the recycling loop – waste vs. cost
• Active implementation of EU sustainability standards and DSD requirements, improving carbon footprint and social contribution to sustainable economy
• Positive signal in marketing communications (no greenwashing).

Project for a client in the cosmetics & healthcare industry. Objective: Reduce total inventory by 10% within one year (achieved in 14 months).

Activities:

• Cross-functional project team
• Step 1 – Optimize operational activities to reduce inventory:
• Adjust planning batch sizes and lead times
• Regular forecast review by sales – monitor deviations of top 100 selling items
• Optimize new and promotional products with ERP product data sheets
• Review and form logical purchasing groups, quantities, processing and delivery times
• Create call-off contracts
• Review, write off and execute destruction potential
• Step 2 – Review product families for strategic assortment simplification:
• Review and revise KPIs for item classification A, B, C by contribution margin, revenue and sales
• Consider product life cycles and relaunches
• Develop strategic approaches to optimize the product portfolio

Benefit to the company:

• Inventory reduction target achieved in 14 months
• Increased inventory turnover and liquidity
• Raised awareness to focus on high-margin, high-revenue items and product families.

Project for a client in the cosmetics & healthcare industry. Duration: 6 months.

Objective:

• Evaluate in-house vs. outsourced manual processes
• Ensure supply capacity through multiple contract manufacturers

Activities:

• Review manual packaging items in ERP for cost and lead time to determine in-house vs. external contract manufacturing
• Group similar packaging items
• Define planning and lead times internal/external
• Solicit, visit and evaluate new contract manufacturers
• Obtain quotes, negotiate processes, instructions, quality, prices
• Initial order placements, oversee processes on site with adjustments
• Feedback and optimization discussions after 6 months

Benefit to the company:

• Reduced costs and lead times
• Capacity optimization (especially during peak loads) to ensure supply
• Secure contract manufacturing with consistent quality through multiple providers
• Use of free capacity for short-term orders.

Project for a client in the cosmetics & healthcare industry. Duration: 3 months.

Objective:

• Create optimal changeover sequences and optimize changeover times on filling machines with ERP integration.

Activities:

• Review active items in ERP running on machines
• Form changeover groups with the engineering team’s input
• Define group names for ERP integration
• Compare ERP changeover times from production controlling with actual times in work preparation and engineering
• Adjust and optimize changeover times in groups
• Integrate groups and times into ERP per item
• Test in planning environment
• Deploy to live system

Benefit to the company:

• Reduced changeover times and costs by 20% with better predictability
• Greater transparency of items in changeover groups and sequences
• Established plan vs. actual comparisons as a basis for further optimizations and downtime reduction.

Project for a client in the cosmetics & healthcare industry. Two workshops conducted three months apart.

Objective:

• Transform negative stress factors from the mental risk assessment into positive actions.

Activities:

• Low scores for development, design and autonomy at the workstation
• High scores for externally driven interruptions
• Low scores for communication, cooperation and mutual support
• Tense working atmosphere with conflict between colleagues
• Workshop 1: Reverse brainstorming, scale work for current and desired state, World Café for solutions and implementation, assign responsibilities
• Workshop 2: Review of previous issues – successes, remaining problems, solution options, implementation and responsibilities

Benefit to the team:

• Team heard and valued, conflict resolution and relaxation increased motivation, autonomy and mutual support

Benefit to the company:

• Formation of a flat hierarchy
• Involvement of everyone in process optimizations
• Improved processes and workflows
• Satisfied, loyal staff with higher retention
• Reduced absenteeism.