RAILWAY Supplier Summit 2024

Entitled “Revolutionising supply chains in the rail industry”, the RAILWAY Supplier Summit took place on 16 and 17 May 2024 at the Mercure Hotel MOA in Berlin. The Berlin Institute Supply Chain Management brought together manufacturers, suppliers, operators, buyers and consultants from the rail industry to discuss sustainability and high-tech innovations for a greener future in rail transport. Around 200 participants took part in workshops, panel discussions and keynote speeches to broaden their expertise.

F.l.t.r.: Joachim Schöffer (Managing Partner, 4cost GmbH), Stefan Braun (Chief Procurement Officer, ÖBB-Holding AG), Arnd Schüller (Head of Sales, 4cost GmbH)

As a sponsor of the summit, 4cost was on location to explain the benefits of professional costing software to high-level industry representatives. "We were able to establish promising contacts with Siemens, Knorr-Bremse, Alstom, Hitachi, Herrenknecht and SKF, among others," summarises Arnd Schüller, Head of Sales at 4cost. "We were also able to directly schedule several presentation appointments with interested parties in order to present our innovative costing solutions to them in person."

F.l.t.r.: Ludovic Kasperski (Sustainability Manager, Wabtec), Jessica Morris (Procurement Director D&IS DACH, Alstom), Joachim Schöffer (Managing Partner, 4cost GmbH), Ines Sturm (Program Lead Sustainable Procurement, ÖBB), Dr. Lars Ebert (Head of Procurement & Supply Management - Business Line Battery, thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering)

In the morning of the first day of the event, Joachim Schöffer, Managing Partner of 4cost GmbH, moderated a discussion panel on the topic of "Risk and Reward - Supplier Management and ESG". The panellists were Jessica Morris (Procurement Director D&IS DACH, Alstom), Dr Lars Ebert (Head of Procurement & Supply Management - Business Line Battery, thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering), Ines Sturm (Program Lead Sustainable Procurement, ÖBB) and Ludovic Kasperski (Sustainability Manager, Wabtec). The panel came to the conclusion that sustainability is an absolute necessity, but that it is difficult to measure due to complex global supply chains and sometimes vague data. To date, there has been a lack of standardised tools and methods for accurately calculating ESG. Although not designed for this, Excel is still the first choice. "There is a huge demand for professional costing tools," says Joachim Schöffer. "Our development team is already working intensively on a number of new features for calculating ESG factors. We will gradually implement these in our software solutions over the coming months in order to provide our clients with greater cost transparency in this area."

4cost would like to thank the organisers and all participants of the RAILWAY Supplier Summit for their informative insights and exciting perspectives.