Outsourcing von Instandhaltungsleistungen, untersucht am Beislpiel der Automobilindustrie

For years the German automobile industry has been facing a growing competition from Japanas well as from the emerging markets. Increasing tendencies towards globalization, an evenfaster change in customer needs and a stronger contraction of the product life cycle necessitatenew flexible production methods and management concepts to maintain or to restore competitiveness.As possible means to achieve this, slogans like Lean Production, downsizing andoutsourcing are mentioned. One area in which unused producticity potential is assumed toexist is maintenance. New maintenance concepts, first of all Total Productive Maintenance(TPM), are expected to reduce the maintenance costs, to increase the plant availability and tomake a coordinate interaction between maintenance and production possible. Within thiscontext the advantages and disadvantages of the outsourcing of maintenance services arebeing discussed. In order to fill the theoretical framework some interviews were carried out with members ofmanagement and chiefs of maintenance from companies of the automobile industry. The intentionwas to gain information about the actual situation of the plant maintenance, used methodsand criterias for decisions concerning outsourcing and the future potential for outsidemaintenance services. This paper will give a summary of the most important results of thisinquiry.