Trainers

Thomas Albrecht

Roman Amstad

Roman Amstad studied mechanical engineering at ETH in Lausanne (Switzerland) and UPV in Valencia (Spain), specialising in energy and control systems engineering.
For eight years Roman Amstad worked for ABB Turbo Systems Ltd in various positions. After a successful start as a R&D engineer, he was promoted to Senior Manager Technical Service with OEM customer responsibility and finally led the development of Turbo Compound technology within ABB.
From large-scale enterprise ABB, Roman Amstad dared to change to start-up ecocoach, where he joined as the third employee. He shaped the company as Business Developer, Head of Technical Sales and member of the management board and significantly supported its growth to more than 60 employees at six international locations within two and a half years.

Sebastian Bardy

Sebastian Bardy studied industrial engineering at the TU Darmstadt and is a research assistant at the Institute for Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW). He is doing his doctorate at the Center for Industrial Productivity and is mainly concerned with competence building for the integration of data-based process improvement. To this end, he is researching how the cooperation between learning systems and people in production can be improved.

Dr. Dirk Bayas-Linke

After studying pedagogy, Dr. Dirk Bayas-Linke started working as a consultant in qualitative market research with international clients. He accompanied the Blend a med brand from product development to brand launch. Subsequently, his consulting field expanded to include change management, organizational development and consulting. At the same time, he wrote his doctorate on the subject of organization and leadership. In his many years as a freelance consultant, he has gained experience in a wide variety of industries (including insurance, IT, defense and automotive) and has worked at all levels in organizations on the topics of change, complex transformation, strategy, leadership and organizational design from conception to implementation. Dirk Bayas-Linke has been Principal since 2018 and is responsible for Change and Organizational Development.

Ulrich Beck

Ulrich Beck has with his vocational training as a machinist technical roots and worked for many years as a design engineer in mechatronic control systems for the interior of premium vehicles. After training as a Kaizen coach, he was entrusted with the Lean transformation and the development of the RAFI production system. Here, Ulrich Beck has also gained experiences in the implementation of change projects in addition to Lean management methods. As a quality manager Ulrich Beck was subsequently responsible for establishing an effective complaint management and the introduction of the 8D process. He introduced the common methods according to APQP at this time. As a freelance trainer for project management, he also has great knowledge in terms of various PM standards and knows the business from project practice. Since January 2015 he is working for Staufen AG as Project Manager.

Dominik Bühlmann

After his studies, Dominik Bühlmann worked as an independent China expert and translator. Due to his language skills and previous work as an operator at Pfisterer AG in Malters (LU), he was given the opportunity to accompany the establishment of the new production site in Wuxi, People’s Republic of China, as Production Management Assistant. His tasks consisted of introducing the lean management program under the guidance of an external consultant, implementing short- and medium-term projects to increase quality and productivity, accompanying and interpreting the associated workshops, and ensuring communication between the Chinese workforce and the Swiss factory management.
Dominik Bühlmann has been working as a consultant at Staufen.Inova AG since 2015.

Pierre Cloth

He was able to demonstrate his skills in the field of world class manufacturing / engineering and value stream analysis in various plants and countries in many projects and workshops. His training as a Kaizen / KVP coach at Novem Car Interior Design GmbH and at MAGNA Interiors built the basis for this. In several Six Sigma Black Belt projects, he significantly contributed to the improvement and efficiency of processes. He gained his leadership skills as part of his training and practice assignments. This enables him to successfully manage project teams across all areas. Pierre Cloth has been an associate of Staufen AG’s Operational Excellence team since 2016. He is now employed as a Project Manager.

Christian Czejka

Christian Czejka ist seit 2001 bei der SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG beschäftigt und seit 2017 als Berater in der Abteilung Christian Czejka is working for SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG since 2001 and has worked as a consultant in our WIEPROconsulting department since 2017. He completed an apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic and proceeded with a study program of mechanical technician and industrial engineering. Within WIEPROconsulting he is primarily responsible for the implementation of change projects at international locations in Europe. He initiates and supports comprehensive change projects that deal with the topics of material and information flow design, process optimization and layout design.

Dominic Decker

Dominic Decker has worked as a consultant at SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG in the WIEPROconsulting department since 2016. He completed an apprenticeship as an Industrial Clerk and proceeded with a study program of Business Administration and Engineering at the university of Pforzheim. Within WIEPROconsulting Dominic Decker is primarily responsible for the implementation of change projects at international locations in Northern and Eastern Europe as well as for external customer projects. He initiates and supports comprehensive change projects that deal with the topics of material and information flow design, process optimization and layout design.

