Press Release

SIEB & MEYER AG and the Leuphana University in Lüneburg (Germany) cooperated in the Innovation-Incubator project. In the course of this project established management practices of large companies were tested on applicability in small and medium-sized companies (SME). This way Best Practices were optimized and used to benefit the customers.  

If a company wants to provide excellent performances, it takes more than just know-how and a talented team. When competing today's global challenges with regard to cost saving and increase in efficiency you must provide high motivation as well as a culture of sustainable and continuous improvement in order to prove yourself. 

This is where the research project Operations Excellence co-ordinated by the Institute for Product and Process Innovations (PPI) comes in as one of the wide range of Incubator activities. The aim of the project is to implement new developed methods for improving production systems in SME, thus allowing them to act at the highest possible level – ideally with leading position on global market – and strengthen their global competitiveness.

In the scope of Operations Excellence, various management methods proven in large companies have been applied to middle-size companies and tested in practice by SIEB & MEYER AG as one of the two participants of the project. "In a first step we analyzed the methods already used, in a second step, other methods that could also be promising were evaluated", said Torsten Blankenburg, CTO at SIEB & MEYER.

"This way, successful concepts of Global Players can be utilized in other fields of applications and become an important tool for middle-size companies." Existing processes and established structures were analyzed in detail, and – if applicable – optimized, as for example measures in the field of material flow and visualization of key performance indicators. Improving internal processes leads to an increase in efficiency for the benefit of SIEB & MEYER customers. "As middle-size company, we are on the same level with large companies, but benefit from our ability to react more flexibly and faster on customer needs and changing market conditions as well as application-specific customer inquiries with smallest quantities", concludes Torsten Blankenburg, CTO at SIEB & MEYER.”

Background information

The Innovation Incubator Lüneburg is an economic development project of the Leuphana University and Lower Saxony, which is unique in Europe, and has the aim to implement top-level research directly in products and services. Main issues are generating and securing jobs in future-proof economic sectors as well as strengthening the research and development potential, especially of small and middle-size companies in the region. Another aim is to provide highly-qualified graduates for the job market.