Project teams

Strong team effort for the common goal

„The success of RISE is based on the competent and committed project participants of Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH, who sustainably shape future-oriented processes in cross-departmental teams.“ - Beatrice Fiege, Excecutive Management Personnel

RISE is not determined by the management level, but is driven by interdisciplinary project teams for employees and customers. A program that not only changes entire process landscapes, but also ensures better cooperation and promotes cross-divisional thinking. As different as the tasks are, as different are the challenges and special features in each project. We asked the subproject managers about their motivation, successes and fascination with RISE.

1. Electronically connecting and integrating customers

The subproject creates the basis for transparent processes, from the offer to the final documentation. Electronic connectivity plays a key role in ensuring smooth collaboration. „With transparent processes, we increase the speed and reliability of our statements to our customers and partners. This enables us to stand out from the competition in terms of service." summarizes subproject manager Frederik Hütt his task.

What can your subproject accomplish?

Through our project, we create the basis for transparency and fast and targeted action along our business process.

What motivates you?

I think that our premium product should also impress with a premium service. Today, as in other industries, this includes knowing exactly when my product will be available to the customer and whether there will be or have been delays in the process. This should be reflected back openly and transparently and thus enable the customer to act.

What challenges have you already mastered in RISE? What challenges will you face in the coming months?

Despite a high load on ILG's specialist departments due to the preparations of the ERP system to S4/Hana, the first project successes were implemented within the first year, in close cooperation with SZFG.

Through the digitalization of the processes (EDI), we now see the stocks in more than 80% of all external warehouses in real time. Wagon tracking in e-service allows us to track the exact location of rail cars with the appropriate equipment. We are currently holding intensive discussions with our customers on the subject of order entry.

The introduction of electronic order processing will be driven forward with all capacities against the backdrop of the upcoming ERP conversion to S4/Hana from the end of 2023.

What is exciting and special for you about RISE?

"The holistic approach. We don't just optimize one area but try to optimize the entire process chain with a view to the service benefit.

Interdisciplinary collaboration and the breaking down of silo structures create a new understanding of cooperation within the company. Together, we are setting standards to sustainably increase our excellent products, customer satisfaction and competitiveness through reliable processes.

The digitization of our processes can also support us later in the implementation of the Group strategy and the associated topics such as circularity.

Frederik Hütt

Project and Process Manager IT

2. Mapping customers digitally from end to end

Viktoriya Scholz

Head of Inside Sales / Technical Feasibility

Excellent service experience through the digitization of essential sales processes is the focus of the second subproject. "With RISE, we are experiencing a cultural change in our collaboration with our customers. We are ensuring transparency, becoming more reliable and gaining trust." is how subproject manager Viktoriya Scholz sums up the goals of her initiative.

What can your subproject accomplish?

With the implementation of the project, we strengthen the expert knowledge of our employees and inspire our customers with excellent service in all phases of order processing.

What motivates you?

With my professional experience in optimization of processes, I would also like to contribute solution approaches and ideas to the RISE program. I draw my motivation from the satisfaction of the success we have achieved together.

What challenges have you already mastered in RISE? What challenges will you face in the coming months?

As the customer's contact partner, we must be able to provide competent information about the order status at all times. From this background, we first implemented the digital mapping of the supply chain. Today we can tell the customer directly where the goods are at the moment and when they will arrive. The next step was to continue this strategy internally and create transparency about inventories and deadlines in the production chain. The challenge in the coming months will be the end-to-end digitization of order processing, as considerable capacities are tied up with the conversion of the ERP system.

What is exciting and special for you about RISE?

In the cross-divisional teams, we can use our wide experience in the joint development of solutions and ideas. The appreciative way we treat each other and our open communication contribute to the positive development of our teamwork. This is also reflected in our services to the customer.

3. Starting orders right

In the subproject, the course is set for a smooth process from order receipt to delivery. Right from the start of the order, the customer should receive a solid statement about the delivery date, which requires the best possible planning of all orders. "With reliable, high-quality order processing and support, we ensure the best possible start of customer orders," describes Doreen Jürgens the goal of her subproject.

What can your subproject accomplish?

In my subproject, we identify and control as many factors as possible in order processing that have an influence on the performance of the production system. The focus is not just on production, but on the entire process chain, including acceptance and shipping to the customer. We optimize the entire planning process with more tightly controlled process steps and an IT system solution created specifically for this purpose.

What motivates you?

I see an ever faster changing market environment and an increasing fluctuation of employees coming to ILG. In this context, standard topics must be easy and convenient to master so that there is always enough time to continuously align ILG with changing customer needs. After years of downsizing and justified cost-cutting constraints, I see RISE as an opportunity to take ILG a big step forward through measures and investments coordinated across divisions.

What challenges have you already mastered in RISE? What challenges will you face in the coming months?

Together with my colleagues in the subproject, we have designed the new IT system landscape for planning. The first part of sales planning has already been coordinated with our service provider Salzgitter Digital Solutions and will be implemented over the next few months. We will then turn our attention to the heart of the planning landscape, the technological renewal of the APS system.

We have not only taken a critical look at the IT systems, but also at our sales processes. Here we have identified potential for improvement in terms of leaner standard processes, reduction of interfaces and shorter communication paths. The resulting measures are being successively implemented.

What is exciting and special for you about RISE?

