The new savings programme

Hannes is aware that "saving internally" is a challenging topic. He can only lose. If he finds too few measures, the managing director feels that he has backed the wrong savings idea horse. If he finds sufficient and effective measures, he makes himself unpopular with all those to whom these very measures are applied. In view of the current financial situation of his company, there are quite a few of them.

The financial situation has been unpleasant for a long time. After tough, drastic but profitable cost-cutting measures - such as optimizing production, reducing staff, cutting suppliers' costs - the big chunks have already been slimmed down. There is nothing left where significant amounts can be optimized. Nonetheless, the company's financial slippage is still acute. Hannes broods. "Where can we save without it hurting?" That is precisely the key to his personal success in this project, it flashes through him. Clear savings, without gambling it away with the workforce or with his colleagues at management level.

Hannes hangs on to his thoughts and catches sight of a bird - a real one - in the courtyard of the company's premises. "Exactly - the bird is my role model." This one gets its little grains from many places, nowhere is missing, yet the bird gets full. "Small fry also make crap," Hannes recalls the tenet from his leadership training. In the current context of his company, it finds a literal application. Equipped with his smartphone camera, Hannes sets off through his daily office routine, through the corridors, into the company canteen, and everywhere he goes he finds "savings grains".

For example, the coffee machine. If the coffee is catapulted into the cups with a little more pressure, similar to the refuelling process in Formula 1, we save time. Hannes notes: with around 2000 coffees per day and one second saved per serving, this amounts to 2000 seconds per day, 440 000 seconds per year or 122 working hours. Almost a month's work. If two coffee cups are also filled at the same time, it adds up to two months.

"Where can we cut without hurting?"

Hannes walks attentively through the corridors. The toilets. Too popular a place to stay, we need to make it less attractive. Faster flushes, set the timer on the hand dryer a second shorter, dim the automatic lighting a little and shorten the time span: "That's potential of certainly another month per year".

Proud to have found measures that don't hurt anyone and at the same time are good for you, Hannes becomes even more creative. Speeding up the elevator, dropping the acknowledging beep of the electronic work time control, because people stand there too long anyway, and of course faster computer mice. The catalogue grows, and Hannes neatly converts the seconds saved into person-days saved.

If an agreement is now reached with the baker of the break rolls that he will use two percent more free air in the flour and bake the rolls two percent cheaper in return, Hannes' catalogue of measures almost reaches strategic proportions. His triumph at the next management meeting seems assured. With a confident smile and pleased with his own cleverness, he begins to prepare his presentation.

To make a sound argument, Hannes weighs up the savings against what his research work and expenses such as "negotiating with the baker", "reinstalling the high-compressor coffee machine pump " cost. Hannes marvels at the figure, which is quite high. "But if you want to achieve something, you also have to invest." Nevertheless: the time saved minus calculated effort time gives a result of a total of 381 741 seconds per year. That's almost exactly 100 hours. With a workforce of 2000 people, that makes a proud 0.26 percent. "Well... you might be able to save a little more in the planning work by not writing out all the words in the presentation.