Sascha Dede

Sascha Dede has long-standing experience within electronic-, plastic- and sheet metal production industry. His main focus was the improving of production and assembly processes according to lean principles. As project manager he was responsible for the industrialisation of new products within the named production processes.
Sascha Dede has been working for Staufen.Inova AG since 2017.

Michael Feldmeth

Michael Feldmeth has implemented various Lean projects in the automotive industry as well as in mechanical and plant engineering. His projects included the restructuring of the entire order processing. The focus of the projects was the optimization of the production processes as well as the associated administrative processes. Due to the production of cooling systems and special machines, he was able to achieve a significant increase in efficiency and flexibility of production by reorganizing the manufacturing according to Lean principles and by training the employees. Most recently, he worked at Robert Bosch GmbH in the Central Department for the Development and Coordination of the Bosch Productions System. He was responsible for the further development of the production system according to the future requirements of the manufacturing industry. Michael Feldmeth has been working for Staufen AG since 2014. Since 2019 he is employed as a Project Manager.

Heinz Floren

Heinz Floren has been Head of Production at INSTA GmbH since 2003 and certified Lean Trainer in Lean Assembly since 2014. In this function, he is responsible for the strategic direction of the production in consideration of the Lean Principles. Key aspects are the initialization of improvement projects, such as the implementation of a value stream-optimized SMT-Production and guiding the change process to a Lean Production.

Lukas Förschner

Lukas Förschner learned about lean methods and approaches already during his studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Along with his studies he participated in consulting projects dealing with logistics, workplace design, optimization of assembly lines as well as shop floor management through internships and student consulting. While working as research assistance at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he gained profound knowledge about Lean Warehousing, potentials and impacts of the internet of things as well as real-time data based KPIs. In his Bachelor thesis he developed a lean basics training for the design of assembly systems as part of a learning factory for global production. He wrote his master thesis at Bosch Automotive (Thailand) Co., Ltd about the implementation of consumption control with Kanban loops. Since 2017, he works as consultant for the Staufen AG.

Markus Franz

As Senior Partner at Staufen AG, Markus Franz is responsible for a business unit that supports medium-sized companies and global corporations in significantly improving their competitiveness and ability to change.
Furthermore, he is responsible for the conception and implementation of customized qualification / training programs as well as the further development of the Staufen approach and service portfolio in the leadership segment. He is passionate about coaching and training executives, both on-site at his clients’ locations and in the Staufen Academy leadership training programs. Lean Leadership, Executive Leadership, Organizational Development and Change Management are his focus topics. In previous positions, Mr. Franz was responsible for the Staufen Academy and Managing Director of Staufen China.

Frank Gröner

Alexander Gutbrod

Alexander Gutbrod ist seit 2001 Berater und Trainer in der Abteilung WIEPROconsulting bei SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co. KG. Er war am Aufbau des SEW-Wertschöpfungssystems beteiligt und anschließend mit der internationalen Implementierung betraut und begleitete umAlexander Gutbrod is in the Department WIEPROconsulting of SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co. KG since 2001. He was involved in the construction of the SEW value adding system and then entrusted with the international implementation and supervised comprehensive restructuring of complete manufacturing and assembly plants of SEW-EURODRIVE. From 2009 on he was involved in the planning of the industrial gear factory of SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co. KG and was responsible for the assembly until 2015. Since 2015 he is back at WIEPROconsulting and supervising the production areas at the plant in Graben-Neudorf.

Michael Hahn

Since 2018 Michael Hahn is a Member of the Board. As a Senior Partner, Michael Hahn lead a team of Lean Manufacturing experts with a focus on automotive. Already before joining Staufen AG, he was able to implement Lean principles and thoughts based on the Toyota production system as project engineer of the Japanese planning service provider Chiyoda in the project A-Class Brazil. At Staufen AG, Michael Hahn was responsible for numerous projects regarding the development and implementation of holistic production and value-added systems. His professional focus is on supporting companies in holistic lean transformation, the development of value-oriented factory concepts and the design and implementation of training programs for Lean experts and executives. As a management trainer and coach, he is operation at leading automotive manufacturers as well as in the automotive supply industry.

