Backstage: Production Planning & Production Logistics

"It’s essential to always keep an eye on the big picture."

Alfred, Business Area Manager Production Planning and Assembly Management | Anton Paar GmbH

Handling dynamic processes, thinking of the customer – both internal and external – at all times, being able to see the big picture, and willing to improve processes constantly. Empty words? Not at all!

Our customers should get their ordered measuring instruments not only on time but also in top quality. This is the challenge that faces our team of production planners, logistics specialists, and assembly experts every day. Building on a solid basic plan, we have to keep track of the development of markets and orders, and coordinate a wide variety of items for assembly together with the product departments. When customer orders arrive we check the technical feasibility of fulfilling them and coordinate the delivery deadlines. Additionally, we ensure the supply for our assembly lines together with our purchase department, mechanical and electronic production – and all this with appropriate lead times and high planning stability. If changes are made to the production planning, we need to make forward-looking adjustments.

This is why the ability to master complex challenges is getting more and more important. In this job, critical thinking and the will to question traditional ways of working are essential. On the one hand, our team gets support from a highly developed ERP ("enterprise resource planning") system. On the other hand, a continuously growing product portfolio and globalized supply chain mean that, ultimately, it is left to the people in our team to make the right decisions as regards demand forecasts, procurement processes, and assembly and stocking strategies.

And there’s more. The assembly processes themselves also need optimization – after all, we want to be competitive and remain a benchmark. To do this, workflows are analyzed with regard to their potential and optimized together with our colleagues on a regular basis. The already high quality standards are refined and product improvements further advanced together with research and development in the technical departments. Are the right amounts of the right parts at the assembly line? Are available resources used to full capacity? Is the supply of components working properly? How can we guarantee that our customers only receive measuring instruments in the best possible quality? And, of course, in the shortest time possible?

One person alone can never answer all these questions and cope with these tasks. This challenge needs an extraordinary team that works together perfectly. This is what immediately stood out for me about Anton Paar: the spirit to face challenges together and achieve great things as a team.

This is entirely in accordance with Anton Paar’s guiding principle: Great people | Great instruments