RISE is a driver and motivator. Through the interdisciplinary discussion of topics, holistic approaches to solutions emerge almost automatically. For the first time, the various interests are truly transparent, so that they can be addressed or balanced out. Due to the number of participants, the interest in progress is enormous. What is also special is the step-by-step approach. We start with quick small solutions that already have initial effects and refrain from projecting a perfect overall solution, which is hardly ever achievable. The progress is known in the project. It feels good that we are actually moving forward piece by piece.

Doreen Jürgens

Head of Sales Planning and Management

4. Making the value stream maneuverable

Pavel Pryakhin

Head of Raw Material and Unit Planning

Fast and well-founded planning decisions are success factors in the RISE program. "We will ensure transparency in the value stream of our company in order to be able to provide quick information at any time not only on individual orders, but also on individual plates, and to simplify their control," describes Pavel Pryakhin his subproject.

What can your subproject accomplish?

The project provides a faster and more transparent basis for decision-making, from higher-level plant planning to the individual piece.

What motivates you?

Particularly motivating is the positive climate and feedback not only from the project group, but especially from the colleagues who use these newly created tools and find them a great support.

What challenges have you already mastered in RISE? What challenges will you face in the coming months?

A major challenge in the project was to involve as many departments as possible and to gain a uniform and comprehensible view of the entire company with them.

With the group-wide introduction of SAP Analytics Cloud, which further unifies and standardizes the previous dashboards, we will soon be facing a challenging and at the same time exciting system changeover.

What is exciting and special for you about RISE?

What I would describe as special about the RISE program is the entire project team, its interdisciplinary background, the commitment and helpfulness of the colleagues. This is truly unique, especially in view of the ambitious goals.

5. Avoid and control re-setting

Subproject manager Dr. Thomas Brecht and his team counter unwanted delays caused by occasional rework or scrap with consistent cause analysis and technologically sensible countermeasures. "As a development engineer, my focus is always on the customer's product quality needs. The continuous technological development of our products while taking strategic and economic conditions into account are the key to our success," Dr. Thomas Brecht about his subproject.

What can your subproject accomplish?

The product quality of our havy plates enjoys an excellent reputation in the industry. Nevertheless, rework can occasionally lead to delays in the delivery of plates to our customers.

In order to effectively counter such problems and fully exploit the technology potential, this RISE subproject is dedicated to failure and rework analysis and aims to further reduce failure rates, lower their impact and improve the quality of our products. In this way, this sub-project contributes directly to achieving the targets set, such as the OTIF key performance indicator and customer satisfaction.

What motivates you?

Based on my many years of experience in the steel sector and my commitment to the company, my team and I would like to contribute to further improving ILG's standing with its customers. One of our constant goals is to increase the quality performance of our products for the benefit of our customers while at the same time paying attention to economic efficiency.

What challenges have you already mastered in RISE? What challenges will you face in the coming months?

The complexity of the topics and their frequent interdisciplinary interweaving with each other and with other RISE subprojects are an exciting challenge.

Due to the relatively small amount of scrap material in relation to the total amount of production, the qualitative effects of changes in process flows or technological specifications can only be statistically verified in relevant samples. Successful process optimization requires a high level of technical expertise and process knowledge in order to reliably forecast the effects on product quality and process flows in advance.

What is exciting and special for you about RISE?

The special and interesting aspect is the variety of tasks to be handled in the project, which are often interrelated. This is associated with cross-departmental and, in some cases, cross-company collaboration. Bringing together a wide range of competencies from highly motivated employees in a single project is not an everyday occurrence and is an exciting topic.

Dr.-Ing. Thomas Brecht

Head of Technical Customer Support & Development

6. Pull from customers and deliver

Dr. Enrico Steppan

Head of Quality Assurance, Approval and Management Systems

Order-accompanying processes in shipping and logistics as well as in inspection and release ensure optimal shipping and high product quality. Bottlenecks are identified in the respective areas and friction losses are reduced in order to sustainably improve delivery performance and service quality.

What can your subproject accomplish?

By linking several areas in this subproject, the interfaces to other departments and internal processes can be optimized. Continuous improvement in the release process through the determination of mechanical-technological material parameters and optimized acceptance testing ensures a sustainable increase in delivery performance and adherence to delivery dates in shipping. Coordinated shipping routes depending on the type of transport and a targeted approach to external warehouses allow our products to be delivered in line with customer requirements.

What motivates you?

A key aspect is that we want to set standards together with outstanding products in order to significantly improve customer satisfaction. Cross-divisional cooperation with a wide variety of perspectives is the greatest motivation for me personally.

What challenges have you already mastered in RISE? What challenges will you face in the coming months?

We have optimized internal logistics through a combination of structural changes and a consideration of capacities in conjunction with the underlying lead times in acceptance testing. The creation of greater transparency in the processes for determining mechanical-technological material parameters is leading to a more reliable order status. In the area of shipping, optimizations were achieved in distribution logistics on the basis of shipment structure analyses supplemented by center of gravity analyses. A major challenge for the coming period is the successive integration of smart solutions in combination with an increase in the level of automation.

What is exciting and special for you about RISE?

A special feature is the integral view of our value chain in the RISE program. I am particularly fascinated by the approach to larger project goals, which is characterized by an agile way of working. The long-term program requires a consistently high level of effort, while the smaller project sprints ensure quick and motivating partial successes.

RISE

Together we set standards with excellent products and reliable processes to increase customer satisfaction and competitiveness long-term.

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