A plant head's job is as challenging as it can get. While an outsider may think that there are just the issues on the shopfloor, there are a lot of external factors that the plant head has to deal with.

And when the Plant Head is working in a foreign country, the task becomes all the more tricky. Well, Harald Friedrich, Plant Manager, Bangalore & Head of Operations India, Continental Automotive Components (India) Pvt. Ltd., knows a few things in this regard.

"Going abroad for a new responsibility is always a challenge and I have prepared myself in the best possible way for this very responsibility. I have realised that I have to adapt to the local organisation a lot more than the local organisation to me. The biggest challenge is always finding the right balance between compromising and persevering. This applies to both on the shop floor as well as off it," Friedrich says.

From the business and company perspective, Friedrich has to think globally and act locally. He knows that to identify the challenges in different focus areas, he needs the best possible transparency. "Once we attain transparency, we can work on a roadmap and an action plan."

On shop floor level, one of his main tasks is to prepare the organisation for the expected growth. For this purpose, the organisational and operational structure is the focus. The next task is to have the best possible plant cost structure in place, to be attractive in this competitive environment. The main contributors have to be known and improvement opportunities clearly identified.

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