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Christian-Kastl

Christian Kastl

Manager Industry 4.0

It’s exciting to live in the digital age. We will see a lot of new developments which will drive new business models. I’m interested in the fields of Industry 4.0, Smart Factory und Smart Logistics and in my blogs, I try to bring some light in the big space of new solutions and trends in this fields.

Posts by Christian Kastl:

SCM Insights

Unlock the power of integrated S&OP and Capacity Management

In today’s dynamic marketplace, staying ahead of the competition means being agile, efficient, and customer-focused. Achieve unparalleled supply chain excellence by integrating sales and operations planning (S&OP) on the buyer's side with robust capacity management on the supplier's side with SupplyOn Capacity Management. This strategic alignment not only optimizes resources but also drives substantial financial benefits.Why integrate S&OP with supplier capacity management?Enhance forecast accuracy: Synchronize your sales forecasts with supplier production plans to accurately manage demand. The benefits include minimizing stockouts and excess inventory, boosting customer satisfaction and reducing costs.Optimize resource utilization: Leverage your supplier's capacity knowledge to ensure resources are used efficiently. This reduces operating costs and increases productivity by balancing workloads.Improve market responsiveness: Quickly adapt to market changes with real-time data sharing and collaborative planning. Reduce lead times and improve your ability to respond to customer demands quickly, resulting in greater customer satisfaction.Reduce costs and maximize profits: By optimizing stock and avoiding supply chain disruptions you can capitalize on improved profit margins and cash flow for greater profitability.Strategic steps for building a successful ecosystem with your suppliersBuild collaborative relationships: Foster strong partnerships with your suppliers through transparent communication. Establish regular joint meetings and collaborative platforms such as SupplyOn Capacity Management for seamless information exchange.Develop joint forecasting processes: Align demand forecasts with supplier capacity capabilities through collaborative planning and management. Conduct monthly meetings where buyers and suppliers jointly review and adjust forecasts and capacity plans, supported by seamless integration of S&OP planning with SupplyOn Capacity Management.Conduct regular capacity assessments: Assess and understand the capacity constraints and capabilities of your suppliers. SupplyOn Capacity Management provides early warning of impending shortages and helps to proactively manage potential bottlenecks.Leverage advanced analytics and scenario planning: Evaluate different demand and capacity scenarios to prepare for market fluctuations. What-if analysis tools for stress testing supply chain scenarios, developing contingency plans and SupplyOn Capacity Management's simulation of best capacity strategies help to avoid bottlenecks and ensure financial benefits.Align performance metrics: Establish common Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure and drive performance across the supply chain. Collaborative monitoring of metrics such as forecast accuracy, lead time, and service level performance ensures a reliable supply chain and reduces costs.Enhance flexibility and responsiveness: Implement agile supply chain practices to quickly adapt to changes in demand. Digitization with SupplyOn Capacity Management enables flexible manufacturing agreements and agile production schedules.Realize the full potential of your supply chainBy integrating S&OP on the buyer's side with SupplyOn Capacity Management on the supplier's side, you can create a resilient, responsive, and highly efficient supply chain. This strategic alignment will not only optimize the use of resources, but will also lead to significant financial gains.Experience the transformation:Demand management: Achieve accurate forecasts and optimal inventory levels.Capacity management: Utilize supplier capacity efficiently to reduce costs.Financial outcomes: Increase revenue, improve cash flow, and maximize profitability.Take the next step towards supply chain excellence. Contact us today to learn how our integrated S&OP and Capacity Management solution can drive your business forward.Your success is our priority. Let's build a better supply chain together.
Unlock the power of integrated S&OP and Capacity Management
Industry News

The Digital Product Passport is due to start — are you prepared?