Jürgen Hammer

Jürgen Hammer absolved his Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering. He was responsible for the management of many successful national and international transformation projects focusing on operational excellence. He has an outstanding technical knowledge and high level of industry expertise in the areas of mechanical and plant engineering as well as automotive. Also he is experienced in executive training and coaching in shopfloor management and leadership development programs.
He gained more than 5 years of industrial experience in machinery and plant engineering and more than 1 year as Interim Manager in the field of industrialization furthermore outstanding more than 16 years experience as Management Consultant, Lead Trainer and Coach.
His reference projects are the development of a global footprint for a globally active American pump manufacturer and the development of a European footprint for a global Swiss elevator manufacturer. He also managed oprational excellence programs in the areas of energy supply, passenger transportation and supply engineering and an holistic optimization of order fulfillment processes in the machinery and plant engineering sector. The factory planning of greenfield and brownfield factories in connection with Industry 4.0 concludes his profile.

Jan Haug

Jan Haug has been working for Staufen AG since 2007. In his current role as a partner, he manages comprehensive transformation projects in various industries. Already during his studies of industrial engineering, Jan Haug gained consulting experience in various projects at the then DaimlerChrysler AG in the area of Mercedes Benz production systems. For EHEIM GmbH & Co. KG, he supervised the construction of a production facility in China as a technical consultant. From 2013 to 2017, he held various management roles for Staufen China at the Shenyang and Shanghai sites. Jan Haug has extensive experience in lean management. He is an expert in agile and lean process organization design and project management in both development and other administrative areas. Another core competence is the optimization of management processes based on shop floor management.

Bernhard Heep

Bernhard Heep has been a consultant and trainer in the “Lean Management” department of MTU Aero Engines AG in Munich since 2007. For more than 20 years, he has been supporting change Projects with different focuses (i.e. the introduction of teamwork at MTU’s parent com-pany). Since 2013, he has been involved in Shopfloor- and Office Management and supports additional locations of the MTU Group. The actually Focus is to optimize Processes within the framework of Hoshin Kanri.

Lutz Herborn

Lutz Herborn successfully completed a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. e has an interdisciplinary and thus integrative way of thinking from a technical and economic point of view as well as a strong process-oriented thinking, especially when analyzing end-to-end processes. He has already gained industry experience in mechanical and plant engineering, automotive and vehicle manufacturing as well as multi-layered professional experience in the areas of consulting, corporate and start-up.
His experience and competencies lie in supply chain management and operational excellence, extensive industrial experience in production planning of an automotive manufacturer, strong knowledge in lean management as well as methodological and technical competencies in process mining.
His reference projects include the optimization of a material supply process in a medium-sized company on the basis of lean manufacturing methods, the implementation of an innovative process mining model for supply chain planning, the structuring and introduction of a uniform schedule control for cross-departmental project management and the introduction of store floor management in the indirect area.

Martin Herms

Martin Herms is managing director at Albrecht JUNG GmbH & Co. KG in Schalksmühle. After his apprenticeship in electricial engineering and subsequent studies, his professional career started in 1990 at WEIDMÜLLER in Detmold, a leading company in automation technology where he was in charge of various technical and managing positions. Subsequently he moved to HELLA in Lippstadt, an innovative company of the automotive industry. He became vice president of the electronics division with several international production and development locations. Since 2007 he has been the managing director of JUNG, responsible for technology, product development, product management, quality management and production facilities.

Dr. Alexandra Hey

Alexandra Hey is psychologist, accredited trainer and qualified six sigma master black belt and professional scrum master. She gained long-term experience in leading transformation programs in large international corporations and uses a dual focus on change management/ organizational development and lean management/ six sigma. Her industry focus is on service companies and indirect areas in manufacturing. She improves service quality and productivity as well as customer and employer satisfaction.
Alexandra Hey gained more than 20 years experience as internal and external consultant with 6 years as an expatriate. She gained extensive leadership experience with 2 years as Executive Board Member of a German insurance company. As reference projects there is to name the transformation of two energy companies introducing lean and agile. Also the process improvement and digitalization as well as implementation of Shop Floor Management in indirect areas of various clients. The trains and coaches internal change agents, project leaders and leaders.

Canan Jungel

CURRENT AND FUTURE TRAININGS OF THIS TRAINER
III. Train-the-Trainer to become a lean trainer
Operational Excellence in SME | Albrecht Jung live
Material in flow | SEW-EURODRIVE live
II. Lean Logistics
I. Basic training as a Lean Expert
Canan Jungel was during her dual bachelor studies as an executive assistant for the international freight forwarding company Gerner + Kahle GmbH responsible for operational logistics improvements. As a master‘s degree candidate Canan Jungel contributed to the development and introduction of the Lean Logistics Seminar for Staufen Academy. Since 2014 Canan Jungel is working as an Lean Consultant and Trainer at the Staufen AG. Since then she is nationally and internationally implementing lean transformation projects with the focus for lean processes and lean logistics operations. Furthermore as a Coach she is implementing and stabilizing Shop Floor Management in various branches. Within the Staufen Academy she is responsible for trainings within the public program, internal qualification and international training standards. Besides that she designs and conducts successfully customer specific qualification and training programs.

