Cultural Lean transformation at DEHN

As an organization committed to Lean management and long-term cultural development, DEHN set out to strengthen its continuous improvement capabilities through a structured and employee-driven approach. Recognizing the need to embed Lean thinking into everyday routines, the company launched the KVP-Struktur@DEHN to foster collaboration, enhance problem-solving skills, and create a sustainable foundation for continuous improvement across all areas of the business.

The company and its global position in electrical engineering

DEHN is a leading international family-owned electrical engineering company based in Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany. The company offers solutions and services for lightning protection, surge protection, and occupational safety. With a comprehensive portfolio, DEHN addresses the megatrends of our time – from electromobility and renewable energies to the protection of critical infrastructure.

With a global presence in 70 countries and a team of over 2,500 employees, DEHN’s vision is clear:

“We are the world’s leading specialist for protection solutions.”

The DEHN2030 strategy underscores this commitment, with the opening of the new main production plant in 2023 marking the largest investment in the company’s history. This ambitious growth required a cultural and operational transformation capable of sustaining excellence and embedding Lean practices throughout the organization.

Recognition at the Kaizen Awards Germany 2025

The success of the KVP-Struktur@DEHN initiative was also recognized externally when DEHN received an award at the Kaizen Awards Germany 2025.

Figure 1 – Recognition at the Kaizen Awards Germany 2025

This distinction highlighted not only the program’s measurable impact but also the organization’s sustained commitment to building a robust Lean culture.

The award underlined DEHN’s ability to combine leadership involvement, structured improvement routines, and strong employee engagement, positioning the company as a reference in Lean management and cultural transformation within its industry.

“The jury praised our KVP structure, which has had a significant impact on the Kaizen culture within the company.” – Norman Schäfer, Head of Lean and Idea Management

This acknowledgement further reinforces the importance of the KVP-Struktur@DEHN as a cornerstone of DEHN’s long-term cultural and operational development.

Challenges in establishing a sustainable Lean culture

The rapid organizational expansion and the need to harmonize improvement practices across teams revealed several key challenges that had to be addressed to build a strong and self-sustaining Lean culture:

Strengthening the existing 5S practices

Although 5S team activities had already been introduced, they were not yet anchored culturally. Few coordinators were appointed, team boards lacked clarity, and teams struggled to identify and apply current KVP-related improvement topics.

Inconsistent use of production tours as a management tool

Production tours were irregular and inconsistent, limiting leaders’ ability to observe processes and procedures in their own areas from a Lean perspective and to identify more improvement opportunities. As a result, the CIP concept was implemented only to a limited extent.

Absence of structured exchange mechanisms

There was no formal format for sharing best practices or connecting teams across departments, resulting in siloed improvement efforts and underutilized learning opportunities.

Developing autonomous Lean thinking across teams

To build a genuine Lean culture, the organization needed to develop employees to think and act independently, with Lean principles guiding daily decisions, collaboration, and problem-solving behaviors.

The approach to redesigning KVP and transforming the culture

DEHN launched the KVP-Struktur@DEHN project in January 2023 to strengthen its improvement culture by integrating three core elements: 5S team activity, production tours, and CIP meetings. Each element supports a different perspective of organizational development, and together they create a powerful dynamic across the company.

Reimagined 5S team activity

The 5S activity was redesigned to strengthen entrepreneurial thinking and hands-on involvement directly at the shop floor:

• Monthly initiatives are discussed within the teams.
• Moderation by 5S coordinators.
• Strong “roll up your sleeves” mentality.
• Focus on practical actions and team spirit.

Figure 2 – 5S team activity

This transformation reinforced ownership and encouraged employees to proactively recognize and address improvement opportunities.

A new approach to production tours

To enhance operational oversight and foster stronger connections between leadership and the operational environment, production tours were restructured to ensure regular leadership presence. The key elements of this restructuring included:

• Standardized guidelines for consistent tours.
• Emphasis on positive recognition.
• Inclusion of foremen, department management, and 5S coordinators as “sparring partners”.
• Eight-week cycles.

Figure 3 – New approach to production tours

This approach strengthened process understanding, leadership visibility, and cross-functional cooperation.

CIP meetings – structured multiplication of improvements

Quarterly CIP meetings became a central platform for presenting the development improvements and disseminating best practices:

• Real examples of implemented improvements.
• Cross-functional and cross-hierarchical participation.
• “Do good and talk about it” as a guiding principle.
• Framework grounded in “understand, copy, improve”.

Figure 4 – Team meeting

The CIP meetings enabled the transfer of effective solutions across departments and supported collective learning.

Building the KVP-Struktur@DEHN

To ensure a structured and sustainable shift towards continuous improvement, DEHN developed the KVP-Struktur@DEHN through a phased transformation approach designed to progressively embed new behaviors, standards, and communication practices across the organization. The phases were the following:

• Phase 1: Intensive analysis of existing conditions, identifying gaps in 5S implementation, leadership routines, and exchange mechanisms.
• Phase 2: Redesign of the three key elements—5S, production tours, and CIP meetings—with the introduction of new habits and standards.
• Phase 3: Detailed documentation, creation of a central Teams channel, templates, and stimulus questions.
• Phase 4: Organization-wide communication supported by flyers, roll-ups, and learning videos, followed by transition into regular operations.

The combination of these measures created a robust and scalable structure for continuous improvement.

The results achieved with the KVP-Struktur@DEHN

The cultural transformation delivered measurable and impactful results, demonstrating the effectiveness of combining bottom-up, top-down, and cross-functional exchange mechanisms.

Learning and capability-building

In 2024, over 400 employees completed a Lean training on their own initiative. This reflects a high level of interest in the company’s internal Lean development programs and a willingness to support its improvement efforts.

A dynamic improvement culture

Since the initiative’s launch, teams have presented 248 implemented improvements, averaging 102 per year. Idea management generated 250 additional ideas annually.

Expansion of the Lean network

The target of 8 trained Lean multipliers was significantly exceeded, strengthening the organization’s internal Lean community.

Lean team competition

With over 350 participants in 2024, the competition reached record engagement since its inception in 2019, demonstrating broad organizational enthusiasm for Lean.

Value creation through Lean Management

DEHN’s internal KPI for value creation through Lean showed a 171% increase, driven by:

• Workshops and training programs.
• Strengthened networks.
• Benchmarks and awards.
• The cumulative effect of the KVP-Struktur@DEHN.

These results underline the strong cultural shift and expansion of the company’s continuous improvement capabilities.

Clear and effective results

The KVP-Struktur@DEHN has proven to be a powerful catalyst for cultural change. A well-designed, consistently applied improvement structure can fundamentally reshape how an organization thinks, collaborates, and evolves.

By empowering employees, strengthening leadership routines, and creating cross-functional mechanisms for sharing and multiplying improvements, DEHN has laid the foundation for a resilient and self-sustaining culture of continuous improvement.

The impact of this change was not only measurable, but also significantly strengthened the company’s strategic goal. The basis of this excellent leadership was built on a strong focus on “getting a little better every day”. With a scalable model that is anchored throughout the company, DEHN is ideally positioned to further develop its Lean approach and build on the successful momentum of recent years.