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Learn 4 ways to manage the strategic challenges in the mechanical and plant engineering

4 ways to be more competitive in Mechanical & Plant Engineering

In the industrial nations worldwide, mechanical and plant engineering is regarded as a growth driving industry. In the Germany economy, for instance, it is one of the most important industries. More than 6.419 companies employ around 1.000.000 workers – more than in any other industrial sector. In terms of revenue, mechanical and plant engineering is the second largest industrial sector in Germany. In 2017, the industry generated revenues of more than EUR 236 billion.

Both by supplying complex products and by purchasing technologically sophisticated supplies and services, the machinery and plant engineering lie at the heart of the German industrial performance. Trends such as Industry 4.0, Smart Factory, Electromobility and energy/resource efficiency show that this industry is constantly on the move and exposed to a higher-than-average drive for innovation.

Today, the mechanical and plant engineering industry have many challenges in working more customer-oriented by offering custom products and striving for further efficiency advantages. As such, modularisation and offering configurable products is currently in focus as a means for meeting specific customer requirements and increasing competitiveness in this industry. This is achieved by bridging the advantages of standardisation and rationalisation with customisation and flexibility. Only in this way will companies in the machinery and plant engineering comply with today’s dynamic market environment and the new digital business models. However, these companies also need stability in company controlling whilst adhering to regulatory requirements.

In my article, you learn how to handle the current challenges in the mechanical and plant engineering and find guidelines on how to develop your own strategy to become more competitive.

We have also written a White Paper on this matter together with our German partner, FAS AG. In this White Paper you will find effective solution scenarios for the above-mentioned challenges. Using concrete examples from finance and accounting, we show you how CIOs and CFOs can develop a target vision and procedure model together to meet these strategic challenges.

Click here to download our White Paper and learn how to manage the strategic challenges in the mechanical and plant engineering industry from a finance and accounting point of view.

New business models to make you more competitive

How to optimise your business model to provide both standardised/ configurable products and customised solutions

In accordance with our own strategic 3-Point-Consulting Approach we recommend illuminating this challenge from three sides:

  • From the process side,
  • From the technological side,
  • From the point of view of the project participants and those affected by the project.

This is about developing business management processes for accounting and controlling, then finding the optimum implementation in your ERP system and involving the project participants in such a way that they accept the changes and feel responsible and committed for the project success.

Flexible, meaningful and transparent methods and systems

Why the quote calculation and project controlling processes make the difference in the machinery and plant engineering

The quote calculation is the nerve centre of the project-based and solution business in mechanical and plant engineering. This is where worlds collide. Sales want to create a meaningful quote for customers relatively quickly, controlling wants to issue a precise quote calculation, and engineering wants to implement the customer individual requirements.

Therefore, investment in a flexible and accurate quote calculation and an efficient and effective project controlling pays off very quickly. However, process view and system view must also come together here, and all project participants must work together to be able to develop a strategic target vision, which ensures competitiveness in the long term.

Whitepaper: Mechanical and Plant Engineering

Whitepaper: Mechanical and Plant Engineering

  • Learn how to master the Finance and Accounting challenges in the Mechanical and Plant Engineering

Download

Pull ahead of your competitors with new, innovative technology

How SAP S/4HANA creates a competitive advantage for companies in the machinery and plant engineering industry

In these days of digital transformation with SAP S/4HANA, ERP systems have become more important than ever as “digital backbones” for successfully expanding your business worldwide. The migration to SAP S/4HANA is also a hot topic in the mechanical and plant engineering. Because of that, many CIOs ask themselves when it is the best time to migrate to SAP S/4HANA and what is the right strategy to do so.

Jochen Scheibler, Co-Founder and Manager at PIKON Deutschland AG, has gone into these questions in his blog post “Stability vs Agility with SAP S/4HANA – The perfect balance”. It is about picking up on new technologies and the general trend for digitalisation and making them usable for your own company.

Having a sustainable digitalisation strategy is key for being successful in the future. Because of that, we advise CIOs to have a company-specific SAP roadmap to guide them through their organisation’s digital transformation. For this, we have conceptualised an Assessment-Workshop to analyse your current and planned IT infrastructure, your company-specific business processes and the influence of all your people involved in your organisation’s digital transformation. At the end of this Assessment-Workshop we provide you with your custom roadmap to follow your own road to digital transformation. Please contact us at info@pikon.com to learn more about our Assessment-Workshop and to find out how it helps you be successful in the future.

Local challenges for mechanical and plant engineering companies going global

Expanding internationally vs legal/regulatory compliance

New business models and growing international markets generally also bring new legal and regulatory requirements for the finance sector. In our Whitepaper, we explain this using the question of when and to what extent you can achieve turnover. In addition, we show examples of how the new and uniform concept for the regulation of turnover realisation (IFRS 15 and ASC 605) can be used in practice. Funding and operation of plants as a new business model puts the focus on the topic of leasing. Here too, the regulations for international leasing accounting (IFRS 16 and ASC 842) are explained in our Whitepaper using examples.

Are you ready for the next steps to develop your own strategy?

For deriving your own target vision and possible procedure model for planned optimisations of methods, processes and systems in finance and accounting we have developed a half-day workshop concept. This allows you to come into close contact with our consultants and to evaluate the added value we provide during your project, professionally and expediently. Please take the opportunity to contact us at info@pikon.com or talk to one of our contact persons directly.

Arrange your free expert check today

Jörg Hofmann
Jörg Hofmann
CFO PIKON Deutschland AG
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About the author
Tommy Beckers
Tommy Beckers
I am a Managing Partner at PIKON Benelux in Genk, Belgium and am the Head of PIKON’s Competence Center for Legal Requirements on PIKON international group-level. I see it as my duty to find and create an added value for our customers across the globe along their digital transformation journey with SAP.

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