Innovations within the process industry, especially valid for the refractory industry, are mainly driven by technical aspects than by the necessity to optimize production processes and structures. Most methods used by production management, are designed for discrete manufacturing types, such as those present in the automotive industry, and their applica-tion to production types as well as order sequences of the refractory industry is hardly possible. Reasons are high capital costs as well as the local dependency of the equipment used in the production of goods, partly outdated structures combined with modernized facilities and often nonuniform communication structures between individual company divisions. Nevertheless, existing studies in this field show, that the application of some production management methods on structures in the refractory industry is possible and useful. The objective of this study was to record the corporate structure of a reputed refractory company and to verify a possible implementation of production management philosophies such as Lean Management. It was found that the production structures have grown historically, the communication and information structures are uneven and that the requirements of the customers have changed. By judicious selection of management methods to-use and a partial adaptation of these to company-specific circumstances, it was possible to determine optimization potentials of the production structures and to formulate necessary measures. A monetary valuation of these permits a value-dependent implementation. This example shows, that production management methods can be applied in the refractory industry and that further research in this area is necessary.