Wolfgang Stölzle

The consortium study "Concepts of Automotive Logistics of the Future" analyzes the changes and trends affecting the automotive industry and its inbound logistics as well as their impact on logistics processes and structures. Taking these influencing factors into consideration, the logistics concepts of the automotive industry are critically examined in order to develop future logistics concepts based on these findings. Future scenarios were calculated in the study; together with the change drivers, these form the basis for the development of future scenarios. In total, nine future concepts were developed (Car Chain Visibility, FutureWOW, OFTO, Pizza Run, Trailer Drive, Urban Future, Green Industry Cluster, FlexJIS, Energy Hubs). For the implementation of the future concepts, special enablers have to be addressed, which influence the effectiveness of the concepts: Actively attract and retain skilled workers, create a modern and intelligent parking management system, and adapt tender management. The automotive inbound logistics concepts of tomorrow thus range from relevant trends as impulse generators to enablers for the implementation of the concepts.

Purchasing groups are viewed as an appropriate organisational concept to enhance purchasing’s performance. They can, for instance, be used to bundle purchasing volumes and generate additional savings. This paper wants to make a first step towards the analysis of inter-personal relationships within purchasing groups in the private sector. It examines how the perceptions of these buyer-buyer relationships differ between a successful and an unsuccessful group and how these differences affect success or failure. The questions are investigated using the case study method. The interaction and network model are used as a conceptual framework for the analysis. Exploratory evidence suggests that major differences exist in the buyers’ perceptions of relationships between a successful and an unsuccessful group. Overall, in contrast to the successful group, the unsuccessful one failed to develop long-lasting relationships characterised by routinised exchange episodes, institutionalised behaviours and adaptations among its buyers. These variations affect mutual expectations amongst buyers and finally influence success or failure of a purchasing group. It is, therefore, suggested that managers of purchasing groups should actively steer not only the relationships of a purchasing group towards its suppliers but also the relationships among buyers within a group.