Efficiency Through Practice: The experience-sharing session at Grimme Landtechnik highlighted how lean management is put into practice in the machinery manufacturing industry—and why exchanging ideas with other companies provides valuable insights for one’s own further development.
Sleek and effective, with minimal waste and high efficiency—that’s how small and medium-sized businesses want their own manufacturing and production processes to be. Participants in the experience-sharing session at Grimme Landtechnik SE & Co. KG in Damme, Lower Saxony, were able to witness this in action.
In his company presentation, Martin Hadrys (Director of Production, Grimme Landtechnik) shared the latest news and key insights about the agricultural machinery manufacturer. Under the heading “History, Strategy, Achievements, Approach, and Practice, as well as Future Objectives of Lean Management in the Company,” Bastian Rosnau (Head of Lean Management & Business Process Management, Grimme Landtechnik) then provided a detailed overview of lean management at Grimme.
The subsequent plant tour in small groups provided insight into the practical implementation of Lean in work and production processes.
Participants then divided into several working groups to provide feedback on what they had seen, which led to a lively discussion during the closing plenary session about Lean Management and its development in the machinery and plant engineering sector.
Conclusion:
When it comes to “effectiveness and efficiency,” the trend is clearly moving away from traditional meeting formats. In companies within the machinery industry, stand-up meetings have long been the norm for exchanging ideas and comparing targeted objectives with their actual achievement levels. Goal-oriented working groups and the active application of methods—ranging from 5S and Kaizen to value stream analysis and beyond—have unlocked cost-saving potential that would have been virtually unthinkable without them.
The key to sustainability and continuous optimization lies in examining the procedures currently in use and taking an unbiased look at the reality within one’s own company. The fact that a certain degree of “operational blindness” can prevent relevant optimization measures from being immediately identified and implemented is often due to a lack of exchange and pragmatic comparison with other manufacturers. This event aimed to counteract this and create incentives to reflect on one’s own strategy and approach.
Organizer
The event was organized by VDMA Nord and ProduktionNRW. ProduktionNRW is the cluster for mechanical engineering and production technology in North Rhine-Westphalia and is managed by VDMA NRW. ProduktionNRW serves as a platform to connect, inform, and promote companies, institutions, and networks with one another and along the value chain. Significant portions of the services provided by ProduktionNRW are funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.