Artikel-Schlagworte: „Köln“
Industrial Interim Management – Gastartikel Richard L Jones
A Case of Industrial Interim Management
In my first month of joining a manufacturing company as a PC Network Systems manager the head of Information Technology called me into his office. “We have a problem”, he said, “ We are implementing a new warehouse stock control system, the implementation has to be successful and for the last two years every attempted implementation has ended in failure.” Since this had nothing to do with my area of responsibility, I looked at him with a puzzled expression. “What has this got to do with me ?” I said. “We want you to do the implementation”, he said, “And it HAS to be successful.”
So I left his office feeling that I had been handed a poisoned chalice. The software had been written by a third party, that had failed in all their previous implementations and I had one week to find out how the system worked and how to implement it.
I went straight to the representative of the software house who was onsite at the time and asked for a verbal overview of the system. We discussed the functionality of the system which was just a simple stock control system for the warehouse and the factory floor. The software was already installed on the IBM midrange system and was working correctly. It just had to be fed the stock level information of every component at every stage of the manufacturing process, which meant that there was a massive amount of data input that had to be input with absolute accuracy. I assumed that this would be done by bar-coding or automated in some way. To my horror I discovered that the data had to be supplied by the fork lift truck drivers and manufacturing machine operators filling in hundreds of paper forms.
Now, in manufacturing it is notoriously difficult to get fork lift truck drivers to fill in forms at all, let alone correctly. I was very worried as it seemed almost certain that the implementation would result in yet another disaster.
So I went into the factory and found the factory foreman and told him about the worries that I had regarding the new system. “Is there any way to get the fork lift truck drivers to fill in the forms correctly, all the time?” I said.
To my surprise he said,” There is a way.” “You will have to make them realise that you are serious about having the forms filled correctly and the only way to do that is to get the Boss Man, the Financial Controller to tell them how important it is”.
I doubted that such a strategy would work, but there was no better option and so we decided to arrange a mass meeting in the factory where the Financial Controller could speak to all the fork lift truck drivers. This was not a simple event to arrange as we could not allow the meeting to interrupt factory production. It had to be done at a shift change so that the truck drivers from the morning shift and the afternoon shift could both be present. Also the meeting would prevent any transfer of materials while it was being held and so stockpiles of certain components had to be built up at manufacturing workstations to ensure continuous production.
I arranged for the Financial Controller to attend the meeting along with some of the line managers and the head of Information Technology. On the day, the management met ahead of the workforce so that I could brief the Financial Controller on the necessity to stress that the stock level forms had to be completed accurately at every stage of the production process every single time that components were moved.
When the shift change was sounded everyone squeezed into the large factory assembly room. There were fork lift truck drivers perched on some racking as the room was full. The meeting went like clockwork. I explained the system and what was needed to be done and the Financial Controller emphasised the absolute importance of filling the forms correctly every time.
The workforce left and the Financial Controller turned on me absolutely furious and said “Don’t ever bring me to a meeting with the like’s of them again”.
I was shocked by his reaction and the cause of the failure of previous implementations immediately became apparent.
The next week the system was implemented. I waited in dread for a phone call as it would not take long for problems to arise if the data was not accurately collected and input. Nothing happened on Monday. On Tuesday I could not wait any longer and went to check on the reporting of the stock levels. To my amazement the stock levels were correct and the system was functioning flawlessly. The factory foreman had been right and our implementation was the first success in two years.
by Richard L. Jones
Sincere Thanks
Jutta Staudach,
Interim Management Köln
Interim Management IT Einkauf
Von einem Kollegen, einer kleinen Firma in München erreichte mich soeben folgende Konversation:
„Ihre Bewerbung für Projekt 1111 – IT-Einkauf bevorzugt in Festanstellung – Chemie
Sehr geehrter Herr Mustermann,
für das Projekt
56354 – IT-Einkauf bevorzugt in Festanstellung – Chemie in Nordrhein Westfalen
sind Sie leider nicht in die engere Auswahl gekommen. Daher müssen wir Ihnen für diese Anfrage absagen. Wir würden uns jedoch über eine zukünftige Zusammenarbeit mit Ihnen sehr freuen und fragen Sie bei neuen Projekten, die Ihrem Qualifikationsprofil entsprechen, natürlich direkt an.
Unsere aktuellen Projektangebote finden Sie hier.
Alles Gute und weiterhin viel Erfolg!
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Recruiter“
Nun wollte mein Kollege wissen, warum er denn nicht in die engere Auswahl gekommen sei, da er perfekt gepasst hätte und es am Markt mit seinem Profil nicht wirklich viele Leute gibt.
„Sehr geehrter Herr Recruiter,
vielen Dank für die Information. Sicher gibt es Gründe, angeblich besser qualifizierte Profile zu berücksichtigen. Bitte erläutern Sie mir diese.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Best Regards
Max Mustermann
Geschäftsführer“
und nun kommt der Clou!
„Sehr geehrter Herr Mustermann,
es tut mir leid, aber in diesem Fall, war uns im Nachhinein vom Kunden gemeldet worden, dass dieser dann doch eher Jemanden in Festanstellung oder als Freelancer sucht, der nicht über 400 Euro im Tagessatz kostet.
Ich hoffe, dass wir Ihnen in naher Zukunft passendere Projekte anbieten können.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
Recruiter“
400 EUR Tagessatz für einen Interims IT Einkaufsleiter? Oder etwas mit Zeitarbeit verwechselt?
Oder einfach testen, wie weit man mit Frechheit kommt?
Viele Grüsse aus Büderich
Jutta Staudach
Projektmanagement Köln
Hürde Wirtschaftenglisch Telco Telefon
Was bereits allgemein bekannt ist, gerade internationale, insbesondere US amerikanische Konzerne lieben US Zertifikate, wie CISA (ISACA), CISM (ISACA), CISSP (ISC)2, PMP (PMI), CAPM (PMI).
Abgesehen von CISA sind diese nur auf Englisch ab legbar (ISC)2 und PMI bieten Sprachhilfen an, bei CISM, als auch CGEIT (ISACA) ist dies nicht der Fall. Jedoch klappt bei den Meisten Leuten die schriftliche Kommunikation. Auch fiese email Fallen sind mittlerweile bekannt. Face to face, Aug in Aug kann auch noch viel über non-verbale Kommunikation ab gefedert werden.
Wie das Manager Magazin im Februar berichtete, stellt aber Englisch am Telefon für viele Führungskräfte in Deutschland immer noch eine echte Herausforderung dar. Selbes gilt auch für Englische Sprache in den bei räumlich getrennten Teams, im Rahmen von Outsourcing Aktivitäten und ähnlichem so beliebten Telco / Telefonkonferenzen dar.
Muss das sein? Gut, nicht jeder hatte, so wie ich das Vergnügen für internationale und namentlich auch US amerikanische Firmen im nicht deutschsprachigen Ausland tätig werden zu dürfen.
Dafür gibt es jedoch eine Lösung – falls Sie auch an Ihrem Business Englisch üben möchten, holen Sie sich einen native speaker ins Haus!
Dies muss Sie und Ihr Unternehmen keine Unsummen kosten.
Gerne empfehle ich Ihnen einen Kollegen – UK native speaker
im Raum Düsseldorf und Köln.
Sprechen Sie mich an!
Ihre, Jutta Staudach
Projektmanagementberatung Köln
