material flow: Mr. Dönges, as Managing Director of Telogs GmbH, you are familiar with the topic of RetroFit. Can you guide us into retrofit project planning?
Jürgen Dönges: No logistics manager wants to renew his plant without necessity. Triggers are usually plant shutdowns caused by spare parts problems or discontinued software development. The situation is exacerbated by changes in order structures. In recent years, batch sizes have become smaller and shipment numbers larger. It is not uncommon for plants to no longer comply with current safety regulations.
mfl: Where and with what do you start when it comes to the idea of modernization?
Dönges: With the objective. The requirements of the next ten years should be incorporated into medium- and long-term planning. However, practice shows that logistics managers are hardly able to create a viable objective at the beginning. A need is brought to them from some direction. They should then decide how, in which areas and in which steps the retrofit will be implemented.
mfl: What advice do you have for the logistics managers among our readers?
Dönges: Choose an experienced project implementer as a partner who can assess the difficulties and opportunities of your retrofit project. He should be specialized in at least one typical retrofit business field, have methodical competence as well as know-how in the areas of control technology, mechanics and current guidelines.
mfl: Which ofyour company’s products orservices comes to mind first when you think of modernization?
Dönges: Our deviation analysis. This starts right at the beginning and determines the deviation from the state of the art today. Otherwise, our motto is: “The project is the product!”