The future of car making in Europe will be the central topic of discussion when automotive manufacturing’s senior executives meet in February

The role Eastern Europe will play in this future will also be debated at the Automotive Manufacturing Solutions Europe conference. With the rapidly increasing sophistication of manufacturing in India and China, the Eastern European factories that initially competed on low labour costs will find themselves competing as hard as those further west.

Enhanced collaboration between Eastern and Western European factories could allow both to boost their competitiveness. Western Europe can share its experience of moving to ever more lean production methods, while closer component sourcing relationships will allow economies of scale to be built up across the entire continent.

The Automotive Manufacturing Solutions European Conference will be the premier place in which that knowledge and expertise will be shared, with discussions of production techniques and technologies alongside consideration of wider strategic issues and future trends. Held at Porsche’s plant in Leipzig on February 6-8th, the conference will contemplate low-wage production, automation and ways of reducing environmental impacts.

The conference, supported by power and control specialist Schneider Electric, will feature senior speakers from a cross-section of European automotive manufacturing. These include: Frank Löschmann, Managing Director of Planning, Production and Technology, Volkswagen Production and Logistics; Andor Paizer, Plant Manager, General Motors Powertrain, Hungary; and Julian Hetherington, Director, Manufacturing Business Office, Jaguar Cars and Land Rover.

Alongside the discussions, technology-focused tours around the Porsche factory and those of VW and BMW nearby will give a rare opportunity to see how some of the most modern and efficient car plants in Europe operate.