Andreas Kälber - Project Manager

As part of a greenfield project, a new production plant is being built in Slovakia that, upon completion, will produce industrial media storage units for OEMs and distributors.

Procurement and industrialization of production equipment for preassembly.

Design, procurement, installation, and integration of complete production lines based on stamping, forming, and welding technology with personnel-reducing, integrated processes.

Establishment of a manufacturing environment from a strategic perspective using the latest technology.

Overall and ongoing communication with the entire greenfield team, adjacent departments, as well as plant and company management.

Developing concepts together with key suppliers and identifying ratio potentials along production process chains using value stream analyses.

Determining, evaluating, and applying process data such as throughput times, production times, setup times, wait and idle times through time and multimoment studies and interviews.

Designing future-oriented production systems and processes with the goal of implementing automated and competitive process solutions as part of comprehensive supply chain management.

Planning production workflows, defining production methods, designing overall layouts and workstations.

Determining and recording process cost rates, overhead rates, cost evaluation of production processes, machine hour rates, depreciation, and expected shares of warranty and rework costs to optimize manufacturing costs.

Ongoing optimization of product designs for their adaptation to automation-oriented production environments up to the plant’s SOP.

Multi-project management for engineering, design, procurement, installation, and process integration of all relevant trades regarding plant engineering, lifting equipment, production tooling, and QA equipment.

Continuous establishment of an overall concept from a design, plant engineering, logistics, IT, and QA perspective.

Handled plant engineering for the construction and dismantling of bulk material storage areas and mixing beds for the bulk industry, especially coal stockyards.

Central coordination of customers and suppliers in an international environment as a single point of contact for the global project landscape.

Responsible for cost, profit, and contract controlling, as well as claim and change management.

Led the project team and ensured milestone achievement.

Organized and moderated meetings with EPC service providers, engineering companies, and key suppliers in Asia.

Conducted timezone-based video conferences with global escalation authority.

Independently managed orders on time and with quality within the set budget.

Acted as an active interface between customers and suppliers and internally coordinated responsible team members.

Improved communication structure and gained transparency through straightforward management and on-time delivery.

Directed and coordinated global project management for production plants, involving customers Daimler and AMG.

Served as the central contact for the customer and was globally responsible for cost, profit, contract controlling, and change management.

Led the program team (quality, sales, engineering) and project teams in Europe, the USA, and China.

Supported, guided, and trained plant project managers to improve management practices.

Handled internal planning, coordination, support, and standardization of interface communication between central engineering and production plants.

Responsible for achieving milestones and individual Q-gates.

Organized business unit meetings and program steering committees with escalation authority to automotive management in Japan and the EU business unit in France.

Moderated conference calls, coordinated and tracked actions, and provided detailed training to participants.

Managed engineering change requests (ECR) in cooperation with sales and plants.

Conducted technical and commercial discussions with Daimler to close gaps to nomination status.

Accompanied process audits according to VDA 6.3 by Daimler and AMG in various production plants.

Successfully completed process audits and transferred the implementation concept into standards.

Achieved significant gains in transparency, adherence to schedules, and open communication with the customer Daimler.

Interim management of the order center for a pre-series phase up to the series launch of seating systems for trucks, vans, and buses.

Planning of production dates for single seats, suspended seats, driver-adjacent seats, and rear seat modules.

Support and assistance with special part procurement for pre-series production.

Managing requirements via a FileMaker database due to ongoing SAP integration work.

Conducting technical alignments with sales, QA, prototype shop, and lab to procure specific components.

Integrating pre-series requirements into the upcoming series production program and distributing capacity.

Creating corrective measures through daily fine-tuning and reporting from picking, production, and shipping.

Leading daily stand-ups and production meetings to coordinate the day's tasks.

Intensive training and support of the series team for task takeover.

Smooth coverage of requirements and efficient resource planning by implementing self-developed tools.

Establishment of a transparent daily reporting for finer coordination between customers and internal departments.

Project and program management for interior commodities such as doors, instrument panels, and center consoles.

Designing concepts and preparing offers for the Daimler S-Class BR223 in multiple loops according to the tender.

Technical and factual leadership of the commodity teams through the offer loops.

Creating offer documentation taking target objectives and customer requests into account.

Conducting daily scrum meetings for team coordination and content correction.

Coordinating international processes across various plant locations.

Presenting and explaining the loops to the customer, including preparing presentation materials.

Reducing manufacturing costs to meet target requirements.

On-time delivery of concept and offer documentation.

Supporting and leading in an escalation situation within a turnkey large-scale project for aerospace production facilities.

Building a planning system with defined structures and an interface matrix.

Implementing tools for operational reviews to align overall and subproject plans.

Enabling cross-functional planning and feedback integration into project teams together with the customer.

Successfully training all team members and ensuring the sustainability of the introduced planning system.

Planning and executing retrofit and maintenance projects for water cooler production plants.

Managing system suppliers and coordinating based on specification requirements.

Monitoring specifications, budgets, and schedules.

Handling claim management and preparing change order documentation.

Managing on-site work at the production facility, including briefing up to 13 employees.

Coordinating materials for commissioning and machine capability tests.

Carrying out commissioning and preparing internal acceptance protocols.

Increasing production by 7% to 25%.

Reducing follow-up costs by over 30%.

Managing the relocation of a plastics plant and planning its operational facilities.

Design and costing of production equipment based on P+IDs, PFDs, and customer documentation.

Procuring, accepting, and commissioning equipment components.

Selecting and managing system suppliers and coordinating specification requirements.

Preparing tender cost estimates based on value analyses and comparison results.

Developing solutions for pneumatic conveying systems.

Supply chain and claims management, including preparing change order proposals.

Delivered the project approximately 14% under the budget (approx. 30 million euros).

Maintained execution-ready conditions despite ongoing customer changes.

Planning, design, engineering and costing of press systems for water coolers.

Selection and management of system suppliers and budgeting (approx. 5 million euros).

Development of solutions for plant technology to process aluminum and steel stamped sheets.

Site management at the production plant in Hanover/Wolfsburg including staff training.

Execution of commissioning, final acceptance and first sample production.

Complete, on-time implementation within budget.

Concept-based increase in production output by over 50%.

Engineering and costing of press systems for water coolers to manufacture radiator fins.

Budget responsibility of approx. 11 million euros.

Management of system suppliers and coordination based on specifications.

Site management at international production locations including staff training.

Execution of machine capability studies and first sample production.

On-budget and on-time concept implementation.

Increase in production by around 44%.