To whom it may concern,

We were interested in optimizing our production and logistics and thought it was a good idea to work with Vocum as an external partner. At the start of the collaboration with Vocum, 124 FTEs were active in production and logistics.
During an analysis, Vocum determined that a potential saving of € 1,263,000 was possible on the above-mentioned scope. This corresponds to a productivity improvement of more than 30%.
The project team has achieved rapid results thanks to a number of structural and drastic changes. We have summarized the most important ones again:

The organizational structure has been adjusted so that the right responsibilities lie with the right people. In concrete terms, the number of managerial levels has gone from 3 to 2, new job descriptions have been created and all managers have had to apply for the position they aspired to. This, together with the rollout of the project objectives to all departments, ensured that managers cooperated with motivation to achieve results;
The administrative tasks are centralized (literally and figuratively) so that duplication of work is avoided and people can take over tasks from each other. This benefits the continuity of production as the team leaders can be present on the floor much more often;
A new communication structure with a new associated reporting system has been implemented so that the right information reaches the right person at the right time and, in the event of deviations, corrective action is taken at the correct hierarchical level;
The schedules of more than 100 people were coordinated;
Managers were trained in class and “on the job” in managing people and “in management by objectives”. This allows them to care for their people
to manage, monitor and work proactively better;
A workforce planning was developed, based on realistic standards and predicted workloads, across the 5 different production departments. As a result, managers are very cost-conscious when planning staff, which has a direct impact on productivity;
The flexibility of the people was also increased. Every employee in production is expected to be able to perform at least two other activities/tasks in addition to his basic skills. Because employees can be deployed in multiple places in this way, productivity can be increased. In production as well as in logistics, it becomes possible to achieve better coordination between available and requested capacity.

The above points and continuous guidance from the Vocum team enabled us to achieve the target of € 1,263,000, or a 30% productivity increase, after 2/3 of the project (after 20 calendar weeks of the total planned 30 calendar weeks). to be achieved on an annual basis. This corresponds to an R.O.I. of 3.4:1. The agreed minimum guarantee 1:1 (project costs) was achieved from week 8 of the project, which takes a total of 30 calendar weeks.

After an analysis by Vocum, our suspicion was confirmed that we could work much more efficiently in our Production and Logistics departments. Thanks to a thorough project approach and tight management on both Vocum’s and our part, it has been possible to demonstrate a strong improvement in this productivity in a short time. Our employees initially expressed disbelief about the feasibility because in their eyes we were already doing our very best. The latter was correct, but we did not use our strengths properly, which meant that many things were not carried out effectively. By identifying these areas for improvement one by one and then tackling them with an action plan, we quickly achieved our objectives. The enthusiasm and persuasiveness of the Vocum team quickly created an atmosphere that the proposed improvements could actually be realized. Every week, two short meetings were held to discuss progress and action points. This way of working has contributed enormously to the speed of the project. We were able to make quick adjustments if necessary.
We are very pleased with the way in which Vocum brought the project to a successful conclusion and recommend Vocum to any company that has a change process in mind with measurable results.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Dennis J.J. Gouka Harry J. Doedens

General Manager Heras Financial Director Heras