You are Beñat Otsoa-Larrazabal, 47, plant manager at Componentes Tetuán, a 380-person auto-parts factory in north Madrid. Annual turnover hit 28%. Productivity has been flat for three years. The CEO and the works council want a redesign proposal — different stories, same week.
The situation
Componentes Tetuán supplies precision aluminium parts to PSA, SEAT, and Renault — second-tier supplier, 12 product families, €58M revenue. The plant has eight functional sections (machining, deburring, anodising, inspection, assembly A, assembly B, kitting, dispatch). Operators stay on one station for their entire shift; many for their entire tenure. Each operator is certified for one or two tasks.
Turnover climbed from 14% (2022) to 22% (2024) to 28% in the trailing 12 months. Exit interviews — when operators take them — converge on three phrases: "it is the same thing every day," "no one tells me how the part ends up," and "the supervisor decides everything." The CEO Mariana Andrade-Casalonga sees the productivity flatline and wants automation; the works council president Sergio Bombín sees the turnover and wants a wage review. Neither wants what the data says you need.