{"id":343,"date":"2019-12-11T09:18:13","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T08:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/de\/?p=343"},"modified":"2019-12-18T10:00:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T09:00:08","slug":"interview-tim-slomp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/interview-tim-slomp\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat I like about the Uhlmann culture: We always seek improve\u00adment!\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

About me<\/h4>\n
\n

Name: <\/strong>Tim Slomp<\/p>\n

Posi\u00adtion:<\/strong> CTO & Managing Director<\/p>\n

Geburt\u00adsort:<\/strong> Emmeloord, NL<\/p>\n

Hobbies:<\/strong> Flying airplanes, (aerial) photog\u00adraphy, swim\u00adming, surfing, sailing, walking the dog<\/p>\n

Place of work:<\/strong> Head\u00adquar\u00adters Laupheim<\/p>\n

With Uhlmann since:<\/strong> 2018<\/p>\n

\n<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n

Mr. Slomp, you joined us as Managing Director for Tech\u00adnology & Devel\u00adop\u00adment about two years ago. Which areas were most in need of your atten\u00adtion at the time?<\/h5>\n

Let us perhaps start with an aspect that was defi\u00adnitely not in need of atten\u00adtion. I knew from day one that Uhlmann is a company full of experts with a high level of knowl\u00adedge. I could see no neces\u00adsity for improve\u00adment in that respect. What I did quickly recog\u00adnize was that my work should focus on chan\u00adneling this exper\u00adtise \u2013 in other words, making the most effec\u00adtive use of the avail\u00adable skills. In some instances, things were done as they had always been done. Many struc\u00adtures had estab\u00adlished them\u00adselves. I wanted to sharpen aware\u00adness and turn people into system\u00adatic problem solvers.   <\/p>\n

That means that you came from outside and said that people had, to some extent, been dealing with the wrong things. Did you encounter resis\u00adtance?<\/h5>\n

On the contrary! That is what I came to like about the Uhlmann culture from the start: Everyone wants to change for the better. Employees set to work open-mind\u00adedly when I intro\u00adduced a new method\u00adology to improve our quality \u2013 a key step toward become system\u00adatic problem solvers. Lean Six Sigma is turning our employees into true waste detec\u00adtors.<\/p>\n

\n

<\/i><\/i>Lean Six Sigma<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n

Lean Six Sigma is a manage\u00adment method that helps compa\u00adnies to system\u00adat\u00adi\u00adcally detect and elim\u00adi\u00adnate waste in processes. Employees partic\u00adi\u00adpate in a training program lasting several weeks and assume respon\u00adsi\u00adbility for their own project to avoid waste. All partic\u00adi\u00adpants receive a certifi\u00adcate confirming their level. Using Six Sigma jargon, the top-level masters are referred to as Black Belts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This is a major invest\u00adment for the company and, of course, for the employees. However, we have struck the right chord: We mean\u00adwhile have over 100 employees in the company qual\u00adi\u00adfied to one of the certi\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion levels.<\/p>\n

What impact is this newly gained knowl\u00adedge having?<\/h5>\n

As an example, I am partic\u00adu\u00adlarly proud of the project of one employee. He focused on the order control depart\u00adment where all incoming orders are managed. We regu\u00adlarly had to contend with bottle\u00adnecks there, but were unable to explain them. The colleague studied the figures over some weeks and noticed that most of the orders were entered into the system on Fridays when everyone tries to clear their desk before the weekend. This simple fact led to a buildup and caused prob\u00adlems along the entire supply chain. Totally plau\u00adsible, but it would never have been noticed if no-one had taken the time to look closely. We are currently adapting the process so that these bottle\u00adnecks no longer occur.<\/p>\n

Have you improved our quality using other means of adjust\u00adment aside from this new aware\u00adness?<\/h5>\n

Two other topics have been addressed: the prod\u00aducts them\u00adselves and the processes. Taking a closer look has also helped product quality. For the first time, we are system\u00adat\u00adi\u00adcally listing which types of complaint are received partic\u00adu\u00adlarly often. This enabled us to look into the top five problem causes, which include the sealing roller and the product loader, both of which did not func\u00adtion as they should. We have signif\u00adi\u00adcantly revised these. The new modules are now being used in the latest machines and will cause us fewer headaches in the future.<\/p>\n

