innovation is paramount at biw even more technical service for biw customers with the biw innovation centre biw repositioned itself and focused on its technical expertise at the turn of the year. we have therefore merged our devel- opment and prototyping departments as the biw innovation centre and are systematically developing the potential of the new organisation for even better and expanded service for our customers. this is, of course, only possible together with you. we would therefore invite you all to develop syn- ergies together. imagine you need a product made of silicone and / or technical textiles. of course you would think of biw. but you don’t just need a product that meets your specifications geometrically, physically, chemically and physiologically: you need a solu- tion that meets the needs of both finishing and application, giving you the ability to automatically process the product that meets your digitalisation or industry 4.0 needs. what is more, you avoid the need for work processes and bought-in parts because biw maps this breadth of in-house production and provides you with this additional added value, possibly as an assembly. we want to confront precisely these increasingly complex requirements in an ever faster spinning world and prove our expertise to you in this respect as well. we want to comply with the standards more competently and quickly for you and with you, and take new technical challenges, innova- tive silicone compounds, new products and processes, the integration of new technologies and close cooperation with you to the next level. we will do so with even more consult- ing, in-house training courses, joint workshops, additional internationalisation – the next steps technical information, such as analysis, data sheets or cer- tificates, faster implementation of these technical solutions and, of course, partnership-based project work. challenge us – we look forward to it. biw innovation centre – when it comes to competence. —dr. markus wiethoff biw kunshan “going international” is an enormous challenge for german smes in the manufacturing sector – in terms of finance, personnel, structure and organisation. nevertheless, biw is increasingly facing up to this challenge, because customers from large-scale industry. in particular, who have been oper- ating globally for years, are increasingly demanding that their suppliers are local to them. the pioneer in this is the automo- tive industry, which prescribes “localisation” to ensure the “local content” frequently demanded by the state – as in the usa and china. biw has now been operating for three years in the german industrial park in kunshan under the umbrella of the start-up factory. this year, production capacities will be expanded in a separate new manufacturing unit together with a partner company to quickly maximise the use of the very large production buildings usually provided by chinese investors. the focus is thus on cable protection systems for the automotive and electrical industries, as well as for wind turbines and the railway industry, in line with the markets. investment will be made in new production facilities, the expansion of the product range, which can be produced and offered locally, and maximising in-house production with the networking of all production steps in kunshan in the greater shanghai area. at the same time, hans jörg oberberg is in charge of the exploratory phase for the “americas” in the business devel- opment division, although due to current economic policy and the shortage of skilled workers, no decision has yet been made on the location – usa or mexico. in europe, biw is also offering an ever-growing product range and breadth of in-house production with an increas- ing range of ready-made systems. a large number of these intermediate steps in the process chain have already been undertaken for some years at the polish plant in wrocław (breslau), with the addition now of a second plant in głogów (glogau), enabling a faster and more flexible response to customer requests. the two sites in neighbouring poland are playing an increasingly important role as subcontractors and the provision of 100 % manual final inspections. you will also continue to enjoy unique value for money in the market for high-quality, customised product solutions in ca- ble protection systems based on technical textiles, silicone moulded parts (seals, hose bends, grommets) and silicone extruded components (profiles, hoses and fabric-reinforced hose systems). —lutz stoffels 03