Deep Dive into Machine Manufacturing: MARKT-PILOT Management interning at OPTIMA

MARKT-PILOT managers meet after sales specialists from the machine manufacturing industry in a somewhat different kind of exchange. Read here why we sent part of our management on a 5-day internship to our longstanding customer OPTIMA.   

Monday morning, 8 a.m. - the start of work at packaging giant OPTIMA. 9 a.m. work safety, 10 a.m. commodities and logistics, 1 p.m. spare parts management. Insights by the hour - and perfectly organized. This is how our two management interns were welcomed at OPTIMA in Schwäbisch Hall, Germany. Martin Ruth, VP of Finance, and Marcel Michel, VP of Marketing at MARKT-PILOT had the opportunity to experience a unique kind of factory tour over 5 days, stepping into the shoes of their customers and diving deep into the daily business of mechanical engineering and after sales.  

Why? "We are a software startup in the parts pricing sector, which has specialized in mechanical engineering. In our team, we have employees who are experts in the industry - including former service managers among others - but we also have those who are experts in their specific job fields, not in machine manufacturing - and that's us," explains Martin Ruth.  

Management experts meet after sales professionals in machine manufacturing: This fusion is our main focus. We need to be up close with our customers and understand the challenges they face. To do so, we want everyone to have a clear understanding of what the customers' needs are, and how our software is used to adapt it to their needs. Thus, at MARKT-PILOT, we will take the insights and learnings from our two interns to help us understand our customers even better. 

Machine manufacturing up close and personal   

Each day of the internship was planned from beginning to end: Logistics, warehouse, ERP and purchasing processes, plant and project planning. "We were not only shown around, but also allowed to look over the shoulder of many OPTIMA employees in their daily work - the colleagues who use and apply our software, but the tour also extended to other business areas," reports Marcel Michel. There was also no missing the fact that both of them had to lend a hand: "We had to get our hands dirty and file U-steel. Everyone thought that was important - as an apprentice in mechanical engineering does that for months. That's where we retraced the footsteps of our founder, Tobias Rieker." 

"Getting a feel for mechanical engineering and developing a sense for the language, wishes and concerns of customers" 

OPTIMA is divided into four divisions that serve different sectors, but the spare parts areas are centrally managed. This gives enough reason to look at all areas of the packaging giant: How do commissioning and product flow work at a machine manufacturer of this size, what are the processes from incoming goods of parts to outgoing goods at several locations in Schwäbisch Hall?  

The most exciting element for our two 'interns'? The central management of spare parts and, above all, being able to see the extent of such machinery. "At MARKT-PILOT we, or rather our software, does the deep dives. For us, this deep dive into mechanical engineering was about hearing, feeling, smelling machine manufacturing and developing an understanding of the daily work, the customers' language, wants and concerns," Ruth continues. The spare parts team, led by Pascal Wolf, was also quite interesting, not only because of their various backgrounds, but also because of their practical experience: "Everyone there has a connection to the machines, either through their studies, training or because they have serviced a machine before. Additionally, we were able to see the effects of our software, how successfully the team works with it, and where any questions may appear," says Ruth.  

We would like to express our gratitude to OPTIMA for the exchange, coordination and planning, as well as the important insights that part of our management team was able to gain. 

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