Case Study
Manufactured Timber Products
9% Reduction
in manning level
€3.2M annualised
bottom-line savings
Service line
Business Excellence
Duration
10 month
Syngroup Office
Vienna / Austria
ROI
5:1
Manufactured Timber Products
Background
Our client is an international manufacturer and market leader of timber products in Europe.

The company operates 3 production sites, employing approximately 1800 people. Manufacturing is partially automated however there is still a significant reliance on manual labour
To remain competitive, our client needed to ensure their sites were operating according to ‘LEAN’ principles and achieving ‘best in class’ levels of productivity

Objectives
  • Optimise manning levels across all sites and production lines
  • Assess, quantify and reduce current levels of waste
  • Carry out LEAN assessments across sites to identify further opportunities for improvement
Focus area
Manufacturing
Headcount (FTE)
Factory and production line layout
Product flow
Line manning
Waste reduction
Our Approach

Our approach followed a two-stage process.

Stage 1: Assessment

  • The assessment included a detailed analysis of all production lines, including manning levels, positions and product flow. Syngroup carried out detailed line observations to understand how labour was deployed and utilised.
  • We ran workshops involving line operators to better understand the challenges they were facing, including poor design of layout and ergonomics which was impacting their productivity

Stage 2: Recommendation and Implementation

  • Our detailed studies led to a number of recommendations, including changes to layout and ergonomics. These changes together with the introduction of LEAN principles enabled certain positions to be amalgamated.
  • Recommendations were initially trialled to ensure they were workable in practice.
  • All recommended actions were successfully implemented
Results
9% (170 FTE) reduction across 2 sites
Production throughput unaffected
Bottom-line benefits €3.2M annualised
Methodologies
  • LEAN
  • Machine Studies
  • Manning Optimisation
  • Layout Optimisation