Germany used to compete on flexibility. What happened?
One story caught my attention today.
ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a company that is already under enormous pressure, reportedly had to move production to other locations after weekend work was rejected by the works council.
Whether one agrees with every management decision is almost beside the point.
What struck me was something much more fundamental.
Germany used to understand that flexibility was part of competitiveness.
Twenty years ago I worked for a British automotive manufacturer. Demand for one of our models suddenly exceeded expectations and management wanted to introduce Saturday production. The local employee representatives refused.
The result was simple: we could not build enough cars and lost sales.
At the time, we looked with some envy at a German competitor. They had reached an agreement with their works council that allowed production to increase when demand was there. It was one of the reasons they were so successful.
That flexibility was part of Germany's competitive advantage.
Today, I sometimes wonder whether we have forgotten that.
Nobody should be expected to work weekends permanently. That is not the point.
But if a company wants to pay some of the highest industrial wages in the world, there also has to be a willingness to adapt when markets change. Flexibility cannot always be expected from management alone.
The automotive industry is entering a period unlike anything it has experienced before. Chinese competitors move faster. Product cycles are shorter. Software changes vehicles continuously. Autonomous driving and AI will reshape entire value chains.
In that environment, competitiveness is no longer only about engineering excellence.
It is also about the ability of an organisation to respond when circumstances change.
Germany still has extraordinary engineers, skilled workers and industrial know-how.
What worries me is whether we still have the flexibility that once made those strengths so powerful.
Because if we lose that, the discussion is no longer about weekend work.
It is about whether future production happens here at all.