Author: Kloepfel
Rising transport costs to be expected Shanghai, China’s economic and port metropolis, is in a corona blackout. Reuters reported on March 29 that there is the largest number of corona infections in China since the first outbreak in early 2020. The Reuters article cited statements from container shipping company Maersk, which warned that transportation costs will rise. Maersk also reports that truck traffic in and out of Shanghai will be restricted by 30 percent by April fifth. This, it said, is due to the complete lockdown of the Pudong and Puxi districts. The company added that there will be longer…
Summary of the results 235 interviewed German-speaking specialists and executivesExports to Russia: 62% export to Russia and see dangersSanctions against Russia and countersanctions: 64% of companies affectedRising raw material and energy prices: 43% expect a high risk for their companySecurity of supply: 26% partially at riskRising raw material and energy prices: 43% expect a high risk for their companyProduction in Ukraine: 6% of companies surveyed affectedThreats to logistics: 62% concerned Kloepfel Consulting, a management consultancy specializing in purchasing and logistics, surveyed 235 specialists and managers across all industries online from Friday, February 25, 2022 to Tuesday, March 01, 2022 about…
How can companies deal with this? Yannick Huon, EPSA Operations & Procurement Companies are still suffering from the uncertainties of the Corona pandemic. And while the economy is picking up, they are having to deal with skyrocketing commodity prices and supply shortages. What actions can you take now to limit the impact of price increases and resume pre-crisis growth? The rise in commodity prices and its impact on liquidity are the focus of many companies. They need to develop new approaches to security of supply, production adjustment and supply chain management. In this article, we describe solutions to address this…
How companies are responding to the situation Electricity and energy prices are rising sharply. What’s more, no one can reliably say how prices will develop in the future. Added to this are geopolitical risks such as the conflict with Russia in the context of the Ukraine crisis. Nevertheless, there are solutions for medium-sized companies not to simply accept moon prices, but to find alternatives and negotiate them. A practical report from Austria, but one that can be applied to the German electricity market. Initial situation In the last few months, many smaller German electricity suppliers who acted as traders have…
HWWI commodity price index records slight increase in January HWWI overall index increased by 0.7 % (US dollar basis) Crude oil prices increased by 14.4 Natural gas prices fell by 17.7 (Hamburg, February 10, 2022) The HWWI commodity price index rose only slightly by 0.7% on average in January compared with the previous month. Compared with the previous month, the index for energy commodities recorded a slight decline of 0.3% on average in January, due to price losses on the markets for European natural gas. By contrast, prices for coal and crude oil rose sharply in January compared with the…
Senior Procurement Consultant (f/m/d) www.kloepfel-karriere.com Procurement Consultant (f/m/d) www.kloepfel-karriere.com
IW study: “Effects of a supply chain regulation” A new analysis by the Institute of the German Economy (IW) highlights potential opportunities and challenges to be expected from the German Supply Chain Law that has already been passed. The study is entitled “Effects of a supply chain regulation.” According to the institute, the summary of the study results presented by the IW contributes to the debate on an EU due diligence regulation. Positive effects and undesirable side effects According to the IW, the focus is on positive effects and undesirable side effects that German companies expect from the introduction of…
Real sales higher than in pre-crisis year 2019 Preliminary data from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) show that German wholesalers generated more sales in 2021, both in real terms (+2.1 percent) and in nominal terms (+10.1 percent), than in 2020, the year with the highest sales to date. In addition, price-adjusted sales in the wholesale sector increased by 4.0 percent in 2021 compared with the pre-crisis year 2019. Sales development in 2021 Initially, according to Destatis, there were sharp drops in sales in January and February 2021. The reason for this was the Corona lockdown. In March, sales picked up…
Independence from Russia The expansion of renewable energies is to proceed more rapidly in Germany. The plan is to have 100 percent green electricity by 2035. According to a key points paper obtained by Reuters on Monday, the German government thus wants to comply with the agreed target of the Paris global climate treaty. This states that global warming should be limited to 1.5 degrees. Already by 2030, 80 percent of energy is to come from wind and solar power. On Twitter, Oliver Krischer, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Economics and Climate Change, chimed in with the following…
Buyers: In demand as never before Sustainability: The Supply Chain Act Risk management: Upgrading procurement Technological progress: Suppliers as innovation partners Skills shortage: slim down purchasing & further qualify it Digitalization: Supply chain transparency Outsourcing: Time for the essentials Upgrading purchasing Never has the topic of supply chains been so present in the public and in the media as in times of the pandemic. This makes it even more important to take a closer look and no longer view purchasing as merely an ordering department: Companies and buyers that address the following seven megatrends will be able to future-proof their…
