How does the mechanical engineering industry strike a balance between product and project focus?
Mechanical engineers are often faced with the challenge of balancing long-term product orientation with short-term project management. While product orientation aims to develop standardized solutions that appeal to a broad target group, a project-oriented approach focuses on individual customer needs.
However, the balancing act between product relevance and project relevance has a profound impact on the competitiveness, innovative strength, and efficiency of mechanical engineering companies.
A classic example of this challenge can be seen in the development of machines and systems. Manufacturers often have a standard solution that they need to customize for different customers. These customizations result in a large number of product variants, each requiring different design data, components, and documentation.
With each new customization, internal complexity and effort increase, leading to inefficiencies. The resources required to manage these variants and to constantly maintain spare parts and updates cost time and tie up personnel.
The question that many mechanical engineers ask themselves is therefore:
How can a sensible balance be struck between product and project relevance?
One approach that is becoming increasingly important here is modularization. Instead of developing a completely new product for each project, modularization relies on standardized but adaptable modules. These can be flexibly combined according to customer requirements, significantly reducing the number of product variants and the associated complexity costs. This approach not only has the potential to shorten time-to-market, but also to use resources more efficiently.
However, modularization alone is not enough to overcome the challenges posed by the conflict between product and project relevance. Another major problem that machine builders have to address is the lack of integration and cooperation between different departments. The efficient implementation of product strategies and project requirements requires close cooperation between research and development, sales, purchasing, marketing, and many other areas.
In many companies, however, these departments still work in isolation, which leads to knowledge silos and slows down the innovation process. This is where digital transformation comes into play.
With its cloud platform, mosaixx offers a solution that enables the seamless exchange of data and information between departments. A central, collaborative work environment allows different teams to work together on projects and access the same information.
This approach not only ensures greater transparency and more efficient use of resources, but also facilitates the integration of modular solutions into existing processes.
For example, engineers working on a standard machine can quickly and easily access the data needed to customize the product to a customer’s individual requirements. This allows projects to be completed faster and more cost-effectively without compromising the quality of the solution.
The challenge that mosaixx addresses with its solution is to reconcile the advantages of product orientation—such as scalability and standardization—with the specific requirements of individual projects. Modularization can play a key role here by increasing flexibility while reducing complexity. But what makes the decisive difference is barrier-free, cross-departmental collaboration.
