Management & Business Strategies - vdma.org

Controlling and sustainability experts from VDMA member companies met in Salzburg at the end of April 2023 for the ERFA Controlling of VDMA Austria and VDMA Bavaria.

Manufacturers of large and heavy goods are increasingly faced with increasing requirements to obtain special permits to use certain routes.

The VDMA is a partner in a newly launched consortium benchmarking study by the Machine Tool Laboratory WZL at RWTH Aachen University and Complexity Management Academy GmbH, which is looking for success factors for sustainable product development. Interested companies can participate in a survey until June 30, 2023. In addition to benchmarking their own status quo, there is also the opportunity to be recognized as a "Successful Practice Company" yourself.

As of July 1, 2019, air cargo may no longer be made secure via the special screening procedure "Explosive Trace Detection." Until then, this ETD procedure was approved by the German Federal Aviation Authority if it was not possible to check the cargo using X-rays.

In a company it is part of the daily work to identify optimization needs via benchmarking, to monitor successful processes and to visualize targets. A popular tool here is comparison. The VDMA QuickCheck enables this - similar to a balanced scorecard - via four perspectives.

The calculation schema for non-wage labor costs is a model calculation for determining the imputed surcharge for direct and indirect wage-dependent costs. Here you will find the current version, as of March of the current year.

The production sector is usually neglected in New Work. New Work is more than home office and free processes and therefore there are also different starting points in production.

The first episode of the new podcast series "Nachgehakt - vergleichen, verstehen, verändern" is online! In this format, we talk to experts and go into the essential points of the intercompany comparison. In the first part, we welcomed Prof. Stefan Mayr from the University of Linz.

After the first test, the number of benchmarks in the inter-company comparison could now be brought back to the known size.

VDMA surveyed the ESG implementation status in summer 2022. Now the final survey results are available.

In the joint study "Next Generation Manufacturing", management consultants Roland Berger and the VDMA highlight important levers for the successful production of tomorrow. The focus is on the six global trends of sustainability, digitalization, location matters, individualization, populism and industry disruption.

Services in mechanical engineering: The focus is already on people, digitization and sustainability. Will everything be new, will everything be different in the next decade? Four scenarios in the 8th study of the future.

Efficient spare parts management is an important building block in the after-sales business. After-sales-applications ensure the availability of spare parts at agricultural machinery manufacturer Claas.

Portfolio vitality above all else, or why key performance indicators from other departments are only partially suitable for adjusting product market success.

The shortage of skilled workers is coming to a head, the labor market has turned. Demographics, digitalization, democratization and decentralization also pose challenges for companies in this area.

There is a shortage of skilled workers. This is also bringing foreign talent back into focus. You will find practical experiences and a collection of support services in the download.

Digitalization poses many a challenge to mechanical engineering. Upskilling your own employees in the area of Industrie 4.0 can be a solution to bring specialized knowledge on board. We have provided you with a list of advanced degree programs.

How are the pandemic, demographics and more affecting employee retention in our industry? What are suspected causes?

Ongoing supply problems are challenging purchasing in the mechanical and plant engineering sector, yet there are approaches to dealing with supplier demands.

Whether it's evidence management, rights and obligations to provide information, or the protection of confidential information and sensitive data: There is a lot to consider when it comes to audits. Our recommendations.

More leads, new business potential: digital marketing can achieve a lot. But to do so, customers' information needs must first be understood and properly served.

A project map as a fence-building aid to change. Axel Weidner, managing partner of Mankenberg in Lübeck, talks about this, the 80 percent principle and the playful desire for robotization in this interview.

Uta Schmidt from MESTO shows paradoxes in dealing with errors depending on the context. A positive error culture requires discussion and a common understanding, self-reflection, role models and tools.

The successful Federal Support Programme for Energy Efficiency in Industry has been fundamentally amended as of 1 November 2021. The funding programme has been expanded to include a subsidy for resource efficiency in module 4 and the funding programme will also subsidise transformation concepts (module 5). The mechanical engineering sector and its customer industries can also benefit from this.

