Author: Kloepfel
Is the reality as bad as the image? Poland used to be one of the poorest countries in Europe and still has this reputation today. The fact is, however, that even in economic crises economic growth has been recorded. This is mainly due to the fact that Poland’s public debt is very low, while the banking sector is also very well regulated. This offers advantages for German buyers. Find out exactly what these advantages are in our Procurement Market Check for Poland. Krótkie fakty – short facts Poland is not only Germany’s largest trading partner in Eastern Europe, imports from…
Order numbers continue to plummet Things could be better for mechanical engineering at the moment. The industry association VDMA has now announced that the number of orders for the seventh month in a row is already below the previous year’s level. The current level is causing unrest. German industry continues to be on a downward trend. Many sectors are struggling with a declining number of orders. The number of orders in the manufacturing sector was around 2.7 percent lower than in the previous year and even 5.6 percent lower than in the previous calendar month. Mechanical engineering plays a particularly…
Automobile manufacturers take drastic measures Many have already suspected it, but now it has become reality. The automotive industry is struggling with ever-decreasing demand and now the employees of the car manufacturers are also affected. One example is the Brandl Maschinenbau GmbH. The employees there will now also have to suffer as the plant in Pfeffenhausen, Lower Bavaria, is to be closed by the end of 2020. As a result, 120 employees will lose their jobs. The managing director comments this official act as a “dramatic break in the automotive supplier industry”. Brandl restructuring boss Axel Dransfeld explains this with…
IPhone 11 more successful than its forerunner model Currently, China cannot shine with the best economy. Although the USA and China are still in a trade conflict, they have caused the sales figures for Apple’s new iPhone 11 to skyrocket. The latest results from the Alibaba platform Tmall show that on the very first day, pre-orders were more than 300 times higher than for the iPhone XR last year. The e-commerce company JD.com already had a turnover of 14.1 million dollars after the first few minutes. This is 480% more than with the previous model. CNBC reported, citing the sellers,…
First tests are carried out in the port of Göteborg The autonomous electric vehicle bears the name “Vera”. It was developed by Volvo Trucks and proves once again that Sweden is leading the autonomous driving market. “Autonomous transports with low noise levels and free of exhaust emissions will play an important role in the future of logistics, which will benefit both the economy and society,” explains Mikael Karlsson, vice president of autonomous solutions at Volvo Trucks. One thing that hits you immediately is the missing driver’s cab of the heavy-duty train. The reason for this is that the saddle machine…
Study shows experiences with AI The development of technologies continues to progress. However, many companies are still sceptical about artificial intelligence. But many of the advantages of artificial intelligence are often unknown or not fully exploited. A study by IDC now shows which experiences companies have already had with artificial intelligence. The number of artificial intelligences used in Germany is constantly increasing. 40% of the companies have already used an AI, 88% want to do so in the next few months. AI should be used especially in IT (34%), as well as in sales and marketing (31%) and also optimize…
Why purchasing needs to interfere It is generally not appreciated that buyers interfere in the procurement of services. But the purchasing department can help the corresponding departments from marketing to production to IT to get more services for the same budget. The secret lies – as so often – in the processes and benchmarks. The procurement of service providers in the five-digit range in particular holds enormous potential. The department in turn can get more for the same budget. Savings of between 10 and 40 percent and more are possible, especially for services that can hardly be standardized, such as…
In our consulting projects, we are repeatedly asked by our customers what experience we have with reverse auctions and for which product groups we recommend using such a purchasing instrument. Basically, reverse auctions have gained popularity worldwide in recent years, especially in the course of increasing digitalization in purchasing. In order to make a recommendation for or against reverse auctions, we would first like to explain what a reverse auction is, where the main advantages and disadvantages lie and what we consider to be the critical success factors. Definition reverse auction Reverse auction literally means the opposite of a traditional…
L’Osteria will use digital processes from tendering to supplier management together with Sourcify.net in the future. Tailor-made solutions offer reliable contract management and comprehensive evaluations at a glance. The L’Osteria franchise chain is now optimizing its strategic purchasing with Sourcify.net. L’Osteria, the award-winning brand gastronomy, is known not only for its delicious giant pizzas but also for its wide range of Italian dishes and Mediterranean flair. The company manages the purchasing for around 120 restaurants in Germany and other European countries. Sourcify.net offers its customers from the hotel, catering and care industries a digital purchasing solution. The Business Intelligence Tool…
