All articles by Christopher Ludwig – Page 11
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FeatureVolvo Cars: Outbound evolutions
The vehicle yard at Torslanda, at Volvo Cars’ global headquarters in Gothenburg, Sweden, is just one part of the OEM’s growing global logistics operations, but it is a good place to glimpse some important changes and innovations. For example, the global shape of the Geely-owned carmaker’s expanding production footprint ...
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FeatureVolvo Cars: Leaning towards greater stability
Since Geely Holdings acquired it from Ford Motor Company in 2010, Volvo Cars has been reinventing itself, from product development through to its industrial base and supply chain. Today, with a refreshed model line-up and amidst several new launches, sales have grown to record levels, with further expansion still to ...
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FeatureBosch and MAN win VDA award
Robert Bosch and MAN Truck & Bus have been announced as dual winners of this year’s VDA Logistics Award, with digital logistics solutions in intra-logistics and empty container scheduling, respectively. It is the first time the award has been shared between two companies. The award, from two of the country’s ...
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FeatureAudi’s logistics part 2: Pursuing practical progression
There is little question that finished vehicle logistics has been among the least automated segments of the overall automotive production and supply chain process. From loading and unloading vehicles to and from trucks, ships and rail wagons to inspection and parking, as well as scanning vehicles into inventory and tracking systems, outbound logistics has remained, by and large, a manual, labour-intensive operation
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FeatureAudi’s logistics part 1: Prepared for a new reality
The recent history of the Audi brand is written deeply into the company’s supply chain and logistics, and can be read across the carmaker’s expanding geography, plant and parts handling operations
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FeatureRenault Nissan Automotive India part 2: Ensuring all brands are ready to go
Renault Nissan Automotive India, the joint venture division of the Renault Nissan Alliance that oversees production and distribution activities in the country, was established with a number of logistics advantages in mind. Its plant in Oragadam, close to the southern city of Chennai, is a manufacturing hub located within a ...
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FeatureRenault Nissan Automotive India part 1: Working towards a single standard
Among the many global plants of the Renault Nissan Alliance, the factory in Oragadam, close to Chennai in India, stands out in several ways. Though other Alliance factories now also produce multiple brands, the Indian site was the first planned from the beginning as a joint facility, including shared production ...
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FeatureBMW tracking: Prevention is better than a cure
Few manufacturing operations have expanded as much over the past two decades as BMW’s Plant Spartanburg in Greer, South Carolina. After producing 411,000 X-series SUV models in 2016, it is now the carmaker’s largest global facility by assembly volume, and is headed towards its maximum capacity of 450,000 units per year, including the launch this year of the new X3.
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FeatureService parts part 4: Skills and service providers
Have you changed your outsourcing strategy for service parts operations? As with other parts of the automotive supply chain, outsourcing strategies tend to vary by OEM, region and operation. Transport services, of course, remain outsourced, although some carmakers – such as Toyota on the west coast of the US or ...
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FeatureService parts part 3: Aftermarket operations and network
20 years of change in automotive service parts logistics
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FeatureService parts part 2: Next-generation service
Executives we spoke to… BMW GroupWolfgang Baumann, vice-president of parts logistics management, has been with the company since 1985 and spent most of his career in sales planning and commercial operations in Germany, before moving into his current role in service parts logistics in 2010. While he claims ...
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FeatureService parts part 1: Moving fast towards the customer
Twenty years of automotive service parts logistics
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FeatureProduction & logistics part 4: Logistics organisations and skills
How has your company’s supply chain and logistics management organisation changed over the past 20 years?
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FeatureProduction & logistics part 3: Operations, packaging and IT
How have supply chain operations for logistics changed over the past 20 years?
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FeatureProduction & logistics part 2: Questioning the future
This article is one of a series of pieces celebrating Automotive Logistics’ 20th anniversary issue that together take an extended look at the way top executives feel automotive production and logistics have changed in the last two decades – and where they see them heading in the future.
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FeatureProduction & logistics part 1: Where are we now?
This article kicks off a series of pieces celebrating Automotive Logistics’ 20th anniversary issue that together take an extended look at the way top executives feel automotive production and logistics have changed in the last two decades – and where they see them heading in the future
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FeatureStill breaking down barriers in automotive supply chains…
What has changed in 20 years of covering the automotive supply chain?
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FeatureVolkswagen Group part 2: Talking ‘then and now’ with head of group logistics, Thomas Zernechel
The group’s head of group logistics talks about the major changes seen over the past two decades – and why he is optimistic about the future of logistics
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FeatureVolkswagen Group part 1: Present and prepared for the future
Volkswagen Konzernlogistik (group logistics), the carmaker’s central logistics steering and purchasing organisation, has taken on new dimensions in managing the group’s complex and expanding supply chain
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FeatureChanges are the only certainty at Ford of Europe
Dirk Willmann, director of material planning and logistics for Ford Europe, outlines how the carmaker is improving visibility and adapting its vehicle logistics network across Europe to better manage customer demand and trade uncertainties.