Appropriate management control system was developed and implemented, which ultimately led to shorter lead times.
Background
The company, which is part of a large international group, designs, develops and manufactures advanced military equipment. They are market leaders in Sweden and Europe and have a turnover of more than 3 billion SEK (EUR335M).
The factory under consideration has about 1,100 employees of which 600 work in production. All production is made to order, with a high degree of customer-specified equipment, and is run in project form. The unit had for a long period of time shown good profit, but was facing new demands of shorter lead times and high delivery precision, whilst at the same time the number of customer projects was increasing and there was a generation change among the personnel.
The company had previously worked with Mantec to carry out a successful change project in the development department, and now wanted to do the same with production and the aftermarket.
Implementation
Mantec and client staff mapped relevant processes during an initial analysis and identified a number of problem areas. The joint project was then defined and change work began, focusing on:
- establishing a management control system for production management;
- launching a management control system for shop level management;
- establishing ownership and work methods within purchasing, to secure an improved delivery capability;
- clarifying the process from development to production; and
- putting in place rules and methods for goods receipt and inspection.
Results
The main benefits to the client of establishing appropriate management control systems and interface rules have been that:
- the number of delayed purchasing orders has decreased by 87%
- production shortages have decreased by 80%
- the number of purchase orders is expected to decrease by 30% with no associated accumulation of capital
- late internal operations have reduced by 65%
Overall, cooperation internally within production and between other parts of the company has markedly improved as a result of the project.
