Autor: Uwe Dombrowski

From the production site Salzgitter of the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG CKD-sets (Completely Knocked Down) for trucks and bus chassis are sent to a global production network. In the receiving countries the CKD-sets are assembled with support of MAN. The main chances of the CKD- production are the exploitation of new markets and the increase of competitiveness. The CKD production was traditionally attached to the business unit logistics. Since 2009 it is an integral part of the production at the MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG. This allows to adapt the “lean principles”, which are used in the local production lines, much more easily. Hereby it is possible to react to the high requirements of the production and logistics processes in the CKD production. In this paper special requirements of the CKD production and solutions will be shown. The main focus is on approaches to process optimization within the production network and the transfer of lean management methods from the field of production in the ...

Currently an increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) is facing the challenge of seeking cost saving opportunities by shifting their production to foreign (low cost) countries. This trend is strengthened by the desire to offer a high service level to global customers on a local basis. In the majority of cases a lack of know-how, financial, and human resources hinders the establishment of an own production abroad by the SME. Outsourcing of manufacturing processes or utilizing joint ventures with foreign enterprises might be applicable solutions. However, the fear of product counterfeiting or plagiarism keeps most of the SME from expanding internationally. In order to assure an effective protection against the aforementioned issues SME have to identify their core competencies and develop capable safety measures.

The international competition pressure and the increased customer requirements regarding delivery time and individual expression of the products provide the basic conditions for the capital goods industry in Germany. Besides a high productivity the change ability is a prerequisite within the production to also be able to consist in wage-intensive fields competitively at the market. In this article its use is described by flexible production modules with a practice example in the capital goods industry.

Increasingly enterprises are hoping for a decline of marginal unit costs by turning away from in-house logistics. Free competition among contract logistics services is believed to open up new optimisation potentials. At the same time, performance related accounting models permit to transform the formerly fixed logistics costs into variable costs. However, because of the complexity and the customer-specific character of supply chain processes there is no standard method for the rating and selection of suitable service partners. The main problem is to provide information for a detailed description of the expected performance spectrum and thus to enable performance related contract positions. The method of „quantity and product related logistics costs” permits an exact quantification for multi stage products before placing a service order. It is a contribution to cope with the challenges described above.

Today increasing amounts of electronic components can be found in various products. Although these components have short innovation cycles they are used in primary products with comparatively long life cycles. The manufacturer of the primary product needs to supply spare parts both during production and after the end thereof. To date the planning of post end of production spare parts supply has posed a complex problem.