Research Study "Advantage Germany: Success factor integrated production and logistics"
Berlin/Duesseldorf/Braunschweig/Neu-Isenburg, October 2009. The international economic crisis revealed it mercilessly: due to its strong dependency from export, Germany as a location for business is under extreme pressure as soon as global markets are breaking down.
Although there are first positive signals for recovery, it becomes obvious, that something needs to happen to maintain the attractiveness of Germany for the producing industry for the future.
Critical success factor will be the efficient synchronization of production and logistics. The question, how goods will be produced in short time, with high quality and at reasonable cost levels in Germany shall be answered by a major study, initiated by the cooperation partners of the Association of German Engineers (VDI), the Institute of plant economics and company research (IFU) of the Technical University of Braunschweig, the Germany Trade & Invest GmbH and Miebach Consulting.
Production and Logistics in Germany have been developed to a solid location advantage of Germany. According to a most recent study of the OECD, the production sector is responsible for more than 26% of the German gross national product (GNP). Significantly more than 12 million jobs are directly related with production and logistics services and accordingly, they found a solid base for wealth in the federal republic of Germany.
To allow Germany to remain a leading international role and even improve the perspectives after the current crisis is over, it will be obligatory to search continuously for possible optimizations and improvements.
Otherwise, the country will take the risk that due to high wage levels, increasing transport costs and growing international markets the companies will shift their production facilities towards foreign countries.
How can this tendency be stopped or even turned into the opposite? How will Germany become attractive for foreign companies, to set up production locations in the country?
Key for success seems to be the close interaction of production and logistics processes.
If it is possible in Germany, to source raw materials in short time, to transform these flexible, in high quality at low costs to products and distribute them to customers on a global scale, the competitiveness of Germany in the world will be warranted.
A decisive factor for achieving the perfect gearing between production and logistics will be the ability of German companies for adaptation, optimization and innovation.Lots of potential can be suspected in these areas. „Typical for German companies is, that often the interface between production and logistics is defined by the building walls. But the real process flow of material and information can be designed much more integrative“, says Tobias Rinza, Managing Director of Miebach Consulting, who is leading the study.
To gather the status quo along the interface of production and logistics, evaluate best practices and identify future trends, a major study is launched by the consulting company Miebach Consulting, the association of German Engineers (VDI), Institute of plant economics and company research (IFU) of the Technical University of Braunschweig and Germany Trade & Invest GmbH (a company of the ministry of foreign affairs and responsible for the marketing of Germany as a location for business).
Within the next four mounth, the decision makers of production companies will be questioned to define the parameter of the location advantages of Germany and give answers to important questions like, e.g.:
- How can extensive customization of products be achieved – by process, technology and IT standardization at the same time?
- How do integrated process look like, which are lean as well as flexible?
- How will Germany be able to combine the innovation power with the japanese production know how and the supply chain management theory of the US to optimize the integrated production and logistics processes and lift them towards a new level?
The results of the study will be officially presented in April 2010 during the Deutscher Materialflusskongress in Munich, the key summit for Logistics and Production in Germany.
In case of interest in participating in the analyses, you are welcome to participate in the market survey (questionnaire). Upon finalization, you will receive a free copy of the study as a small thank you.
Press contact:
Tobias Rinza
Tel.: 06102 - 35 876 - 0
Miebach Consulting GmbH