New management culture – Thanks to operational excellence
staufen magazine | No. 7
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Wanzl
The family-owned company Wanzl is the market leader for shoppin g carts, shop fittings, and access controls. Until recently, it was still strongly influence d by craftsmanship, but with operational excellence and digitalization, it is now opening the next chapter in the company history.
The weekly shopping for the whole family fits in, and small children children love to sit in it – everyone knows the Wanzl shopping cart, and everyone has had it in their hands at least once. For 70 years, it has almost remained unchanged, but today, the manufacturer is working on its smartification and the retail business of the future
The history of innovation continues, with a lean approach to increase the operational excellence in production. “We think it is important to further develop the internal corporate culture,” says Matthias Madlinger, who is Senior Vice President for the topic Operational Excellence at Wanzl. “This is the only way we can adapt to rapidly changing market conditions.”
A change in the management created a bigger dynamics: Many of the new managers coming from other industries are already used to lean and Shop Floor Management. This caused the company to proceed towards Operational Excellence. Wanzl has made the existing organizational structures more agile and improved internal communication.
The focus was on the objective of making the global processes at Wanzl more efficient in order to be able to keep competing with other international market leaders. “This transformation of global processes encountered particular difficulties due to the need to unify the diversity of the individual factories and to cope with cultural changes,” says Stefanie Rist, Senior Director OpEx at Wanzl. “The improvements from the redesign include strengthened leadership and communication, methodological support and a clear focus on system improvement.”
Develop a Better Understanding of Relations
The family business has gone its own way. The management’s goal was not to implement lean production in record time. They wanted to introduce the new paradigm to the company and not simply impose it on their employees – an important reason to work with Staufen.
“First, we built up know-how and spent more than a year on trainings, coaching managers and performing best practice visits,” emphasizes Staufen consultant Christian Ullrich. “As a result, the insight that all employees are responsible for operational excellence grew very quickly.”
As with many traditional medium-sized companies, the corporate and management culture before entering the lean world tended to be hierarchical with little focus on exchange and collaboration. Leadership and communication were stronger aligned to classic departmental boundaries and functions. The new understanding of Operational Excellence and Lean Production brought a significant change for Wanzl: The Employees on the shop floor exchange information, ask questions and discuss problems. “Slowly, a better understanding for connections is developing throughout the company,” says Wanzl manager Madlinger. Thanks to this, a different leadership culture is gradually emerging. However, it needs to spread throughout the company and be internalized by all employees – managers as well as workers. Change takes time, otherwise they won‘t be permanent.
About Wanzl
Die Wanzl GmbH & Co. KGaA aus Leipheim, Deutschland, ist in dritter Generation familiengeführt. Mit über 4.600 Mitarbeitenden und elf internationalen Produktions-standorten erwirtschaftete Wanzl zuletzt fast 900 Millionen Euro Umsatz. Neben dem Handel gehören auch Flughäfen und Hotels zu den Kunden.
11
FACTORIES IN 7 COUNTRIES
4.600+
EMPLOYEES
900
MM € TURNOVER
A VISIT TO THE SUPERMARKETOF THE FUTURE
An Industry Outlook
Connected, automated, no more queues at the cash desk – the supermarket of the future is different. But one thing remains: There will still be Wanzl shopping carts. Other than today, they are digital and intelligent. “This is a trend that we are also observing in retail shops”, says Jürgen Frank, Senior Vice President Markets & Solutions at Wanzl. “Everything will be connected, there will be a digital customer interface”. Those who would like to gain a first impression of the future, should see the Urban Store at the Wanzl headquarter in Leipheim. It is a test environment for modern technology in retail. Because shopping might look like this in the near future:
The customer first takes one of the intelligent shopping carts. It has a digital deposit lock that can be unlocked by smartphone, NFC technology and an app. Then, we get started: After the registration via app of the respective retailer, you can see on a small display on the cart that purchasing is now possible.
The smartphone is the digital customer card. There, you will find the supermarket app, which manages the customer account and offers a virtual shopping cart. Then you can start shopping. As usual, the customers put everything into their shopping cart. Fully automated systems recognize what products were selected, and transfer the data into the virtual shopping cart.
At the end of the purchase, the inspection and payment process follow. If the contents of the virtual and the real shopping cart match, the customers confirm the correct purchase via app.
From the left: STEFANIE RIST, Senior Director OpEx, Wanzl GmbH & Co. KGaA | CHRISTIAN ULLRICH, Principal, STAUFEN.AG | MATTHIAS MADLINGER, Senior Vice President Industrialization & Operational Excellence (OpEx), WanzlGmbH & Co. KGaA
Alternatively, there is also a selfcheckout with a scanner available. Then, the app generates the digital receipt. When leaving the supermarket, the amount will be debited from the account.
This supermarket it cashierless, but not without staff. If required, employees are available to advise, ensure that shelves are full, or prepare fresh snacks at a cafeteria counter. “The reality today is already the 24/7 supermarket that only has staff on an hourly basis”, says Trade Expert Jürgen Frank. “Retailers can use this to overcome the shortage of skilled workers.” There will certainly be at least two models in the future: the highly automated supermarket for quick shopping and experience-oriented stores that also invite shoppers to linger. Both types supermarkets of the future will be digital, networked and efficient in the background.
After his master studies in Industrial Engineering and Management at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he gained 8 years of consulting experience in supporting companies on their way to Lean Transformation. Furthermore he has international project experience in other European countries and experienced the management of projects for medium-sized customers and takeover of sub-projects for corporate groups. In reference projects he knows about the holistic OEE improvements in plant-intensive industries, introduction of Shop Floor Management, as well as coaching of executives in Shop Floor Management from team leader to managing director. Furthermore the introduction of a synchronized stand assembly incl. logistics connection in plant construction and factory planning projects (brownfield and greenfield). Complementary the design of cross-plant value streams and the optimization and design of assembly lines incl. connection to logistics.
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