Representative premises of the Wannieck Gallery in Brno, with its renovated 19th century foundry hall, were the venue for the 11th international annual conference „Trend of Automotive Logistics” on June 16th. The event has once again attracted mainly logisticians, production directors and IT specialists from production companies and automotive industry suppliers.

This social event was organised by a Pilsen based company Aimtec, leading provider of IT solutions on the Central European and West European market, and under the patronage of Association of the Automotive Industry and the Odette CR Association. Trends in Automotive Logistics was also made possible with contribution by partner organisations. These companies represent the very best on the market in their respective fields, providing products and services of first class quality with a high added value. Our thanks go to GATC, Toyota Material Handling CZ, Axway, Cisco, Lintech, SAP CR, Schenker and the Chamber of Logistical Auditors. The Technology Trends section, which ran during breaks in the main Business Trends block, was dedicated to those companies.

The abovementioned Business Trends section was started with opening remarks by Mr Roman Zak, Chairman of the Aimtec Executive Board. The second guest was Mr Antonin Sipek, Director of the Secretariate of the Association of Automotive Industry CR. During his speech, he commented on the present state of the automotive industry and the current role of SAP. Ms Lucie Balekova, General Director of MEGATECH Industries Czech, gave a brief on the merger of Plastkov Group and Megatech. During the merger, corporate information system SAP played a significant role, it was deployed within a short space of time and had ultimately assisted in a successful and unified management of the company. Best received was the speech by a Japanese guest, Mr Keiji Fujii from Asprova AG in Germany. Mr Fujii acquianted listeners with planning different types of production, ranging from custom to mass serial, using an advanced APS system Asprova.

Also other presentations heard at the conference reflected specific experiences in terms of company logistics, software applications, logistical audit, or application of RFID technology and lean principles in management of production and logistics.