GEFCO’s Peter Reinshagen and Dr Jörg Mosolf, CEO of Horst Mosolf held an interesting and informative question and answer session at the 5th Automotive Logistics China Conference in Beijing Thursday afternoon. Together they outlined strategies they believe will help develop world-class practices for China-specific vehicle logistics.
Dr. Mosolf explained the factors that he believes differentiate automobile logistics from simple vehicle transportation: Customer Focus, IT Forecasting, Quality Management, Intermodel and Optimization. Mosolf strives to work closely with automobile manufactures to change manufacturing from a “Push” strategy where cars are produced and then pushed out to the customer to a “Pull” strategy where production tracks end customer purchases and manufacturing builds vehicles which are already sold.
Mr. Reinshagen and Dr. Mosolf shared examples of instances where their companies work together despite being competitors. They explained how they share transportation resources to optimize efficiency and reduce empty shipments in order to save energy and protect the environment.
Both companies expressed a willingness to share technology with potential Chinese partners to help improve logistics provided to Chinese automobile manufacturers. Dr. Mosolf’s emphasized “What I am sure of is that we will do business in China.”
Dr. Mosolf believes foreign invested joint venture manufacturers will be the first companies to export automobiles in large quantities. Given Mosolf’s close relationship with Daimler Benz is it possible Mercedes is planning to begin exporting cars made in China? We’ll have to wait and see.
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