Dusan Kalabic

Dusan Kalabic is a production specialist and has gone through all stages of production. After training as a mechanic followed a long-time production practice. He continuously developed competencies and went through all hierarchy levels in production: skilled worker, group leader, shift master, master, production manager, head of production technology grinding, head of production technology and tool prototype construction, Plant Manager Production System. A very broad technology know-how completes his profile. He has also completed his teaching skills in teaching technical subjects in adult education. Various optimization projects in production and maintenance, as well as the application of lean methods / analysis brought him in-depth understanding of the application of Lean Management in theory and practice. He brings his many years of leadership experience in lean leadership, as a master coach in the implementation of Shop Floor Management. Since mid-2010 and after a short break, again since mid-2019, he works as a Senior Expert at Staufen AG in Germany, but also throughout Europe and China.

Tobias Kehrer

Tobias Kehrer is managing director of the Carl Stahl Hebetechnik GmbH and is responsible for national lifting equipment business within the Carl Stahl Group. After his studies in politics and public administration at the University of Konstanz, he occupied different areas of responsibility within the Carl Stahl Group as leading manager of the controlling department of the corporate group. Among others, Tobias Kehrer created the ProcessEvolution program for handling the lean transformation at Carl Stahl. Now in his new job, he continues this way within the company group.

Jens Kittlitz

Jens Kittlitz has been working for SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co. KG since 1991 in the training department and in diverse cutting production areas. After the completion of his training as an industrial mechanics followed a long-term production practice in the fields of operating and fitting CNC lathe and cutting machinery. Further qualifying himself as a technician, he has been working as an instruction master since 2010, focusing on conventional CNC lathe machinery as well as on examining and team building.

Jens Kohlhaas

Jens Kohlhaas joined WIEPRO Consulting at SEW Eurodrive GmbH & Co. KG in 2011. He graduated in Business Administration and Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Cologne. In his professional career he also worked for a logistic service provider in the automotive industry with a focus on inbound logistics. At WIEPRO Consulting Jens Kohlhaas focusses on project work in SEW‘s assembly and production plants in Asia – especially China. Currently he is involved in material flow and process optimization projects in China, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia. In addition he conducts trainings for Lean manufacturing and Lean assembly methods in Germany and abroad.

Janice Köser

Janice Köser is working at Staufen AG as Academy Manager since 2012. Her career started in 2007 as working student in the event management at Westpac Corporate Banking in Sydney. After finishing her Master of Commerce at the Macquarie University Sydney in 2008, she took over the professional guidance of congresses and cooperation events as Project Manager for WELT GROUP, FOCUS and F.A.Z. at premevent GmbH and Management Circle AG. Through this, she gained far-reaching contacts in economy and industry, science, and politics. Moderation and hosting plenary discussions complete her profile. Since 2011, Janice Köser is lecturer at the International School of Management (ISM) in Dortmund, Frankfurt Main, Cologne, and Stuttgart, teaching Strategic Event Management and MICE. She is member of the Staufen company audit AZAV / ISO 9001 / ISO 29990.

Vincent Kurtz

Vincent Kurtz is qualified as Master of Science in Industrial Engineering. He gained experience as a test Engineer at a German automotive OEM in the department Total Vehicle Development. Furthermore his skills are the Management consulting in the areas of Restructuring & Finance and Operations and also the leading execution of trainings of student management consultants. Vincent Kurtz reference projects are value stream analysis with subsequent setup time optimization with reduction of 50%. Moreover the development of a disposition model for inventory optimization. He also leads 5S workshops in medium-sized enterprises e.g., in production and assembly; business planning and restructuring and the development of a funding concept for an NGO.

Werner Luik

As Operations Manager at Modine Kirchentellinsfurt GmbH Werner Luik took responsibility for the reorganization and reorientation of a plant as well as continuous improvement of technical and economical key performance indicators under consideration of industrialization, logistics, production and maintenance aspects. At Staufen AG Werner Luik was responsible for the development and implementation of Shop Floor Management at several customers. Coaching and Master coaching were also elements of his consultant job. As Director Group Industrial Engineering and Logistics at Eissmann Automotive he was among other elements responsible for production ramp-ups, identification and execution of cost-reduction projects as well as further development of Essmann production system. Since July 2017 Werner Luik is again at Staufen AG as Principal at the Lean Leadership team.

