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For three days senior operations managers from OEMs and Tier One suppliers
converged on the fascinating Porsche plant in Leipzig for the AMS Europe 2006
Conference. As ever, the presentations from both companies and suppliers
highlighted the trends that are driving the automotive industry.
These also provided insightful snapshots of strategies adopted by the most successful companies to remain profitable in the 21st century. The topics were no surprise, with
flexibility, modularity and digital production figuring high on the list of tools to fight the
challenges of globalisation.
Among the highlights of the conference were the candid presentations from leading
European carmakers into their past problems, current projects and future aims.
Eberhard Weiblen, Managing Director of Porsche Consulting
analysed Porsche's resurgence over the past 15 years and
added a whole new perspective to the dramatic turnaround
by adding his personal views. He pointed to the four key
factors of the company's success: - experience, professionalism,
positive reinforcement and joined-up planning. "If you are
working to keep your company lean, fit and flexible, first of all,
it is important that you have gathered that experience yourself,
not just talked about it," he said.
The integration of the supply chain into lean manufacturing
was the theme of Pierre Gambardella's presentation.
As General Manager of the Production Control division in
Toyota Motor Manufacturing in France, he provided a telling
insight to the stringent logistical requirements of plants
operating under the Toyota Production System (TPS).
BMW's Nikolaus Bauer, Director of Logistics and IT
reported on the process of planning and building the
carmaker's new plant in Leipzig, Germany. When you
design and build a new factory most of the attention is
focused on the machinery and line configuration, but
when BMW designed its Leipzig facility, material flow
was a prime concern. "We are committed to being
flexible," Bauer told delegates.
Without doubt the most complex element of automotive
manufacturing is the paintshop. At the Magna Steyr
production site in Graz, Austria, the company manufactures
cars for Saab, DaimlerChrysler - both Chrysler and
Mercedes - and BMW, all which flow through two paint halls.
To maintain a measure of control Dr Wolfgang Zitz,
General Manager, Paintshop, at Magna Steyr, explained
that the company commonises as much as possible
and then separates where necessary: "The advantages of
this complexity are a good usage rate: with a lot of customers
you can fill the paint shops easier than with a single customer.
We gain synergies from the different customers.
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Testimonials 2006
Well organised, interesting speeches, good opportunity to meet interesting people.
Michael Marx, Lean Management, Ford Werke GmbH
Very interesting & useful!
Karl Simmons, Project Leader, Bentley
Very informative conference for all aspects of the automotive manufacturing process.
Greg Askew, Senior Manager Quality, Honda Canada Mfg,.
Excellent organisation, in my opinion it is one of the best conferences in the automotive sector.
Bernd Henning, Business Development, Inos Automations Software GmbH
Very well organized event and good platform to start or intensify network activities.
Christian Rau, Marketing Engineer, Kyocera Fineceramics GmbH
Excellent combination of content with networking and personal experiences through the plant visits & Porsche test drive.
Ana Maria Quijano-Wittemann, Senior Manager Automotive, IIC
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