F.X. Meiller and Erich Jaeger – Customized cooperation

May 6, 2009 - PRLog -- For more than 100 years, the tipper manufacturer F.X. Meiller has been firmly established in the area of vehicle construction and has been known for high-quality tipper bodies and tipping trailers. Within the last few of these years, the automotive supplier Erich Jaeger has built up a close developmental cooperation with the company from Munich, supplying it with many different products, from connectors to complex cable systems and complete lighting units.

The cooperation of the companies has lasted for more than seven successful years now. Over this period, the partners have established a stable business relationship, which is characterized by mutual respect. And like in every good relationship, both sides benefit from the collaboration. On the one hand, Erich Jaeger is a preferred supplier for Meiller and can rely on regular orders. On the other hand, the company from Friedberg, Hessen, does not only convince its Bavarian customer with constantly high product quality but also offers technical expertise and expert advice. So the whole package seems to be more than adequate, and Heinz Fischer from the department Construction Management in the headquarters in Munich attests: “Erich Jaeger is first choice for us as the company offers us an excellent price-performance ratio.” Furthermore, the partners also harmonize on the organizational level: Orders are automatically processed in SAP; via the “Electronic Data Interchange” a problem-free data exchange is possible, thus saving time and personnel costs. Additionally, both companies have a subsidiary in the Czech Republic, Erich Jaeger, s.r.o. and F.X. Meiller Slaný s.r.o, which also cooperate on a high level.

Meiller’s subsidiary in the city of Slaný near Prague is responsible for the company’s steel manufacture and the production of towed vehicles. At this site, an annual 3000 trailers and semi-trailers are produced, all of which are equipped with Jaeger connectors and cables; Erich Jaeger generates approx. 80 % of its Meiller-turnover from supplying the plant in the Czech Republic. For that matter, the fact that the company has a subsidiary in Kopřivnice in the country’s East comes in very handy because the subsidiaries can successfully cooperate without any language barriers. Jan Růžička, head of purchasing in Slaný, reports: “For us, Erich Jaeger is an unproblematic partner. The connection via SAP is working very well, and the company always achieves 100 % in our periodic supplier assessments. Moreover, Jaeger is not only a reliable supplier but also a proficient development partner.”

In fact, Erich Jaeger’s engineers are always willing to listen to their customers. So it is no coincidence that Meiller sees developmental expertise as a fundamental strength of the company: The supplier does not offer products off the shelf but customized cable systems and components. An example for that is the development of a 16-pin connector system for Meiller’s trailers. The products used prior to the development were not designed for the rough conditions on construction sites and, therefore, could not always meet the company’s demands. Hence, Jaeger’s engineers created a new system which was more than suited for fulfilling all requirements. It soundly succeeded in the field tests and, meanwhile, is well established in the market. Furthermore, the design of the cables and plugs makes the application of a distribution box unnecessary as the system itself covers the respective functionality. Ideally, the vehicle’s chassis serves as the interface between Jaeger products and vehicle. Therefore, an extensive wiring of the trailer is not necessary any more, and the assembly becomes easy and efficient. Additionally, the components are exactly fitted to the vehicle geometry thus supporting the easy installation. By now, Meiller equips all its trailers with the system.

And it is just this developmental expertise that sets Erich Jaeger apart from its competitors, at least in the opinion of the employees at F.X. Meiller. As Růžička states: “Working with Erich Jaeger grants us one important advantage: The company delivers solutions which are directly tailored to our needs. So we save time and achieve a competitive edge.”

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About Erich Jaeger:
The Erich Jaeger GmbH + Co. KG was founded in 1927 in Bad Homburg, Germany, and is part of the AdCapital AG, Stuttgart, since 1998. About 500 employees world-wide work, in close co-operation with the customers in the automobile, commercial vehicle and agricultural industry, on innovative solutions in the areas of wiring, plug-in connections, electrics/electronics, and trailer couplings up to series production. In addition to the headquarters in Friedberg, Jaeger maintains subsidiaries in France, Turkey, the Czech Republic, and China as well as sales offices in Italy, Sweden, and Poland. The annual turnover amounts to approx. 34 Mill. Euros.