A manufacturing powerhouse with a purpose
ABENA is a Danish manufacturer and wholesaler with more than 2,000 employees and 60 years of history. The company specializes in healthcare and medical products, as well as products for restaurants and hotels, cleaning and waste management solutions, and more. It operates in more than 90 markets around the world.
With large-scale projects and ambitious goals to meet, optimizing internal processes has been high on the agenda for Abena’s Head of Change and Process Management, Julian Lehmann. Drawing from his previous experience with MeisterTask, Julian is leading its implementation at Abena’s German branch — with promising results.
In my previous company, MeisterTask was well-received because it’s so easy to use. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
Too many tools and a lack of transparency
When Julian joined Abena in January 2025, teams were juggling multiple tools for managing work — and it was seriously hindering efficiency. The company relied on a mix of project management solutions, including Microsoft Planner, Jira, Monday, and an internal corporate tool. In total, employees were navigating around five different platforms, alongside additional Excel spreadsheets and paper-based systems.
We were lacking a transparent system. Team A didn’t know that Team B was already working on a project, so they unknowingly created a duplicate project, leading to parallel work on the same tasks.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
Additionally, managing multiple platforms meant keeping track of different logins and tool-specific workflows, creating unnecessary complexity.
Seeing an opportunity to simplify processes and boost transparency, Julian introduced MeisterTask. He was confident that the tool, which had been adopted successfully at his previous company, was the right solution for Abena.
A phased rollout for seamless adoption
To showcase how MeisterTask could be used for different teams and processes, Julian opted for a phased rollout of the tool.
Initially, we started with three users — those of us who were already familiar with MeisterTask. Then, we brought in three additional colleagues from our department to form a working group.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
Since then, the entire leadership team has been onboarded to MeisterTask for cross-departmental project work. Julian plans to onboard another 17 users in September, expanding access to employees at all levels.
The team’s initial feedback on MeisterTask was extremely positive. On seeing a demo of the tool, they already felt confident it would help them to collaborate simply and effectively.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
As part of the rollout, team members were encouraged to explore the platform through hands-on experience. To support this, Julian's working group created a MeisterTask project template with predefined fields to standardize new projects. This ensures consistent processes across teams and makes it easier for project managers to track progress transparently.
From email overload to centralized communication
Julian notes how one of the biggest improvements so far has been the introduction of a centralized “master project” dashboard. This gives the leadership team a clear overview of ongoing work. The master project board links out to 3 types of projects:
Classic projects: Defined start and end dates, progressing through the Kanban system over multiple quarters.
Ongoing (permanent) projects: Continuous maintenance projects, such as website updates and long-term initiatives.
Department boards: Ongoing team-specific tasks tracked in a structured workflow.
The master project board offers a quick and direct way to engage with departments. We can easily see what each department is working on and vice versa, and quickly loop in stakeholders.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
Within Julian’s department, a shared project board helps team members keep track of day-to-day tasks and requests.
Any new requests — whether from another department or from leadership — go into our backlog (column A). Then, in our weekly check-ins, we discuss who will take responsibility for each task and assign it accordingly. From there, it moves through the workflow until completion.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
Structured task checklists, comments and tags help to further organize work for the team. Feedback is shared centrally on the task, and key stakeholders are added to the task as watchers so they’re notified of any developments. This has led to a significant reduction in emails for project-based work.
My previous organization reduced email usage by 90% with MeisterTask. Instead of sending emails, people added their tasks directly to the MeisterTask board, which made communication much more efficient and transparent.
Julian Lehmann
Head of Change- & Process Management
By centralizing work in MeisterTask, the team has also cut down the amount of time spent in meetings. This means they no longer need to wait for scheduled meetings to move projects forward, which supports Abena’s flexible working model.
As the rollout continues, Julian expects to see even greater improvements in coming months. With MeisterTask at the core of its project management strategy, Abena is streamlining collaboration, enhancing visibility, and reducing inefficiencies — creating a more connected and productive organization.
