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

Networked innovation and development organisation

Machinery and plant engineering
Networked innovation and development organisation

Innovation Management

Lufthansa Technik AG is a competitive technology and innovation leader, which continuously develops inspection, maintenance and repair procedures. It also develops and produces its own components to benefit its customers. Seeing the growing momentum in the industry, the Executive Board launched an initiative in 2013 to strengthen and focus its innovation and development activities to promote company growth. UNITY was chosen for this project because of its extensive expertise in innovation management.

Both the development and the implementation of this initiative were designed in collaboration with UNITY. Areas of innovation were defined in company workshops, then implemented and monitored using an innovation program management. In conjunction to establishing an innovation program consisting of short-, to long-term projects, Lufthansa Technik and UNITY developed and implemented a master plan, creating an innovation organization and its processes. Within 18 months, a networked innovation and development group was created for all seven product divisions, along with its supporting IT systems. The company’s executive management values the innovation culture and is deeply involved in its process, e.g. as a decision maker in the "120 Second Pitch" for new innovation ideas.

“We started with the challenging task of taking the existing but fragmented innovation management to a new level. The expertise of the UNITY consultants helped us greatly in setting up a master plan for Lufthansa Technik and executing it in a structured manner. In the meantime our innovation pro-jects are in progress, we have established program management and the organization is ready to work. The teamwork in conception and implementation was decisive for the success!”