CEE region benefits from Supply Chain Reorganization

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STAUFEN MAGAZINE 2021 | No. 4

The nearshoring debate has gained significant momentum in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as did the blockade of the Suez Canal by the container ship “Ever Given” that lasted for days. The need to reduce CO2 emissions in global supply chains also drives this discussion. More and more companies are therefore reviewing their supply chains and global production processes, playing out alternative scenarios and planning to increase capacity in Europe. Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) in particular benefit from this.

Staufen AG has been active in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Romania for many years, drawing on an experienced team of local and international experts. Alexander Wagner, Head of CEE at Staufen, knows the local conditions: “We help our customers directly on site. Our expertise in this area goes well beyond company-wide operational excellence. We also support our customers in the development of efficient and resilient value chains and digitalization, for example by using process mining technology, establishing smart factories or implementing manufacturing analytics. In general, the need for leadership excellence, organizational development or (predictive) restructuring has risen sharply as a result of ongoing change.

As Sebastian Metz, Managing Board Member of AHK Romania, describes in an interview with “Staufen Magazine” (see p. 25), Romania, for example, is in an excellent position to benefit from a reorganization of global supply chains in the long term. Árpád Boros, Country Manager Romania at Staufen agrees: “Since the opening of the economy, Romania has been one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and was also able to overcome the COVID-19 crisis without any major upheavals. In recent years, the country has progressively matured from an industrial workbench to an R&D location. More and more companies – especially from the automotive sector – not only have production sites in the country, but they also take advantage of the engineering opportunities.”