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For the next round of negotiations with their suppliers, German automotive companies have already set the course with their recently announced cost-cutting programmes amounting to billions of euros. The problem: In recent years, many suppliers have already fully exploited the potential for productivity increase in the operational sector. In order to remain competitive in the future, suppliers can no longer avoid a more productive organisation of all processes along the value creation chain.

While World Cup euphoria is likely to drown international criticism of Brazil in the weeks to come, industrial companies in the country itself are not given any respite. Subsidiaries of Western parent companies also feel the pressure: the domestic economy, isolated by politics, is limping, investments in machine parks are delayed, personnel costs are going through the roof. As a consequence, companies’ productivity is on a sharp decline.

Starting on 1 June 2014, Ulrich Hermani lends his support to Staufen AG as a new member of the Advisory Board and Senior Advisor for mechanical and plant engineering. He is a highly competent and experienced representative of this industry: for 20 years, he was successfully at the helm of mechanical and plant engineering in Baden-Württemberg as Managing Director of the VDMA [German Engineering Association].

According to a study by the “brand eins” business magazine, Staufen AG is one of the best consultancies in Germany in the industries and areas that it deals with. For example, Staufen AG with its base in Köngen near Stuttgart was ranked second in the “Mechanical and Plant Engineering” sector. In operations management, Staufen AG was also ranked among the top two.

For more than 60 percent of young Brazilians, opportunities for professional advancement are the most important criterion in their choice of employer. In China, too, almost one in two adults (48 percent) attach greatest importance to lucrative career opportunities. But the situation is quite different in security-focused Germany: Only a quarter named career opportunities as the most important selection criterion in their search for an employer.

e Staufen AG is one of the fastest growing consultancies in Germany. The inter-national Lean Management consultancy headquartered in Köngen near Stuttgart has been on the market for two decades and in that time has taken an impressive path towards expansion. Around 200 employees now look after customers from offices in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Poland, China and Brazil.

Reliability, punctuality and efficiency are regarded the “German virtues”. Young adults in the rising economies of China and Brazil also consider these qualities ever more crucial in the battle for a good job. Not surprising: more than half of Germans between the ages of 18 to 34 years consider reliability and punctuality particularly important. These are the results from the “War for Talents 2014” study. The study on behalf of the Staufen business consultancy involved interviews with 3,000 young adults in Germany, China and Brazil.

Developing people’ skills while doing continuous improvement

Over the last decades China has successfully developed its reputation to be the factory of the world, but during the past years there have been dramatic changes in the Chinese economy, as many recent written reports and studies have shown. The goal has changed: China wants to become the world’s global R&D leader within the next years and will overtake the USA in terms of patent applications very soon.