Located in France, Siemens’ Haguenau factory specializes in manufacturing mechatronic measuring devices. It produces, among other things, flow meters, temperature sensors, pressure transmitters, gas analyzers, and valve positioners for the Digital Industries – Process Automation segment. The Haguenau site is a well-known pioneer in digital transformation, with more than 800 employees.
To support their operations’ performance, Siemens’ management wished to pursue the digital transition of their Haguenau site by adopting Tervene’s digital management platform.
THE GOAL
Modernize the Shop Floor’s Management and Structure the Communication processes
Before, “It was difficult to follow up on tasks and keep visibility of all the actions in progress.” mentions Marcus Göhl, Siemens Haguenau’s Site Director.
The shop floor’s management digitization aimed to:
✓ Facilitate documentation and issue escalation
✓ Gain visibility on issue management
✓ Structure the communication processes
✓ Reduce the administrative burden and loss of information
THE SOLUTION
Digitizing the Daily Management System
Identification and Documentation of Issues
Employees and managers used to identify problems through a pen-and-paper system that used coloured cards and retranscription via email.
Now with Tervene, all team leaders and departments can raise issues and add discussion points to meetings via phone or tablet. In a matter of minutes, team leaders can document a problem, add a picture or comment, join a form, and create a task. Issues are now immediately captured, documented, and saved. It helps team leaders to quickly take action and transfer the information without re-transcription.
The digital management platform also allows managers to do Gemba walks, audits, inspections, and fill out forms to collect more information. At Siemens Haguenau, these tools help structure the control of operations and the supervision work. Since the project started, more than 17,000 Gemba walks and 330 digital audits have been completed in the production areas.
Daily, team leaders carry out Gemba walks where they must validate various aspects such as security elements, missing parts, problematic equipment, ideas for improvements, and other control points. According to Aline Zenner, Team Leader: “With the digital Gemba walk, we exchange more with operators, and problems are escalated and dealt with more quickly.”
It saves time. Before, it was noted on paper and then by email. Now it’s structured, and we can see if it’s resolved or not.
Marcus Göhl, Site Director
Meetings’ Structure and Animation
Team leaders animate their “TOP” meetings with the platform. So far, dozens of recurring meetings are held daily with Tervene. As explained by Philippe Fuchs, Operational Excellence Manager: “With Tervene, managers lead morning meetings with their teams and support departments. They take note of the discussion points, assign tasks and follow their progress.”
Meetings also allow team members to raise issues at different management levels. This information cascade allows effective collaboration between managers and support departments, such as maintenance and methods.
We can escalate a problem to several management levels while also keeping track of its progress.
Philippe Fuchs, Operational Excellence Manager
Communication and Problem-Solving Processes
As mentioned by Aline Zenner, Team Leader: “In the previous traditional system with pen, paper, and cards, our notes often got lost, and follow-ups were harder to do.” From now on, team leaders and support departments can share information and collaborate effectively on the platform. Aline adds: “As team leaders, we can assign tasks to support groups, which helps us solve problems more quickly.”
Today, 96% of all raised issues during Gemba walks are resolved or taken care of.
When identifying an issue, it is easy to create a task instantly, add a due date, and assign it to the right person with a priority level. It is also possible to escalate identified issues into discussion points in TOP meetings to discuss them further with team members. Thus, the support departments have visibility on the problem’s history, and team leaders can follow the progress of all actions until its resolution. Jean Nirrengaten, Lean Manufacturing Project Manager says: “With Tervene, our maintenance department receives real-time tasks, including the work centre, the work unit, and a supporting photo. It’s a level of detail that we didn’t have before.”
Now, when we raise an issue, we know that we will take care of it, that it will be prioritized, and that we’ll get feedback on it.
Aimé Buchel, Value Chain Manager
Project’s Benefits
✓ Standard shop floor management across the Haguenau site
✓ Better information retention (no more pen-and-paper system)
✓ Increased visibility and transparency on raised issues
✓ Accurate task and corrective actions monitoring
✓ Broken silos between support departments for better collaboration
✓ Faster problem-solving
It is a digital tool that allows us to collect and address problems quickly.
Marcus Göhl, Site Director
Tervene, the #1 Platform to Manage Daily Operations
Our daily management system empowers frontline teams and top management to reach operational excellence with stronger daily control, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and improvement processes.
Manufacturers, operation leaders, and many SMBs digitized their management practices with our help: Gemba walks, daily checks, audits, inspections, operational meetings, digital procedures, improvement management, and much more.
