We drive innovative strength and operational excellence

Machinery and Plant Engineering

The main challenge in mechanical and plant engineering is to deliver customized solutions in ever shorter timeframes at minimum cost -- often under increasing competitive pressure. At the same time, classic mechanical and plant engineering products are now often regarded by customers as basic capabilities. This means that innovative strength and the ability to change are crucial to success in your industry. If you succeed in combining leadership in technology and cost, you can increase your sales enormously. Particularly successful mechanical and plant engineering companies are characterized by one or more of the following ten success patterns:

UNITY knows the challenges of the industry, and the success factors in the areas of market, product and process. For over 25 years, machinery and plant manufacturers of all sizes have benefited from our expertise.

We support you in improving your product portfolio and your market positioning. Together, we will expand your competitive edge by increasing your innovative strength and operational excellence. In addition to our distinctive industry expertise, you benefit from our comprehensive range of services, which are targeted to your individual situation. From product development to operational excellence, IP issues and innovation through to customer experience -- take advantage of our know-how and our methodological and implementation expertise!

Consulting Services for Machinery and Plant Engineering

Market Focus

Export and Internationalization: In order to be able to finance innovation and further growth, expanding sales markets through internationalization is a key success factor.

Data-based market development: Particularly in highly competitive sales markets, incoming orders can be increased enormously by identifying potential customers at an early stage.

Distinct service business: Declining profitability in the core business can be offset by aftersales services. Services via the spare parts business also generate additional income.

Protection against new competitors: The core business is secured through comprehensive branding. The company also protects itself against new competitors with low-cost (entry-level) solutions and very short delivery times.

Digital Customer Experience

Service Business

Product Focus

Modular Solutions: With modular solutions, customer-specific requirements are mapped using configurable standards. This allows the delivery volume to be increased quickly and easily.

Software and Electronics Expertise: Increasingly, software-based services are coming into focus as products in their own right. The customer's value experience is increasingly characterized by the software.

Digital Products: Digital products and digital services, in terms of software-based services relating to machines and systems, are becoming increasingly important as additional revenue generators, but require extensive changes in the service organizations or even the establishment of separate business units.

Modularization

Product Lifecycle Management

Digital Twin

Service Business

Process Focus

Cross-domain Product Development: The intelligent integration of mechanics, control engineering, software and, if necessary, other technologies through efficient product development processes is essential to provide mechatronic products efficiently in terms of a 'system as a component of systems'. Using systems engineering methods, it is possible to provide leading solutions for markets, products and processes.

Operative Excellence: In addition to marketable manufacturing costs, the market leaders in their sectors set themselves apart by their disproportionately high-level of productivity in terms of overhead costs. This usually goes hand in hand with a good balance of standardization and customer-specific solution expertise. This enables them to achieve adequate corporate profitability even when prices are falling.

Integration expertise: When solutions need to be integrated into complex environments, technical integration expertise is a decisive competitive advantage. This ability secures and increases the sales of individual machines and components.

Systems Engineering

Operational Excellence

Project Handling System

Value Chain Strategy

What our customers in Machinery and Plant Engineering say about us

“This project was important for our profitability. We were able to maintain our day-to-day business and complete the project at the same time – and my team kept their spirits up. The profitability of my business area for components has been increased tremendously and we are prepared for the future: we are introducing optimizations to our range of products much faster.”

Heinrich Steinbrecher

Managing Partner

Bürener Maschinenfabrik GmbH

“I strongly believe lean management can set the foundation for good business performance in a dynamic market environment as in China. The UNITY team successfully motivated our lean agents and our management team to identify improvement potentials and develop an implementation plan. We are very pleased to see that all of the initiated actions are being managed by lean agents now and that all of our employees are participating in them.”

Markus Clement

Managing Director

EMAG Taicang

Project Stories in Machinery and Plant Engineering

Process analysis for an integrated view of the DMU equipment process

Reduced Development Time through Consequential Process Management

Whether involved in planning, construction or manufacturing, UNITY has been involved in shortening development times for the largest passenger aircraft ever built, the Airbus A380, and reducing costs for Airbus for three years now. An example of a complex challenge that arose during the development of the A380 program is the equipping of each aircraft with electrical and non-flightrelevant devices. Depending on which airline is buying the airplane, the equipment requirements are different. Until shortly before the airplane is delivered, the customer still has the opportunity to customize how the equipment is configured according to his own requirements. For example, the interior equipment, air conditioning system and media technology system can all be customized.

To save time and money, computer-aided analysis (a "digital mock up” - DMU) is carried out before the equipment is actually installed. Suppliers to Airbus deliver CAD model data for every piece of equipment, and this can be checked and integrated into the digital reproduction of each A380. This requires high quality data and must be carried out at the right time. We found that this is precisely where the original DMU equipment process exhibited potential for improvement. Alongside the appropriate IT tools, the DMU equipment process is dependent above all on solutions in the areas of process and data management, as well as in the area of supplier integration. UNITY was assigned with optimizing these processes.

UNITY first conducted a process analysis that looked at the entire DMU equipment process as a whole. This step created additional transparency, bringing to light information about individual processes, resources, responsibilities and information flows for data suppliers and data users. From this analysis possibilities for improving organizational and IT-related aspects of the DMU equipment process became apparent. These were then prioritized and time-phased within the context of an overall implementation strategy.

For Airbus, the optimized DMU equipment process has tangible benefits: Lead times have been reduced, rectification costs have sunk and the degree of product maturity is now higher at an earlier stage.

Reduced Development Time

Reduced rework costs

Product maturity increased at an early stage

“With their methodical way of proceeding and their high degree of competence in terms of processes and technology, UNITY helped put us in the position to initiate a comprehensive improvement program for the DMU equipment process for the A380. With this program we were able to significantly shorten the lead time required for the integration of the equipment.”