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800 participants met at CLAAS Suppliers’ Day 2018

Suppliers' Day 2018

Suppliers from all over the world met in Harsewinkel at the CLAAS Suppliers' Day. Hans Lampert, responsible for Finance, Controlling and Business Administration on the CLAAS Group Executive Board, and VP Corporate Purchasing Rüdiger Mohr welcomed the suppliers. Hans Lampert reviewed the last fiscal year and provided an overview of the recovering agricultural machinery market. CLAAS was able to benefit from the improved framework conditions and to nearly double its earnings before taxes. He said that this trend is expected to continue in 2018. CLAAS is assuming that sales will develop positively and that earnings will remain stable.

Rüdiger Mohr talked about topics which are relevant to CLAAS and its suppliers. Availability represented the most important factor. "The objective this year is to ensure the flexibility of suppliers and the availability of parts." He also mentioned the development of the sourcing market and the positive sales expectations on markets in Eastern and Western Europe. Mohr provided an insight into the planned building programme and ventured to make a positive forecast for sales of machinery and spare parts. According to Mohr, one important task for suppliers is to focus on the customer CLAAS and to ensure availability.

Dietmar Düsing, Head of Logistics CLAAS Service and Parts, presented the topic of availability as a business model in the area of aftersales.

Roland Pollmeyer, Head of Quality and Process Management, provided an insight into the production approval processes between CLAAS and the supplier. Martin Hawlas, Head of Corporate R&D, gave a talk on the related topic of sample stages for components.

The guest speakers at the Suppliers' Day were Thomas Böck, a member of the Group Executive Board with responsibility for the Technology & Systems Division, Bernhard Schuchert, Head of IT, and Philip Vospeter, Programme Manager for Digitalisation. The topic was digitalisation, which is regarded as an opportunity to improve internal and external processes, including the development of new business models for customers. A discussion was held concerning the development of agriculture towards digitalisation, the importance of artificial intelligence, Industry 4.0 and CLAAS' IT strategy. Bernhard Schuchert, Head of IT, provided a dozen specific implementation examples in this regard. Mr. Vospeter provided an overview of platforms for CLAAS customers and the development of new business models. The latter are developed in the recently opened "greenhouse" (rooms for creative work) at the headquarters in Harsewinkel.

Finale: After the award ceremony, all the winners assembled on stage. (Photo Rüsing / Studio Toelle)

The highlight of the business event was the presentation of the "Supplier of the Year Awards“.

The company CBM POLSKA Sp. z o.o. was the total winner this year. Another four companies received CLAAS Supplier Awards for 2017 in the following categories:

Quality:            Busatis GmbH, Purgstall, Austria          

Logistics:         Van der Vlist Twente B.V., Rijssen, Netherlands

Innovation:       Jama Kunststoffverarbeitung GmbH, Schneverdingen, Germany

Service:            Neuenhauser Maschinenbau GmbH, Neuenhaus, Germany