Supply chains have been under pressure for years, and semiconductor bottlenecks in particular are putting them under massive strain. For managing these shortages, the global Bottleneck Taskforce has been named HELLA Entrepreneur of the Year 2021.

Monday 2022-07-18

If you talk to Ludger Meerbecker about the last few years, it almost feels as if he is always going from the frying pan into the fire. Meerbecker is head of Critical Parts Management at HELLA, and for him and his team, crisis mode has been the norm since 2019. “Global supply chains in the automotive industry are complex, very precisely clocked processes. Even the smallest disturbance can have serious consequences," says Meerbecker. And there have been many disruptions recently.

At first, capacitors were in short supply, small electronic components that are installed in many different HELLA products. "That struggle alone took us a year," Meerbecker says. And that was before Corona, with all the plant closures and shutdowns at HELLA, customers and suppliers. When the automotive economy picked up again, there was a shortage of semiconductors. In between, a container ship blocked the Suez Canal, fires and snowstorms paralyzed supplier operations; the important seaport in Shanghai was closed as a result of new corona lockdowns. Since the end of February, the war of aggression in Ukraine has led to further strains on supply chains.

Semiconductor bottlenecks in particular have had a massive impact on the automotive industry, and are also directly related to the Corona pandemic. That's because when the auto industry was almost completely shut down in the spring of 2020, chipmakers turned their attention to other customers, such as those in consumer electronics. When demand from the automotive industry picked up again faster than expected, production capacities could not be relocated back again immediately.

These bottlenecks became apparent early on. "By the end of 2020, we already saw that something was coming," Meerbecker says. Because semiconductors have a lead time of a good six months. What is missing today can therefore not be supplied in the near future. But the supply chain breakdown came last summer, in part because chipmakers in Malaysia had to shut down production due to the Corona pandemic. The bottom line is that around 10 million vehicles worldwide were unable to roll off the production line as a result. The market was literally decimated.

By then, HELLA's supply chain management had long since found their stride, as a global, interdisciplinary task force had already been formed in the spring of 2020 - first because of the Corona pandemic, then because of the semiconductor crisis. As a result, up to 200 employees from all areas of the company were involved in global discussions with customers and suppliers, clarifying availabilities, assessing the criticality of individual components, and ensuring deliveries.

This effort is also main reason why HELLA - as far as circumstances have allowed - has come through the semiconductor crisis in good shape. For this achievement, the global Bottleneck Taskforce has now been named HELLA's Entrepreneur of the Year 2021. For around twenty years now, the prize has been awarded to employees who have rendered outstanding services to HELLA and lived the company's values in an exemplary manner.

Ludger Meerbecker received the award together with Ralf Müller, Head of Electronics Purchasing Commodities, and Sebastian Schreiber from Purchasing Lighting, on behalf of the global team. While Schreiber has been primarily responsible for line manufacturers and their sub-suppliers, Müller has primarily taken care of semiconductor issues including customer and supplier communication as well as the organization within the task force. Meerbecker has served the interface between lighting and electronics, among other things, in addition to general supply chain transparency.

"You and your teams have worked around the clock to ensure that we receive sufficient semiconductors. Only in this way was it possible to prevent production downtime and keep our customers' assembly lines running," emphasizes HELLA Managing Director Bernard Schäferbarthold in his laudatory speech. "Above all, you have helped us to improve our position with our customers even further and to emerge stronger from this difficult situation. For this, both you personally and your teams have gone more than the extra mile. It was an extra marathon."

In order to be able to cope with this, a good organizational structure has been found, says Meerbecker. Thus, clear leads were defined for each supplier, knowledge was shared. "With such a global crisis, you have to work as a team. We have therefore deliberately transferred responsibility to many shoulders. That was definitely an important key point." But even more decisive, Meerbecker emphasizes, was the motivation of all those involved, the willingness to give everything day after day, to fight for every single part and every single customer delivery. "This mindset has distinguished us, and perhaps set us apart from other market competitors."

It is currently difficult to predict how long the current semiconductor shortages will continue. According to a recent study, shortages are likely to hold back the automotive industry until at least 2024, perhaps even longer. Supply chain management at HELLA may need even more stamina.