News 2-2008 E NEU:News 2/05.2 - Panopa

16 P A N O P A
Ten Years of Panopa in Hambach –
Successful Logistics for Small Cars
Panopa Logistique France SARL, the French subsidiary of Panopa Logistik GmbH, has been responsible for the
logistic services for the production of the smart in Hambach in Lorraine since 1997. In the coming years, Panopa
wishes to extend the activities in France even further.
With a storage area of 250
square metres and only
about ten employees to start
with, Panopa opened the new corpo -
rate location for automotive logistics
on 28 August 1997. From the very first
day, Panopa took on the internal logis -
tics for the production of the smart in
Hambach: the Panopa employees
planned and organised the transport
of the rear axles on the site and supplied
the axles to the correct production
belts.
Likewise, Panopa has been responsible
for the so-called transport control from
the beginning. All incoming trucks are
registered at the gates of the location
by the Panopa employees. They also
give the truck drivers individual entry
permits, as only a certain number of
trucks are allowed to be on the production
site at the same time.
The organisation of the transport fleet
We congratulate
35 years of service
Sabine Wulfert, Eisenhüttenstadt
Klaus Moedebeck, Eisenhütten stadt
Jürgen Weinbörner, Bochum
Petra Seidel, Dortmund
Hans-Dieter Goede, Dortmund
25 years of service
Reinhard Biermann, Herten
Torsten Heerbach, Eisenhütten stadt
Heiko Henke, Eisenhüttenstadt
Maik Reimann, Eisenhüttenstadt
Mario Hannemann, Eisenhütten stadt
Volker Stange, Herten
Torsten Dehmel, Herten
Heiko Stutzmann, Dortmund
Imperial News 2/2008
Holiday feeling in the Panopa-beach-area at the
open day
f.l.t.r.: Friedrich Krüger, Helmut
Schniederjohann and Charles Braun
management has also been one of the
tasks of automotive logistics of Panopa
for some time. The parts needed to
build the car are transported to Ham -
bach by truck from all over Europe in
a just-in-time procedure. By means of a
computer-controlled system, the suppliers
always know which part is
required when – and that is precisely
what they supply. As soon as the truck
has reached the production site, the
Panopa employees take over the load -
ed semitrailer with a special vehicle
and transport the parts directly into
the production hall. The trucks finally
drive back to the supplier with
empties on board.
In the first few months, the production
of the small city car was not always
without problems. But since the summer
of 1998, the turnover and the production
rates have permanently risen.
The 1,000,000th smart rolled off the
belt in July this year and was cele -
brated in Hambach by manufacturers,
suppliers and service companies with
an open day, at which Panopa ensured
a holiday feeling with a beach area
and their own cocktail bar inviting the
attendees to relax.
Today, Panopa is active in Hambach
with up to 60 people. With its own
administrative building and more than
10,000 square metres of storage area,
the company works for almost 80
different customers. "In the coming
years, we want to increase our commitment
in Hambach and the whole of
France even more and obtain other
automobile suppliers as customers",
explains Rüdiger Buß, managing director
of Panopa.
Fotos: Wolfgang Klauke