Page 32 - Best of 2016 English

On equal footing
Dr. Cathrin Mucha from Technical Customer Services supports the customer Gestamp in Bielefeld, Germany. It is one of the most important customers of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH (SZFG)
At least twice a month, Dr. Cathrin Mucha from Technical Custom- er Services visits one of the most important customers of Salzgitter
Flachstahl GmbH (SZFG) in the automotive sector – Gestamp Umformtechnik GmbH. Some 1,390 employees in Bielefeld (North Rhine-Westphalia) manufacture chassis and body parts for such manufacturers as BMW, Mercedes and VW.
Salzgitter AG has been supplying Gestamp GmbH for decades. e two companies devel- oped a sound, trust-based relationship a long time ago. Hans-Jürgen Gierling, head of supplier management and quality planning at Gestamp, explains, “We value Salzgitter’s technical compe- tence as a development partner and its exibil- ity.” Problems are tackled together in a spirit of partnership. Gierling adds, “Whether the issue was marks on body parts caused by temper uid residue or a type of orange peel e ect/ ow tex- ture which was visible in certain types of light – we found solutions by making changes.“
SZFG’s deliveries to Gestamp range from unpickled hot rolled wide strip to sheets for cold forming in around 15 steel grades, with
thicknesses between 0.7 mm and 10 mm. For the chassis, Gestamp produces trailing arms, wishbones, suspension arms and spring links. Truck side members reach lengths of up to 12 m. An automotive supplier’s business is never static, and this is also true for Gestamp. New versions of products are constantly required, as are new mechanical characteristics and di erent sheet thicknesses. Hans-Jürgen Gierling relates, “SZFG is always very exible when these issues arise, and we nd a solution in 95% of the cases Process reliability is crucial here. Dr. Mucha adds, “We must be able to guarantee the client that our coils will correspond to the agreed speci cations over the long term.” ey come from a single factory, “which simpli es constant quality,” as Hans-Jürgen Gierling veri es.
In a meeting between Dr. Cathrin Mucha
and the Gestamp Development Department,
the topic on the table is material for prototypes, which Salzgitter also delivers “in a straightfor- ward way via the shortest channels,” Hans-Jür- gen Gierling clari es. is is another building block in the business relations between Gestamp and Salzgitter, and it clearly demonstrates that the partners are on equal footing.
32 CUSTOMERS
Dr. Cathrin Mucha and Hans-Jürgen Gierling check a coil from Salzgitter. Mucha relates, “My job is never boring, because it allows me to do what I like best: work with other people to solve problems with a technical basis.”