Being honoured with overall victory in the „Factory of the Year“ benchmark competition for the very first time is a special accolade for Gerhard Schubert GmbH - both for the performance of the company management and for the daily commitment of the employees. Following the philosophy of company founder Gerhard Schubert, the management is taking this award as an opportunity to drive the company forward on a broad basis.
The commercial manager Jörg Brenner and the Head of Technical Organisation Jens Stoll comment on the significance of the award for the entire Group and for the Crailsheim plant.
Mr Brenner, Mr Stoll, what significance do you attach to the „Factory of the Year 2018“ award?
Jörg Brenner: We see the award first and foremost as a great honour for the life's work of our company founder Gerhard Schubert. He, his sons Ralf and Gerald and the entire management team have succeeded time and time again in realising the pursuit of Innovation and quality in all areas of the company and to motivate the teams on an ongoing basis.
Jens Stoll: The initiators of the competition speak of a „Revival of entrepreneurship“, In other words, people who are prepared to take a personal risk and combine this with perseverance, expertise and a good feel for future market requirements. This is nothing new for us. At Schubert, we have been acting successfully according to this philosophy for more than 50 years.
What conclusions do you draw from this overall victory for the future?
Jörg Brenner: The award confirms that we have made the right adjustments. That is why we are continuing along the path we have chosen. Standardisation and innovation are the key words here.
The Digitisation strategy by Schubert was explicitly emphasised by the jury. What makes it so special?
Jörg Brenner: Simply because we at Schubert addressed the issue very early and intensively. And it is still high on our internal and external agenda. We have been working with the ERP system developed in-house Saturn. All information converges there so that we can call up relevant data from any workstation in real time. There is no system proliferation and our employees can work efficiently. This is still unique in mechanical engineering today.
Jens Stoll: Added to this is the 3D printing, which we have already used to manufacture more than 60,000 parts. Before this process was used in our company, we subjected it to a holistic profitability analysis. This is because the use of new materials and processes has a major impact on our parts production. As a result, 3D printing enables us to increase customer benefits on the one hand and reduce process costs on the other.
Two terms that you hear again and again in this context are GRIPS and GRIPS.world. What exactly is behind them?
Jens Stoll: With our GRIPS management system, which we introduced in 2016, we are optimising our internal processes. The abbreviation stands for „Together towards innovation, processes and standards“.
At the same time, we will also allow our suppliers and customers to benefit even more from the advantages of digitalisation in the future with our GRIPS.world platform, which we are currently working on at full speed. We are addressing the following questions, among others: What do our customers need for efficient and smooth production? How can we further increase the performance of already installed TLM packaging machines? And what is the best way to schedule necessary maintenance work? „Predictive maintenance“ is the key word here.
What competitive advantages does this consistent digitalisation along the entire value chain offer you and your customers?
Jörg Brenner: We work with a high level of vertical integration and short lead times. For our customers, this means that we can supply them even faster and more reliably. In future, our customers will be able to make any changes to the product to be packaged or adjustments to the formats via the „digital twin“ of your packaging machine or incorporate them directly into the production process of your machine.
Gerhard Schubert GmbH is constantly growing, so you are certainly always on the lookout for highly motivated, well-trained employees. Do awards such as the „Factory of the Year“ help you to become an even more attractive employer?
Jens Stoll: In any case. Applicants explicitly ask us about it. The competition is very well known in the region, as we are already the third Crailsheim company to be honoured.
In their statement, the jury emphasised the appreciative treatment of employees. What special features characterise the company in this area?
Jörg Brenner: Many of our employees stay with us from training to retirement. They know our philosophy, the processes, our customers, simply everything. This naturally benefits us as an employer. In return, we offer our employees Long-term perspective. We are perceived as a stable employer that safely navigates stormy economic times and challenges and supports its staff. We work hard and then duly recognise and celebrate our achievements.
[infotext icon]Gerhard Schubert GmbH revolutionised the packaging machine market with the patented Transmodul transport robot. In Crailsheim, over 900 employees work on the diverse packaging machine solutions in batch size 1[/infotext].
