Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Robert is an automotive procurement executive with extensive experience in strategic category management for car electronic architectures in the field of ADAS, infotainment, connectivity, vehicle motion & energy control and relevant semiconductors. He was active in both the passenger car and the commercial vehicle industry in Europe and China, where he also covered traditional car commodities such as chassis components, exterior composite parts or wire harnesses. Hence, he possesses a holistic understanding of vehicle technologies, underlying global supply-chain ecosystems as well as competitive automotive development processes and series supply requirements. His procurement approach is characterized by a strong emphasis on joint value creation with partner companies. In doing so, he focuses commercial levers as well as the implementation of supply chain efficiencies and the optimization of sales margins by improving commercial and technological customer offerings. Robert is leading teams of up to 15 persons for more than 8 years, which makes him an effective and respected people manager.
Led an international team of 8 senior strategic purchasers focusing forward sourcing, development phase management and industrialization of central ADAS, infotainment & connectivity ECUs, sensors (cameras, radars, LiDARs, ultra-sonic) and strategically relevant semiconductors Managed strategic hardware supplier nominations for a total lifetime spend of ≈10bn EUR for Volkswagen Group’s first centralized/zonal car software & electronics architecture for all passenger car brands (Audi, Porsche, VW, etc.) Ran commercial change management and supplier readiness for R&D services of automotive hardware and embedded software to upgrade existing smart car functions (spend under control ≈700m EUR p.a. / savings ≈ 75m EUR p.a) Introduced successfully new supplier collaboration models to Volkswagen Group: - direct contracting of semiconductor suppliers for e.g. SoCs, microcontrollers, Ethernet and SerDes - joint development of high-performance ECUs with EMS partners instead of traditional Tier-1-suppliers
Led a cross-functional team of 15 (10 procurement & 5 R&D staff) to optimize the company’s material cost spend (≈4bn EUR p.a. / sustainable savings target ≈60m EUR p.a.) by targeting improved value creation: - Develop leaner technical content while maintaining the functional offering - Increase best cost-country supply base - Streamline supply chain concepts for supplier-internal logistics and company inbound & outbound logistics - Adjust regional product offering tailored to respective customer market to optimize sales margins Methods applied: vehicle tear-down benchmarks, origin-of-component-analysis, supplier-qualification-scoutings, customer surveys and focus group workshops, material-cost-quota-comparisons
Managed the office of the Executive Board Member for Procurement with responsibility of personnel planning for >400 employees, administration of a SG&A budget of ≈70m EUR p.a. and advancement of the procurement divisional strategy including representation towards supplier partners, external political & industry stakeholders, as well as relevant top-management of MAN and Volkswagen Group. Drafted and implemented procurement division measures for a corporate transformation program targeting an operating-profit-improvement from 1,5% to 8% over four years by running the following initiatives: - Targeted supplier involvement according to spend size and strategic relevance - Automation of low value negotiations to release purchaser capacity for high stake negotiations - Increased usage of shared service centers in Eastern Europe for administrative tasks - Optimized relocation of responsibilities within existing purchasing network of Germany, Poland and Turkey
Led a team of 4 purchasers focusing strategic supplier nominations, supplier portfolio management, cost optimization and series supply security
Conducted global RFQs/RFIs for brand-overlapping (Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Seat, Skoda, Lamborghini, VW) platform components in the field of exterior composite parts like e.g. tires, mirrors, fuel tanks, fuel pumps, bumpers and glass. Led purchasing project management (sourcing planning, material & investment cost tracking, decision preparation) for the innovative small series project “XL1” – a plug-in-hybrid vehicle with a fuel consumption of <1l/100km featuring e.g. structural parts of carbon fiber composite or the first customer-released camera-based e-mirrors. Performed an analysis and optimization project, tasked by Porsche, to harmonize the supplier evaluation process across Volkswagen Group for technical, quality and logistics performance, resulting in transparent and automated standards.
Compiled a scientific Master's thesis on group-internal negotiations between Volkswagen AG and its Chinese Joint-Venture-Partners about common sourcing projects based on a field study during previous assignment at Volkswagen Group China