It has been proved that the most successful innovations are those which emerge from close collaboration with future users. Industrial companies that want to future-proof themselves in our increasingly dynamic markets are strongly advised to focus consistently on the needs of their customers. It is precisely this consistent customer focus that often leads start-up companies to success.
It has been proved that the most successful innovations are those which emerge from close collaboration with future users. Industrial companies that want to future-proof themselves in our increasingly dynamic markets are strongly advised to focus consistently on the needs of their customers. It is precisely this consistent customer focus that often leads start-up companies to success.
A prerequisite for agile product development, in the field of mechanical engineering, for example, is a modern corporate culture with a flat organisation, participatory leadership and adapted processes.
Are your market competitors more dynamic than you and often one step ahead with their innovations? If so, they have already positioned themselves customer-centrically – with agile teams that work as a self-organised ecosystem across all areas. Isolated expertise and silo thinking are out. Rather, a multi-disciplinary perspective on what is required is what counts, alongside know-how and experience.
Manufacturers of mechatronic products, for example in the automotive industry, create this multi-disciplinary perspective by combining within their teams specialist areas such as mechanics, electronics and electrical engineering, as well as software engineering, support, quality and product management. They also involve their customers in their projects at an early stage. In this way, they can accurately identify their needs, research to develop solutions that meet these needs and successfully implement them.
There are numerous agile methods, such as Scrum, Design Thinking, Lean Startup, Kanban or OKR (Objectives and Key Results), which make it easier for industrial companies to innovate in an agile way. What they have in common is an interactive and incremental process with regular validation loops. To this end, development teams structure their projects into sub-projects, functions and tasks which do not necessarily build on one other, as is the case with traditional development. This allows agile teams to adapt flexibly to new requirements or framework conditions.
By subjecting (virtual) prototypes to regular performance tests, they identify errors at an early stage and remedy them. Testing takes into account regional or industry-specific compliance requirements and – if the product is networked – data security.
Successful agility means eliminating silo mentalities in order to promote and advance networking and collaboration among team members. And this goes beyond hierarchies and company boundaries.
This requires (cloud-based) systems that reduce communication barriers and bureaucracy and create transparency. This becomes even more important when team members work in distributed locations. Examples of such systems are:
Digital transformation with its new technologies leads to volatile markets. Successful companies are those which can find good solutions quickly for the changing requirements of their customers.
Agility is a mindset that requires cultural change and thus new ways of thinking, as well as the courage to break new ground. Nowadays, flat organisational structures are a real asset, allowing agile teams to work in a way that they organise themselves. This requires increasing amounts of freedom for employees, and this automatically changes the context of any project. Expectations, rules and decision-making powers must be redefined. In addition, management must be willing to place its trust in its employees and their skills and to relinquish part of its control through KPIs.
Industrial companies that rely on agile product development increase the value of their solutions as well as their innovative strength. This means that they are quicker in bringing successful solutions and services to the market because they are tailored to the needs of their customers and the development of the target markets. This method is very efficient because, not only is it customer-centric but it also involves representatives of the target group. The prerequisite for agility is a fundamental cultural change within the company, leading to a flat organisation with collaborative leadership. In order to implement agility in its daily work, the team needs systems that support multi-functional cooperation.
