International Case Study from SMW: Interim Production Director

The client was facing trouble because several key players had decided to leave the company. The sitting operations manager indicated he was overworked and not able to resolve the problems the company was facing. Most of the issues came from a lack of leadership on the management/director-level in the company. They were afraid to make decisions and let problems live on and grow.

The client got in touch with Van de Groep & Olsthoorn to find an interim operations director to get the situation under control while the looked for a longer term solution. The interim provider came up with the candidates within two days, both experienced and somewhat overqualified for the position.
Within the week the company chose one of the two candidates, selecting the one with the closest experience to the company’s industry.

Implementation

Situational analysis was completed in week 1 and 2 and submitted with approval
Refined key initiatives with executive management
Developed project plans and reporting dashboards with KPI for each of the initiatives
Communication of changes and strategic focus to all key employees
Discovering and mitigating manufacturing bottlenecks began in week 4
Continued to drill down into people and processes and uncovered bottlenecks

Results

In two months the interim manager was able to make a turnaround within the company’s culture and started up stand up meetings and some technical projects to improve the operational performance of the company. In the next four months he brought stability and further operational (Lean) improvements and he empowered the people in operations to take ownership on their own processes. In his last month the interim manager focused on the onboarding of his permanent successor. 

5 key processes were found to lack capacity and improved

Project new waste gases installation running + relationship with inspection services normalized
Hiring of new employees on key positions
Introduction of stand up meetings every morning
Change to positive atmosphere within the company in 2 months
Empowerment of senior planner in taking the lead on the complete process
>25% increase of capacity
 

Feedback/Quotes from the inside team

“Finally, someone took charge of the complete process.”
“The interim manager made decisions that should have been made already”
“The interim manager was positive and had a large impact on the atmosphere within the company”