And where were the weak points in terms of processes?<\/h5>\n

We concen\u00adtrated here on our coop\u00ader\u00ada\u00adtion with suppliers. For a long time, as a typical mid-sized company, we have natu\u00adrally managed this differ\u00adently to a major auto\u00admo\u00adtive group \u2013 more casu\u00adally. For our quality stan\u00addards, however, it is crucial that we system\u00adat\u00adi\u00adcally review and audit our suppliers. We are doing that now. Further\u00admore, we are working on revising our incoming goods proce\u00addure and have strength\u00adened our depart\u00adment for tech\u00adnical quality manage\u00adment.<\/p>\n

These are all tasks that mainly concern the prod\u00aducts we currently manu\u00adfac\u00adture. You are also respon\u00adsible for devel\u00adop\u00adment. What have you changed there?<\/h5>\n

The big ques\u00adtion is always: What, essen\u00adtially, should we develop? We have initi\u00adated many things recently that enable us to keep an eye on the needs of the market. If we are aware of the aches and pains of our customers, we can aim at relieving these. Uhlmann has always carried out research and devel\u00adop\u00adment of its own accord. That was one of the strengths of the company before my time, its life insur\u00adance, so to speak. Due to that, we will continue to be on the ball when new issues emerge.<\/p>\n

Is digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion one of these new issues?<\/h5>\n

Yes and no. The term digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion does not really capture what is currently taking place in industry. Uhlmann has been digital for a long time. Many of us sit in front of a computer, we develop our machines in digital space, and they have many digital func\u00adtions. New is the networking. It is now neces\u00adsary for our machines to commu\u00adni\u00adcate with each other, or they must be able to under\u00adstand the SAP soft\u00adware with which the user works. We must learn how to handle issues such as big data. However, this is not anything our devel\u00adopers need to fear. They happily apply them\u00adselves to new topics. We have over 100 soft\u00adware engi\u00adneers in the mean\u00adtime, which means that we are well posi\u00adtioned.<\/p>\n

We will always need the people
\nwho uphold our corpo\u00adrate vision.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You say that we are already well versed in digital work \u2013 what will never\u00adthe\u00adless change?<\/h5>\n

Proce\u00addures such as order processing are pretty much old school \u2013 not only in our case. A lot is done on paper. That must change to improve our effi\u00adciency. Our produc\u00adtion processes must also be digi\u00adtal\u00adized to a greater extent to speed us up. Nobody must worry about his or her job when we say that we are working on digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion. Clearly, we are under\u00adgoing many changes, but we will always need the people who uphold our corpo\u00adrate vision.<\/p>\n

What is the content of this corpo\u00adrate vision?<\/h5>\n

Our work in Germany will become even more customized. We are already absolute experts in supplying tailored solu\u00adtions and we will continue to score in this respect. In our sector, only we with our excel\u00adlent German engi\u00adneering quality are able to do this \u2013 I am allowed to acknowl\u00adedge this as a Dutchman. The compe\u00adti\u00adtion is not on a par with us here. We also want to market our services more strongly as prod\u00aducts. Handled skill\u00adfully, it is actu\u00adally possible to sell a machine twice by providing services. And our stan\u00addard machine busi\u00adness must focus more inten\u00adsively on customer needs. We must lay greater emphasis on modular design. We need versa\u00adtile modular compo\u00adnents, from which we can quickly assemble the solu\u00adtions required by our customers. That has many bene\u00adfits. We can supply more swiftly and at a more attrac\u00adtive price, and never\u00adthe\u00adless earn well.<\/p>\n

Finally, let us talk about you. What does Tim Slomp do when he is not dealing with inno\u00adva\u00adtion, quality, or digi\u00adtal\u00adiza\u00adtion?<\/h5>\n

Privately, I like to be above the clouds. I have a private pilot certifi\u00adcate and I am very active on a volun\u00adtary basis. I am the chairman of an avia\u00adtion club in the Allg\u00e4u region, through which I orga\u00adnize attrac\u00adtive excur\u00adsions. We recently flew to Athens in small airplanes. Both profes\u00adsion\u00adally and privately, I like to have a bird\u2019s-eye view and to under\u00adtake jour\u00adneys with people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Slomp, CTO and Managing Director, has been respon\u00adsible for Tech\u00adnology & Devel\u00adop\u00adment since January 2018. His divi\u00adsions are the focus of many changes that we are currently encoun\u00adtering. We spoke to him about these. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

Read More\u2026 from \u201cWhat I like about the Uhlmann culture: We always seek improve\u00adment!\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":845,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pactuell"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1077,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343\/revisions\/1077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pactuell.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}