Case Study:

Founding and Construction of a Production Site in the USA for a Globally Operating Group in the Wood-based Material Supplier Industry

Company:

Decor printing company, approx. 300 employees, approx. € 100 million annual turnover

Initial Situation:

A mid-sized company, which was one of the industry’s top 3 suppliers to the wood-based industry, has raised its sales in the US above target and made the strategic decision to produce in the US for the North American market.

Imlementation:

As COO of the group, I was also responsible for this greenfield start-up in this project. On a previously acquired property, a production site was designed with local architects, which was completed in just 9 months. Extensive areas have been designated both in the building and on the property, making the location future-proof.

Parallel to the new building in the USA, a project for employee training has been started. On the one hand, future US employees in Germany have been trained on type-identical systems over several months. On the other hand, training sessions were held for the German employees, who temporarily went to the US to support the start-up phase of production.

In addition, a responsible technical manager from Germany accompanied the start-up phase.

Results:

The production started on time. Thanks to the initial support provided by specialists from Germany, any problems that arose could be remedied quickly and efficiently.

The production site reported a positive result after just 12 months.