Allit AG Kunststofftechnik

36 Enhancing our most valuable resource. Our efforts to achieve the best possible out- come through a process of continual critical analysis bring us to our most valuable resource: our employees. Every morning all of our departments meet and simply talk to each other. Are there differences between target and actual times, what has been achieved or exceeded, where have there been problems, where are operations getting bogged down, etc., etc.? Everyone is entitled to raise any issue they please. A culture of open discussion has been put in place that gives employees the feeling of being part of a whole, making them feel valued and able to make a constructive contribution through their opinions. Indeed, this enhances their individual worth, because every employee is a specialist at their own workplace. Only they know the small details that shape their working practices, for instance that a desk is too low, thus provoking unnecessary backache. We make these sessions as broad-based as possible. Potential savings, process optimisation, minimising waste, avoiding errors, boosting productivity, streamlining and shortening working processes, quality-enhancing measures and improving personal working situations, in all these areas our employees provide all the valuable impetus and ideas one could wish for as an innovative enterprise. Nothing at Allit has to remain the way it is right now. The desire to improve, particularly in small steps, and our open, idea-friendly approach are genuinely shared by all of us. It is this that makes us confident that we are amply equipped to face the future. If it proves anywhere near as exciting and varied as our past it will encounter the best team spirit we could ask for. The hub of our business: the control centre. Every order, whether external or for our own items (we do after all manufacture over 3,000 different items ourselves) from the internal distribution service, passes through a single body, namely our omniscient control centre. The personnel here pass orders on to the injec- tion-moulding department, brief the in-house purchasing department (details such as which cardboard packaging and how much of it to obtain, how many metal pins, whatever is needed) and coordinate the various inter- departmental operations, using ultra-modern IT and communication systems for the purpose. This alone is a mammoth task. The control centre plays a role in the first instance, the process chain, and also in the final stage, shipment, which is why we have bundled the ‘giant brain’ that administers and monitors everything right here. For good reason, because our Sword of Damocles are customers’ delivery deadline wishes. In this regard, we work by the simple, tried-and-tested commercial principle that the customer is always right. The aim then is to satisfy their wishes every single time. Only