Following last month’s logistics management shakeup at General Motors it has been confirmed that Andreas Graffe will replace Jeff Morrison as director of logistics for Opel/Vauxhall in Europe.
Graffe, who is currently purchasing director at Shanghai GM, will move over to the new role next month.
Morrison moves back to the US at the beginning of August to replace Michelle Braun, as director of material logistics and containers and will report to Christine Krathwohl, the new executive director of global logistics and containers.
In other executive moves, Kiran Rakhe has now moved to become head of supply chain management (SCM) for Mahindra Navistar in India. He moves from his position as head of SCM for Mahindra’s Nasik plant, one of the largest plants for the carmaker in India.
Meanwhile, at Mazda Motors, Shinji Sakatani has added the role of general manager of the production control and logistics planning department to his existing duties as deputy general manager of the production control and logistics division. He takes the role over from Yoshinori Kota who will now concentrate on his role as general manager of the production control and logistics division.
Reports in last month’s German press that Wendelin Goebel, currently in charge of internal group coordination at Audi, was to take over as head of Purchasing from Ulf Berkenhagen, have been rejected by the carmaker as “odd speculation” according to a spokesperson at the carmaker. “There is not a jot of truth in it,” he told Automotive Logistics.
The rumours were fed by further speculation that Berkenhagen, who has been in the purchasing role at Audi since October 2006, was moving to a new purchasing role at MAN Truck & Bus. The truckmaker has so far refused to comment on the matter.
Volkswagen is currently in the process of securing a majority stake in MAN and expects to own 53.7% of the capital and 55.9% of MAN’s voting rights once the deal has met regulatory approval.
The deal will prepare the way for a tie-up with Scania, which VW also owns. However, the German carmaker’s plan to appoint company members to MAN’s supervisory board ahead of the deal’s approval was seen to breach the European Union's antitrust rules.
