Autor: Jens Bürgin

Medium-term order planning for the serial production of multi-variant products such as automobiles enables an integrated planning of procurement, production and sales as well as robust and optimized plans. In addition, continuity between medium-term and short-term planning can be achieved through a medium-term order basis. This article presents a planning methodology for the generation of planned orders to create a medium-term order basis, the assignment of planned orders to plants in a production network, and the assignment of incoming customer orders to planned orders.

Cooperation between German and Chinese companies is rare considering the potential for growth in China. However, not only in industry but also at university barriers of intercultural cooperation occur between Germans and Chinese. Against this background, case studies can be applied in teaching not only technical knowledge, but also intercultural competences. In this context, deficiencies in intercultural cooperation can be identified and successfully overcome.

Baden-Wuerttemberg and Suzhou Industrial Park are innovative and economically powerful regions in Germany and China, respectively. Thus, cooperation between companies from these regions offers promising synergy potentials. In order to identify industrial synergies, guideline oriented interviews have been conducted with 25 experts from Baden-Wuerttemberg and the Jiangsu province. Especially Chinese companies pursue strong collaboration in order to address future technology fields such as automation technology as well as environmental technology.