The Fujitsu Siemens Computers plant in Augsburg has won the prestigious Factory of the Year/GEO 2005 award in the “Country Champion” category.

The jury was particularly impressed by the facility’s exceptional production flexibility in respect to work schedules as well as customer and market requirements.

It is the latest in a series of several awards won by the leading European IT vendor for its commendable supply chain management, which has helped the company jack up productivity by an annual rate of 8 per cent over the past five years.

According to the judges, Fujitsu Siemens Computers offered a compelling demonstration of how producing in Germany despite enormous labour cost pressure from Asia offers sustainable competitive advantages due to factors such as distance to suppliers and customers.

“Our geographic proximity enables us to satisfy customer needs fast,” “And we also offer custom configurations that cannot possibly be delivered as quickly to the customer from Asia.”

Among other things, the 2,000-odd Fujitsu Siemens Computers employees at the Augsburg plant produces main boards, ESPRIMO professional PCs and standard-architecture PRIMERGY servers.

They also configure professional LIFEBOOK notebooks and STYLISTIC tablet PCs. In cooperation with the works council, Fujitsu Siemens Computers has fulfilled its vision of a “breathing factory” for several years now.

Depending on the inflow of orders, work times at the plant, which can produce up to 16,000 systems daily, vary between six hours a day, four days a week and eight hours a day, six days a week.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers has already received the “Best Factory/Industrial Excellence Award 2003” from management schools INSEAD and WHU as well as the Ken Sharma Award for excellence from I2 Technologies.

The Factory of the Year/GEO competition, an annual benchmarking comparison, is considered one of the toughest tests for manufacturing companies.

Fujitsu Siemens computers are available from Merlin Computers Ltd of Mountbatten Str Hamrun. Tel : 21222388 or visit our website www.merlinmalta.com.mt .