Shop Floor Analysis of a Complex Manufacturing Process

Client: Global automotive manufacturer

Project duration: 6 months

Challenge:

The strategic challenge of this shop floor analysis for a global automotive manufacturer lay in the historically evolved heterogeneity of production processes across numerous national and international sites. Since operational procedures varied significantly between plants in southern and eastern Germany as well as abroad, the cross-site scalability of process optimizations was considerably hindered. The primary goal of the project was not the technical architecture itself, but rather the harmonization of general manufacturing and delivery processes to reduce organizational redundancies and increase efficiency. From a user-centered perspective, it was essential to deconstruct the deep-seated dependencies and site-specific peculiarities that stood in the way of a group-wide standardization of workflows. Without this detailed analysis of the current state, the business lacked the necessary basis for making informed decisions to initiate far-reaching adjustments in manufacturing and logistics.

Solution:

To manage this complexity, we adopted a methodical approach that focused on understanding high-level processes before diving into deep analysis. As part of a specialized UX consulting team, I conducted cross-departmental interviews along the entire process chain to document and validate actual work steps. The entire development and evaluation process was carried out remotely via FigJam, where we identified potential and best practices in close collaboration with various of the client's feature teams. Additionally, vision statements were developed in moderated workshops to create a shared target image for the transformation. The result of this intensive analysis phase was the cooperative development of optimized process models and strategic derivations. These served as essential guidance for subsequent project phases in which concrete changes were finalized, ensuring that process adjustments were based on valid user and business insights.

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