What our customers say about us
Hans Toebes – Managing Director FCMD
“The team from Bronk & Company (B&C) analyzed FCMD’s business model in close collaboration with our experts and identified potential for strengthening the focus on our contract processing business and its visibility in the market. With their industry and methodological expertise, the B&C team helped us to identify our strengths and weaknesses and developed solutions for further improvement. In a second step, we conducted a market study together with the B&C team to evaluate the market for large-scale processing. Based on this, specific sales approaches were derived as well as necessary further developments of our business model. We would like to emphasize the excellent cooperation and the “hands-on” mentality of the B&C consultants.“
FCMD GmbH, based in Hattingen, Germany, is part of Groupe CIF (France), which also includes the well-known companies FERRY-CAPITAIN and CMD. Groupe CIF sees itself as a supplier of components and complete drive train solutions for the mining, cement and steel industries, as well as the energy sector and infrastructure equipment.
Thomas Anstots – President Business Line Advanced Materials Outokumpu
“Our Business Line structure is characterized by a multitude of production mills and downstream operations, many of those with their own legacy IT environment. Therefore managing inventories throughout the supply chain is quite a challenge.
The experts of Bronk & Company supported our Central SCM team by building a new structure for our finished goods inventory management and complementing this structure with supporting policies and guidelines.
As a consequence, the steerability of our inventory volumes and inventory structure will be very much improved, once we have realized the necessary process adjustments and system changes. With regard to the latter, B&C recommended a viable way forward that will enable improvements, while at the same time keeping realization costs on a moderate level.
The consultants of B&C have demonstrated a deep understanding of the process and system landscape of integrated steel mills as well as of the production network with various value-added steps in Europe. From the start they built up a strong working relationship with all stakeholders centrally and locally. Long term operational and consulting experience of the B&C team led to strong results which are positively embraced by all levels of our company.“
Outokumpu Oyj is a global leader in stainless steel and the inventor of stainless steel. The company has a century’s expertise in making advanced materials and employs some 8,500 professionals in more than 30 countries. The head office is located in Helsinki, Finland, and the company’s share has been listed in the Nasdaq Helsinki since 1988.
Carsten Rokitt – Head of initiative NewSCM thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG
“Bronk & Company has supported thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG intensively on both the methodological and organizational side with pragmatism and consistent project management during the transformation of our supply chain management: Based on an objective and competent analysis of our processes and organizational structures, weaknesses and sub-optimal workarounds were identified. In close dialog and cooperation with our employees, tailored alternatives were developed and implemented. For example, innovative AI approaches were introduced and tested in the existing planning systems together with B&C. This will allow us to better predict plant-specific performance parameters in the future and will have a positive impact on one of our top goals, on-time delivery.”
Bernhard Osburg – Chairman of the Management Board thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG
“With Bronk & Company’s supply chain expertise in the metals industry, we have chosen the right partner to transform our supply chain management into a state-of-the-art organization with lean processes.“
thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG (tkSE) is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of flat steel and stands for innovations and high-quality products for advanced and demanding applications. tkSE employs around 27,000 people and with an annual production volume of 11 million metric tons of crude steel it is Germany’s largest flat steel producer. Its capabilities range from customized materials to materials-related services.
Sybille Ehlers-Morais de Oliveira – Managing Director SHS Logistics GmbH
“Due to current challenges in the field of rail freight transport, which for us as a 100% subsidiary of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KGaA with a flow of goods of over 2.1 million tons (outbound) and approx. 7.7 million tons (inbound), is of outstanding importance, we at SHS Logistics have decided to set up the project “Task Force Rail”.
Our goal in the project is the development of measures for the best possible use of the resource rail respectively transport wagons. That means:
- Reduce idle and turnaround times and thus accelerate wagon availability
- Better plan and forecast demand of necessary transport capacities and availabilities
- Improve transparency and optimize processes that indirectly affect the transport capacities
The core issue is also to generate maximum data transparency around the topic of transport capacities in order to increase controllability as best as possible.
Together with our interdisciplinary project team, the consultants from Bronk & Company identified, designed and prioritized improvement measures efficiently and quickly. The consultants have also made an enormously valuable contribution to the development of the necessary (data) transparency. With their industry and supply chain know-how, the B&C experts helped us to lay the foundation for the further development of our logistics processes.”
SHS LOGISTICS GmbH is a 100% subsidiary of SHS – Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KGaA. It bundles the logistics activities of the Aktien-Gesellschaft der Dillinger Hüttenwerke und Saarstahl AG as well as their subsidiaries.
For this purpose, the areas of external transport of the plants of the two companies were merged in the new company. The goal is to further increase the efficiency of all transport activities of the group.
