IMI Z&J Düren upgrade
on track and on budget
WRITTEN BY
Metin Gerceker
Managing Director, IMI Z&J,
IMI Critical Engineering
The IMI Precision Engineering business based in
Seattle, Washington in the US was acquired by IMI in
2005. Interestingly, the original business was founded
in 1976 by two engineers who made model rockets!
The Seattle team of 200 focuses solely on the
commercial vehicle sector, manufacturing and shipping over
1000 part numbers used in almost every part of a large
truck across five product value streams: air, fuel, solenoid,
powertrain, and electronic assembly areas.
We’re working hard to achieve our goal of being a
world-class organisation and while our service levels are
good, we recognise the need to continuously improve as our
customers raise their expectations. Customer engagement
and feedback receives significant focus and this is evident in
our net promoter score (NPS) – the division’s highest 2015
average though Q3 at 58.
WRITTEN BY
Roland Lester
Managing Director, Seattle
IMI Precision Engineering
Seattle aiming to be a
world-class organisation
We’ve been working hard on the lean and quality
culture - reinforcing a zero defect mentality. We always aim to
meet our promises and that is the culture here. Fast response
to inquiries or quality concerns is the expectation; acting with
a high sense of urgency. On-time delivery has been at or near
100% for several years and our 2015 productivity averaged
96%, which we are really proud of – a GREAT team effort.
We have a very strong team and our employees really play
their part, going the extra mile to deliver their best.
David Shrader’s role as Design Engineering Director has
been critical to our success - he’s focused on growing the
business with new product development and our continued
focus on supplier development is contributing too. We are
successful but never complacent – lots to do, but some really
good progress on our journey to world-class.
Accurate, consistent data that is
easily available helps us to run all
the parts of our business more
effectively. A new programme that
is rolling out across IMI Critical
Engineering is showing that the
benefits of a ‘Single Point of Truth’
for data doesn’t just improve
efficiency internally – it helps make
our offering to customers more
competitive and compelling too.
So far, IMI Critical Engineering has
rolled out its new enterprise resource
system (ERP) to half of the target 8 pilot
sites. IMI CCI Brno and IMI CCI Vienna
installed the system in June last year,
and IMI CCI Japan (Kobe) and IMI CCI
Sweden in Saffle went live in early
February this year. The planned cost
savings for 2016 are significant.
The situation at IMI CCI Brno was
typical of the problems faced by many
of our sites. There was no single system
and data was managed through excel
spreadsheets. Data entry was manual,
which is inefficient and sometimes
inaccurate. Many customers had
The
€
7.4m upgrade of IMI Z&J’s
Düren facility involves refurbishing
manufacturing halls which are over
100 years old, building new offices,
and upgrading equipment.
The new head office building has
been built, and the roof erected, windows
and doors are being installed, which will
allow interior fitting out to continue in
all weathers. The offices are due to be
completed and handed over in May 2016.
Work in the manufacturing halls
continues, involving a combination of roof
works, floor repairs, structural extensions
and alterations, and new equipment,
such as gas heaters, roof and smoke
ventilators.
The upgrade will enable leaner
manufacturing standards, by moving
equipment and reorganising activities to
improve flow.
It will also create capacity for growth,
including some support for IMI Th Jansen,
which is outsourcing its manufacturing
and assembly from St. Ingbert-Rohrbach,
near Saarbrücken.
The IMI Z&J upgrade is part of
Critical’s investment in improving the
quality and efficiency of its manufacturing
sites which includes new world-class
facilities opened during 2015 in Houston,
USA, and Paju, Korea.
WRITTEN BY
Ian Johnson
Chief Financial Officer
IMI Critical Engineering
How better internal data
is helping our external
competitiveness
multiple entries on the customer
database resulting in the wrong credit
limits and making cost control and
transparency very difficult. There was
little consistency – for example a single
part could have up to eight part
numbers.
Miroslav Focht, President IMI
Control Valves EMEA explains
“When you
talk about this system my first thought is
- what a great change! We’ve now got
better control over everything from
material management to production
processes and project management.”
Perhaps most importantly, the
benefits of the system are also being
felt by our customers. Miroslav Beneš,
Managing Director, IMI CCI Brno
explains:
“The benefits of the system
can also be expressed by the way
our customers perceive us; how
professional we are at handling projects,
at manufacturing, how stable and robust
our costs are.”
Once the system has been rolled
out to the initial 8 sites the intention is
to roll out the system to other sites as
legacy systems require upgrading.
IMI Critical Engineering chose a standard
out-of-the-box system by IFS to make
the wider global roll out easier.
7
Critical
Precision
Hydronic
business improvement