Michael Metzger

Michael Metzger is an experienced Lean consultant for indirect areas, functions and processes. While studying for an industrial engineer degree, he had early gained experience due to his practical activities with lean approaches. On this basis, he initially carried out several Lean Administration projects in various areas of the automotive industry at home and abroad. Subsequently, he transferred the approach also in other branches such as e.g. machinery and plant construction, logistics, energy industries and the banking industry he was able to achieve significant improvements. His experience as coach and trainer completes his competency profile. Michael Metzger has been an adviser at Staufen AG since 2013, he started as a consultant in Lean Administration and works as a Project Manager since 2016.

Christian Möllers

CURRENT AND FUTURE TRAININGS OF THIS TRAINER
The impact of lean on key business figures

Christian Möllers studied business economics at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, focusing on finance, accounting and taxation. After completing his studies, Christian Möllers worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers AG WPG for five years, where he lastly conducted various auditing and consulting projects as Senior Consultant. Within the scope of these activities, he obtained a solid, cross-sectoral financial analysis. Subsequently, he joined BK-Partners Asset Management in Mexico, where he was responsible for a variety of due diligence projects in financial and strategic analysis of various international investment opportunities. Since 2013 Christian Möllers has been working at Staufen AG in the restructuring of medium-sized companies.

Thomas Müller

After his training as an industrial mechanic, Thomas Müller has chosen the study of Industrial Engineering (B.Eng.) with a focus on the production industry. He then went to the UK and completed his master’s degree with a focus on Industry 4.0, where he developed a maturity model for the evaluation of Industrial 4.0 processes.
He started his professional career at fischer Consulting GmbH as an analyst. In the Lean Production department, he was responsible for the execution of set-up workshops, layout planning, order processing and lean trainings for different industries, both nationally and internationally.
Since 2018 Thomas Müller has been working as a consultant in the area of operational excellence for Staufen AG.

Irina Müller-Fibian

Irina Müller gained her first practical lean experience as a degree candidate in the manufactory of an automotive supplier. The results of the centralization of external warehouses to optimize the production supply resulted in her diploma thesis. After moving to the logistics service provider, she became a project manager in contract logistics. There she was responsible for the planning and implementation of tailor-made logistics concepts for customers in the automotive and aerospace industry. Her successful projects included the introduction of the supermarket principle for the production supply of a first-tier supplier, the restructuring of in-house logistics processes to reduce processing time and sources of error, and the new launches of locations. As a consultant in the intralogistics of a food retailing company, she supervised the planning and execution phases of automated high-bay warehouses as the deputy project manager. During this time, she deepened her knowledge of the shelf and conveyor technology. She has been a consultant at Staufen AG since November 2018.

Sebastian Nett

Sebastian Nett was able to gain experience with the holistic approach of lean management during his studies at RWTH Aachen and KTH Stockholm. During his internship in project management at Daimler AG, the theoretical skills could be used in practice. He was involved in steering column development for various model series. He wrote his master thesis on the evaluation of product allocations in the design of global production networks at the WZL of the RWTH Aachen University. After graduation, he supported Tier1 customers as an application engineering consultant regarding the matching properties of connectors and terminals.
Since 2018 Sebastian Nett has been a consultant for Staufen AG, supporting his customers in holistic lean transformations in the electronics and automotive industries. He analyzes processes end-to-end by using value stream analysis and design, reduces complexity in production processes through suitable segmentation of the underlying product portfolio and designs and optimizes production and logistics processes of the product value streams.

Maja von Olnhausen

Maja von Olnhausen has been a consultant and trainer for WIEPROconsulting at SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG since 2007. She initiated and supervised nine years of improvement projects in production and assembly at plant Graben-Neudorf. Focus was on the concatenation of plants, operating concepts, set-up times as well as material flow optimization and re-design of assembly workplaces. Since 2016, she concentrates on development structuring administrative processes, communication, and interfaces.

Remco Peters

After studying business management at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Remco Peters began his career as a consultant at Agamus Consult. He developed his consulting experience at Cap Gemini as a member of international projects in the automotive industry. Most recently, he was responsible for Practice Lean Manufacturing & Administration at MBtech Consulting GmbH. The main focus of his consulting work is to design and implement lean business processes in the automotive and manufacturing industries. He is an expert on the subject of Shop Floor Management and the sustainable change of organizations. Since 2013, Remco Peters has been working for Staufen AG as a partner and mastercoach in the area of Shop Floor Management.

