Getting more out of Obeya – How great Obeya really begins

Service with Heart and Clarity

How Van Tilburg-Bastianen aligned 23 international locations without losing the human touch

Most organisations have data to steer on.

The challenge is making it meaningful for the people doing the work.

In this case study, Nick Nijenhuis shares how Van Tilburg-Bastianen (TB), a family-owned truck sales and service organisation with 23 locations across the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, used Obeya to connect strategy, performance, and continuous improvement on the shop floor.

For years, strategic goals and performance information discussed at headquarters did not always reach the locations where they needed to be translated into action.

The challenge was simple: How do we remain sustainably profitable without losing the human touch?

Obeya became the answer.

Not as a management tool, but as a shared space where strategy, performance, issues, and improvement actions become visible and actionable for everyone, from mechanics to executives.

What you’ll learn

• How TB rolled out Obeya across 18 international locations
• Why making performance visible creates ownership
• How daily and weekly rhythms improve collaboration and accountability
• Why strategy must become actionable on the shop floor
• How organisations can align multiple locations without increasing bureaucracy

From strategy to action

TB recognised it was missing three critical elements:

• One story everyone recognises
• One place where strategy, issues, and improvements are visible together
• One shared rhythm for how people work together every day and every week

The result was a physical Obeya at every location, positioned where teams naturally gather and designed to turn performance information into meaningful conversations and improvement actions.

Measured impact

Since implementing Obeya, TB achieved:

• 31% reduction in invoice lead time
• 30% reduction in non-billable hours
• 33% reduction in unproductive hours
• 9% increase in productivity at one location
• Faster identification of organisation-wide issues and improvement opportunities

One lesson stood out throughout the transformation:

When performance information becomes visible and teams improve together, performance management becomes everyone’s work.

Download the full case article and discover how Obeya helped connect strategy, people, and performance across 23 international locations.

Nick will be speaking at the Obeya Summit on June 25–26, 2026.

Join Nick, Marie-Anne and Ralph at the Obeya Summit 2026 and learn how Van Tilburg-Bastianen used Shop Floor Obeya to connect strategy, improve performance, increase productivity, and align 23 international locations through visual management and daily improvement.