All articles by Christopher Ludwig – Page 25
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FeatureEditor's note: a more knowable future
OEMs and LSPs must often react to the supply chain in real time. Extreme weather in the US, UK and Japan have all recently affected freight routes. The crisis between Russia and Ukraine, for example, blocked the port of Sevastopol, diverting cargo, along with posing much more serious threats to ...
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FeatureWith solid financials, Gefco looks to acquisition and growth
The Gefco Group has announced positive results for 2013, including higher revenue and net profits, although difficult automotive markets in Europe and costs weighed on its operating profit and margin. While Gefco is facing risks over the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the company has charted an aggressive growth plan, which is likely ...
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FeatureEight logistics providers among GM Supplier of the Year winners
General Motors has announced its 2013 Supplier of the Year award to 68 suppliers, including eight companies working specifically in logistics for the carmaker.Only 1% of GM’s 24,000 global suppliers are selected for the awards, which are chosen by a group of purchasing, engineering, quality, manufacturing and logistics executives. “Our ...
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FeatureParliamentary committee votes for harmonised loading lengths for car transporters across EU
The Transport and Tourism (TRAN) Committee of the European Parliament has voted in favour of harmonising the loaded length of vehicle transporters to 20.75 metres. The vote will still have to pass in a plenary session of the Parliament and a council of transport ministers before the proposal could become ...
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FeatureOverheard at Automotive Logistics Europe
A few interesting comments from the Automotive Logistics Europe conference in Bonn. "We are working together to find creative solutions to reduce environmental impacts. One of the most important things is to standardise. It’s important for LSPs that each OEM doesn’t have its own solution – there needs to be ...
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FeatureHertz consolidates vehicle logistics services
Car-rental company Hertz has overhauled its outbound logistics procurement and distribution strategy, greatly reducing the number of carriers that it uses. Rather than controlling its overall logistics movements, Hertz has moved towards an outsourced model for its logistics engineering. Paul Sykes (pictured), European sourcing manager for transportation and vehicle re-marketing, ...
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FeatureJCB cuts logistics emissions by 16% with dual-fuel fleet
British construction equipment manufacturer, JCB, has moved aggressively towards reducing emissions and fuel consumption in its supply chain, including the use of a dual-fuel carrier fleet and multimodal logistics. The company is already savings hundreds of thousands of pounds per year as a result, according to Joannes Van Osta (pictured), ...
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FeatureLive survey results: automotive falling behind, need for IT, to Russia without love
At Automotive Logistics Europe 2014, we held several series of live voting surveys that captured the opinions of our audience present in Bonn, as well as those streaming the sessions live from around the world. The results were fascinating, from a desire for better IT services to trepidation about investing ...
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FeatureOpel/Vauxhall moves to ‘order slotting’
Opel/Vauxhall has a made a breakthrough in managing its vehicle orders and forecasting in real time together with material availability and logistics, thanks in parts to systems implemented by software-provider flexisIn today’s complex supply chains, with a proliferation of customer options and global material, one major challenge for carmakers like ...
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FeatureRedesigning in-plant logistics at Opel/Vauxhall
Part of exclusive coverage of Opel/Vauxhall, director of supply chain Michael Scholl describes how the carmaker is adjusting its in-plant logistics in response to supply chain complexity and changes Opel/Vauxhall special featuresRead these other stories that form part of this exclusive coverage of Opel/Vauxhall's supply chain management:End-to-send control with Michael ...
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FeatureAiming for end-to-end control at Opel/Vauxhall
Michael Scholl, Opel/Vauxhall’s director of supply chain, discusses parallel planning, in-plant logistics customisation and complexity with Automotive Logistics When carmakers make changes, be it launching a new model, adding or shifting a supplier location, or selling in a new market, they reverberate across the supply chain, either as ripples ...
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FeatureExecutive summary: Blue skies over Bonn as logistics returns to growth
Vehicle sales and production are rising again in Europe, while supply chain complexity is driving more demand for logistics and better systems. But many risks remain both within the industry, and on Europe's periphery. Additional reporting by Marcus Williams and Zoë Apostolides[sam_ad id=6 codes='true']Although the Europe conference was held at ...
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FeatureJust in time frappuccinos
Europe’s automotive supply chain experts got an opportunity to see how the other side lives at this year’s Automotive Logistics Europe conference, with a presentation on the logistics at American coffee-chain giant Starbucks. Jan Huijgens (pictured), senior manager of logistics for the European region, revealed that logistics is a strong ...
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FeatureEuropean damage rates down, catastrophic loss up
Overall damage ratios for finished vehicle delivery in Europe have fallen by as much as 50% in recent years, with huge cost saving implications. At the same time, more incidents of extreme weather have led to higher catastrophic loss cases. Matt Holmes (pictured), director of damage claims and survey specialist, ...
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FeatureOdette estimates €30m savings for outbound with B2B standard
Developing a standard for business-to-business communication protocols for finished vehicle logistics could save the European automotive industry at least €30m ($41.5m) per year, according to Odette, the standards association for automotive supply chain management. John Canvin, managing director of London-based Odette, said that there is currently no standard method for ...
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FeatureAudi wants better visibility on logistics cost, flows
Audi has called for an open, common network of consolidation points, which could be managed by a cloud-based transport management system and control tower, to help break the ‘black box’ of transport costs and visibility. Jens Tilgner (pictured), head of material transportation at Audi, told the Automotive Logistics conference in ...
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FeatureWill Russian investment be left out in the cold?
Troubles in the Russian market and the crisis with Ukraine could be discouraging some investment by the automotive and logistics industries. However, production and localisation plans in the country don’t yet appear to have changed. During an interactive voting survey conducted at Automotive Logistics Europe, delegates were asked in which ...
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FeatureHealthier times ahead for Europe
European vehicle production is heading towards higher capacity utilisation as factories close, models are localised and the new vehicle sales market finally starts to recover, according to PwC Autofacts. Continued growth in exports as well as complex material flows should also benefit automotive logistics providers, although the European market may ...
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FeatureA transformation loaded with ambition at Volvo
The decision to bring logistics purchasing and operations in-house has resulted in dramatic changes in Volvo Car Group’s inbound and outbound supply chain.Four years after China’s Geely Cars bought Volvo Cars from Ford, the Swedish carmaker is undergoing the most significant ever change to its manufacturing and sales footprint. Since ...
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FeatureAvoiding a national waste – Indian rail reforms
Anand Venkateswaran (pictured), general manager of sales logistics at Hyundai Motor India, talks about the potential benefits and pitfalls of switching to rail for moving vehicles in India. Ramesh Kumar: Two years ago, you made a presentation at the Automotive Logistics India Conference with a focus on alternate modes of ...