Supply concepts Currently, shortage situations are shaping many supply chains. In fact, companies are working to link traditional supply chains more directly with end-customer requirements. Taking the pulse of customers and passing it on Dell’s supply chain has long been the model. Customers select their specific configuration and walk past the checkout with their online shopping cart. Only after the order is received does Dell procure components from suppliers to assemble the IT equipment as needed with the specifically configured parts before shipping. In addition to satisfied customers, net working capital is negative because Dell receives money from customers before…
Strengthening buyers and suppliers The order books of Michael Weinig AG are full. Read how the purchasing department of the world’s largest manufacturer of machines and systems in solid wood processing created capacities and strengthened its suppliers against this background. Jörg Bürgers, Head of Strategic Corporate Purchasing at Weinig, explains: “For example, we needed significantly more control cabinets than our production could manufacture. Therefore, we strengthened and developed corresponding suppliers to be able to optimally supply our assembly. It was important here that the cooperation with the new suppliers worked right from the start.” For Jürgen Bundschuh, Team Leader Purchasing…
BGA fears massive disruptions Global supply chains are under massive threat from the spread of the omicron wave. This is emphatically pointed out by the German Wholesale and Foreign Trade Association (BGA). Thus the federation warns these days of disturbances within the global supply chains due to the rising infection numbers by the Omicron variant. The president of the BGA, Dirk Jandura, told Funke-Mediengruppe: “There is no threat of a collapse, but a massive disruption of supply chains – at least temporarily.” With a rather mild course of the infection wave of the Omicron variant, a long-lasting collapse of supply…
Ifo price expectations Both companies and consumers will have to expect further price increases. This was reported on Wednesday by the Ifo Institute, which published the results of a corresponding survey. For the so-called Ifo price expectations, the Munich-based research institute asks companies about their plans for price increases in the coming three months. According to the survey, Ifo price expectations fell only slightly in December to 44.6 points. In November, they were at an all-time high of 44.9 points, the institute notes. Only slow decline in inflation expected Commenting on price developments, Timo Wollmershäuser, head of Ifo’s economic forecasts,…
Damaged supply chains threaten the Easter business The German confectionery industry is looking back on a difficult 2021, according to its own industry association. As the Federal Association of the German Confectionery Industry e.V. (BDSI) reported on Tuesday, the industry’s performance in 2021 was stable in terms of sales and turnover. Production volume, for example, was just above the previous year’s level (+1.3 percent) and sales increased by 2.2 percent. Tense economic situation Nevertheless, there are apparently considerable problems. The BDSI writes that the statistical data situation obscures the view of the clearly tense economic situation in the industry. The…
At the beginning of this year, Marc Kloepfel and Duran Sarikaya, Managing Directors of Kloepfel Consulting, summarized important events of the past year in the following interview. They also talked about challenges and opportunities for purchasing in 2022. How did the year 2021 particularly affect the Kloepfel Group? And what conclusion do you draw from 2021 as an entrepreneur? 2021 was the year of supply bottlenecks and enormous price increases in purchasing. Of course, for many companies the year continued to be characterized by Corona and the resulting restrictions. We as a company have continued to learn over the past…
Corona, skills shortages and supply bottlenecks: teams in purchasing and supply chain management have been facing major challenges for some time now. Add to that the annual wave of price increases just before the end of the year. Many of these factors are almost impossible to influence. But you are not helpless. Because you can take targeted measures to make processes in purchasing more efficient, relieve your employees and make your purchasing department fit for the future. Making processes more efficient through digitization The „Purchasing Barometer for Medium-Sized Companies 2021“ shows: Medium-sized German companies are lagging when it comes to…
Employee interview with Stephan Winkler While Kloepfel’s consultants were conducting an acquisition meeting with a customer, the task portfolio aroused the curiosity of Stephan Winkler, who was acting as the customer’s purchasing manager at the time. What finally motivated him to become a part of Kloepfel and what his daily work as a consultant is like can be seen in the following interview. What was your application process like? It was a “short process.” But now in detail: For many years, I had been familiar with Kloepfel Consulting GmbH through reading the Kloepfel Magazine or through various professional articles. When…