Twenty years ago, just-in-time and just-in-sequence manufacturing and logistics processes were already common practice in car factories. Those principles haven’t changed; however, executives agree that maintaining lean operations is made more difficult by higher part numbers, long-distance supply chains and the pressure to save space in plants for manufacturing rather than logistics tasks.

Alexander Koesling, head of supply chain management at Mercedes-Benz, points to an ongoing focus on transport mix and frequencies to make sure that logistics flows are stable and sustainable, including a mix of truckload and multimodal transport. Ford’s Dirk Willmann, director of MP&L for Europe, says that if transport plans do not change frequently to reflect changes in volume or engineering, logistics flows will quickly become imbalanced, while plants run out of room on the assembly line without changing material flow strategies…