Machinery and plant engineering

Publication: OPPORTUNITY - Facts for decision makers

In this OPPORTUNITY we take a look at machinery and plant engineering and discuss how companies in this sector can position themselves future-proof and systematically expand their business. Various approaches to expanding the business will be presented, based on the product-market portfolio. Here, the focus lies on operational excellence, activities regarding a market approach and innovation that concentrates on customers.

Under the keyword operational excellence, the possibilities for increasing efficiency as to aquisition and execution of projects are illustrated. In doing so, the modularization of machines and systems will be discussed among other things. In the context of approaching the market, we focus on data-based market development, the importance of which is also growing in machinery and plant engineering. The chapter “Innovation concentrating on customers” explains how machine and plant manufacturers can generate more bussiness with additional services and digital products. Finally, we present ten patterns for success that we have derived from the different positionings of companies with above-average success.

Contents of this OPPORTUNITY

positioning by the range of services
positioning in markets
approaches to expanding business
10 patterns of success in machinery and plant engineering

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Successful collaboration

“This project was important for our profitability. We were able to maintain our day-to-day business and complete the project at the same time – and my team kept their spirits up. The profitability of my business area for components has been increased tremendously and we are prepared for the future: we are introducing optimizations to our range of products much faster.”

Heinrich Steinbrecher

Managing Partner

Bürener Maschinenfabrik GmbH

“I strongly believe lean management can set the foundation for good business performance in a dynamic market environment as in China. The UNITY team successfully motivated our lean agents and our management team to identify improvement potentials and develop an implementation plan. We are very pleased to see that all of the initiated actions are being managed by lean agents now and that all of our employees are participating in them.”

Markus Clement

Managing Director

EMAG Taicang

Project Stories

Process analysis for an integrated view of the DMU equipment process

Machinery and plant engineering
Process analysis for an integrated view of the DMU equipment process

Reduced Development Time through Consequential Process Management

Whether involved in planning, construction or manufacturing, UNITY has been involved in shortening development times for the largest passenger aircraft ever built, the Airbus A380, and reducing costs for Airbus for three years now. An example of a complex challenge that arose during the development of the A380 program is the equipping of each aircraft with electrical and non-flightrelevant devices. Depending on which airline is buying the airplane, the equipment requirements are different. Until shortly before the airplane is delivered, the customer still has the opportunity to customize how the equipment is configured according to his own requirements. For example, the interior equipment, air conditioning system and media technology system can all be customized.

To save time and money, computer-aided analysis (a "digital mock up” - DMU) is carried out before the equipment is actually installed. Suppliers to Airbus deliver CAD model data for every piece of equipment, and this can be checked and integrated into the digital reproduction of each A380. This requires high quality data and must be carried out at the right time. We found that this is precisely where the original DMU equipment process exhibited potential for improvement. Alongside the appropriate IT tools, the DMU equipment process is dependent above all on solutions in the areas of process and data management, as well as in the area of supplier integration. UNITY was assigned with optimizing these processes.

UNITY first conducted a process analysis that looked at the entire DMU equipment process as a whole. This step created additional transparency, bringing to light information about individual processes, resources, responsibilities and information flows for data suppliers and data users. From this analysis possibilities for improving organizational and IT-related aspects of the DMU equipment process became apparent. These were then prioritized and time-phased within the context of an overall implementation strategy.

For Airbus, the optimized DMU equipment process has tangible benefits: Lead times have been reduced, rectification costs have sunk and the degree of product maturity is now higher at an earlier stage.

Reduced Development Time

Reduced rework costs

Product maturity increased at an early stage

“With their methodical way of proceeding and their high degree of competence in terms of processes and technology, UNITY helped put us in the position to initiate a comprehensive improvement program for the DMU equipment process for the A380. With this program we were able to significantly shorten the lead time required for the integration of the equipment.”

Klaus Schwietzer

Development Manager A380 Germany

Airbus

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Michael Wolf

Partner, Business Area Lead

Hamburg, Germany

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Thomas Ulrich

Partner

Paderborn, Germany