How ABB Made Issue Management the Heart of Operational Excellence

What happens when a company stops avoiding problems and starts building around them? For most organizations, “issue management” sits in the background. A reactive function, a troubleshooting checklist, or a polite way of saying something went wrong. At ABB Motion’s Local Business Line Medium Voltage System Drives in Switzerland, it’s front and center. And that changes everything.

In a complex field with custom engineering, tight delivery timelines, and non-standard configurations, ABB took the unusual step of elevating issue management from a process to a philosophy. And it paid off. By placing problems at the core of their operations, ABB reached new levels of visibility, coordination, and control over project delivery.

How did they do it? They didn’t achieve this with an overnight transformation campaign or a radical new methodology. They started with what was real. Overlapping tools, communication gaps, and a steady flow of project disturbances. Monika Venice, Continuous Improvement and OpEx Manager at ABB shares how the collaboration with Planisware helped to improve operational excellence. 

Custom Projects, Constant Pressure

The business unit operates in a high-stakes environment. Each medium voltage drive they produce is built to spec, configured for the customer’s needs and integrated into broader systems with little room for error. Scope spans the full lifecycle, from sales and design to production and commissioning.

With this level of customization, surprises are inevitable. A late-stage design tweak, a material delay, or a misalignment between engineering and production can impact delivery, cost, and customer satisfaction.

ABB didn’t try to eliminate these disturbances entirely. Instead, they focused on creating a structure to capture them early, share them quickly, and resolve them collaboratively. In other words: a system that turns issues into information and action.

Building a Culture of Escalation

This mindset shift didn’t happen overnight. Years ago, following an internal reorganization, ABB re-evaluated how it managed delivery challenges. Alongside process improvements, the team adopted a Lean-inspired continuous improvement framework. The goal? Empower employees at every level, from the production floor to engineering, to log any disturbance they saw.

Rather than limit escalation to high-stakes issues, ABB encouraged teams to document even minor process deviations. No problem was too small. Every Friday, a cross-functional review board met to review all issues from the daily business, discuss potential root causes, and determine next steps. The targeted goal has been from the beginning to find a sustainable solution for the issue and prevent from recurrence. And they’ve done this, without fail, for nearly a decade.

“When you treat issues as something to be seen (not hidden) you unlock real trust across the organization,” said Monika Venice, “That’s when the process starts to scale.”

However, for all its strengths, the system was being held back by its tools. Production used visual boards and spreadsheets. Project managers maintained logs in SharePoint. Engineering changes were tracked in SAP. Disturbances required duplication across systems. Information was scattered, updates were inconsistent, and teams were not able to get a single version of the truth.

When issues were resolved, there was little structure for reflecting on them. There were no clear records to analyze trends, explain delivery delays, or inform future planning. This fragmentation became the limiting factor. ABB needed a way to unite its process under one roof.

A Platform to Match the Process

Planisware stepped in not to redefine how ABB worked, but to help scale what was already working. ABB’s processes were mature and well-ingrained. The challenge was to translate those processes into a digital environment without losing fidelity or creating friction for end users.

Rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all solution, Planisware worked with ABB to replicate key workflows, like the visual board for projects progress tracking, and build interfaces that matched how different teams worked. Production inputs, engineering changes, and project issues could now flow into a single system. No double entry. No hidden steps. 

Crucially, this new setup made data useful beyond the moment it was entered. Issues could be tracked across the full project lifecycle and tied to specific phases, milestones, and outcomes. By the end of a project, teams could finally look back and answer key questions: What went wrong? When? How did we respond? And what can we do better next time?

“We didn’t reinvent their process,” said Christophe Bondoux, Senior Consultant at Planisware. “We translated it into a structure that could scale, without losing what made it valuable.”

Today, ABB teams can see escalated issues as soon as they’re raised, whether that’s from the shop floor, engineering, or elsewhere. Status updates happen in real time and meetings focus less on surfacing problems, and more on solving them.

The system is also structured to distinguish between different types of issues. Delivery-impacting problems are flagged and prioritized. Engineering changes that affect material orders are visible across teams. Everyone works from the same playbook and the same source of truth.

That’s improved day-to-day coordination. But it’s also improved planning. Now, project teams can analyze closed projects with real data. They can identify recurring issues, spot trends, and refine how they deliver.

The Invisible Hero? Change Management

While the tooling now runs smoothly behind the scenes, it didn’t get there by accident.

ABB made a strategic bet early in the project: success would depend on change management just as much as technical configuration. So they invested in it.

They formed a network of key users across departments. Sent regular updates through newsletters. Tailored training sessions by team. And walked through real-life processes in end-to-end sessions before go-live. Instead of waiting until launch day to start the conversation, they brought users in early and kept them involved.

That effort paid off. Teams adopted the system because they understood it. They trusted it. And they helped build it.

What Comes Next

ABB sees this as the foundation for what’s ahead.

The demands on industrial suppliers are only getting higher. Customers want faster responses, more transparency, and tighter collaboration. While the journey isn’t over, the results are already visible.

“Things were working before,” Venice reflected, “but they weren’t scalable. Now, we have the visibility and structure to grow, without losing control.”

ABB’s excellence shows that it doesn’t always begin with rushing to get the latest tool. Sometimes it starts with the simple decision to take issues seriously and build processes that treat them as signals. 

With the right mindset, structure, and tooling, issue management can become an advantage. And for organizations dealing with complex, high-risk projects, it just might be the smartest place to start.

Curious on how Planisware can help you start your digital transformation? Get in touch with us here.