Marco Pett

After studying economics at the universities in Wuppertal and Nottingham, Marco Pett began his career at Robert Bosch GmbH in Salzgitter, where he had already gained initial experience of Lean methods within the CIP department. At GIRA Giersiepen GmbH & Co KG, he began his career in controlling, with a focus on administrative processes, before he used various Lean methods as the head of plastic production. In the course of this activity, he was responsible for the successful introduction of the Toyota-Kata method as well as from Shopfloor management in production. As an internal trainer, he also oversaw the implementation of Kata and Shop Floor Management in various other areas and was responsible for the design and implementation of internal training.

Markus Reichert

Markus Reichert since 2004 works for the department WIEPROconsulting at SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co. KG. At the beginning he was responsible for optimization projects in national and international production sectors and maintained widespread restructurings of the SEW-EURODRIVE sites. For several years now, he is responsible for change projects within the development area and leads WIEPROconsulting since 2010.

Nicolas Romfeld

Nicolas Romfeld is Project Manager at STAUFEN.AG. He is Coach for executives, employees and teams, as well as Consultant for agile work and lean management. Already during his studies, he used lean management methods within student consulting projects. Since then, he managed several optimization projects with STAUFEN. Quality Engineers and STAUFEN.AG, in different industries, in production and assembly as well as in indirect areas. Currently, Nicolas Romfeld is specialized on collaboration in development departments using lean development. Agile work is his passion for more than five years, that’s why he is significantly involved in the development and expansion of Staufen’s consulting approach Agile Performance. He is also a companion for employees, teams, and companies in the transition towards an agile organization.

Nils-Simon Runge

Nils-Simon Runge joined Staufen AG in October 2019 as a Project Manager in the Lean Leadership team. As production manager for electronic controls, he converted workshop production of controls and inverters into a clocked flow production. In his subsequent work in business process management, he and his team analyzed customer-to-customer business processes and introduced a key figure-oriented process cockpit for the site’s order process. In his later role as Head of the Sheet Metal Processing and Assembly Competence Center, he introduced cascaded, sustainable Shop Floor Management together with the team leaders. Nils-Simon Runge expanded his expertise in the fields of control engineering and mechanical manufacturing to include the area of management development and completed training as a systemic consultant with a focus on coaching and change management.

Patrick Ruoff

Patrick Ruoff has worked as a consultant at SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG in the WIEPROconsulting department since 2014. He completed the dual studies program at SEW and gained in-depth knowledge in the areas of assembly and logistics. Within WIEPROconsulting, he is primarily responsible for the implementation of change projects at international locations in North America. He initiates and supports comprehensive change projects that deal with the topics of material and information flow design, process optimization and layout design. He is responsible for the WIEPROsupport within WIEPROconsulting since 2019.

Andreas Schillinger

Andreas Schillinger has been working in Lean Management since 2005. His career began with the roll-out of fischer ProzessSystems at the factory in Buenos Aires. After his time in Argentina, he supported the plant in Auburn Hills, USA with the optimization of assembly, logistics and toolmaking. From 2006 to 2011, he was responsible for internal process improvement in the fastening systems sector in Germany. The main focus of the project was the implementation of Lean methods in cold forming, plastics processing and assembly, including the restructuring of internal logistics. In 2011, he took over the Lean Management of voestalpine Stampec GmbH in the Nagold and Böhmenkirch plants with the creation and introduction of an internal production system, an increase in the OEE (in particular through set-up optimization), a reorganization of the assembly and the organization of the company proposal. Andreas Schillinger has been an associate at Staufen AG since 2014.

Sebastian Schneider

Sebastian Schneider has many years of management experience in the corporate and project world and has assumed responsibility for holistic lean transformations as well as the coordination and management of major projects on several occasions. Furthermore, he has expert knowledge in the areas of aviation, transportation, public service and military.
His reference projects include the implementation of a lean culture in the steel industry, the establishment of a communication system based on lean criteria in operations and administration (shopfloor management), and reorganization and organizational development in the fiber optics and automotive industries.

Gunter Schöller

Gunter Schöller

After his apprenticeship and studies, Gunter Schöller has gained extensive experience in the realignment of the processes and their IT support in training and service areas in management functions. In addition to managing large and heterogeneous teams, he was able to successfully apply the principles of GPO and Lean. This formed the basis for long-term consulting activities at Management Partner GmbH. At two large regional banks, he successfully managed institutes by optimizing processes in the asset and liability business, IT migrations, the implementation of models of the associations and the concept of branch and media distribution. Lean projects in the sectors trade fairs, housing industry, industry and defense as well as interim management complete his profile. Gunter Schöller has been a Senior Expert at Staufen AG since 2015.

