60% less administrative effort – six-figure cost savings
Reliable data is the basis of all business decisions. This is especially true for time data, because time is the control variable in a company. At the Diehl Metering Technology Group, one of the world's leading suppliers of smart solutions for the intelligent use of water, thermal energy, gas and electricity, special attention is therefore paid to the permanent validation of the data stock for the design of products and processes. A uniform database – target planned times determined with MTM – was also the prerequisite for harmonizing or creating new work plans in SAP at Diehl Metering. Among other things, the project of the Industrial Engineering Division and the Deutsche MTM-Gesellschaft mbH resulted in a 60 % reduction of administrative expenses, direct cost savings in production and optimization potentials in the high six-figure range.
"Only facts are a secure foundation"
For Project Manager Pero Vagic, Industrialization & Automation at Diehl Metering in Nuremberg, having transparency over all processes and thus over costs is the prerequisite for any optimization. "To do this, you have to work with target planned times", knows the industrial engineer, who has been successfully using MTM for 20 years and also familiarizes colleagues at other locations with the method standard. Estimation times, time studies and gut feeling are not enough – "only facts are a reliable basis for cost estimates, product calculation and personnel requirements planning".
Plants now also comparable with each other
The MTM application has achieved far more than time data. For Pero Vagic and his MTM project team Christa Thomas, Klaus Riegel and Matthias Halle, they are the basis e.g. for the new, transparent cost center structure with the separation of personnel and machine cost centers, the exact calculation of quotations for new plants, the analysis of all manufacturing costs of Diehl Metering products as well as a clear, cross-location regulation on work plan set-up, maintenance, structure and responsibility. The general plan time responsibility and the responsibility for the work plans now lies with Industrial Engineering at all locations. Thanks to the uniform structure and data basis, the plants are now also comparable with each other and the best cost location at Diehl Metering can thus be determined. In addition, the project enabled the elimination of multiple work schedules, component allocation was updated and shift models were adapted. The reduction of the large number of work plans per location alone reduced the costs for administration by 60%.
Common standard also helps internationally
"We planners can now support each other at all German locations, precisely because we have implemented a common standard by harmonizing the work plans," Vagic emphasizes. Every colleague can see exactly where the planned times for the product or process to be calculated come from. The work instructions for the workers are also based on these planned times. "This means transparency for all those involved in the product development process.
The management of Diehl Metering is very satisfied with the results of this project, says Vagic. "That's why they want to roll it out internationally as well." After Germany, the focus of the harmonization project is now on the sites in Poland and France; the colleagues from Industrial Engineering will be successively trained. In order to reduce the effort involved in creating and managing MTM analyses, the MTM time management software TiCon is to be integrated into SAP via an interface. "A further goal is the implementation of the interface-free solution TiCon for SAP", says Vagic.
