Discrete Manufacturing Industries (DMI)
Strategic Consulting for the Mechanical & Plant Engineering Industry
Learn more about valantic’s comprehensive consulting and service portfolio for digitisation for machine and plant manufacturers.
Mechanical & plant engineering is one of the world-famous key industry’s of the German economy – celebrated for its top quality, precision and efficiency. Germany is the world’s largest exporter of machinery, ahead of China, the USA and Japan (source: VDMA – Federation of German Mechanical & Plant Engineering), and its mechanical engineering is among the most innovative industrial sectors worldwide. In fact, every second engineer works either in research, development or construction – and very successfully, too, since Germany is the world champion in patents (document available in German only).
But top global positions are not a matter of course, and a great deal of effort is needed to defend and maintain this standing in what is a highly competitive environment. Globally growing, but also increasingly volatile, markets pose challenges for mechanical & plant engineering, with e-mobility, energy efficiency and sustainability set to become increasingly important criteria in future.
Disruptive changes are pervading supply chains, as well as business models and service models, while innovative technologies such as Industry 4.0, process automation, networked supply chains, smart production, artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive maintenance are opening up profitable opportunities – ones that the mechanical engineering & discrete manufacturing (DMI) sector must exploit if it wishes to remain world leader in future.
The far-reaching industry experience and extensive know-how of valantic’s consultants help you consolidate your leading position, strengthen existing client relationships, conquer new markets and acquire new customers. Industry 4.0 and Smart Production are the mega topics here, and these trends and solutions will be decisive for your future success:
Trends and Solutions for the Mechanical & Plant Engineering Industry
Agile Supply Chains & Logistics
An integrated S&OP platform incorporating every business unit and storage and production facility lets the mechanical engineering sector effortlessly master bottlenecks and changes in the supply chain, and successfully exploit market opportunities. valantic’s practiced consultants pursue a holistic consulting approach – from forecasting and sourcing to sales and financial planning, and from production and detailed planning to inventory management and logistics – providing planning managers and decision-makers with all the necessary data at their fingertips, up to date and in real time.
When planning parameters are thrown off course by large, new orders or material bottlenecks, for example, valantic renders these changes instantaneously transparent, thereby creating a dependable planning basis for S&OP and for complex multi-project planning, along with all the associated synergy effects.
Automation & Smart Factories
Future-proof organizations are digitally transforming and automating their business processes end-to-end along their value chains, enabling them to leverage productivity and efficiency potential, cut project lead times, and reduce error rates – all of these, clear benefits. Leading consulting firms such as valantic are therefore expecting a sharp rise in investments in digital transformation and automation projects in the mid-double-digit percentage range from now until 2025.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the automation of sub-processes and can generally be implemented in just a few weeks with as little as a five-figure budget. A modest investment is all that is needed for mechanical & plant engineering businesses to generate numerous convincing added values – such as falling costs, rising customer and employee satisfaction, and increasing profits and sales.
The smart factory vision stands for a highly interconnected and hyper-automated company that responds flexibly and with agility to market changes, systematically exploits market opportunities for its immediate benefit, and incorporates e.g. feedback from individual customers directly into its planning and production processes (direct feedback loop).
Business Analytics
Business analytics places business decisions on a sound, fact-based footing and helps improve the success of companies’ sales, marketing, production and HR operations. valantic is an IBM, SAP and Microsoft Gold Partner and a strategic partner of Informatica, MicroStrategy, Anaplan, Cognigy and graphomate.
valantic’s highly proficient consultants help mechanical & plant engineering businesses to use analytic tools such as IBM Cognos and Microsoft Power BI with the maximum possible benefits. Its services range from strategic consulting and choice of the most advantageous solution to implementation, commissioning and employee training.
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
Machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), i.e. self-learning, adaptive systems, can significantly leverage the benefits of business analytics. A recent study conducted by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) concluded that the strategic use of AI allows companies to boost profits by an average of 25 percent. valantic has identified 26 application scenarios from sales, marketing, production and HR that are already generating concrete added value today.
The use of digital twins when designing, developing and optimizing machines and systems allows alternative concepts to be simulated cost-effectively to investigate how these affect the outcome – without having to physically reconstruct the entire machine. With smart analytical algorithms and AI, digital twins can achieve the desired success much faster than with conventional techniques.
Sustainability & Energy Efficiency
A stable, reliable energy supply is vital for industrial production processes. At the same time, the energy revolution planned by the German government and neighboring European countries will require industry to switch from fossil fuels to sustainable energy sources in the coming years. An integrated, flexible planning platform creates the ideal conditions and responsiveness needed to successfully master this transition.
For companies in the mechanical & plant engineering sector, sustainability also means using raw materials, resources and energy more efficiently. If properly addressed, the planned energy revolution can thus act as a catalyst for smarter production techniques and lower operating costs.
Companies that produce sustainably and responsibly are meanwhile enthusiastically embraced by the general public. This benefits your company’s standing and its brands in the public’s perception and in the eyes of your customers, and you also become a more attractive employer for young, qualified junior staff. Use the energy revolution and climate change to your advantage now!
Predictive Maintenance & Smart Customer Services
In predictive maintenance, machine data are transmitted to smart analysis servers, thereby helping to almost entirely eliminate production downtimes and the associated follow-up costs. Besides this, machine and system wear parts are not replaced ahead of, but just in, time. Predictive maintenance thus lets companies exploit their machine and system operating potential reliably and to the full.
Predictive maintenance is a component of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and is one of many smart customer services. With the golden rule of “Know your customer!” applicable to the mechanical & plant engineering sector as well, companies can use predictive analytics to evaluate their customer histories and suggest e.g. the “next best action” that the customer must urgently take but has not yet pondered. Predictive analytics thus boosts customer satisfaction sustainably over the long term and helps strengthen customer loyalty.