Robin Schorn

During his studies, Robin Schorn focused on production- and system technology as well as service management (key aspect: CRM and Sales Management). During an internship abroad in Hungaria for the Audi Hungaria Zrt. he supervised the integration of a fully-fledged RFID tracking method for vehicles in the assembly and logistics area and following that, Robin developed an integration concept for passive RFID in the Audi main plant in Ingolstadt focused on cost and waste minimization. During his Master studies, he completed an internship in the field of assembly planning at the Porsche AG and gained experience in digital safeguarding of assembly concepts by collision analysis, based on CAD. A master’s thesis with the topic ​​human-robot cooperation (MRK) for a long-term increase of profitability completes Robin’s profile. Robin Schorn has been working for the Staufen AG since 2017.

Christian Schurr

Christian Schurr has been able to gather experiences in using lean methods by working in restructuring projects. Due to his training as LeanAgent at MTU, he has become an expert in lean topics. He was responsible, as coach and subproject manager, in several projects of the production system at L‘Orange. During his time as deputy head of the department Christian Schurr implemented shop floor management, whereby his cost center was managed on the basis of, inter alia, performance figures.
With his team he built several U-cells and optimized the assembly to a lean flow production.
Since 2017, Christian Schurr is a consultant in the production and logistics team at Staufen AG and since 2019 he is employed as a Project Manager.

Kristin Simon

Kristin Simon is working as a consultant in the WIERPROconsulting department at the SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG since 2007. She graduated from the University of Pforzheim with a degree in business administration with the main focus on purchasing and logistics. At WIERPROconsulting she is responsible for realizing change projects at the plant in Bruchsal. She initiates and accompanies the entire change projects on the topics of material flow and information structure, process optimization and layout design. Furthermore she accompanies the market leadership process for development projects of SEW-EURODRIVE.

Johann Soder

Johann Soder is COO of SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG, Bruchsal.
After his apprenticeship as an energy system electronics technician, he took over the management of electronics production in 1995. As plant manager, he was responsible for for the Bruchsal location. Under his management, within 5 years an innovative electronics plant with state-of-the-art production and logistics processes. In 2000 he founded WIEPROconsulting, an organization that designs and optimizes business processes throughout the company. In October 2005, he was appointed Managing Director Production; from October 2007, as Managing Director Technology, he is responsible for the areas of innovation and production. Since March 2018, as COO, he has been in charge of the operating business of SEW-EURODRIVE, one of the global market leaders in the field of drive technology/drive automation. It employs 18,000 people worldwide. 16 manufacturing plants and 80 DriveTechnologyCenters in 51 countries provide global presence, best service and fast availability.

Christian Sprenger

After finishing his studies of business administration with focus on Corporate Finance and Management at the universities of Tübingen and Mannheim Christian Sprenger worked for the Wintergerst Societät für Unternehmer-Beratung for four years. There he accompanied various restructuring, growth and reorientation projects as well as M&A processes, primarily in the area of production companies. Christian Sprenger’s expertise especially lies within the field of Working Capital Managements as well as the analysis and development of integrated financial plans and financial modeling.

Freda von Stackelberg

Freda von Stackelberg is a graduate in industrial engineering with a focus on the areas of production and logistics. During her studies, she already dealt with the Lean subject within the framework of the Lean Hochschulgruppe e.V. She was able to further deepen this knowledge due to her logistics internship at Bosch Rexroth where she implemented BPS into projects. During her diploma thesis at Staufen, she elaborated a theoretical discussion on organization and cooperation. Since 2011, Freda von Stackelberg has been successfully implementing national and international lean transformation projects at the Staufen AG for the design of lean processes and the introduction of Shop Floor Management in various sectors. Within Staufen AG, she is a professional expert for the introduction of the structured problem solution.

Jan Philipp Stommel

Jan Philipp Stommel is an Associate at Staufen AG. He gained initial practical experience in the automotive industry while studying industrial engineering at the Technical University of Dortmund. At Audi AG, he supported projects in the area of incident management and process optimization, taking into account the principles and methods of lean production. He has worked for Staufen AG in Germany and China since 2018 and expanded his lean experience in direct and indirect areas. He is part of the Lean Sales & Service team. In addition to optimizing processes, he focuses on introducing the leadership concept of Shop Floor Management. Jan Philipp Stommel supports projects as a consultant as well as a trainer in companies from various industries. Moreover, through development and introduction, he has specialized in the Hoshin Kanri strategy development approach.

