High prize for “tuned“ logistics of Mercedes-AMG

Mercedes-AMG GmbH expresses its sportsmanship also in logistics – and received the German Award for Supply Chain Management 2014 on 22 October

The German Award for Supply Chain Management 2014 was granted to the Mercedes-AMG GmbH for its project „Supplying Performance. Logistik als Wachstumsfaktor“. The announcement of the winner took place during the 31st German Supply Chain Conference in Berlin from 22 to 24 October.

„It has convinced the jury how consistently Mercedes-AMG has gone the way of a strict separation of the production and development of logistics,“ said jury chairman Prof. Dr. Bernd Gottschalk in his speech. In this way, the company implemented an innovative concept in which logistics steers the factory.

The Mercedes-AMG GmbH, based in Affalterbach near Stuttgart produced the most powerful standard models in the vehicle series of Mercedes-Benz. The product range includes sports cars, sporty sedans, SUVs, coupés, roadsters and custom designed unique pieces. In 2013, the company has achieved a new sales record with approximately 32,200 delivered sports cars and performance models

The strategic realignment of the physical logistics started in 2011 with a double-digit annual sales growth, the increasing complexity in the variety of variants and parts and the upgrade of Merceds-AMG to an independent OEM within the Daimler Group. The challenges for the company would have become unmanageable without a full reorganisation of logistics. The aim was to enable further growth by resolving the classic tension between development and production logistics.

Facts and Figures:

1) A central warehouse in Marbach has replaced the previous eight warehouses in the region. Significant effects of this measure are:

• The storage capacity increased by nearly 70 per cent, though the area has been constrained by one third.

• For production quantities, which are higher by a fifth than in the past, the trucks have to cope with a slightly shorter distance. This applies in particular to truck transport, which declined from 2,036 km before the project started to 440 kilometers a week. The CO2 emissions are now only one-fifth of the previous amount.

2) Material flow in the AMG engine manufacturing facility has been redesigned and production-related storage areas were extended and made more flexible. Again AMG achieved impressive results:

• By pre-picked small parts sets they managed to reduce the lead time of engine manufacture so that in the same time unit 2.37 per cent more motors can be made.

• The integration of engine test benches directly at the production plant makes internal truck trips to the test rigs superfluous.

3) For implementation AMG took a creative external service provider on board. The communication has been simplified by this strategic decision and Mercedes-AMG can focus on its core business.

4) At the Affalterbach site AMG built a new development parts warehouse and centralized logistics activities. While the number of workshop orders doubled, the number of supply trips could be reduced by a third.

5) In parallel AMG optimised its IT system world and introduced a centralized interface to communicate for internal customers and the operational warehouse logistics. The workload in storage fell by 60 per cent and only half of the paper is consumed, formerly accompanying the processes.

Quelle: LogEastics
Portal: www.logistik-express.com