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

Successful Technology Strategy Delivers Comfort in the Cabin Area

Machinery and plant engineering
Successful Technology Strategy Delivers Comfort in the Cabin Area

Scenarios and strategy development

UNITY began working on a new technology strategy for cabin area development in future Airbus aircraft in September 2005. The project was successfully concluded in May 2006. The project represented a major challenge in the area of CoE Cabin Cargo Innovation and Design. It involved the development of cabin scenarios that factored in the company's requirements. Beyond this, it involved the development of passenger profiles and the drawing up of a technology road map.

Tasks of UNITY

The point of departure for this collaboration was the desire for more transparency and goal- / product orientation across the division's research projects. Beyond this, the requirements of future client and user groups had to be taken into consideration. Research projects for selected programs had to be harmonized in terms of costs and of what they were expected to deliver.

On the basis of the new technology strategy, developed together with UNITY, a new framework was created with which the future could be forecast and the technologies that would play a role in it examined. From this the requirements for future cabin concepts could be derived. Building on this, UNITY developed general cabin concepts that took account of the company's strategy and of the needs of passengers in the cabin area. At the end of the project current research activities were evaluated with respect to the strategic goals of Airbus and future technology trends were identified. The results of this cooperation are a basis for more visionary, more demanding cabin concepts that can offer Airbus, airlines and future passengers the highest levels of comfort and efficiency. Airbus was presented with a range of benefits: support during the establishment of the innovation division in the area of cabin development, a precise alignment of current research activities with the company's strategic requirements, an exact evaluation of these activities based on the corporate strategy, and a better identification of relevant fields of innovative research.

Establishment of the innovation department in the Cabine division

Optimal alignment of ongoing research activities with strategy needs

Optimal evaluation of research activities

“Customer focus and innovative strength are the characteristics that make Airbus successful in the market. With UNITY's support - and particularly with the strategy- and process know-how of UNITY's consultants - we were able to integrate our innovations for the cabin more effectively and efficiently into our program.”

Ingo Wuggetzer

VP Cabin Cargo Innovation and Design

Your Contact

Michael Wolf

Partner, Business Area Lead

Hamburg, Germany

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Thomas Ulrich

Partner

Paderborn, Germany