AUSTRIAN manufacturer Palfinger is committing to deliver standard truck loader cranes in 15 working days and large cranes in 20 working days.
Under an initiative called RAP – which stands for rapid progress – Palfinger has restructured its production, assembly and logistics so that it is producing only cranes that have already been sold. Employees have been organised into largely self-managing teams and tiers of management have been removed. Altogether, 478 employees took part in 1,830 days of training to prepare for the reorganisation.
Palfinger says that adapting the organisational structure to the requirements of the market has reduced capital tied up because material flows through the company more quickly and has also made the company more flexible to customer demands. Every crane can be produced according to the individual wishes of the customer and is not subject to any series planning.
The RAP project was launched as a concept in 2000 and has been in operation at the Köstendorf plant in Austria since the start of this year and at the Kasern plant since April 2002. In July 2002 the new way of working was rolled out across all loader crane operations and is now being extended to all the other Palfinger product divisions.
