Audi has gained market share and kept a tight reign on inventory thanks to industry-leading logistics processes. Now Dr. Ernst-Hermann Krog says it is applying its 'new logistics concept' further down the supply chain.
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If you want to see the future of supply chain strategy for the wider Volkswagen Group, study what Audi is doing today. Three years ago, for example, the premium carmaker was the first in the group to update its production system, focusing on shrinking the amount of worker movement and inventory on the line.
It was also the pioneering brand for the group's order-to-delivery system, which allows later production changes and more flexibility for swapping orders in the pipeline. More recently it was the first to begin work on the Neues Logistikkonzept (new logistics concept, or NLK), which will synchronise the supply chain from assembly back to the supplier base.
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Audi is often a good place to introduce production and logistics concepts because of the advanced infrastructure at its German plants at Ingolstadt, in Bavaria, and at Neckarsulm, outside Stuttgart. Both have excellent transport links, as well as logisticscentres or suppliers parks next to the plant, a model that has been copied elsewhere for Audi and the VW Group.
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