Key Takeaways:
- Empowering ideas: As Ideas Manager and CI Coach, Anja Stommel encourages her colleagues at TMD Friction to share and develop suggestions for improvement – from small adjustments to major process innovations.
- Driving change together: Employees in Hamm (Sieg) have launched dozens of improvements through workshops, training sessions and a digital idea system.
- A career built on transformation: Having transitioned from retail to industry, Stommel shows how curiosity and openness to change can turn creative thinking into long-term success.
In Hamm (Sieg), the team produces vital road safety components: brake pads for commercial vehicles. Various compound mixtures are pressed into shape and cured in industrial ovens, with around 11 million units produced every year. With cost pressures in the automotive supply industry as intense as ever, any idea that increases efficiency is extremely beneficial.
“All employees here on site are also specialists for improvements,” says Anja Stommel. At Hamm, the 50-year-old serves as CI Coach and Ideas Manager — CI standing for Continuous Improvement. Her job is to drive small, incremental changes to keep the process of ongoing optimisation alive.
160 New Ideas in a Single Workshop
Last year, numerous colleagues from all departments met with the entire management team for a workshop to discuss and channel new ideas – the first event of this size so far. The results were impressive: 160 new suggestions in a single day. The CI team now hopes to repeat that success with the upcoming workshop.
Ideas continue to flow in through several channels, such as a digital idea management system where suggestions can be submitted, as well as through workshops and training sessions designed to encourage new thinking.
From Retail to Industry
Stommel certainly knows a thing or two about change. She started her career in retail. “After a few years, I thought: I can’t do this for the next 40 years.” This realisation led her to TMD Friction. She started at the company’s headquarters in Leverkusen, and in 2006 she had the opportunity to train as a facilitator. “These are colleagues who teach others the principles of continuous improvement,” she explains. To that end, Stommel completed a ten-day training programme. Over the following years, she took additional courses, and in 2012 she relocated to the Hamm (Sieg) site. “Back then, I would never have believed that one day I’d be standing in front of large groups, leading workshops,” she says.
Creative Solutions for Sustainable Improvements
And such workshops are more important than ever today. The industry is going through challenging times. “You only have to look at the general economic situation and the changes taking place everywhere in industry,” Stommel explains. “Especially now, in this time of transformation, we need every single idea, no matter how small.”
All suggestions are examined for feasibility and benefit. “When it comes to the improvements we implement, our focus lies on occupational safety, our quality standards, and increasing efficiency,” she says.
A true treasure, she says, is her overview of ideas that can be implemented in the short, medium, or long term. At the moment, it contains about 70 improvements. However, the process is constantly evolving because new ideas are always forming in employees' minds.
About TMD Friction
TMD Friction is a leading global supplier of high-quality brake friction solutions for the automotive industry. The company develops and manufactures disc and drum brake pads for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Since 1878, TMD Friction has been committed to making mobility safer, establishing itself as a global specialist in friction technology in the process.
TMD Friction supplies vehicle manufacturers with premium original equipment products, as well as serving the international aftermarket through its well-known brands: Textar, Mintex, Don, Pagid, Cobreq and Bendix. The company also has more than 100 years of motorsport experience and expertise, and its racing portfolio includes high-performance brake pads under the Pagid Racing and Mintex Racing brands. These ensure maximum braking power even under extreme conditions.
TMD Friction is driving a safer and more sustainable future for mobility with a global network of over 4,200 friction experts and sites across Europe, the Middle East, the USA, Brazil, Mexico, China and Japan.
