We will explain you a bit about what each value stream is all about and how our employees are experiencing this innovative new way of working. We speak with Philipp Kern, value stream manager at IDE, about working within the value stream Lithography.

The value stream Lithography is responsible for all of our OEM customers in the lithography sector within semiconductor technology. We develop and manufacture environmental control systems for active and passive vibration isolation, active EMI compensation and acoustic isolation, as well as systems for mask and wafer handling.

· Creating added value for our customers byconcentrating on a specific business unit

· Powerful team with members from all departments (Key Account Management, Customer Service, Quality, Engineering, Production, Production Planning, Purchasing, HR, and Controlling)

· Support from functional departments (Strategic Purchasing, Operational Excellence, Innovation, Sales / Business Development, Finance, HR, Facility, Quality, Sustainability, IT)

· Focus on specific customer needs and customer centricity with dedicated key-to-win strategies

A few challenges that we have been dealing with are the organizational change from traditional departmental work to cross-departmental cooperation; working in a matrix organization; creating a uniform understanding and focus on the essentials; and enabling the team in terms of responsibility, ownership, and cross-departmental cooperation.

We introduced the new value stream organization in February 2025. Initial feedback from our customers is positive; they notice faster decisions, standardized information, focus on key priorities, and significantly faster preparation of quotations.

We will be focusing on our customers' business model, adapting our processes and organization to further increase customer satisfaction, and increasing growth with our customers.