Global Production Academy
In 2022 we started our Global Production Academy in collaboration with the KIT. With two leading research institutes led by Prof. Friedli (St.Gallen) and Prof. Lanza (Karlsruhe) and currently 8 multinational companies, we discuss the current challenges within global production networks and work on solutions, commonly.
Each of our exchange days includes a unique exchange between practitioners and researchers consisting of keynote presentations, discussions, workshops, shopfloor tours, and networking sessions. The program is complemented by a get-together on a respective evening before the exchange to get to know each other personally.

Together with our collaboration partners we are focussing the following topics this year:
- Knowledge Sharing & Collaboration between Plants
- Centralization of Decision Making between HQs and Global Plants
- Data-based Decision Making
- Plant Roles

Our focus topics 2022 were the following:
- Global Production Strategy
- Resiliency in Production Networks
- Strategical Site Selection Process
- Risk Mitigation in Production Networks

Latest Meetings and News
We constantly adapt our format to the questions and challenges of our partners. Stay informed and read the articles of our latest meetings.

After our joint Kickoff at the KIT in Karlsruhe we had our first site visit at Julius Blum GmbH in Austria directly at the Lake Constance. BLUM is an international manufacturer of furniture hardware and has therefore highly automated processes at its production facilities worldwide. With it's 8 sites in Vorarlberg (Austria) it was really impressive to see how a global company, being active in more than 120 countries, can run its major production cost efficiently in Central Europe.
In joint discussion rounds with our consortium together with CLAAS, FACC, HOMAG, MTU Aero Engines, Balluff, PERI, Miele, our host BLUM and our research partner the wbk Institute of Production Science (wbk-KIT) we could collect and define valuable successful practices under the topic of Centralization vs. Autonomy in Global Production Networks.

We are going into the second round!
After the great success in 2022 we started our Global Production Academy this year in Karlsruhe with a visit of the research factory at the Institute of Production Science of the KIT.

Our fourth and last meeting of our Global Production Academy 2022 took place at CLAAS in Harsewinkel this week.
As a globally leading agricultural machinery manufacturer CLAAS shared current insights into its production and its risk mitigation strategy for the global production network. In joint discussion rounds with our consortium together with Herrenknecht, CLAAS, FACC, HOMAG, MTU Aero Engines, Balluff, PERI and our research partner the wbk Institute of Production Science (wbk-KIT) we could collect and define valuable successful practices
Once again, we would like to express our sincere thanks to all participating companies for their exciting insights, our great discussions and openness in all four meetings. We are already looking forward to continuing our discussions in 2023.
If you would like to be part of our Global Production Academy 2023, feel free to reach out to our GPA Team!

Last Friday, the third meeting of the Global Production Academy, founded together with the wbk Institute of Production Science (wbk-KIT), took place. HOMAG, a leading manufacturer of woodworking machinery, shared exciting insights into its production strategy and its data-based approach for product allocation in the network. Afterwards, different approaches to design the production network were discussed together with the experts from Herrenknecht AG, CLAAS, FACC AG, HOMAG, MTU Aero Engines, Balluff EMEA and PERI In particular, the handling of uncertainty in the business environment and the consideration of soft decision criteria played a major role. We are already looking forward to deepening these discussions in the fourth meeting at the CLAAS on the topic of risk mitigation.
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