And the Winner is ....

The winning video from our vote has been selected: The most-viewed microteaching video from the Manufacturing Management module in the summer semester of 2019 is “Kanban: The Case of the C. Bechstein Piano Factory in Seifhennersdorf.” The video was produced by Engineering Management students Teresa Seifert and Lucas Wenzel.

Not what we were looking for, but we found it

“We were randomly assigned to teams of two,” explains Teresa. “Otherwise, Lucas and I probably wouldn’t have worked together.” But the two weren’t disappointed by the assignment. “We’ve known each other since high school and knew we work well together.” On top of that, Lucas brought some prior experience in video editing to the team.

At the time, the assignment hadn’t even been announced yet, so it came as a big surprise to both of them. While Teresa was initially rather skeptical about the assignment to produce an instructional video on the Kanban production optimization system, Lucas was excited: “I thought it was great to finally do something practical instead of writing the usual reports or taking written and oral exams.”

On the Path to Her Dream Job

Teresa’s motivation came from a completely different direction. All groups were given the option to link their instructional video to a regional company. For the Seifhennersdorf native, this was the perfect opportunity to get a foot in the door at the C. Bechstein Piano Manufactory. “On my way to school, I always passed by Bechstein and could hear from the street how the pianos were being tuned inside,” she says with a smile. Even before taking the Manufacturing Management module, the 21-year-old music lover had already set her sights on the piano manufacturer for her work placement semester.

Professor Keil, the module’s instructor, put her in touch with the production manager, Mr. König. He explained that Bechstein actively uses the Kanban system. “So, somehow by chance, everything came together—our topic was a perfect fit for the company we wanted to work with,” Teresa reflects.

This meant that, from the very beginning, the grade at the end of the module wasn’t the only thing that mattered. Meeting the company’s expectations and leaving a positive impression there was just as important—at least for Teresa—and added extra pressure to produce a successful video. After visiting the factory, Teresa and Lucas quickly agreed on the tone they wanted the video to convey: calm and confident, serious, elegant, and aesthetically pleasing—exactly as they had experienced and perceived Bechstein during their visit, as a blend of classical art and modern craftsmanship.

Learning by Doing

Despite having clear ideas and a detailed shooting schedule, Teresa and Lucas initially ran into difficulties during filming: “The camera we used wasn’t really suitable for video. But we didn’t realize that until we watched the footage at home and saw that everything was blurry and shot in the wrong format. So we had to go back. Luckily, the Bechstein staff were really nice and let us film there again.”

On the second try, everything went much better. “We knew where we wanted to film, what we weren’t allowed to film to protect trade secrets, and we discovered cool details that we’d overlooked the first time,” recalls Lucas. He was even happy to put up with the occasional affectionately teasing remark from the employees in the hammerhead department about his fresh sunburn. “For me, that was the good part of the whole semester—how collegially we were treated and that we were seen as students doing something meaningful for the company.”.

For Teresa, too, the experience at the company was formative. “Looking back, I think I could have approached the whole thing with less nervousness. The people at Bechstein were all so nice; they took time for us and answered every question we had.” Over the course of the module, she also noticed changes in herself. “I was so shy at the beginning,” she admits. With every experience at the company, she became more open and gained self-confidence.

A Training Module with Lasting Impact

This didn’t go unnoticed by C. Bechstein Pianofortemanufaktur either. Teresa’s wish has come true: She is currently completing her work placement semester at the Seifhennersdorf-based company and has been tasked with updating and expanding the Kanban system. Her experiences at Bechstein have even influenced how she spends her free time. Teresa recently bought an electric piano and is trying to teach herself to play. After her initial skepticism about the unusual exam format in the Production Management module, she was surprised to discover that she actually enjoys filming videos. “It’s something special when, in the end, you’ve created something lasting and presentable—something that’s interesting to so many more people than, say, a written paper.”

Lucas reports with a grin that the quality of his vacation videos has improved dramatically. As for Kanban, he feels like something of an expert after taking the Production Management module: “That really made an impression—experiencing how Kanban is actually used in practice and how to work with it goes much deeper than just the theory. And then during video editing, when you watch everything over and over again, that’s when it really sank in.” He’d like to see more of these varied, hands-on training modules.

Text: Christiane Matthieu