An industrial company changes formal hierarchies into competence hierarchies

A hidden champion in the mechanical engineering sector with 6,000 employees worldwide wants to switch from formal hierarchies to competence hierarchies. The company had gone through several loops with lean concepts, but was unable to reach the hearts and hands of the production employees in particular.
A concept was developed with the foremen for the 1,200 production employees. They should organize themselves during shift handovers, evaluate target achievement, allocate personnel between areas, repair machines, etc. This requires a different management concept that allows for personal responsibility and empowers teams to take responsibility. Simulation training was conducted with the production teams, work was carried out with the respective foremen and digital leadership feedback was introduced in which employees evaluate their superiors every 6 weeks using an app (8-10 items). At the same time, the company developed a vision called Production of the Future.