Creating transparency across the entire life cycle of a product: this is what the Digital Product Passport (DPP) aims to achieve. On November 23, 2023, the European Commission published a regulation that will come into force in 2024. Due to the highly interconnected international supply networks, this regulation not only affects companies in the EU, but also has an indirect impact worldwide.What is the Digital Product Passport (DPP)?The regulation contains detailed requirements for the content of the DPP. The Digital Product Passport should contain information about the following topics:Product identity and origin Product composition and propertiesEnvironmental impact of the productProduct repairability and recyclabilityEvery citizen should then be able to access the described information via a QR code or a hyperlink attached to the product.The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) has already published a list of the product groups for which the DPP will be mandatory by 2025. These areEnergy consumption-relevant products: Household appliances, office equipment, consumer electronics and lighting fixturesLarge electrical and electronic equipment (EEE): Televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers and air conditionersTextiles: Clothing, shoes and bed linenPackaging: Plastic packaging, metal packaging and paper and cardboard packagingWhat is the Digital Product Passport for?According to the ministry, the introduction of the Digital Product Passport will make an important contribution to the circular economy. The DPP will enable consumers to make more sustainable consumption decisions. It will also help manufacturers to improve the environmental impact of their products.Concrete impacts of the DPP:Consumers will be able to recognize more easily which products are repairable and which are not. This will help to ensure that more products are repaired and fewer end up in the garbage can.Manufacturers will be encouraged to design their products in such a way that they can be repaired more easily. This will lead to an extension of the service life of products.The recyclability of products will be improved. This will help to ensure that more raw materials from old products can be reused.The introduction of the DPP will be an important step towards a more sustainable economy.Implementation of the digital product passport in practiceThe SupplyOn Traceability solution supports customers and suppliers along the supply chain in collecting and providing the data required for the DPP. The data is then available to authorized users for further processing in the SupplyOn Data Lake called DAISY (data space industry). In addition, SupplyOn's Digital Twin solution offers a wide range of options for providing data to all participants in the industrial network.The EU has already announced that the list of mandatory product groups will be expanded in the future. The European Commission plans to review and adapt the DPP regulation every three years. SupplyOn will follow developments very closely and expand its services for new product groups and content accordingly.
The Digital Product Passport is due to start — are you prepared?
SCM Insights · Technology

Digital twin: are you ready for new business models?

A digital twin is defined as the digital image of a product or process. It supports process optimization, early error detection, and automation gains along the entire value chain. New, service-oriented business models can be created based on the digital twin. However, the German economy is still having a hard time with digitization and an even harder time with digital twins."A large proportion of companies are using digital technologies to secure their competitiveness, but not to develop new business models, for example in the form of digital, portfolio-complementing value-added services," says Michael Finkler, VDMA Board Member for Software and Digitalization, in a recent article for Industry of Things (article in German).Digital twin — already a realityAdmittedly, digital twins are not yet at the forefront of many conversations and processes at customers and suppliers to create new value-added products and services. Nevertheless, SupplyOn has been working on this in the background for some time. For each material number, for example, all available data — even at serial number level — is combined and made available. This makes it possible, for example, to automate goods receipt or to provide quality data electronically. SupplyOn supports various initiatives in this regard, such as Industry 4.0, Asset Administration Shell (AAS) or Catena-X standardization.Hence, the foundation is laid for companies to develop their own value-added services or secure competitive advantages based on a digital twin. Now it's time to get active and creative!
Digital twin: are you ready for new business models?
SCM Insights

Why Transport Management should be an important component of your digitization strategy

It' no longer a secret that Transport Management can reduce costs and increase delivery reliability. Consequently, more and more SupplyOn customers are using our Transport Management Solution (TMS) to consolidate shipments, optimize routes and automatically check freight invoices.These are just three reasons which have the potential to cut freight costs by more than 10%. But what other reasons also speak for integrating Transport Management into your digitization strategy? (more…)
Why Transport Management should be an important component of your digitization strategy
SCM Insights

Visibility, Analytics & Intelligence: Get full transparency on your supply chain, not just in times of crisis!

Planning, purchasing, logistics and transport management are traditionally separate processes, typically located in different departments. The material planners determine how many parts production requires and order these from the supplier, considering safety stocks. The suppliers operate in their own systems, as does the transport service provider. What, when, in what quantity and at what time is to be delivered usually remains unclear until goods receipt. (more…)
Visibility, Analytics & Intelligence: Get full transparency on your supply chain, not just in times of crisis!
SCM Insights

In times of Corona, how can Track & Trace help to solve the challenges ahead?

The Corona pandemic took us all completely by surprise. Few people expected a "black-swan" event like this. And even the boldest risk scenarios have not foreseen or dealt with the scale of the problem we are currently experiencing.Supply chains have been severely disrupted or even completely collapsed within a short period of time, especially in the automotive and aviation industries. If important suppliers stop producing, warehouses are not working and transports out of "red zones" are not possible, then production cannot be maintained, or only with great difficulty.But not everything has come to a standstill. Where production is still going on, it is now particularly important to know what is happening during transport, how long are the waiting times at the borders, where are the restrictions and what time effects will this have on the delivery. (more…)
In times of Corona, how can Track & Trace help to solve the challenges ahead?
SCM Insights · Technology

Exploiting the potential of Smart Logistics with Production-to-Supply

It' s nothing new that considerations of optimization focus on excessive inventories and overly high planning or disposition costs. This is all the more true in tougher economic times.This is where the new opportunities of digitization come in: the continuous provision of data from supplier production to transport logistics and even in-house intralogistics is no longer a vision of the future. Even minimizing process costs is now a reality thanks to automation. (more…)
Exploiting the potential of Smart Logistics with Production-to-Supply