We consult differently

We work in Automotive

and beyond

We consult differently

We work in Automotive

and beyond

Our roots are in the automotive industry. Maximum cost pressure, high quality standards, and complex value flows in international development and production networks are key features of this market. For us, there is no industry that is as complex and challenging. That’s why Automotive is our main line of business. It’s where we develop our processes, methods, and tools.

We apply this expertise to other lines of business in production and services. Our strength lies in very efficiently adapting proven methods and experiences to all kinds of applications. In regard to the individual strengths of the different business lines, the solutions we deliver exceed industry standards every time.

The combination of automotive and non-automotive gives us a daily supply of new perspectives that break through established thinking patterns. This lets us systematically refine our processes, methods, and tools. Every line of business and every customer has its highly specific strengths. This combination of differing strengths and perspectives is what drives us to keep on reviewing and systematically refining our performance.

Tangible skills –
exceeding industry standards.

We consult differently

Production & Logistics

Heart of our consulting services

We consult differently

Production & Logistics

Heart of our consulting services

Our work is based around production and logistics, since this is where value is added. It’s where the levers for performance, profitability, and adaptability can be found.
The ideal production system is perfectly coordinated with the product range and market environment. A scalable system on modular principles will deliver without waste, in perfect coordination with the customer’s rhythm, on time. As products and markets, technologies and processes all develop dynamically, it will adapt with maximum flexibility.

At its heart, our work is to shaping the transformation process from the inside out: We optimize processes, empower cross-functional teams, and develop strategic target visions. Our thinking is strategic, and our actions operational.

Every day, we work on many different projects. The range of tasks we perform is as varied as the world of production in which we operate. Even what seem to be equivalent production processes can have quite different requirements. In essence, however, optimizing the core elements of production and logistics is always the key factor. We deal quickly with current problems, systematically optimize entire processes and develop the system solutions of the future. Our focus is always on efficiency and quality, flexibility and investment.

By managing the often-conflicting interests of strategy, detail and system, we quickly achieve sustainable improvements.

Our work is based around production and logistics, since this is where value is added. It’s where the levers for performance, profitability, and adaptability can be found.

The ideal production system is perfectly coordinated with the product range and market environment. A scalable system on modular principles will deliver without waste, in perfect coordination with the customer’s rhythm, on time. As products and markets, technologies and processes all develop dynamically, it will adapt with maximum flexibility.

At its heart, our work is to shaping the transformation process from the inside out: We optimize processes, empower cross-functional teams, and develop strategic target visions. Our thinking is strategic, and our actions operational.

Every day, we work on many different projects. The range of tasks we perform is as varied as the world of production in which we operate. Even what seem to be equivalent production processes can have quite different requirements. In essence, however, optimizing the core elements of production and logistics is always the key factor. We deal quickly with current problems, systematically optimize entire processes and develop the system solutions of the future. Our focus is always on efficiency and quality, flexibility and investment.

By managing the often-conflicting interests of strategy, detail and system, we quickly achieve sustainable improvements.

We consult differently

Production & Logistics

We think ahead

We consult differently

Production & Logistics

We think ahead

The ideal, comprehensive system will already be planning ahead for the next generation of a new system landscape. Traditional relationships with customers and suppliers are transforming into development, production, and service networks. These networks are highly flexible structures that develop the products, technologies, and systems of the future.

This transformation process is built around a perfectly practiced Production and Logistics unit. With a modular structure, operating efficiently and with a steady rhythm, this is what drives the next powerful stage.

Building on this core, we expand our view to take in the entire system, including the supplier network, distribution and service, product and process development, and the strategic process.

Our work focuses on optimizing this power plant. At a management level, we support the strategic process, while at a process level we establish a rhythm for the sub-projects. Employees, skilled workers and management personnel undergo active training on-site.

At a practical level our thinking is structured around two platforms. The base platform is where we continuously optimize our existing fields of business. This delivers expertise, tested solutions, cash and change performance. The development platform created on this basis re-thinks products and supply chains. Using a system of rapid pilot projects, it develops and refines strategies and hands over solutions ready for production to the base platform.

