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IN THE FAST LANE

Managing Director Claas Durach on the development and next steps of L.I.T. Automotive Solutions GmbH

»Considering the short period of time since our foundation, we have already reached a number of milestones «, Claas
Durach reveals in an interview. The Managing Director talks about the beginnings, the development and the next steps for L.I.T. Automotive Solutions GmbH.

Mr. Durach, in 2022, the L.I.T. Group pooled its contract logistics expertise for the automotive sector by founding L.I.T Automotive Solutions GmbH. What was the reason for this?
Claas Durach:
Several key factors play a decisive role in the automotive sector. These include, above all, the special requirements profile of our customers, which requires a high level of expertise. In order to be able to offer customised solutions, the first step was to bring together and further expand our expertise, which was previously scattered across various projects. We therefore decided to set up our own specialised company in order to fully reflect our expertise in automotive logistics from the group of companies in Automotive Solutions.

We have created our own resources, particularly in the areas of quality and process management, but also across the board in project management, costing and implementation. These are now available to our customers on call to fulfil their individual requirements. The already established customer structure in the automotive sector was another advantage for us. This enabled us to make a smooth entry into contract logistics and we were able to offer our customers diversified service solutions right from the start.

What exactly does the range of services include?
Durach: Our current focus is on sequencing and assembly services. We ensure that special vehicle parts can be manufactured according to our customers’ production requirements. Nowadays, a high degree of customisation is possible for new cars, starting with the paint colour through to decorative trims. As a result, the manufacturer places special demands on the supplying service providers, which result from the manufacturer’s planned vehicle production.

Our task is therefore to ensure that the required parts and components are delivered to our customer’s production line in the right quantity and quality »just in time«. In addition to timely production deliveries, we also ensure that the components are provided »just in sequence« in the exact sequence required by the vehicle manufacturer. In addition to our sequencing and assembly activities, we also provide classic quality services such as component testing in the nanometre range. This enables us to guarantee the correct properties of the parts we test. During the production process, we also ensure that the required parts are available on time for vehicle assembly. The handling of export shipping processes is also one of our core competences.

Claas Durach, Managing Director of L.I.T. Automotive Solutions GmbH

How has the business developed to date?
Durach: Our aim is to achieve growth of between 20 and 30 per cent every year and to acquire several million euros in new customer business each year. We have now achieved this in the first two financial years and we want to continue on this course. To this end, we have brought additional expertise into the team, expanded our existing locations in Eisenach and Zwickau and created new branches in Bremen, Leipzig and Regensburg in order to be able to act more effectively in the projects. In view of the relatively short period of time since our foundation, we have already achieved a number of milestones.

What were the challenges during this time?
Durach: We founded Automotive Solutions during the coronavirus pandemic. The market environment was correspondingly difficult because our customers were often affected by supply bottlenecks. As a result, some plants were shut down completely, meaning that we were unable to provide our services for weeks, sometimes even months. The shutdown of operations, but also the ramp-up to be able to provide a certain capacity in the usual quality and meet the manufacturers’ demand for consistent quality, was a huge challenge for us. Recruiting employees was particularly challenging at the time. We had to recruit new employees and train them in the shortest possible time under adverse circumstances in order to be able to serve our customers with the usual high quality.

How many employees do you currently have?
Durach: We currently have twelve employees working in our central and cross-location organisational unit, who are responsible for our day-to-day business. We also have over 300 colleagues working for us at the production supply centres in Brake, Bremen, Eisenach, Leipzig, Zwickau, Kassel and Regensburg in the direct vicinity of our customers. Recently, colleagues from the Wolfsburg and Baden-Baden sites have also joined the team following the acquisition of the Gübau Logistics GmbH.

We rely on a strong team for all our projects – in line with our L.I.T. mission statement: »Together for success«. Our colleagues have a diverse background, which is why we attach great importance to multilingual communication during work: for example, through our IT systems, but internal communication is also carried out in several languages in order to fully involve every employee. This also benefits our customers and enables us to fulfil regularly changing customer requirements and scale capacities. .

What is the next step for the Automotive Solutions?
Durach: We want to generate constant capacity utilisation at the locations we have established so far. This has already worked well in Leipzig and Bremen. In March 2023, we opened a new location in Regensburg, where we are also aiming to achieve this goal. In addition to the overarching goal of growing with a focus on turnover and results, we also want to provide additional services and create flagship projects – outside of our reference projects in sequencing and assembly – in the area of production and spare parts supply. We are well on the way to achieving this and see great opportunities for further growth in these areas.

Curios?
In the current issue of our company magazine L.I.T.ERATUR ou will find further insights into the L.I.T. world.

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