At the heart of Spain’s corporate landscape stands Indra, a major IBEX-listed company and one of the country’s largest business groups. With multiple divisions under its umbrella, Indra is a hub of innovation and technology across various sectors. In this interview, Miguel Ángel Gómez, Head of Manufacturing Engineering and Lean Manufacturing at Indra, shares how the company has embedded Lean principles into its operations and how it’s navigating the challenges of digitalization and market volatility.
Understanding Indra’s Structure
Indra is one of the world’s leading technology and consulting companies and a strategic technology partner for core business operations globally. It is a top provider of proprietary solutions in key Transport and Defense markets and a leader in digital transformation and IT consultancy in Spain and Latin America through its subsidiary, Minsait.
Miguel Ángel Gómez outlines Indra’s complex structure, which includes Minsait and the Transport & Defense division where he operates. Around 10,000 employees work in the development of high-tech electronic products, which are then assembled into final systems such as radars and surveillance systems.
Building Robustness with Lean
Operational excellence is a strategic priority for Indra. Miguel Ángel explains how Lean Manufacturing became a vital tool in this pursuit. While Indra historically focused on project-based work, manufacturing began to gain relevance. Lean introduced much-needed robustness to systems and processes, allowing Indra to firmly establish itself in the manufacturing landscape.
Standardization: The Key to Managing Diversity
Indra’s core strength lies in the diversity of its products, which brings complexity to manufacturing. Miguel Ángel explains how Lean, through standardization, enabled the company to harness knowledge that previously lived solely in the hands of individual technicians. Standardizing processes brought consistency and made Indra a more competitive organization.
One of Indra’s main challenges was adapting Lean to a highly manual and diverse production environment, unlike the repetitive nature of the automotive industry. Miguel Ángel shares that finding process-based standards—rather than product-based ones—was critical. Organizing productive human teams to group disparate products from different factories also proved essential.
Thanks to previous work with SGS PRODUCTIVITY—in training, team development, and productive human organization—Lean foundations were already in place. This helped establish improvement groups that could benefit from Miguel Ángel’s experience in the automotive sector. To form effective teams, you need leadership, people trained in Lean tools, and clearly defined KPIs to identify losses in the process. Since the Lean culture was already rooted in Indra Sistemas, applying it to improvement groups was a natural next step.
“We started setting up our indicators, meetings, and visual boards. Living through this process helps you understand trends and develop the visuals—but you have to experience it firsthand to truly build it.”
Miguel Ángel’s experience in highly repetitive automotive environments has blended with Indra’s complex production systems, creating a unique and effective Lean implementation.
The Move Toward Digitalization
Digitalization poses both a challenge and an opportunity. Miguel Ángel explains that Indra is addressing it through the FOCUS SMART PRODUCTIVITY tool, which digitalizes meetings and provides clear visibility into performance indicators and trends. Through pilots at various sites, Indra aims to standardize and scale this digital approach.
“We selected FOCUS to digitalize everything from TOP5 and TOP15 meetings to plant management meetings. It’s been easy to adopt and the feedback is positive.”
FOCUS SMART PRODUCTIVITY is a digital tool supporting productivity and continuous improvement. It digitalizes all business-improvement-related processes, aligns teams, and integrates Lean practices developed by SGS PRODUCTIVITY, Siemens technology, and Sothis expertise. Key features include:
People Involvement: Integrates all dashboards and KPIs in a single platform, reducing paper usage and improving data reliability.
Information Integration: Connects pre-existing or newly designed dashboards for streamlined performance monitoring.
Process Excellence: Enables continuous improvement via Lean, Six Sigma, SMED, and VSM; supports idea generation, workshops, and document management.
Strategic Deployment: Bridges strategy and execution with visibility across operational and strategic KPIs, based on Hoshin Kanri and OKRs.
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Challenges on the Horizon
Miguel Ángel acknowledges that upcoming challenges are deeply tied to today’s economic context—including component shortages and rising raw material costs. Operational excellence, productivity, and efficiency are crucial to overcoming these hurdles and maintaining value for Indra’s end customers.
His story illustrates an inspiring journey where Lean Manufacturing becomes a platform for innovation and adaptability. As Indra navigates turbulent economic and technological waters, its focus on operational excellence and digital transformation positions it to remain at the forefront of its industry.
Meet Miguel Ángel Gómez, Head of Manufacturing Engineering and Lean Manufacturing at Indra Sistemas
Miguel Ángel Gómez is a seasoned leader whose experience spans high-repetition automotive environments and cutting-edge tech manufacturing. He played a key role in implementing Lean systems in the automotive industry and now brings that expertise to Indra Sistemas, where product diversity and innovation rule.
His leadership is a blend of practical know-how and visionary strategy. Passionate about continuous improvement, Miguel Ángel is driving Indra forward—toward a future defined by operational excellence and digital transformation.