- Improving cost reduction programs in terms of consistency, speed, and cost discipline.
- Optimizing inventory management and accounts receivable.
- Reducing procurement costs.
- Implementing holistic profitability programs.
Tailored strategies for sustainable product excellence
For the manufacturing industry in German-speaking countries, this means systematically renewing outdated organizational structures, business processes, mindsets, refocusing on innovation, industrial expertise, and reinventing them. To become truly become a global pacesetter in product excellence, several levers must be activated:
- Increasing agility and efficiency to keep pace with the speed, innovative strength, and financial power of new, aggressive competitors;
- Reducing product costs on a globally competitive level and reducing required CAPEX;
- Establishing lean and agile production systems and making intensive use of modern data-driven technologies and digital transformation;
- Implementing performance-enhancing approaches, systematically developing competencies, and accelerating implementation initiatives; •
- Building new supply chains and further developing the global sourcing and manufacturing footprint with a focus on market and cost efficiency;
- Fostering a culture based on personal responsibility, commitment, readiness for change, efficient and flexible decision-making structures, and an agile leadership mindset.
From idea to series production to end-of-life
We support companies on their path to product excellence – from the initial idea through to series production and ultimately to end-of-life. We enhance performance, profitability, and innovative strength, implement initiatives to reduce product costs and increase revenues, help avoid costly mistakes, and shape global footprints, production systems, and leadership models with a future-oriented mindset – all with the goal of sustainably improving competitiveness.
Depending on the specific customer situation, we develop individual end-to-end approaches. The objectives: rapidly stabilizing the company’s liquidity position, achieving stability through the optimization and flexibilization of cost and process structures, and driving sustainable value creation through profound initiatives at the levels of strategy, innovation, and market model.
To achieve this, we leverage a range of strategic levers:
Product cost optimization and EBIT improvement
R&D
- Establishing future-oriented operational and organizational models for product development.
- Making development teams more agile and fostering cross-functional collaboration.
- Increasing the efficiency of development processes.
- Implementing Design-to-Cost principles.
- Using automation, AI-driven technologies, and modular digital platforms.
Supply Chain
- Enhancing supply chain resilience.
- Implementing strategic and digital sourcing concepts such as vertical integration and nearshoring.
- Developing solutions for dealing with volatility and disruptions.
- Further developing the global footprint and supplier management.
Production
- Maximizing the use of existing production capacities.
- Increasing output without additional investments through the use of video analysis, software-based machine tuning, automation, and AI-driven solutions such as digital twins and predictive maintenance.
- Implementing holistic product profitability initiatives for series products.
- Improving performance and avoiding disruptions in production.
- Introducing lean approaches.
Product Portfolio
- Ensuring profitability from early development to product launch.
- Reducing complexity through intelligent product architecture, modularization, and variant management.
- Increasing product profitability for series products.
- Optimizing the Product portfolio and go-to-market strategies.
- Ensuring smooth product launches.
Sustainability & Compliance
- Reducing CO2 and other climate-damaging emissions and lowering energy consumption.
- Complying with regulatory requirements for products and services (e.g. MDR, FDA, IT security).
- Taking advantage of regulatory incentives and funding opportunities.
Leadership
- Systematic empowerment and development of employees.
- Creating high transparency and efficient, agile, and decentralized decision-making structures.
INSIGHT: PERFORMANCE BOOSTER
Increase your manufacturing output.
INSIGHT: SCM END-TO-END TRANSFORMATION
Activating performance potential and strengthening competitive position.
INSIGHT: EV LAUNCH MANAGEMENT
Mastering the development and market launch of new vehicle series.
End-to-end solution portfolio for product excellence
Product Profitability Excellence
Product Development Excellence
Product Machining Excellence
Product Manufacturing Excellence
Product Excellence Mindset
CONTACT
CASE STUDIES
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Transformation through the development of smart products
Transformation through smart product development. A job for the "I-Team": A strong development team at a manufacturer of household appliances recorded solid success. But now customers want to network kitchen appliances, refrigerators and mixers in the “smart home”. EFESO established an "I-Team" with the fresh perspective of "digital natives" and accompanied the internal change with great success.
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Product lifecycle optimization
In a pharmaceutical company that has established itself at the forefront of the industry with an extensive portfolio of hospital and medicinal products. Over the years, topics such as structures and process standards have fallen out of focus. With the support of EFESO, the company reacted quickly and created a concrete action plan for its worldwide product lifecycle management (PLM) in just nine months.
©ROI/Bilton
Lean development in R&D
Innovation impulses for lighting designers. The LED revolution has made many business models obsolete, while the wave of digitization and the associated technological change have increased the pace of change by a factor of X. To keep pace here, agile working methods are necessary not only in manufacturing, but also in R&D. Lean methods can prove particularly helpful - but can they be transferred 1:1 from manufacturing to development?
Lean Digital Manager ©S_L/shutterstock.com
Lean Digital Manager
Shaping the factory of the future with Lean 4.0. How can lean principles be combined with the technologies and possibilities of networked digitization in value creation networks? By further qualifying employees to become decision-makers. The EFESO certification program for "Lean Digital Manager" shows how digitalization of lean production works. To do this, it combines strategies with Industry 4.0 technologies.
©Alessandro Romagnoli/shutterstock.com
Agile methods in software development
The energy market is data-driven, smart solutions determine the business model. In order to always be a step ahead of the competition, one thing is required: flexibility in thinking and acting. A utility company wanted to take the performance of its global R&D organization to a new level. In the first step, together with EFESO, it obtained a general overview of the respective degree of agilization of the various R&D units and processes.
Value and Cost Engineering
Cost transformation from premium to volume provider. Mass manufacturers who expand their Product portfolio into higher price segments are not uncommon. A premium manufacturer of refrigeration appliances, on the other hand, takes the opposite approach. What seems banal from a technological point of view is an enormous challenge from a cost perspective. EFESO accompanied the company in this demanding transformation project.
Game Changer Medical Device Regulation
To MDR-compliant product lifecycle management in nine months. Adhesive plasters, care sets or surgical supplies: with a portfolio of around 40,000 items, the company is one of the leading providers of medical and hygiene products. Own sales companies and production sites in and outside of Europe contribute significantly to the success. The companies act independently and markets are served on a customer-specific basis.
Portfolio compass for future security
On course for growth with innovative strength and customer proximity. A medical technology manufacturer has successfully positioned itself internationally as a market leader. With thousands of products, the Group offers a varied portfolio worldwide and thus covers a wide range of applications. However, in the innovation-driven and dynamically growing medical technology market, portfolio size alone is no guarantee of future security and growth.
Cultural transformation in the port of Antwerp
The second largest seaport in the EU is realigning its positioning with EFESO as a 'community builder'. This port of Antwerp-Bruges has to face several challenges at the same time: In an increasingly competitive and unstable international market, it is always a question of ensuring further growth - while being able to react to the growing influence of different interest groups. In addition, there were congestion problems during the project period.