The current survey on the topic of home office as of the end of October is available here. Topics include: planned days of home office "according to Corona", productivity and assessment of opportunities and risks.

Full order books and ongoing friction in the supply chain - purchasing is facing major challenges. But there are design options.

What is important to service customers in the most important sales countries of the mechanical engineering industry, and what is not? The Global Service study helps to identify regional preferences and to adapt services locally.

The future is uncertain? The future personnel requirements in the company do not have to be. The new IT tool PYTHIA Automotive supports small and medium-sized companies and is also suitable for planning novices.

A crisis shows which companies are capable of finding answers to difficult challenges. The means of leadership to choose from are: stringent instructions from individuals or the power of self-organised teams.

The VDMA benchmarks prove that service contributes to success with a multiple of the average company revenue. Services make a significant contribution of almost 20 percent to revenue.

In the context of change, there is often talk of "picking people up" and "taking them along". But it would be important to "involve" everyone. With Lean Management, change can be even more successful.

When discussing the topic of women in executive positions, female/male characteristics are always an issue. It is undisputed that, on average, there are certain differences in personality. However, with every statement about a trait you inevitably come up with counter-examples. For this reason, one should always keep in mind the image of the perception of gender stereotypes, which is illustrated in the figure below.

Here you will find the VDMA surveys on mobile working. Please note the results of the survey completed at the end of October on the current mood towards home office / mobile working.

Digitization and changing market conditions are causing recruitment channels to change. In this article you will find some highlights from theory and practice.

Employer branding has an internal and external impact. Developing values and culture is therefore doubly useful. 5 questions and answers about employer branding can be found here.

Material shortages are a well-known phenomenon that can be observed in economic upswings after a severe slump. For 2021, this effect is stronger - compared to previous crises overcome.

On June 11, 2021, the online event "New Work - Personas in Theory and Practice" illustrated the usability of personas in innovation and HR processes.

Most ISO member countries and the feedback from the User Survey 2020 have voted to confirm ISO 9001:2015 as it is. Thus, ISO 9001 will not be changed for the time being and will remain valid in its current 2015 version.

Management evaluation assesses the management system and its rules of the game rather than the achievement of objectives. It is used by management to assess whether the system is suitable to support the individual objectives of the organization.

In the current situation, on-site assessments are being cancelled or replaced by remote audits where possible. Since May, DAkkS has again been carrying out limited on-site assessments for initial accreditations and major extensions.

If, in times of crisis, expenditures to ensure the quality of products are cut across the board, there is a danger that the quality level will drop significantly and that the damage to the company will be much greater than the supposed savings.

Say nothing, see nothing, hear nothing - we are all familiar with this image of the three wise monkeys. This phenomenon can be observed among all groups of people, even in companies. Since there is usually also a hierarchical order in companies, however, additional "monkeys" can be observed here. Lean Management helps to work together effectively and efficiently in spite of this.

In the corporate world, software robots have the potential to take over administrative tasks, reduce the workload of employees and increase efficiency.

Changes in the world of work as a result of digitalization are summarized under the buzzword "New Work". Associated with this is the topic of "agility".

Companies face the challenge of equipping themselves for rapid change in terms of organization, leadership and collaboration. Three guides/studies can provide support.

The structure of the participating companies has changed significantly in some cases.

The current CMI study investigates the influence of innovation and quality performance on corporate success and how these are influenced by the topics of strategy, organization, management and culture.

In engineering and design departments, significantly fewer key figures are generally used to control processes than in production, for example. The VDMA Central Working Group Engineering has compiled an overview of key figures with this focus.

Key figures are of essential importance for production processes and have been present in manufacturing and assembly for a long time. The Zentraler Arbeitskreis Produktion (Central Working Group for Production) of VDMA has therefore intensively dealt with what a lowest common denominator of important key figures could look like for the control of production areas in mechanical and plant engineering.

A frequently sought-after key figure in personnel management is the sickness rate. Here you can find industry averages.