Kick-off for the Complexity Management Intensive Working Group
Development of Individual Company Potentials in Complexity Management
What requirements do markets place on products? Which varieties are needed to cover the diversity demanded by the market? How can modular and standardization approaches help to map different variants as efficiently as possible? How can we achieve complete transparency of the product portfolio, enabling us to identify versions that are to be discontinued? Which complementary services are needed for an efficient transformation to a holistic solution provider?
These diverse issues show: Today, complexity management is more relevant than ever before. Although many companies are already addressing the issue proactively, patterns of action that are described as a “vicious circle of complexity” can still be observed. Stagnating or declining sales often lead to the urge to open up new market segments, which in turn cause an increase in internal complexity due to new product and product variants. The complexity costs, i.e. the internal costs caused directly and indirectly by the new variants, increase and cause companies to redistribute overhead costs to all variants, causing the standard variants to lose their competitiveness. Therefore, there is a decline in sales, which in turn leads to the development of new market segments with new products.
To address the “vicious circle of complexity”, end-to-end transparency about market requirements, the product portfolio, and the status of individual variants is essential. The digital transformation in particular offers far-reaching potential here, because data about the product is becoming increasingly available.
To tap this potential, complexity management must be understood holistically along the entire value chain and aligned with the company's overarching strategy. The reduction and control of complexity is not limited to the development phase, but also to the areas of procurement and production, sales and the utilization phase. For each company, it is important to identify the individually most effective levers of complexity management and to build up the corresponding competencies.
Project partners for the intensive working group wanted!
With the aim of supporting companies in the implementation of com-plexity management, the Department of Innovation Management of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University has initiated the Complexity Management Intensive Working Group together with the Complexity Management Academy. With the help of individually tailored case studies, the potential of complexity management is identified and developed in the participating companies. Over the course of the two-year project, the companies also get to know the case studies of the other participants and thus build up a valuable network of experts on complexity management.
Interested companies are cordially invited to become part of the Intensive Complexity Management Intensive Working Group. In cooperation with the other participants, individual potentials in complexity management can be discussed and developed.
Further information can be found here.