Focus on delivery performance
Global network / Multi-stage procurement / Lean principles / Central management of production volumes and stock levels / Sensitive early warning system / Expansion of production and storage capacity on all continents / Digitalisation and automation
Leinfelden-Echterdingen – Roto Frank Fenster- und Türtechnologie GmbH (Roto FTT) is continuously working on improving the quality of its delivery performance. When summarising the current status of the delivery capability, Dr Stefan Thiemermann, Director of Operations, describes how the hardware specialist succeeded in maintaining its “delivery performance at a very high level despite the difficult market conditions over the last two years”.
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As stated by CEO Marcus Sander, the foundations for this were laid firstly by the economic robustness of the company and secondly by the digitalisation of all processes, which has reached an advanced stage, as well as the professionalism of supply chain management.
The production system at Roto FTT also proved to be a “critical success factor”. It follows lean principles and therefore ensures the greatest possible flexibility and agility. This enables the factories around the world to adapt very quickly to personnel and machine capacity. The internal flow of goods between the 15 production sites around the world and 26 logistics and distribution centres of the FTT Group works just as effectively as the multi-stage procurement process focused on security.
Digital processes save time
Thiemermann explains one of the benefits of the digitalisation being promoted by Roto: “When a customer order is registered by a sales company, the production and logistic network knows shortly after which components will be required when and where.” Out of all of a company’s active items, the most frequently requested standard components in a market are kept permanently in stock. He describes this as an expression of the excellent delivery availability of all items in the product range.
Close to the customer
Around the world, Roto produces and stores its parts as close to the customer as possible in order to meet the number 1 customer requirement - delivery reliability - in the best possible way. Production volumes and stock levels are managed centrally with a global view of developments in demand. “Theoretically possible bottlenecks on a continent are detected and managed using a very sensitive early warning system,” explains Thiemermann.
Sander adds that the aim is to reliably adhere to agreed delivery dates and maintain the delivery reliability that Roto is renowned for around the world. “As an economically robust company, we have so far been able to successfully overcome the difficulties on the international procurement markets.”
At the same time, the company stepped up communication with customers back at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Using sometimes weekly surveys, it was possible to prepare the distribution centres and factories for the expected demand in the most effective way, even before an order was placed. All Roto sites displayed maximum flexibility in terms of their staff, delivery deadlines and schedules to ensure delivery reliability. The company also invested in the expansion of production and storage capacity on all continents and in the further automation of factories and distribution centres.
On all five continents, Roto remains close to customers and in constant dialogue with them. Thiemermann summarises what this statement means: “At Roto, our work is based on a cross-process information chain from the customer adviser to the sales managers all the way through to the operational management of factories and stocks: this means that, ultimately, the customer initiates processes at the factories by placing an order.”
Increasing use of identical parts
Sander adds that the role played by product development and product range management in successfully maintaining the excellent delivery performance cannot be underestimated: “Every component that is designed for use with a variety of building elements can be preproduced by Roto and kept available in the distribution centres.” In this respect, the smart modular structure of the product range also contributes to the fast delivery speed.
Roland Eberharter, manager of the window production plant at Rieder GmbH & Co. KG, Ried im Zillertal, Austria, is one of those customers who appreciate the commitment of Roto FTT in the past months: “Delivery dates given to us by Roto are reliably adhered to. This means that we in turn can comply with our completion dates. Our company decided to partner with Roto over 40 years ago and there were presumably already good reasons to do so back then. Nowadays, I think the delivery accuracy alone would be reason enough to choose Roto as a hardware supplier. What also helps us specifically in Ried is the carefully considered packaging from Roto. We don’t have to transfer many items. This saves time. A pallet containing corner drives, for example, is directly positioned at the assigned storage area on the installation table. By the time the last corner drive has been installed in a sash, the next pallet is already there.”
