Bonding - More than materials | Herrmann Ultraschall

How Lean is Herrmann Ultraschall right now and how can the company become even leaner? In order to live lean management, we need the corresponding capacities among our employees. For this reason, we have hired a lean manager and trained a lean expert. These specialists have “lean” as their exclusive main task. They are absolute experts and can accompany and support their colleagues within the respective lean processes. This just one way in which we are working on further optimizations in addition to the generator assembly. What are the upcoming lean projects? Lean management is essentially a permanent improvement process. Hav- ing introduced shopfloor management, which we now practice, we now see further need for optimization here, especially when it comes to information cascades. We are also already flirting with ideas for the next improve- ment steps in the area of converter assembly, which already works as a lean process. “Lean” means: Do it and keep learning. Not just in production, but in all areas of the company. Is lean management a must to remain competitive in the future as well? Absolutely! We must continuously improve in the areas of quality, delivery times, and reaction speed if we want to continue to convince our customers of our efficiency. The lean philosophy helps us to live our WHY: “BONDING – MORE THAN MATERIALS.” Which means: We want to inspire our customers with everything we do! Lean management means that something becomes “leaner,” trimming the fat, so to speak – do the em- ployees need to be worried about their jobs? Not at all – quite the con - trary! We have the chance to grow sustainably, and lean management helps us achieve this. And in order to implement this growth, we continue to need people. People who help to optimize the processes. And who, as qualified and committed employees, con- tribute to shape our future as a technology company. How do you generate enthusiasm among the employees for the lean philosophy? Convincing and motivating the colleagues is essential. The employees who have been here for many years have experienced rapid growth and have seen the need to adapt workflows to the times. What worked three or five years ago must now be rethought. This created a situation in which there was a great willing- ness to accept changes. At the same time, many new colleagues arrived over this time who had already learned different working methods. It is also import- ant that improvements not be dictated to the teams from the outside. The teams should work out themselves what is to be done. First they perform an as-is analy- sis, then the objective is de- fined, and the best solution is worked out as a team. In this way, everyone is part of the lean project and makes their own contribution to the success. As additional support, we have set up a lean workshop in the style of “cardboard engineering” to analyze and improve the processes. But instead of cardboard, we build the test workstations using wood. In this way, the employees can work on it and optimize it in reality and not just in theory, be- fore we implement every- thing in aluminum for the production line. With lean, the focus is often on the value chain. How is this applied at Herrmann Ultraschall? We now use the term “value streams.” A value stream describes the entire process: from order acquisition to project planning, design, and production, to delivery. These cannot be separated. This sounds simple, but it was an important finding. It also led to us reposi- tioning a few functions in terms of organization. Order Processing is an example. Previously, this was a central department, between Sales and Pro- duction. Today, this role is present in each business CARSTEN O’BEIRNE MECHANICAL ENGI- NEERING DEGREE AT STUTTGART UNIVERSITY; AT FRAUNHOFER IPA UNTIL 1998, THEN SEVEN YEARS AT ENDRESS + HAUSER, PROCESS AUTO- MATION. AT ABB STARTING IN 2005, MOST RECENTLY AS MANAGING DIREC- TOR. IN 2018, HE HEARD THE CALL OF ULTRASONICS AND CAME TO KARLSBAD TO BECOME COO AT HERRMANN ULTRASCHALL. “WHEN WE SPEAK ABOUT VALUE CREATION, WE ALSO NEED TO SPEAK ABOUT PEOPLE.” unit, i.e. completely de- centralized. This has made processes and information flows better and more efficient. By considering the processes as value streams, we are able to improve in- terfaces that were previous- ly sidelined. System breaks or waste – whether of the material or in working time – are detected more quickly. People are also part of the value stream. They are the ones who actually make the product, which ultimate- ly generates value for the customer and thus for the company. “WE NEED PEOPLE IN MANY AREAS WHO HELP US CONTINUE TO OPTIMIZE THE PROCESSES.” 61 60