Diemtar Hemsath – Member of the Management Board Georgsmarienhütte GmbH and CFO Business Unit Steelmaking
“As part of a long-term program to secure the future of our company, we worked with Bronk & Company to take a close look at our entire value chain. Together with B&C’s supply chain experts, we turned over all the “stones” in production. We also questioned our administrative workflows and processes with a focus on planning and controlling.
We were aiming at uncovering the hidden potentials that lies in our value chain and to derive measures to leverage these potentials. With the help of B&C’s industry experts and a powerful internal team, we systematically developed and executed the resulting program. Over a period of three years, we have jointly achieved very successful optimizations in almost all business areas:
- In the production area, from the optimization of scrap supply in the steel mill to efficiency improvements in the dispatching process of our trucks as part of our yard management.
- In the administrative area, from the optimization of product cost accounting to the digitalization of our sales accounting processes.
B&C has accompanied us in a professional and cooperative way in all phases of our program. Our team has benefited from the expertise of the B&C team not only through “theoretical concepts”, but also in particular when it comes to implementation.“
Georgsmarienhütte GmbH is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of bar steel, semi-finished products and bright steel with an annual production volume of 1 million tons crude steel. It is part of the Georgsmarienhütte Group (GMH Group), an association of over twenty medium-sized companies in Germany, Austria, Australia and the USA. Georgsmarienhütte GmbH employs around 1,275 people.
Christian Bieber – Head of Logistics and Warehouse Technology Klöckner & Co Deutschland GmbH
“Bronk & Company has successfully supported us in a multi-country project to optimize our higher value added services. The project aimed at creating a common view on available production capacity across borders and on increasing these capacities. Starting point for this optimization was the harmonization of business processes along the whole order life cycle from customer inquiry to shipment. Furthermore, the performance of our production systems was to be improved.
With their industry knowledge and methodological competence, B&C quickly identified & analyzed the relevant processes in different production sites as well as in the connected administrative areas. Future business processes were shaped right after. The experienced B&C consultants were able to draft solutions and identify suitable IT software providers that fit perfectly to the defined requirements.
Next to the actual success of the project, the cooperation with the B&C consultants went smoothly as they were constantly competent, objective and target focused. Even in case of conflicting views and opinions, they professionally sorted these out and created commonly accepted solutions without compromising the project targets.”
In the steel and metal distribution, Klöckner & Co is one of the world’s largest producer-independent companies. Thanks to our modern service centers, we rank among the top suppliers of high-quality processed steel and metal products.. As a pioneer of the digital transformation in the steel industry, our target is to fully digitalize and largely automate the supply and service chain and to become the leading digital one-stop-shop platform for steel, other materials, equipment and processing services in Europe and the Americas. Klöckner & Co Deutschland GmbH operates a distribution and service network of 11 sites and supplies more than 10 000 customers.
Dr. Boris Wernig – Managing Director Eisenbau Krämer GmbH
“In 2020 we started a programme with Bronk & Company to increase efficiency in many areas of our company. Due to Covid-19 and the subsequent drop in demand in all business areas, we extended the activities into a full-scale restructuring programme.
We received valuable support from the Bronk & Company team here. After defining our new strategic position, together with B&C we described the necessary steps for a comprehensive turnaround. Simultaneously, the B&C consultants translated the realization steps necessary for these concepts into workstreams and progressed these workstreams successfully with our managers and employees. In addition B&C carefully planned and executed the internal as well as external communication to all our shareholders.
The consultants of B&C, with their practical & industry experience and driven by strong commitment, managed to sustainably implement the mindchange in the organization as well as motivate our employees to adjust their daily processes. By doing so, we could comprehensively tackle the difficult situation the company was in and made an important step towards ensuring the continued existence of our company. This convinced me very much!”
EBK a globally renowned producer of longitudinally welded heavy-walled steel pipes in large diameters. In three production sites ca. 300 employees produce pipes with a variety of technical customer specifications for projects all over the world.
Holger Jahn – COO Ralf Bohle GmbH (Schwalbe)
“Together with Bronk & Company, we recognized that the actual success of our company as well as further growth must be secured through a comprehensive restructuring of our production and planning processes and systems. Especially for the production in Jakarta and Vietnam.
B&C worked out an adequate program with the managers and employees. Due to well appreciated interculture competences, the new requirements were communicated to each site and the implementation progressed measurably with a high degree of sustainability. Another important aspect was the introduction of relevant KPIs for all processes in order to ensure goal-oriented management and control of the entire company.
B&C not only convinced us with consistency and speed, but also contributed significantly more than one might generally expect from a consulting team! All project participants were able to benefit from the necessary technical and interdisciplinary input which set the foundation for the next rocket stage of our growth story.”
