Branche: Asia

Immediately after independence the Congress regime under Prime Minister Nehru embarked upon a program of state controlled industrialisation. Over three decades the agrarian sector and the peasant cases of India were neglected by the Congress High Command and the Indian development planners. This Indian “middle path” to industrial development not only led to the emergence of new and rebellious peasant parties it also resulted in a modest, in a “Hindu rate of growth” of some three percent. In addition this policy of non-alignment and this pursuit of “middle path” between the west and the soviet bloc led to increased political and economic isolation. It was finally at the beginning of the 1970th that the government of India under Indira Gandhi constructed a new political alignment and economic exchange system with the Soviet Union. India gained Soviet industrial and military technology and a market for its products - which could not have been sold on the world market. With the ...

The shift of production capacities from high-cost countries to India offers new business opportunities, but also new challenges. As shown by the example of the leather industry, sourcing from India is often associated with versatile risks. Risks are especially due to transcultural misunderstandings, lacking adherence to delivery dates, low quality standards, residues of harmful substances in products as well as problematic working conditions in Indian factories and high levels of environmental pollution. German companies which are planning to source finished or unfinished goods from India should consider sustainable risk mitigation strategies right from the start in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. Comprehensive coordination of the supply chain and the installation of effective control mechanisms may prove necessary to fully exploit the business opportunities provided by Indian suppliers. However, a thorough coordination of the supply chain will not only reduce individual business ...

As a result of India’s increasing demand of machine tools India is attracting the attention of international machine tool manufacturers. To be competitive against international machine tool manufactures the German manufacturers must adapt their machine tool concepts to the specific requirements of the Indian manufacturing structure and offer machine tools according to the principal of avoidance of waste by offering exactly what the Indian customer needs. For this, the machine tools must be optimized to the parameters investment costs, running costs and cycle time. This article describes the requirements of the Indian machine tool end-users. a methodology is shown to optimize and develop machinetool-concept systematically to the Indian requirements.

The increasing globalization gives western companies great new opportunities. Especially China gained increasing importance as a sourcing market in the last years. Despite these opportunities, a retreat of many companies from China could be witnessed recently. Among other factors, this is due to the fact that western companies cannot exert enough influence on the performance and price of their suppliers. This article presents tools and processes to successfully face this challenge and improve the own position of power as a customer.

Consumergoods but also technical products, pharmaceuticals etc. are increasingly counterfeid. Production and global sales are often controlled by organised crime. The local confiscation of counterfeits does not impress the fraudsters. Effective countermeasures must include the closure of their production facilities.

The People’s Republic of China has developed into an important national economy, which is fully integrated into the world’s economy. China’s apparel industry already leads the world in production and exports. This article describes China’s position within the global apparel industry and shows some effects onto the logistics of the branch. Additionally a project is being introduced which may contribute to solving some problems in intra-logistic processes of the branch.

Confronted with intensive product price competition in China, industrial firms are forced to invest in extending the service business. Extending the service business is far from easy. Chinese competitors offer faked spare parts. Local service skills are very poor and service requirements force industrial firms to invest in logistic infrastructure. This article offers a guideline for managers seeking to professionalize the human resource management in the service organization, to adapt service offerings to the local customer needs, and to set-up a logistic infrastructure.

Due to sales and cost motives and ongoing globalisation, low-cost procurement markets are increasingly opened up by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). These enterprises’ long-term success is directly linked to their success on these procurement markets. A procurement strategy which takes local market characteristics into account and fully integrates them will lead to success. The procurement process focuses on the selection of required components and the choice, support and further development of suppliers. The following article presents the “SiLu“ project approach (Sino-German cooperation for the support and further development of suppliers). The SiLu project comprises four SMEs that came together in order to elaborate a joint procurement strategy and to implement it on the Chinese market using their concerted buying power. Besides presenting this project the article focuses on the first project phase, the methodical selection of components and the identification of ...

The increasing competitive pressure leads to a reduction of the depth of value creation and therefore to a rising importance of suppliers. Additionally, globalization is the cause for a tighter international network in production. Asymmetries in interests can obstruct a cooperation between companies and may endanger the commercial success. The article describes asymmetries in interests in the cooperation with local as well as Chinese suppliers.

Due to the economic boom the demand for transport and logistic services increases dramatically in China. Experts promise for the Chinese logistics market a more than three times faster growth than for the German market. China offers not only cheap work force. With the accession to the WTO in 2001 the Chinese government liberalizes the logistics market. After outsourcing abroad and the integration of Chinese suppliers into the worldwide supply networks thousands of companies follow to China to open up the huge interior market with products as well as transport and logistic services.