Lean Transformation in a Heating Radiator Manufacturer

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Our client is world leader in manufacturing and selling heating radiators. With more than 1500 employees, two factories in Europe and one in Asia and a turnover of over 100m Euros, it has become one of the most succeful business story in our Region.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Challenge[/custom_headline]
The company with a very good quality product, well-known by its customers, had problems with delivery lead time, too long compared to competitors. Therefore, the goal of the lean transformation project was to improve customer service. Secondary goals were: to simplify logistics and manufacturing flows and to improve machinery utilization.

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The project, with an overall duration of 24 months, has been divided into 3 different phases. In the first phase, we defined the future state of the company in terms of logistics, manufacturing and information flows. The future state was the simple and clear representation of the new model and of the activities needed to achieve it. The future state was designed by our team of consultants together with an internal committee and was approved by the management team of the company. In the second and third phase we worked on the implementation of the future state, managing several work groups, each one having from five to ten members and a group leader. We spent a lot of time on training people and on communication, in order to create a common language inside the company and the conditions to sustain continuous change and performance improvement.

[custom_headline type=”left” level=”h2″ looks_like=”h4″ accent=”true”]The Results[/custom_headline]
The lean transformation project has involved more than a hundred people, from practically all the areas of the company: manufacturing, planning, industrial engineering, management control and purchasing. The positive reaction and enthusiasm of the internal participants led the management team to extend the time and scope of the project in order to involve all plants and departments. A few figures are more eloquent than many words: On time delivery: from 80% to 94%. Customer waiting time: from 30 to 14 calendar days. Manufacturing flow’s OEE: from 65% to 75%.