Commitment

At the second Kaizen workshop with students from Offenburg University of Applied Sciences, the participants, led by Prof Dr Andreas Friedel, were able to develop and implement their ideas in several areas of WAGNER-Werke in a practical way using the Kaizen principle. The prospective industrial engineers found intelligent solutions for redesigning the dispatch workstations. In line with the motto "Achieve optimum results with little effort", the students first analysed the current situation together with WAGNER's lean management experts, developed a target concept and then used cardboard engineering to produce dummy workstations on a 1:1 scale. This allowed the work processes to be tested and further optimised on site before the final conversion.

We really like this project! That's why we support "The School". This dance school in our neighbouring town of Offenburg is not only a place where you can learn different dance styles from the hip hop field, but also a community that promotes, inspires and brings young people together. For almost 10 years, the founders Denis Craciun and Sebastian Falk have been pursuing their vision of offering children and young people a place of refuge where they can feel comfortable, try out their talent, pursue their passion and get in touch with others.

No one should be satisfied with what has "always been this way“ because there is always and everywhere potential for improvement to be discovered. This is the basis of the Japanese Kaizen principle. Translated, kaizen means "change for the better". During a Kaizen workshop in the WAGNER factories, students from the Offenburg University of Applied Sciences impressively demonstrated what practical implementation can look like in a manufacturing company. The extraordinary thing about it was that it was not just about "grey theory", but about concrete changes in operating procedures. Under the direction of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Andreas Friedel, the prospective industrial engineers were able to develop and implement their ideas in three different company areas in a practical manner according to the Kaizen principle.

In the WAGNER factories in Lahr, a variety of practical and well-designed products are developed, manufactured and delivered to customers all over the world, such as furniture accessories, doorstops, plant trolleys and transport helpers. But how are actually the internal procedures in a company of the consumer goods industry? And which training professions and job possibilities are offered? In the frame of its engagement for vocational orientation, WAGNER has invited young people from the Evangelischen Kinder- und Jugendhilfezentrum Dinglingen e.V., Dinglinger Haus, to an information visit and provided answers on those and many more questions.

During the creative workshop “Graffiti art at the State Garden Show Lahr 2018”, the action was motley, joyful and jolly. “WAGNER for kids” had invited to this event in the framework of the summer holiday programme of the city of Lahr. Twenty girls and boys between ten and fifteen years followed the invitation. On the area behind the historical steam train at the “Meeting point Baden-Wuerttemberg” plant trolleys and mobile plant boxes from Wagner were prepared that had been lavishly planted by the children with flowers, herbs and grasses.

Subsequent to the planting, the spray artist David Rich went into action. He explained the workshop participants where and how it is allowed to spray, gave useful tips and, supported by the team of “WAGNER for kids”, he assisted during the designing of the rollers and plant boxes. The colourful results showed that the children and young people were engaged with fun and ambition.

Fifteen companies of the ALMI, a consortium of medium-sized industrial businesses in Lahr, had invited in total 150 interested pupils to look behind the scenes during the first Lahr “JobXpedition”. The aim of the four-day education safari in the second week of the Easter holidays was to enthuse young people for contemporary dual trainings, to give orientation on career choice, and last but not least, to find ambitious junior staff.

Wagner, as a member of the consortium, was well prepared for the “rush”. Every day from Tuesday until Friday the company welcomed sixteen expedition participants hungry for knowledge. “Be curious! Ask questions!” was the invitation of the Managing Director Ellen Wagner to the participants of this “super traineeship”. They all had the opportunity to discover and to test by themselves modern technical and commercial professions with very good prospects for the future.

To the creative workshop “What actually is design? – Table manners!” in the framework of the holiday programme of the city of Lahr/Black Forest, “WAGNER for kids” had invited twenty-five girls and boys. Everything revolved around the table, its history, its design and its various applications during the human history.

At first, Eva Schilling who is responsible for Wagner’s Public Relations, explained to the participants the meaning of the term “design” and how to recognise good design. Subsequently, she provided them with information about tables and partly quite unusual table manners of our ancestors, from Egyptians and Celts through to Romans and knights. This was followed by desks and working tables of the baroque age and the shapely Shaker tables. The children also learned about “modern classics”, famous design for timelessly beautiful tables from Marcel Breuer, Eileen Grey and Eero Saarinen, just to name a few.

“It is the nature of music to provide pleasure” the Greek philosopher Aristotle has recognised already more than two thousand years ago.  We find joy in music while listening. The joy is even greater if you can play music by yourself in order to give joy to yourself and to other people. Ideally, the musical education starts as soon as possible. Therefore, the Lahr town band gives children and adolescents the possibility to learn to play a musical instrument already from the age of six years. They start with a recorder at first, later they can choose between transverse flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone, trumpet, tenor horn, horn, trombone, tuba and percussions. From the age of ten, the young musicians can prove their ability in the symphonic youth wind orchestra of the Lahr town band with concerts and events.

„What actually is design? From bearskin to designer chair: the history of seating” was the exciting topic of the creative workshop for children and teenagers that “WAGNER for kids” offered at the holiday programme of the City of Lahr/Black Forest.

