Trends in Automotive Logistics

Digital by Design: From Data to Scalable Operations

Jan Vavřík has served as General Manager of Amazon’s robotics fulfilment centre in Kojetín since 2023. The facility, recognised as a leader in automation and innovation supporting efficient order fulfilment, was personally launched by him and continues to operate successfully under his leadership. Before joining Amazon, where he originally held the position of Flow Area Manager, he spent ten years in the United Kingdom working for logistics companies including Technicolor, DHL, and Unipart Logistics, gradually progressing through a number of leadership roles.

Amazon is driven by principles of customer obsession, continuous improvement, process innovation, and long-term thinking. The company has pioneered a range of services and products, including Amazon Prime, Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA), AWS, Kindle, Echo with Alexa, and Amazon Studios.

In his presentation, Jan will reveal how AI supports every step — from planning to day-to-day operations — and how to manage fulfilment centre capacity and last-mile logistics in a robotic warehouse environment.

Flexible by Design: Magna Exteriors’s Modular Automation Transformation

Christoph Scheufler is Assistant General Manager and Head of Industrial Engineering, IT and Quality at Magna Exteriorsin Meerane, Germany. He is responsible for production system design, automation strategy, factory layout development and logistics process optimisation in a highly automated JIT/JIS manufacturing environment. With more than 15 years of experience in the automotive industry, he focuses on value-stream optimisation, digital transformation and the integration of Industry 4.0 technologies, including simulation, IoT and robotics.

At the Meerane plant, Christoph Scheufler led a project focused on automating bumper picking processes using a goods-to-person system with mobile robots from Noyes Technologies. The solution reduced walking distances by 97% and warehouse space requirements by 70%, while increasing picking performance to more than 250 picks per hour and significantly reducing error rates. In a second phase, the system was expanded with elevator integration for automated upper-level storage, demonstrating how modular automation can scale flexibly while keeping existing processes largely unchanged.

Using a digitisation platform for centralized management of assembly processes

Pavel Maryško works at Škoda Auto as a Senior Manager in vehicle production. He has extensive experience in managing production and logistics processes in the automotive industry, gained not only in the domestic environment but also through assignments at international plants within the Volkswagen Group. Throughout his professional career, he has focused on increasing efficiency, standardising processes, and implementing modern digital solutions in serial production.

Škoda Auto is one of the key brands within the Volkswagen Group and has long positioned itself as a technological leader in automated, flexible, and sustainable manufacturing. The company systematically develops the digitalisation of production processes, the use of data, and the integration of advanced systems for quality management, logistics, and production technologies.

In his presentation, Pavel Maryško will focus on the practical use of the Aimtec DCIx platform for managing EC tightening technology in a manufacturing environment. Through specific examples, he will demonstrate how centralised management, data collection, and data evaluation contribute to greater process stability, improved quality transparency, and more efficient management of production operations in automotive manufacturing. This approach to technology management also provides direct inspiration for data-driven logistics.