Company:
FAIST Anlagenbau GmbH

Industry:
Plant Engineering

Turnover:
Approx. €95 million

Number of employees:
260

Situation at the client’s company:

• Years of persistent weak earnings
• Insufficient transparency of company KPIs
• Weaknesses in business planning and commercial transparency

Company headquarters:
Bavaria, Krumbach (Swabia)

Internet:
www.faist.de

FRAMEWORK PARAMETERS

Role: CEO of the corporate group

Period (duration):

• 04/2018 to 03/2023 (60 months)

Area of responsibility:

• International corporate group with 10 companies at 5 locations
• Corporate development, strategy and turnaround
• M&A company sale

TASK

• Development of monthly reporting for commercial transparency, risk overview and business performance including target-actual deviation
• Definition, development and implementation of a process for a rolling 3-year plan as well as definition and implementation of the tools

MEASURES

• Development of a PMO for the reporting process and rolling planning
• Recording of the actual situation, the existing tools and creation of a fit gap analysis
• Criteria and tools for integrated reporting and for rolling multi-year planning defined, such as rolling liquidity planning, inventory changes, service and revenue allocation, order intake and order backlog development, revenue forecast, target-actual deviations, outstanding debts, balance sheet development, equity development, utilization of financial lines, risks, BI tools, internal processes, …
• ERP introduced in greater depth in the company, interfaces to the PLM system expanded and automated, existing BI tools expanded and individual Excel tools largely eliminated
• New software introduced for integrated financial planning, consolidation, reporting and analysis (LucaNet), cost center definition and accounting set up
• CRM set up for sales and forecasting, ongoing project costing standardized
• Product structures defined, among other things, as a basis for sales and for ongoing project costing as well as for business planning and process optimization
• Financial calendar created and implemented for reporting and planning

SUCCESSES

• Monthly reporting, forecasts and multi-year planning for management and stakeholders
• Increased efficiency and KPI transparency in the company
• Uniform, effective and meaningful reporting that is used as a basis for communication within the company

SPECIAL CHALLENGE

• ERP system with deficits, many individual Excel tools
• Lack of process understanding in the company
• The finance department did not see itself as a service provider