Spotlight

I am 40 years old and lives near Cologne in Germany. I hold a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical College of Applied Sciences in Cologne. Like a marathon runner, I practice all sorts of sports, and particularly mountain hiking and skiing. And I go to the theatre and musicals a lot, when my job as a Quality Manager leaves me time to do so!

I first completed five different Quality Manager training programs in management system, tools and statistics, quality costs, etc., and I passed the exam for Quality Manager. Later, I continued learning on the job, namely about ISO 9000 certification and quality in production as well about sourcing, and development activities. Regarding processes, I also got considerable experience about the interaction between departments. Later, at Schneider Electric, I got a Black Belt certification. I have a philosophy of continuous improvement!

Because Schneider Electric asked me! In my previous company, I was doing a wide variety of jobs and I thought it was time for me to focus on one domain. I was already looking for opportunities, when the Schneider Electric Quality team leader asked me to give a hand with SAP process documentation. That was quite natural since this company had been part of Schneider Electric for a year. They were happy with my work and they asked me to stay.

My core mission is the continuous improvement of processes and procedures. It entails a great variety of tasks. I’m in charge organising customer satisfaction surveys and participating in the creation of action plans. As a Black Belt, I am the Six Sigma deployment leader for Germany, and I’m responsible for the training and support of all Six Sigma projects. I’m also in charge of internal audits and the external certification of our integrated management system.

The main difficulty is to “open up old structures in order to break new ground”, as we say. It means motivating people to change their mindsets. That takes a lot of meetings, talks, repeating the same arguments to motivate employees to change processes, etc. We concentrate on service, which is something new in our corporate culture. One of our current targets is to improve the customer complaint process. We want to make sure that all data will be collected, to enable us to measure and analyse the problem, and improve customer satisfaction.

There is great team spirit throughout the organization. For example, top-down commitment to the worldwide customer-oriented targets results in widespread personal participation. I also appreciate the good working atmosphere. People are very friendly and very positive when it comes to problem solving. That is something young people should consider, as well as the diversity of national cultures one is exposed to, the great variety of jobs available and the many opportunities for self-development.