Our specialist expertise in management consulting
Over the past 30 years we have been providing our clients with consultancy services in all questions of technology management and product and process innovation. In terms of content, most of our consulting assignments can be divided into six subject clusters.
- Strategy & corporate development
- Product development & innovation
- Purchasing & procurement
- Manufacturing, assembly & maintenance
- Supply chain & logistics
- Quality engineering & lean management
The mix of corporate strategy, functional strategies (purchasing, production etc.) and support in operational implementation is what makes this fascinating both for our clients and for our consultants.
Strategy & corporate development
Competitve advantage is often eroded more quickly than it is achieved. In order to maintain a leading position, operational excellence is necessary, but by no means sufficient. We provide support in strategic corporate orientation and actively facilitate strategy development processes. In addition, we operationalise the strategic objectives and shape the necessary change processes. We also employ leadership programmes to ensure lasting success.
- Product/ market/ competitor and trend analyses
- Stakeholder analyses
- Definition of key competencies in product/ process know-how
- Action plans on the basis of strength/ weakness and opportunity/ risk profiles
- Outlining of future prospects in scenario assessments
- Development of strategies with operationalised targeting systems
Product development & innovation
Innovation capability is the key to ensuring lasting competitiveness and also one of the most important requirements of an entrepreneur. Incremental innovations are like continuous improvements in that they serve at the most to maintain market share. Today, disruptive innovations are reshaping the market. More than ever before, a company’s innovation capability will decide its future competitive position, its long-term growth potential and its profitability. Since our company was founded 30 years ago, we have established a record of success in technology and innovation consulting.
- Technology trend analyses and trend scouting
- Setting up innovation labs
- Product and process development management
- Creating internal and external development networks
- Target costing and value management at product and process level
- Project management from the concept phase to the start of series production
Purchasing & procurement
Together with our clients, we develop commodity group strategies, procurement strategies and global sourcing concepts. To find suitable suppliers, we conduct searches on a global basis. We provide support in supplier analysis and selection and in optimising supplier portfolios. Using international benchmarking, we offer concept competitions for different supplier services and provide support in the strategic supplier selection process.
- Commodity group strategies
- Global sourcing concepts
- Supplier analysis and selection process
- Concept competitions, bidder workshops
- Value analysis, target costing, reverse engineering
- Supplier audits
Manufacturing, assembly & maintenance
Globalisation, liberalisation and digitalisation are rapidly changing value-added structures. Products being manufactured steer their own way through production; maintenance regimes are being implemented on a predictive basis. Production and assembly networks are enabling new business models to be developed. The availability and retention of skilled workers is becoming a challenge in companies’ operational departments in particular. We support companies in designing value chains and in intercultural transformation.
- Design of global value chains
- Optimisation of production and logistics networks
- Design of production systems
- Development of targeted improvement programmes to increase production output and productivity
- Optimisation of capacity utilisation, throughput times, material flows and reject rates by means of static and dynamic simulations
- Introduction of lean management principles
Supply chain & logistics
Competitive cost structures, high product quality and international presence require our clients’ core processes to be adapted constantly. The effectiveness of operational processes is thus becoming the key factor in ensuring strategic and tactical advantages. Supply chain management plays a significant part in this. We analyse our client’s entire value chain and product portfolio and draw up concepts for optimising the degree of vertical integration and the supplier portfolio.
- Design of global value chains
- Simulation of multi-dimensional dynamic logistics models
- Optimisation of in-company and external transportation
- Demand-driven inventory management and warehousing
- Product standardisation and modularisation
- Reduction of throughput and lead times
Quality engineering & lean management
Hybrid product designs and globally distributed value-added stages affect the robustness of complex technical systems. Analytical procedures enable potential errors to be avoided in a preventive manner. Finding the causes of errors in the field that nevertheless occur requires methodical routine and comprehensive engineering expertise. We point out interactions and, together with our clients’ experts and suppliers, stabilise products and services.
- Customer benefit and satisfaction analyses
- Use of preventive methods in quality planning
- Root cause analyses (product and process)
- Introduction of diagnostic systems and error pattern analyses
- Establishment of operational excellence systems
- Introduction of lean management, and lean and robust production
- Strategy & corporate development
- Product development & innovation
- Purchasing & procurement
- Manufacturing, assembly & maintenance
- Supply chain & logistics
- Quality engineering & lean management