How operational excellence improves the M&A process

The opportunities for optimizing value creation are nowhere as extensive as in production. The goal: to install modern production processes and align them perfectly with the supply and customer chains. To get even closer to this ideal, a hidden champion from the electronics industry, for example, used the construction of a new factory hall to reorganize manufacturing according to lean principles and streamline processes.

Excessive complexity in the production and product areas limits companies‘ scope for action and is seen as an efficiency killer. A manufacturer of agricultural machinery therefore set themselves the goal of bringing orderliness to the “chaos of variants” and ensuring a clear system. The solution: a pragmatic evaluation model that better captures the complexity costs.

Frontloading is a part of the holistic development approach. During the planning phase, the manufacturer collects as much data and information about the product as possible and links them with the expertise within the specialist areas. This way, late changes in R&D process are supposed to be avoided, which usually cause expensive adaptations on other components. Therefore, an automotive supplier set up a corresponding frontloading together with Staufen, also with the objective to be able to provide even more resilient quotations in the future.

The introduction of Shop Floor Management goes far beyond the reorganization of processes in the factory floor. It means a transformation of the corporate culture. The presence of managers in the production areas and their focus on standard deviations accelerates decisions and develops employees into improvement managers. A manufacturer of control cabinets and IT infrastructure was able to achieve excellent improvements in all relevant KPIs in this way.

The shared understanding of what your brand stands for, what relevance the company has for its customers and where it stands in comparison to the competition forms the basis for the future impact you want to achieve in the market. How you as a company are perceived from the outside – i.e. from the customer‘s perspective – is a crucial part of the change process and is a central element for increasing the effectiveness of all touchpoints such as brand, products, services, sales and marketing towards the different customer groups. A successful top-line strategy therefore not only has an external effect, but is also an important signal internally. It underlines the will to change, to optimize, and to achieve excellence in a modern and resilient company.