Made in Germany – maintaining a good reputation

The discussion about Germany as a business location keeps burgeoning. Especially in view of rising energy costs and ancillary wage costs, many companies are toying with the idea of relocating cost-intensive divisions of their company to places where regulations and legal provisions are not taken very seriously and employees can be satisfied with a significantly lower wage. The company divisions, which then remain in Germany, are only used for assembly and sales to customers. Thus, the title “Made in Germany” can continue to be used with pride.

Admittedly, many companies have jumped on this bandwagon over the past few decades. Many of them have also successfully completed these spin-offs – the ups and downs with which this process was completed is an open question.

For many a company, however, this decision was an expensive experience, which ultimately led to outsourced divisions being brought back to Germany.

From my experience as a DGUV inspector in companies from a wide variety of sectors, but especially in industry, I have witnessed such processes up close, so to speak. Many of them are happy that “the spook” with manufacturing abroad (be it in the euro zone as well as overseas) is now over. The main reason for the “recovery” of these divisions is the slump in quality. If the quality simply cannot be met despite the identical specifications as in this country, because it is simply not possible to find personnel with the appropriate professional competence on site or to communicate with them in their native language, an accumulation of errors is practically inevitable.

Correcting such qualitative errors is often associated with considerable costs (e.g. recall campaigns, exchange, etc.) and harbors the risk of completely jeopardizing the good reputation (be it national, European or even worldwide) that has been acquired over decades to be better off in the annual balance sheet.

But another aspect is also important

In the last two years our lives have been turned upside down. Things that we took for granted became a problem. You wanted to give your children a bike for their birthday? Nothing came of it, as the waiting time for a bicycle is reminiscent of times long past beyond the red curtain, when you had to wait for your Trabbi for almost half your life.

Car manufacturers cannot deliver the vehicles because semiconductors cannot be delivered – i.e. products that are hardly larger than a grain of sand mean that in some places the vehicles are hanging off the conveyor belts and cannot be completed. It is unbelievable how the global economy is still suffering under these circumstances.

This causes a rethink

This situation may herald a trend reversal. Especially in the field of semiconductor production, the call for production on your own doorstep is increasing. While this is not feasible overnight, it would be worth considering; even considering higher wages and the high security measures that have to be met in this country, this could become a reality in the near future.

Stay safe

The production location Germany is therefore always worth more than just one consideration, and Germany is far more than just a think tank for globally active companies.

Prepare yourself for future challenges

So that your company also benefits from this trend, which is definitely positive for Germany, it is more important than ever to have a reliable service provider at your side, especially in the field of occupational safety. eteK-NORD is ready for this!

The entire eteK-NORD Sales Team wishes you continued success in the new year 2022