Assembly at Porsche
The manufacture of various add-on parts has already been simulated and optimized in the body shop of the car company.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich It is an unusual partnership that the reinsurer Munich Re, the car manufacturer Porsche and its consulting subsidiary MHP are entering into. The three companies have founded a joint venture under the name Flex Factory, which is intended to enable companies in the manufacturing industry to design small series more flexibly and cost-effectively. The Handelsblatt learned this from corporate circles. Half of the joint venture is owned by Munich Re, with Porsche and MHP each holding a quarter.
The background to the unusual connection is quickly explained. Companies from a wide variety of industries, such as the automotive, textile or packaging industries, are increasingly faced with the challenge that their customers’ needs for individualization are increasing and production cycles are becoming shorter. The result is burdens on your own balance sheet. The Flex Factory consulting company is intended to bundle the shared knowledge and support this transformation.
The newly founded company does not have its own production facilities. Instead, the three partners bring their strengths into the implementation. Porsche contributes its know-how in production, MHP its expertise in digital process optimization and Munich Re its financing and insurance models as well as a performance guarantee for the planned production. In addition, the Munich Re subsidiary Relayr, an IoT company, supports it with its knowledge in the field of digital risk analysis.
At Porsche, the partners had rehearsed the real thing over the past few months. In the body shop there, the manufacture of various add-on parts – for example the variants of a car door – was simulated and optimized on a production line. “This joint venture is small, but nice,” says Lutz Meschke, CFO and Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board at Porsche, after months of planning. The result is a company that can cope with the challenge of producing small series economically. This could open a new chapter in industrial production, said Meschke.
Strategic step for Munich Re