Machine building & plant engineering

Volatile international markets, both on the customer and on the supplier side, increasingly customized products in the premium segment on one hand and cost pressure in the volume segment on the other hand; Market share has to be gained in China and at the same time the traditional markets have to be defended against the rapidly growing competition from China.

Machine building & plant engineering companies as well as their suppliers are facing high cost pressure and an accelerating pace of innovation.

To meet these challenges a wide range of measures is available to turn these challenges into opportunities:

• Strategic cost reduction of direct cost in production and of overhead cost in the administration. Rightsizing of organizational proportions according to the source of value creation. Mobilization for change management
• Adaptation to increasing volatility by making the supply chain and cost base more flexible
• Alliances & consolidation to improve market and technology access and gain economies of scale in purchasing
• Adapt the business model to convert the increasing customer specific requirements in order to differentiate from Chinese mass producers apart from quality

Few industries are currently faced with such a multitude of changing parameters and challenges as the machine building & plant engineering industry and thus have to evolve in order to remain global leaders also in the future.

The Partners of Executive Interim Partners together with their teams support clients in the machine building & plant engineering industry with their functional industry know-how in defining the strategy and especially by implementing as interim manager, coach or as consultant:

• Operational support implementing operational value enhancement programs for short and medium term cost optimization (e.g. in the areas of productivity, operational excellence, purchasing/global sourcing/SCM) and cash flow improvement (e.g. via working capital optimization)
• Implementation of profit enhancement strategies (e.g. internationalization, expansion/focusing and individualization of the product and services portfolio)
• Program / Project Office to consolidate and manage individual projects as well as the tracking of the overall project progress (milestones, resources, KPIs, identification of roadblocks)
• Commercial due diligence for potential acquisitions
• Identification of potentials for reduction of EEG charges
• Taking on management roles on an interim basis, also with executive authority (CRO, CEO, CFO, COO, CPO, CSO, CMO, Head of Supply Chain, etc.) or project leaders and implementation support – also during restructuring situations

Our partner team has extensive experience and references from previous management positions and consulting projects in the machine building & plant engineering industry. Subject to consultation with the respective companies we would be pleased to provide you with further information on the references

Feel free to contact Martin Nussbaumer and Dr. Manfred Lerch for a first exchange of ideas in the machine building & plant engineering industry.