Having a broader perspective opens up new scopes for solutions. The sophisticated work performed via these platforms delivers tangible results and secures the strategy.

We consult differently

Empower people

Achieve goals

We consult differently

Empower people

Achieve goals

Achieve goals

Success in motor sport depends on four essential elements. Rigorous avoidance of waste; perfectly optimized components; a swift response to changed requirements; and an absolute focus on the goal.

The same applies to businesses, but in more complex form. In both cases, the focus on the goal is unrestricted and the important factors are consequently empowered. Based on this way of thinking, we essentially concentrate on two points.

All components like unit cost, capital expenditure and flexibility focus on increasing EBIT. All factors such as methods, processes, modules and management are rigorously aimed at making individuals successful as a part of cross-functional teams.

In our practical work, this approach forms a common thread from strategic activities through to short-term implementation within the sub-projects. As a result, we deliver tangible results cycle by cycle, as we enable people day by day. This is a system that rigorously drives the change process further – beyond what we can achieve through our own input.

We deliver EBIT
by empowering people.

Achieve goals
We consult differently

Unity is strength

Performing best as a team

We consult differently

Unity is strength

Performing best as a team

Unity is strength
Unity is strength

How can complex projects and efficient change processes be successfully implemented? People are always the key factor. The skill lies in building confidence and getting all the relevant players involved – not only employees but also skilled workers and management personnel. Some by being directly involved, and others represented by participants in the individual teams. Goals that might be contradictory, different levels of knowledge and perspectives all call for creative thinking. Cross-functional teams give rise to new approaches that go beyond existing solutions. As a result, individuals become qualified to act as multiplicators in driving forward the change performance process from inside.

Our experts provide professional and method-related input, get the relevant process partners involved, and work with management personnel to drive the process through to an overall result. This is where we work strategically at a management level and actively engage with employees on the shop floor. But when it comes to presenting the results, however, we deliberately fall back three paces. After all, the subjects can take hold only when the individual teams perceive the results as their own personal success, which is when lasting breakthroughs can be achieved.

We challenge and encourage, we empower and create enthusiasm – we change mindset!

We consult differently

Our business

Scalable and modular

We consult differently

Our business

Scalable and modular

Increasingly networked structures in technology, product and market development require a new way of thinking. The future will be shaped by companies that refine their established business fields on modular principles and with a high level of efficiency, and take this process as a basis for thinking about innovative solutions and business fields, testing them, and taking them through to market readiness, all as part of a networked structure.

The result is a sphere of action that operates in multiple dimensions. The process landscape builds the basic surface. The time perspective forms an added dimension.

The process landscape creates the value flow from supplier to distribution, the life cycle from development to production and the strategic process. The time perspective is defined by three elements: short-term problem solution, systematic process optimization and strategic development.

Our way of working, to optimizing products, and processes from the very heart of value creation opens up new scopes for solutions to permit a modular way of thinking. As a result, we can adapt our services very flexibly to suit given tasks at any time.

We provide exactly what’s required. Our services are structured on a modular basis. We are clearly focused on strategic orientation. And we pay attention to detail when it comes to practical implementation.

We consult differently

From the Here and Now

Towards new scopes for solutions

We consult differently

From the Here and Now

Towards new scopes for solutions

Our way of working makes the difference. Our focus is to developing and implementing new scopes for solutions by optimizing the Here and Now. A process which starts tangible and concrete inside the heart of the value-added process.

Optimization in the Here and Now starts with pilot projects. This approach quickly builds confidence, provides short term measurable results and allows us a clear view on the DNA of your company. This impetus is our driver in transferring the optimization process to entire value streams and product families.

This approach opens up new scopes for solutions. Optimization projects unveil deeper potentials, the changed mindset of the empowered people guarantees a sustainable implementation. Partly used savings from earlier projects ensure the financing and create the basis for the next steps towards the future.

This is how we enable you to re-think your company strategy and to find solutions for the future requirements. What potentials lie unused in your company? Which technologies and processes will influence the market, and how will the entire production network change in the long term? How can a positioning in changed markets look like? And how can solutions be developed and tested on a pilot basis right now?

