Machinery and plant engineering

As one of the biggest industrial employers, the leading export industry and motor for innovation, the machinery and plant engineering sector holds a key position in the economy. Since demand for capital goods is getting more and more cyclical and the purchase decisions are taken at ever shorter notice, quality and innovation are no longer sufficient to gurantee success in the global marketplace. Many machine and plant manufacturers are seeking to address the enormous cost pressures and ever more unpredictable nature of potential orders with improved productivity and more flexible capacity. In many cases, new business areas such as wind power and solar products are being developed and product niches occupied, bringing about additional new demands for which economic solutions have to be found.

Challenges in maintaining the competitiveness:

• Globalization of production and supply chain
• Exploiting cost benefits through new sourcing channels (global sourcing)
• Integrated SCM strategies and processes: Sales – production – logistics – procurement – order processing
• Flexibilization of production and the supply chain through lean methods such as one-piece flow
• Lead time reduction and and meeting confirmed delivery date
• Reduction of product complexity through modularization
• Late variant configuration through clear postponement strategies
• Expansion of services in a sustainably successful business model