Ralf Bohle GmbH is a company that produces tires and tubes for bicycles and wheelchairs under the brand name Schwalbe. In Europe, Schwalbe is the market leader. The joint ventures in Indonesia and Vietnam employ around 3 800 people.
Jonathan Weber – Member of the Board SHS Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KG
“The consultants team of Bronk & Company, together with our inhouse experts, analyzed our existing logistical system for supplying material to our production sites and performed viability checks of new potential setups to support us in reaching our climate goals. The cooperation with Bronk & Company experts worked extremely well on all stakeholder levels and delivered the required results in time and quality.
We found a reliable partner in Bronk & Company to deal with SCM tasks and topics on our transformation path.”
SHS Stahl-Holding-Saar GmbH & Co. KG has been established in 2010 and acts as the operational Management Holding, actively managing tasks of Saarland´s steel industry. The most prominent companies in the group are Dillinger and Saarstahl. Together these two companies produce more than 5 million tons of crude steel per year, employ about 13,000 people and generate a turnover of nearly EUR 4 billion.
Dr. Michael Merz – Managing Director Mannstaedt GmbH
“To secure the future of our company, we launched the project “Zukunft Mannstaedt 2025” together with Bronk & Company (B&C). Our focus was primarily on restructuring our organizational structure and processes, defining a strategic investment roadmap as well as increasing the efficiency of our core processes.
The consultants from B&C provided us with active and competent support, especially by setting up the program which helped us to set the right strategic framework for the restructuring. After examining the organizational structure, existing ideas, measures and ongoing projects were structured, evaluated and finally integrated into the strategic roadmap. True to the motto “there are no sacred cows”. In closing the gap to our envisioned efficiency targets, the consultants from Bronk & Company gave us important inputs and further impulses with their industry know-how.
After successfully handing over the project management to the operational team at Mannstaedt GmbH, B&C supported us as specialists in the further design and implementation of specific measures. In the SCM area, this included the optimization of our planning processes (focusing on production planning). Another example includes the digitalization and automation of the quotation costing process in the sales department.
The project “Zukunft Mannstaedt 2025” marked an import milestone for the future of our company. Mannstaedt GmbH is now optimally positioned as world leader in the field of special profiles for the most demanding applications by offering high quality products at a competitive cost basis.”
Mannstaedt GmbH is a global leader in the production of hot-rolled special steel profiles and offers profiles making the seemingly impossible possible. The competence is based on decades of experience – from engineering to metallurgy, roll design and hot rolling to further processing. With approx. 700 employees, up to 250,000 t of special profiles can be produced per year. Mannstaedt GmbH is part of the Georgsmarienhütte Group (GMH Group), an association of over twenty medium-sized companies in Germany, Austria, Australia and the USA.
Uwe Oppitz – Managing Director Rhenus Ports GmbH & Co. KG
“As we have manifold links into the steel industry, we have developed a lot of ideas on how to support companies in the course of decarbonization along the necessary transformation path to climate neutrality. Bronk & Company lend us a helping hand to build a structured business model based on our ideas, which provides a comprehensive and quantified approach to proving the economic viability of our concept. This enabled us to start into the realization phase with our partners from solid ground.
The team of Bronk & Company showed strong industry as well as process building skills and managed to mold the complex matter into a well structured and flexible model in no time. Chapeau!”
Rhenus Ports GmbH & Co. KG is a member of Rhenus Group, which is one of the leading global logistics service providers with an annual turnover of EUR 7.0 billion. Rhenus has 37,500 employees across 970 sites worldwide. The Rhenus Group offers solutions for a wide range of industries along the entire supply chain, including multimodal transport, warehousing, customs clearance and innovative value-added services.
Dr. Guido Stebner – CTO Vetropack Holding AG
“Vetropack Group decided to launch a comprehensive cost optimization program in all sites. To this end, Bronk & Company supported a pilot project at two sites of the business unit Austria / Switzerland. Within a short period of time, the B&C team established the necessary program management structures and processes at group level and supported the collection and as well further development of measures in target-oriented workshops together with the employees and managers of the two plants in Austria. As a result, the roadmap for the realization of the site-specific performance improvement programs was successfully released.
The cooperation with Bronk & Company was well received by all parties involved. The consultants managed to motivate the entire Vetropack team for setting up a very important building block for the group to secure future competitiveness. With Bronk & Company we have found a reliable partner to support the group-wide implementation of our Performance Improvement Program.“
Vetropack Group is one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of glass packaging for the food and beverage industry, with around 4,000 employees and net revenues of CHF 899.4 million in 2022. Vetropack has state-of-the-art production facilities as well as sales and distribution offices in Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine, Italy, the Republic of Moldova and Romania.
