Brian Rüeger has been Rector of the HWZ Zurich University of Applied Sciences for a year now. Under his leadership, a new dynamic has developed at this educational institute.
Travel educates and is always associated with many emotions. André Lüthi, long-standing Managing Director of the travel provider Globetrotter, knows all about this. As an entrepreneur, he has succeeded in turning his personal passion into business success.
The turnaround concept with the rescue plan is in place. Creditors, banks and other interest groups are on board. What is needed now is stringent implementation. Who can implement the agreed measures on time and involve the people as part of the solution? Can this succeed? How?
Changing shopping behavior is on the rise. As a result, a new category of customer is emerging: "hybrid customers". What does this mean for marketing and sales?
For resilient and efficient cooperation within the company.
The use of AI is also becoming increasingly important in education and training. But where and how exactly are educational institutions using AI? And where are developments in AI-supported learning heading?
The introduction of a manufacturing execution system requires a high level of understanding of the production processes as well as a high degree of flexibility in the processes. How the implementation succeeded in record time.
If you go to the dentist regularly, you may have already come into contact with medmix Switzerland AG products - in the truest sense of the word. The syringes and cannulas that contain pastes, jellies and fillings for dental treatment are made by medmix. The company is a leading provider in the manufacture and sale of products for dosing, exact mixing and precise application. The high-precision products are used in the medical, healthcare and beauty sectors as well as in the industrial and construction industries.
To ensure that they function safely and reliably, all parts must be manufactured with great attention to detail. This places high demands on production. Critical parameters such as the quality of the raw materials, homogeneity of the material mixtures, temperatures, pressure in the injection mold, quality of the mold and cooling process must be precisely coordinated. Every error means stopping the machine, sorting out faulty parts and readjusting the system. This costs a lot of time and money.
To avoid this, it was clear to those responsible at medmix that they needed a solution that would make the production process transparent and not only record data, but also analyze and control it. Above all, it was important to the team that the solution could be connected to the SAP system via standardized interfaces and offer sophisticated planning functions. The Manufacturing Execution System (MES) also needed to be easy to operate. And the company they were working with had to have branches in Asia.
"We therefore discussed many options in advance and looked at various providers. But with MPDV, the overall package was just right," says Ronny Graf, Head of Injection Molding at the Haag site in Switzerland.
The launch went smoothly - and quickly - right from the start. Only nine months passed from kick-off to go-live. Graf's team introduced the individual modules in stages. In phase one, they first implemented the three modules control station (HLS), operating data (BDE) and tool and resource management (WRM) at the main site in Haag. In phase two, the machine data module (MDE) was added. At the Haag site, 120 injection molding machines and 42 assembly machines are connected to HYDRA. The site in Shanghai and the one in Wroclaw, Poland, are now also using the MES.
However, not only the customers, but also the employees quickly learned to appreciate the benefits of the production software. Thanks to the HLS, BDE and MDE modules, they can record and compare various production figures such as rejects or quantities in real time via a terminal on the machine. And the HYDRA HLS module provides a 360° view of all required resources. For example, production can be proactively controlled via the control station and planned down to the smallest detail. This gives the employee an overview of all important resources and the skilled workers can react quickly if a machine breaks down.
"Thanks to HYDRA, we can now reduce such downtimes to a minimum or even avoid them altogether. This is because process steps such as planning, procurement, machine setting, operation, maintenance and quality control can be optimally coordinated," continues Ronny Graf.
The MES in turn reports back the number of parts actually produced and the status of the machine. If a machine's output is lower than planned, orders can be quickly distributed to other machines and delivery deadlines can be met as planned. Previously, employees had to laboriously record the quantities produced per machine in Excel lists. This took a lot of time and if a machine broke down, there was a lack of flexibility.
The perfect communication between the ERP system and HYDRA in particular brings many advantages. After all, the planning department can transmit the production orders directly to production and react quickly to changes.
Source: MPDV Mikrolab GmbH, D-Mosbach. www.mpdv.com
The recent outages of major cloud providers show: Digital communication in companies is more vulnerable than ever. Cloud telephony, an area that is part of the critical infrastructure in many companies, is particularly affected. Every minute of downtime can mean a high financial risk.
Yes, we live in a digital world. And yes, we not only use email as a matter of course, but also business messaging service providers such as WhatsApp. But even though these digital systems offer many advantages, the question remains as to whether we, as participants in the popular online dialog, would not sometimes prefer human contact.
The market power of American IT companies such as Microsoft has become a thorn in the side of many users. Open source software could offer an alternative. In terms of functionality, this is in no way inferior to many standard products. But a changeover needs to be carefully considered.
The Swiss Institute for SMEs and Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen offers various training courses that are explicitly tailored to the needs of SMEs. One example of this is the "SME leadership skills" seminar.
The "SME Leadership Competence" seminar is based on the claim "Knowledge - Tools - Effective Behavior". The aim is to impart practical skills for implementation in day-to-day management and to encourage reflection on one's own leadership behavior. This makes the seminar suitable for all people with leadership responsibility: from young professionals in team management to experienced leaders. This program offers space to receive leadership impulses for everyday life, to share one's own knowledge and individual experiences, to refresh knowledge, to reflect on personal behaviour and to try out (new) tools.
SME managers are currently facing a variety of challenges such as digitalization, hybrid working models, attracting and retaining employees and creating a working environment that promotes motivation and commitment. In addition, managers must make quick decisions under uncertainty and continuously develop their own skills and abilities and learn new skills. The seminar addresses these challenges and provides impulses on fundamental topics of corporate, self-, employee and team management as well as communication. There is also space to discuss your own individual topics and challenges from day-to-day management and to use the group as a space for experience. The group size of a maximum of 20 people contributes to a trusting exchange. Participants find this particularly valuable.
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important in the SME environment. AI, as a tool for day-to-day management, plays a role in all seminar topics and is used as required by the participants: for example, to prepare feedback and appraisal interviews, formulate emails, prepare presentations, document meetings or facilitate work processes. More important than the respective AI tools are the fundamental questions of what is to be achieved with the use of AI (time saving, pool of ideas, formulation aid) and what responsibility this entails.
With its specific focus on employee management, the SME Leadership seminar is part of four public programs offered by the KMU-HSG: the two General Management programs, "Intensive Studies for SMEs (DAS)" and "St. Gallen Management Seminar for SMEs (CAS)", as well as the "SME Leadership" seminar for experienced managers at top management level. All seminars are coordinated in terms of content and complement each other. What they all have in common is a clear focus on managers in SMEs - across the entire life cycle in an entrepreneurial context. A new seminar is currently being developed as an advanced format that directly follows on from the "SME Leadership Competence" seminar and deepens and complements it with a focus on the development of leadership personality.
Dr. Heike Heckelmann has been Seminar and Project Manager at the SME Institute of the University of St. Gallen since 2019. In addition to the SME Leadership Competence seminar, her area of responsibility also includes in-house programs up to CAS level, continuing education partnerships for companies and the health topic cluster. She is also a systemic business coach, personnel developer and accredited trainer for the Team Management System (TMS).
Key success factors for the turnaround include understanding the timeline and understanding the options. This leads to the questions of how to prioritize and how important is strategy development in a crisis?
