Case study · Chemical & FMCG
Henkel: making planning and scheduling part of the company’s DNA
When Henkel needed one standard way of doing maintenance planning and scheduling across its global supply chain, it built the rollout on Reliability Academy training, starting with a single-site pilot that turned implementation from a project into, in Henkel’s words, “a continuous process”.
1
pilot site
Licence
English & German
2020+
ongoing enrolments
The client
About Henkel
- Industry
- Chemical / FMCG
- Client
- Henkel Global Supply Chain B.V., headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands: at the time, part of the Henkel Group (50,000+ employees) with business units spanning adhesive technologies, laundry and home care, and beauty care
- Engagement
- Maintenance Planning & Scheduling training plus implementation consulting, under a corporate licence covering Henkel’s English- and German-speaking countries
- Scope
- A global maintenance and asset management strategy covering what was, at the time, 150 maintenance departments worldwide, proven first in a single-site pilot
The problem
The challenge
Martijn Hadders and his global maintenance team were handed a brief that will sound familiar to anyone who has worked in a large multi-site business: increase asset availability, eliminate defects and optimise maintenance costs, and do it with minimal capital investment.
The hard part wasn’t the what. It was the how. At the time, Henkel’s supply chain spanned 150 maintenance departments around the world, each with its own tools, documents and habits. Sustainable improvement at that scale needs a cultural shift, and cultural shifts take time. Senior management, meanwhile, wanted results fast. As the original case study put it: training people is one thing, but finding success out of a global implementation is the true challenge.
The solution
What we did
Rather than launch a global program on day one, Henkel set up a rapid-deployment pilot in a dedicated area of a single Henkel company. The pilot had to deliver clear benefits in a short time frame: proof the approach worked before asking 150 departments to change how they operate.
The Maintenance Planning & Scheduling course from Reliability Academy provided the methodology for that pilot — a straightforward, easy-to-understand implementation format covering the full sequence: building the business case, the planning and scheduling process, prioritisation, the key roles, how to plan work, how to create and manage a frozen weekly schedule, how to manage the backlog, and how to implement it all. Henkel found the content closely aligned with its own thinking and used it to fill specific gaps, particularly around standardising the tools and documentation used at site level.
“After having a call with Erik (Hupje) to discuss my challenges I felt I had found the answer. The content he provides is very comprehensive and easy to understand. One of the most useful chapters is how to implement the program, a topic often missing in many courses and trainings.”
Reliability Academy supported the rollout with implementation consulting, and Henkel took a licence to train personnel across its English- and German-speaking countries, with the right to re-brand and translate the course content.
The outcome
The results
Henkel’s internal maintenance KPIs stay internal. What the client has reported: the pilot, combined with a cultural change program built on the High Performance Organisation (HPO) framework, brought immediate improvement in Overall Equipment Effectiveness, cost savings and cost avoidance, as measured by Henkel’s own Gain Calculator.
Just as telling is what happened next. Full implementation moved forward on the back of the pilot (in Henkel’s words, “a continuous process - not a project anymore”) with the global maintenance team defining the roadmap to standardise maintenance across all sites internationally.
And the relationship didn’t end with the pilot. Henkel companies in Europe have continued to enrol staff, most recently in 2025.
Client feedback
In Martijn’s words
Maintenance Planning & Scheduling will become part of our DNA, thanks to The [Reliability Academy] Planning & Scheduling Course… I highly recommend it to any person or company endeavouring to advance their company’s maintenance efficiency and productivity.
What’s next
Standardise planning and scheduling across your sites
Henkel’s rollout was built on the course now known as PS100: Implementing Maintenance Planning & Scheduling →
See what this could look like for your team
A 30-minute call with Erik: your operation, your gaps, and whether this is the right fit. No pitch deck.