We consult differently:

We empower people.
We implement together with you.
We develop new scopes for solutions.

About us

About us

Since our foundation as a:s industrieberatung in 2001 we are passionate about optimizing processes.
Our consequent and detailed work and the sustainable implementation of results on site are the reasons for our good reputation from the very beginning.

The initial focus of our work was the consulting of mid-size suppliers in the automotive industry. In the meantime, also car manufacturers revert to our expertise and belong to our satisfied customers since years.
After the change of name of our company into Austermann Process Management Partners now the center piece of our work is clearly visible.

Today Austermann consists of a consulting team of appr. 20 specialists and managers with a long-lasting experience in production and logistics and lateral thinkers with nearby competencies and an extended perspective who are opening new scopes for solutions for us.

Considering the rapidly changing environment we expect even more and additional strategic assignments in the future. Due to the broad expertise our team is optimally prepared for it already today.

Our customers

Operate globally

Our customers

Operate globally

What our customers say

What our customers say

Project reference

Flex Hub Logistics

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Project reference

Flex Hub Logistics

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Target

Target

  • Realization of a highly efficient and flexible logistics value stream (global)
Implementation

Implementation

  • Work out of a global supply chain
  • Modular logistics structure
  • Cost reduction
  • Poka Yoke and quality management
Result

Result

  • Efficiency +20%
  • Cycle time -50%
  • Material stock -50%
  • Modularity 100%
  • ROI 3,8 months
Project reference

Poka Yoke

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Project reference

Poka Yoke

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Target

Target

  • Improvement of product and process quality

Implementation

Implementation

  • Consideration of entire value stream
  • Fundamental failure analysis
  • Training on the job on Poka Yoke methods
  • Active implementation monitoring of the solutions on site
Result

Result

  • Failure reduction 80%
  • Method expertise Poka Yoke
  • ROI 5 months
Project reference

2 Brands Facility Launch

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Project reference

2 Brands Facility Launch

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Target

Target

  • Set up of a new 2-brand assembly line incl. SOP (EU)

Implementation

Implementation

  • 2-brand production strategy
  • Ramp up and stabilization of new assembly line (vehicle #1)
    + integration and SOP (vehicle #2 / brand 2)
  • Capacity increase by at first 2, later 3 shifts
  • Integration and SOP (vehicle #3 / brand 2)
Result

Result

  • Start up new plant in 18 months
  • Training on the Job of skilled people and management team
  • Process optimization in parallel
  • Efficiency increase of vehicle assembly time 20%
  • Internal Lean Award
  • ROI 4 months
Project reference

One Piece Flow Paint Line

Customer: Mechanical Engineering Company

Project reference

One Piece Flow Paint Line

Customer: Mechanical Engineering Company

Target

Target

  • Development of a new value stream
  • Focus on handling of painted parts
Implementation

Implementation

  • Value stream analysis
  • Component analysis for paint line I. / paint line II.
  • Concept development One Piece Flow
  • Development of a flexible frame fixture for 1 touch
  • Piloting and test run
Result

Result

  • Finalized planning for One Piece Flow
  • Released implementation planning for building and equipment
Project reference

WIP Reduction

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Project reference

WIP Reduction

Customer: Car Manufacturer

Target

Target

  • Reduction of high vehicle stock und high rework cost

Implementation

Implementation

  • Analysis of current state (value stream, indicators and data base)
  • Elaboration and prioritization of possible solutions
  • Implementation of lean processes for synchronized rework
  • Implementation of lean processes for synchronized material supply for rework
  • Build up of a control system for rework
  • Immediate feedback routine on failure analysis
Result

Result

  • Process standards, transparency
  • Reduction of vehicle stock from appr. 6.000 to appr. 500
  • WIP -90%
  • ROI < 3 months

Career

Career

We are always looking for committed lateral thinkers and offer to either experienced consultants and trainees flexible work schedules which fit best to the individual phase of life. In the case you are enthusiastic in consulting differently in a highly professional, open and amicable atmosphere we should talk to each other. Please send your meaningful application papers to

Become a member of the Austermann-family!