BASF to reshape organisation with a reduction of 6000 jobs
June 27, 2019
BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany, has reported that it is reshaping its organisation to create conditions for greater customer proximity, increased competitiveness and more profitable growth. The organisation stated that it will streamline its administration, sharpen the roles of services and regions and simplify procedures and processes. As a result, the company expects to achieve savings of €300 million, as part of an ongoing programme expected to contribute €2 billion to earnings annually from the end of 2021 onwards.
According to BASF, in the course of the strategy implementation, it expects a reduction of approximately 6,000 positions worldwide until the end of 2021. This decrease results from the organisational simplification and from efficiency gains in administration and services as well as in the operating divisions. In addition, central structures are being streamlined in the context of the announced portfolio changes. It will continue to require additional employees in fields like production or digitalisation, depending on future growth rates.
Customer-focused operating divisions, service units and regions as well as a lean Corporate Center are reported to be the cornerstones of BASF’s new organisation. The Corporate Center is anticipated to consist of less than 1,000 employees, and will support the organisation’s Board of Executive Directors in steering the company as a whole. In addition, BASF reports that around 29,000 employees will be working in cross-functional service units.
‘Global Engineering Services’ and ‘Global Digital Services’ will in future offer their services either for individual sites or globally for business units of the BASF Group. ‘Global Procurement’ is expected to make purchasing more effective, and ‘Global Business Services’ will be newly established and form a worldwide network of about 8,000 employees providing end-to-end services. They will support the business units with services, among others from the areas of finance, human resources, communications and supply chain. The unit will reportedly be led by Marc Ehrhardt, currently head of the Finance Division. BASF reports that the first changes will take effect on January 1, 2020.
“We will set up the new organisation with a clear focus on leveraging synergies, reducing interfaces and enabling flexibility and creativity,” stated Dr Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF. “We want our customers to experience a new BASF. To achieve this, we have to live a new BASF. We will therefore continue to develop our organisation to work more effectively and efficiently. In this way, we will ensure the success of our customers, strengthen our competitiveness, and grow profitably as a company.”
Among its wide range of products and services, BASF produces carbonyl iron powder, a fine and pure iron power used in a range of metal powder applications. It also produces feedstock for Powder Injection Moulding, and its BASF Ultrafuse 316LX metal filament for Fused Filament Fabrication Additive Manufacturing.
