Case Study
Manufactured Timber Products
5-15% improvement to
equipment availability
8-14% reduction
in overhead costs
Service line
Business Excellence
Syngroup Office
Vienna / Austria
Geography
Europe
Manufactured Timber Products
Background
Our client is one of the world’s leading producers of engineered wood products, with production sites in 8 countries, employing in excess of 4500 people.

A change in senior leadership created an opportunity for a change in culture. Historically, production sites had developed in different ways, each with their own working practices and strengths and weaknesses
The business recognised there was a need to harmonise ways of working and share learnings as a way of bringing sites closer together, creating “One team”

Objectives
  • Effect a change in culture through the introduction of more harmonised ways of working
  • Review processes and working practices across 8 locations, focussing mainly on finishing processes in manufacturing
  • Review admin processes
  • Work closely with management and manufacturing teams to identify and prioritise improvement actions
  • Develop and document new processes and procedures
Focus area
Manufacturing
Equipment efficiency & availability
Productivity
Performance Management
KPIs / Data capture
Problem solving
Admin (Front/Back Office)
Support pre-SAP implementation
Our Approach

Our approach followed a three-stage process.

Stage 1: Assessment
At each location, our people worked closely with our client, mapping and assessing processes, running problem-solving workshops and developing prioritised improvement plans that included Quick-Wins

Stage 2: Design
The design phase was highly collaborative, ensuring the involvement of key stakeholders from across the functions that would be impacted by changes to processes and ways of working

Stage 3: Implementation.
The implementation approach varied by location – in some cases the responsibility for implementation fell on local management, while in others, implementation was supported by Syngroup.
Where Syngroup supported implementation, there was a strong focus on coaching to ensure changes were not just implemented but embedded into the workplace

Results
Increased transparency of performance through data capture systems and more focussed KPIs
Increased machine availability of between 10-15% through better maintenance planning and execution
Improved resource planning resulting in a reduction in overtime costs
8-14% reduction in overhead costs
Methodologies
  • LEAN
  • TPM
  • Process Analysis
  • Problem-solving