"Enormous savings potential realized, more productivity in the plant"
Marquardt GmbH, one of the oldest member companies of the MTM ASSOCIATION e. V., is known as a leading global manufacturer of mechatronic switching and operating systems for vehicles, industrial applications, power tools and household appliances, among others. In the first year of the pandemic, a further business area was added: the production of mouth-nose and FFP2 protective masks. In the meantime, the family-owned company from Rietheim-Weilheim in Swabia also supplies hospitals and rehabilitation clinics, retirement and nursing homes, pharmacies, governments, public authorities and commercial enterprises. There is a sales booth directly at the company for private individuals as well as commercial customers.
The company has its own production equipment store, but since the first Corona wave required rapid action, the company purchased a plant for mask production. At that time, Stephanie Hummel, one of the two time management experts at Marquardt GmbH responsible for worldwide support of MTM key users in the group's series or production planning, completed the MTM-Practitioner training via webinar.
Classic win-win situation
The young woman is virtually a Marquardt homegrown. She trained here as an industrial mechanic, then went on to study mechanical engineering at a technical college and four years ago joined Marquardt's time management team alongside MTM expert Karl Jung. MTM training was the logical next step: MTM-1 and MTM-UAS as the first step – and then, just under a year ago, the MTM-Practitioner. For the practical part, Stephanie Hummel was able to use a company case study of her own choosing. Her choice was obvious: to improve the plant's workstations and ultimately the entire mask production process. A classic win-win
Investments amortized in a timely manner
"Even at first glance, a number of things stood out," Stephanie Hummel looks back. There was a lot of potential, for example, in the ergonomic design of the workstations. The biggest problem, however, was the disposal of the residual strip after punching out the masks. There were long downtimes at the machine; employee concentration waned – "all disruptive factors that affect the result." Stephanie Hummel analyzed the processes and suggested a new solution. "The hand movements that the employee had to make every 5 to 10 minutes are now only done once per shift. This has enabled us to realize enormous savings potential and significantly increase productivity in the plant," notes the MTM-Practitioner. The investment would have paid for itself in just a few weeks.
"Everyone involved speaks MTM"
Stephanie Hummel applied another important insight from her MTM training to her company case study, namely to involve all stakeholders in the company from the outset. This naturally included the IE department's project team, the shift supervisors and, above all, the employees at the plant itself. Stephanie Hummel was able to counter the fear expressed by the latter, "We don't have the time ..." with figures, data and facts thanks to the MTM analysis. "It's a real achievement to be able to speak the same language to everyone involved," emphasizes the time manager. The fewer discussions there are, she says, the faster things move forward. Incidentally, the management immediately agreed to the improvement measures because MTM has been used successfully at Marquardt for more than 50 years and is accepted precisely because of the reliability of the data.
"Online training works"
Stephanie Hummel was among the first to complete MTM-Practitioner training via webinar. "It worked surprisingly well with the online training," she says. In the first year of the pandemic, there was a lot of home office work anyway, so the new training format came at just the right time. She also felt in good hands because she could arrange one-on-one meetings with the MTM instructor – in her case, Josef Pils – and ask individual questions. Personally, the only thing she missed was the direct exchange with the other participants.
New: The digital classroom
The cozy round in the evening, learning together before the final exam, intensive networking – all this is possible in the restarting classroom training. And starting in the fall, even more. Because: MTM is digitizing the classroom. MTM instructors have also come to appreciate the possibilities offered by the webinar training format, the online exam and other tools such as MS TEAMS, MS FORMS and MS Whiteboard, and no longer want to do without them. With the provision of training materials in digital form, additional hardware for each participant (e.g. a USB monitor) and with the digital exam, MTM is also taking a big step forward in classroom training.
Interested? The complete career program in MTM is available at training.mtm.org.
