A rePort: How is a head- liner actually produced? friedrich ... - polytec

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REINHARD URMANN
is a member of the Managing Board of the POLYTEC GROUP and
responsible for the Automotive Systems Division, which represents
the lion’s share – 72% – of Group turnover. Urmann, the
“Ultimate Technician” knows every single machine and logistical
operation in his dozen factories spread around Europe. He has a
unique direct dial system where employees responsible for critical
machines can and do call him directly at any time of the day or
night. Should any critical piece of equipment not be functioning
at its optimum, Urmann will stay involved until it is fi xed however
long it takes.
WHAT DOES
MODULARISATION
ACTUALLY MEAN?
Car producers produce more and more special models – so
called derivatives – therefore total production volumes are
spread over a wider and wider range of models. What challenges
arise from the industrial series production? And how
does the POLYTEC GROUP deal with them?
In the last two to three years, the number of derivatives – in
mass production – has dramatically increased. Tremendous opportunities
exist for suppliers, especially innovative medium sized
companies like POLYTEC. With derivatives from the BMW 1 or 3
Series for instance, the OEMs look for solid medium sized companies
to take on these sensitive tasks. They need companies with
suffi cient capital to fund the programmes but with fl exible structures
and management who are close enough to the production to
make rapid effective decisions. It also helps if the senior management
is close to the development process and familiar with every
aspect of production. It is apparent, at the moment that the total
„We reckon the OEMS have
fi nanced parts of the investment
already with the last series.”
Reinhard Urmann about interchangeable modules in production
volumes of a production model are spread over a wider and wider
range of derivatives. This gives the supplier an enormous task as
he now has to manage a number of medium sized projects not
just one large project. The future therefore lies in modularisation.
We have developed modularisation already. From those production
processes, in which the processing of two parts of a model
– a roof or a car door for instance – are not identical any more,
we have moved to module based equipment on the line. Fast tool
changes provide for the essential fl exibility. One can image defi n-
POLYTEC
ANNUAL REPORT 2006
ASKING THE
SPECIALIST
ASKING
THE
SPECIALIST