CLAAS Supplier Of The Year Award 2017

CLAAS Supplier Of The Year Award 2017
Suppliers from all over the world met in Harsewinkel to attend the Suppliers Day of the CLAAS Group. Hans Lampert, responsible for Finance and Controlling in the CLAAS Group Executive Board, and VP Corporate Purchasing Rüdiger Mohr welcomed the attendees.

Hans Lampert provided a review of the past financial year. He stated that CLAAS had performed well despite the extremely challenging market environment – also thanks to the engagement of the suppliers. Hans Lampert announced that the market situation in Europe is expected to remain weak for 2017. For this reason, the Suppliers' Day focused on the issue of costs once again.

A panel discussion, moderated by Rüdiger Mohr, took place with experts from the sectors of purchasing, pricing, production, and product cost calculation. The current market situation was described as a "scissor situation", with increasing prices in the buying markets on one hand and weak selling markets on the other. The key question of the discussion was therefore:
"How can suppliers contribute towards achieving target manufacturing costs in this difficult scissor situation?"
The discussion concluded by using products as a starting point to elaborate on product (cost) optimisation and innovations for increasing customer value.

A new innovation management portal was presented, which incorporates suppliers more closely into the CLAAS innovation process. Innovative ideas can be submitted to the portal and pursued systematically. Another announcement was made relating to the IT landscape: CLAAS has purchased new software for supplier management and will start with the rollout in 2017.

The presentation of the "Supplier of the Year Awards" proved to be a highlight again. Linde Hydraulics was titled with the CLAAS Supplier Award in the category Innovation. Linde Hydraulics supplies hydraulic components. The company developed an innovative hydraulic double motor. Other companies that received CLAAS Supplier Awards are:

Quality: Hangzhou Donghua Chain Group Co., Ltd., Hangzhou, China

Logistics: Grieshaber Logistik GmbH, Weingarten, Germany

Service: F. REYHER Nchfg. GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, Germany