Twenty-five girls and boys between six and fourteen years accepted the invitation to participate at the creative workshop. The first programme item was the amusing cartoon by the famous German comedian Loriot “End of the working day”: a man would like “just sitting” and his wife disturbs him permanently. “Just sitting” is not quite as easy as it sounds! Why this is so explained Eva Schilling who is responsible for WAGNER’s public relations with an especially for the workshop conceived, appropriate for children presentation and based on original examples of seating furniture from famous designers: how to recognise good design and which large variety of seating furniture humans have conceived in the course of their history - from bearskin to designer chairs!

Was it perhaps Käpt’n Blaubär? In order to answer this question, twenty-five girls and boys watched at the beginning of the creative workshop “The wheel – the best design of all times!” the amusing children’s film “How Käpt’n Blaubär invented the wheel”.

Did he really? No, of course he didn’t, everyone agreed on this – every child knows, that Käpt’n Blaubär likes to spin a sailor’s yarn that means that he likes telling tall stories … How it really was explained Eva Schilling who is responsible for Wagner’s Public Relations, with an especially for the workshop conceived, appropriate for children presentation: where, when and why the wheel has been invented and which imaginative application the humans have been devised for the wheel since its invention more than 6.000 years ago.

“WAGNER for kids” has invited to the workshop “What actually is design?”, and twenty-five creative children and teenagers had a lot of fun!

The first, theoretical part of the workshop started with the award-winning film “World of WAGNER”, which introduced in an amusing way to the subject “design”. Then Eva Schilling, who is responsible for the Public Relations at Wagner’s, firstly explained lively with pictures and also originals meaning and origin of the definition “design”. The kids also gained insights into the history of design and its most important exponents, and last, but not least, a topic was how to recognise really good design.

 „WAGNER for kids“ has invited potential machine technicians, product designers and constructors from Lahr and its French sister city Dole to visit the production department of the company.

In manufacturing, assembling and quality management they took the opportunity to look behind the scenes and to study modern machines and devices for the production of high-quality furniture components and home accessories during the production process.

The Lahr technical college, discipline mechanical engineering, realises together with students of the twin school in Dole, the Lycée Jaques Duhamel, an annually German-French technical project. At Wagner’s the main focus of the visitation was the manufacturing of products from plastic and synthetic rubber: in the WAGNER factory I are produced a multitude of furniture components with injection moulding machines, e. g. castors and wheels or sliders.

The furnishing of the Eichrodt school in Lahr has been “getting a bit long in the tooth” and needed urgently a modernisation. At suggestion of the “Circle of Friends Eichrodtschule”, “Wagner for kids” has donated a brand-new library furnishing amounting to more than 3.000 Euro.

The result: now the pupil’s library of the Eichrodt school is colourful, bright and inviting, because the team of “Wagner for kids” has replaced the old furnishing completely with new, custom-made furniture.

Modern shelves in a suitable to children height make the choice easy now, and a big mobile book box and a lot of small containers invite the children to rummage. In addition, the tutor of the library, Ute Alexander, has received a new console including a desk with a lot of storage space.

Calling up curiosity, technical and nature understanding and creativity and at the same time learning in playful way is the goal of this educational project from the BRO (Bildungsregion Ortenau e.V.). This pilot project is supported by „WAGNER for Kids“.

Besides a technical workshop, the learning center in Biberach i.K helps with reading and poor spelling as well as advanced training courses in the fields Media and Multimedia. Addressees are children between kindergarten and elementary school ages as well as educators and teachers. The only project until now in the Ortenau should make itself felt for a long time. Besides Courses and tutoring offers in the learning center itself, there are specially trained pedagogues who go directly to the schools and work on site with children and teachers.

On behalf of ”WAGNER for kids”, Father Christmas visited a kindergarten. He brought the children of Lahr’s “Kita am Schießrain“ so many presents that they didn’t even all fit in his sack: nice tables, shelves, playing platforms, furniture accessories and many colourful wheels – much needed equipment for the kindergarten and worth around 5,000 euros. As a thank you, the children danced for him and sang Christmas songs.

As part of the “Insights” exhibition series of the Design Center Stuttgart, WAGNER presented the exhibition “People. Furniture. Mobility. From the first wheel of the Stone Age to designer castors of the 21st century“ on the cultural history of the wheel with an accompanying show of work by designer and entrepreneur Roland Wagner.

The exhibition was met with great interest as the wheel is one of the greatest inventions in human history and has been used in countless ways by humans for already thousands of years.

The waiting lists for kindergartens in Lahr are long and there is a great demand for qualified and caring child supervisors. The young teachers Sonja Massa and Sabine Wagner, therefore, decided to set up their own kindergarten but money was short and there was not enough furniture to equip the rooms for the children. “WAGNER for kids“ found out about this and fully equipped the kindergarten with all the necessary items.

The “Wohlfühlhaus Fischach“ of the “Kinderlachen“ Foundation (The “Children’s Laughter” Foundation) looks after many children and young mothers. Money for new children’s furniture was short and so “WAGNER for kids“ donated tables with traffic motifs – this made everyone happy!

With a generous financial donation, WAGNER and other sponsors enabled the “Art lovers of Lahr“ to organise a unique artistic event: two of Germany’s most famous sculptors, art professors Stephan Balkenhol and Olaf Metzel, exhibited sculptures of high artistic quality in Lahr’s city park. Balkenhol created an immense pillar out of wood which was crowned with a human “wooden head“ whilst Metzel examined the subject of “non-smoker protection” in a tongue in cheek way with his installation “Smoker’s Box”.