Eric Nils Timmer

Eric Nils Timmer started his career with the introduction and implementation of Lean methods early. As a master at Mercedes-Benz (management of 40 employees), he used Leans’ philosophy and its tools to achieve the safety, quality and cost-effectiveness targets. As a Lean Manufacturing Expert, he successfully carried out numerous transformation projects at home and abroad. Most recently, Eric Timmer was responsible for Lean implementation in production and administration at Mars Deutschland GmbH as Head of Lean and Training. In addition to the development and leadership of his employees, he successfully coached executives at all levels. As an expert in Lean Manufacturing, Eric Timmer focuses on the introduction of Shop Floor Management as well as on the analysis, design and implementation of efficient factory processes. He is also distinguished by his expertise in the design and construction of Lean Shop Floor organizations. Since 2014 he has been working for Staufen AG as Project Manager in the area of Shop Floor Management.

Peter Ullrich

After his studies in physics Peter Ullrich gained his first practical knowledge in the electronics manufacturing department of Solectron. As Technical Project Manager he was leading lean projects for the optimization of product launches and the respective engineering structures. On top of that he was responsible for introducing new product families. As Consultant for process management he optimized and implemented at first for Actano, later on as freelancer numerous business processes in the areas development and supply chain at leading automotive manufacturers. Peter Ullrich was also leading programs for the increase of efficiency and flexibility of project management processes. In the course of his consultant activities he also developed and lead several supportive training measures. Since 2015 Peter Ullrich is bringing his experience as associate in value added excellence in Lean Development to Staufen AG.

Christian Ullrich

After his master studies in Industrial Engineering and Management at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, he gained 4.5 years of consulting experience in supporting companies on their way to Lean Transformation. Furthermore he has international project experience in other European countries and experienced the management of projects for medium-sized customers and takeover of sub-projects for corporate groups. In reference projects he knows about the holistic OEE improvements in plant-intensive industries, introduction of Shop Floor Management, as well as coaching of executives in Shop Floor Management from team leader to managing director. Furthermore the introduction of a synchronized stand assembly incl. logistics connection in plant construction and factory planning projects (brownfield and greenfield). Complementary the design of cross-plant value streams and the optimization and design of assembly lines incl. connection to logistics.

Uwe Vogel

Uwe Vogel is a machine builder with many years of international experience. After studying factory business operations and laser technology at the TU Stuttgart, he initially worked as a project engineer for international system projects at Trumpf Systemtechnik for 5 years. Later he took over the department for automated sheet metal processing systems in a leading position. The consistent implementation of Lean principles at Trumpf (SYNCRO) and the design of lean processes in sales and project planning of customer-specific projects in the field of mechanical engineering belong to his core competencies. During the eight years as Managing Director for Trumpf Asia Pacific, he was able to gain profound knowledge of the growth regions of Asia and achieve sustainable sales success by establishing sales, service and training competence in the region. Since 2011 he is a consultant at Staufen AG. As a partner, he leads the Mechanical Engineering / Sales Excellence team.

Dirk Wettlaufer

Dipl.-Ing. Dirk Wettlaufer graduated in mechanical engineering from Dortmund Technical University (majoring in technical operational management). During his studies, he worked at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in various industrial projects. At Albrecht Jung GmbH & Co KG, Electromechanical Devices and Systems, he held a number of different positions and was appointed plant manager of the Luenen plant in 2000. The main focus of his work is on production, logistics and the design of the entire process chain in accordance with lean management principles. During a factory planning project, he had the opportunity of restructuring the operation of the entire plant in line with the principles of Lean Management and production. He also imparts this knowledge at the Hesse Vocational Academy as part of the bachelor course in mechanical engineering.

Marc Wiedmann

Marc Wiedmann has worked as a consultant at SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG in our WIEPROconsulting department since 2017.  He completed the Dual Study program for mechanical engineering at SEW and joined the new founded group WIEPROsupport in 2013.

Within WIEPROconsulting, Mr. Wiedmann is primarily responsible for the implementation of change projects at international locations, focused on Asia, as well as  market launch processes in the product development.
He initiates and supports comprehensive change projects that deal with the topics of material and information flow design, process optimization and layout design.
Furthermore, Mr. Kuhn also leads training sessions about value-stream-analysis and -design.

Tobias Wolf

Tobias Wolf has been working as consultant in the WIEPROconsulting department of SEW-EURODRIVE GmbH & Co KG since 2004. The graduate industrial and business engineer (Dipl.-Wirt.Ing.) has carried out numerous improvement projects at the Bruchsal electronics plant. Since early 2011, he has been in charge of the Graben-Neudorf assembly plant. The main focus is on the realisation of cost savings and cycle time reductions as the result of consistent process orientation in assembly and logistics. In addition, he supervised various manufacturing projects and played a major role in the development of lean structures at SEW in China.