Arrange your personal consultation appointment at this year’s symposium now! This year’s 54th BME Symposium purchasing and logistics will take place in Berlin from 13 to 15 November. The Kloepfel Group will again be represented there this year and will be at your disposal for a personal consultation. The following companies of the Kloepfel Group are present: Make an appointment now! Kloepfel Group Christopher Willson c.willson@kloepfel-group.com Phone: +4921187545323 www.kloepfel-group.com/en This year’s topics of the symposium: Strategy 2025 Purchasing & SCM – today & tomorrow: How will we work in the future? Cost optimization & more: Which value…
HWWI commodity price index rose for the first time after two months HWWI Total index increased by 3.0% (US dollar basis). Crude oil increased by 3.2%. Index for Food total fell by 0.7% (Hamburg, August 16, 2019) In July, the HWWI commodity price index rose on aver-age by 3.0% (in Euro: + 3.7%) compared to the previous month. The composite index thus reached a level of 112.8 points in July (in Euros: 111.5 points). An increase of 5.8% (in Euro: + 6.5%) was recorded for the index for Industrial raw materials, while the index for Energy raw materials only increased…
e.GO: Automotive construction rethought The carmaker e.GO Mobile AG from Aachen is building one of the world’s cheapest electric cars, the e.GO Life. In addition, the electric four-seater was developed three times faster than usual with only one tenth of the usual costs. Series production of the e.GO Life started in March 2019 within just three years. The vehicle was built with a comparatively small budget. But how did e.GO and its partners manage to build the small car so efficiently? And what special role does purchasing and agile project management play in this? Completely redesigned vehicle construction Professor Dr.…
The CFO of LÜHR FILTER reports in an interview about the joint project with GFE Solutions. How was your technical management organized before the cooperation with GFE Solutions? At the beginning we had an extremely high work load in the technical processing. As a medium-sized business in the project area, however, we cannot immediately hire new employees when more work is needed. After all, the additional capacity becomes unnecessary when the workload is reduced. In this case, we have already relied extensively on the support of external service providers, which, of course, have corresponding prices. What was the main objective…
Flexible like a startup – strong like a corporation More and more German-speaking companies of all industries and sizes are outsourcing their purchasing activities, in other words they outsource operational purchasing tasks to neighboring countries such as Slovakia. In this interview you will learn about how you grow on call with nearshoring, inspire your buyers and implement a nearshoring project step by step. Why should medium-sized companies think about nearshoring in purchasing? There are a number of motives that motivate our customers to outsource their operational purchasing activities to our shared service center in Slovakia. The main drivers across all…
One e-Mail is all it takes Optimise offers in 24 hours Often the purchasing department in medium-sized businesses lacks the time to renegotiate offers for irregular requirements. From now on Kloepfel Services offers you to optimize concrete and orderable offers from 500 € on for specified products. It doesn’t matter whether it’s office furniture, computers, handicraft services or the buffet for the Christmas party. Buyers can now shine with Quick Wins even when they have irregular (one-time) requirements – one e-mail is all it takes: The implementation is 100% based on success and is very simple for our customers. Step…
Approval for autonomous multi-storey car park Bosch and Daimler have joined forces in the field of autonomous parking. After the “Automated Valet Parking” was tested in the parking garage of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, the authorities have now granted their approval. Criteria for safety and approval have been jointly developed and will also be applied in other projects. The corresponding vehicles are now officially allowed to park next to conventional cars without a driver. The technology comes from Bosch and the vehicles are provided by Mercedes-Benz. The service is activated via a smartphone app, and the vehicle is then…
Importance of purchasing As a result of globalization, the volume of world trade has increased to almost twice the volume of world production of goods. In Germany, the share of material and service purchases has increased by 75 percent in most sectors. Accordingly, three quarters of the parts have to be procured by the purchasing department. The task of modern purchasing is to supply the company on time with all required goods and services in sufficient quality. However, many companies are not aware of the growing importance of purchasing. Sometimes too little attention is paid to this or simply too…
The world’s largest aircraft manufacturer soon? Boeing is so far the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world, but this could change soon. While the US company is still struggling with the 737 Max aircraft, Airbus has been able to catch up significantly. The European aircraft manufacturer managed to double its profit in the first half of the year. Adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) climbed to EUR 2.53 billion. The company announced this in Paris on Wednesday. Only 1.16 billion euros were achieved in the same period last year. Net profit also doubled from EUR 0.5 billion to EUR…