| [abstract] Recent years have seen major delocalizations, some for good reasons and, unfortunately, also some for not-so-good reasons. In Europe, factory closures are daily news. They are now even high on the political agenda. Most of these factories move to Eastern Europe or China. As a factory manager with roots in the community, the question is “is there anything I can do to keep my factory open?” On a larger scale the question is “will our companies and countries regret this rapid shift in the future?” In short, is it worth fighting for our factories or is it a lost battle?
In this presentation, we discuss our views on the importance and future of industrial excellence in developed countries in three parts. One part deals with 10 years of research on the building blocks of industrial excellence and on how truly excellent plants have evolved over time in their fight to remain competitive. The other two parts of the presentation deal with real-life experiences of two companies.
The first real-life experience concerns HP’s enterprise computers factory in Germany serving the EMEA region. Many managers challenged this centralized manufacturing model and pushed to follow the strong trend towards outsourcing and delocalization. In order to survive, the factory developed a new industry-leading fulfillment model in five phases aiming for solutions, services and finally business networking. The factory is now completely integrated into the sales process. In addition to its focus on cost competitiveness and operations excellence it is now also in a position to push revenue generation through close collaboration with customers, taking advantage of its central location.
The second real-life experience describes Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ strive for supply chain excellence by balancing core competencies and outsourcing. Fujitsu Siemens Computers is the leading European IT infrastructure supplier serving the EMEA region. To meet customer requirements Supply Chain Excellence is one key success factor of Fujitsu Siemens Computers. Supply chain design, flexibility, the right cost structure and people with sense of responsibility are the main elements of this supply chain. However, high labor costs, strong unions and a fashionable trend to move industrial operations to Asia are constantly pushing in the opposite direction of delocalization as opposed to keeping industrial operations in Europe.
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