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The power of systematic innovation
Innovation management as a strategic success factor for MBtech.
In order to constantly set new standards as an engineering and consulting service provider in a globally competitive market, innovation-oriented attitudes and actions must be solidly anchored in both the minds of the employees and in all of the corporate processes. As such, MBtech has established a three-pillared innovation management system for its four product segments: vehicle engineering, powertrain solutions, electronics solutions and consulting. Thus, the company successfully unites the seeming contradiction between customer projects and its own product developments to the benefit of everyone involved.
The daily business of leading engineering and consulting service providers such as MBtech consists of mastering challenges which are anything other than trivial: Together with manufacturers, system and parts suppliers MBtech's engineers constantly implement the latest technological solutions in successful customer projects. However, these competencies alone are not enough to distinguish the company from the competition over the long term - an engineering and consulting service provider can only achieve true market success by consistently employing its knowledge and experience in its own innovation projects. The structures enabling the optimal use of this potential within the company are almost as important as the pure technological know-how itself. MBtech's proven innovation management system is based on three pillars: The company's own innovations, optimizing the innovation processes and adapting the corporate organization as a flexible reaction to customer projects:
Consistently utilizing the company's own innovations for differentiation
"Engineering and consulting service providers have to realize their own technological innovations in addition to customer projects," explained Werner Kropsbauer, MBtech Group President and Spokesman. "We regard our own innovations as a central strategic instrument with which we successfully position the MBtech Group with regard to the competition." At the same time it is also essential for expanding the group's business activities. For example, MBtech has developed its own software for hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) testing. This software is utilized in the group's internal projects and is also available on the market as an independent and sought-after product solution.
Transparent innovation processes and innovation management
In order for a company to be able to generate and successfully implement its own innovations, the company must possess its own clearly defined processes and control instruments. In the first step MBtech constantly analyses current market developments and future technology trends. The insights gained from the analyses enable the experts to precisely define all of the relevant "search fields" for innovations. However, the projects defined from detailed market analyses can only achieve their goals when supported by motivated employees.
"The deciding factor for the success is bringing together the right minds, providing them with the necessary freedom for creative solutions and then also rewarding their performance accordingly," explained Hartmut Tresp, President of the MBtech Group. "In order to safeguard the success of our innovation projects in advance, we not only emphasize the targeted networking among the employees and establishing communities of practice but also the greatest possible transparency." This not only means constantly monitoring the progress of every development stage in a project; MBtech also prioritizes every project from the very beginning in accordance with the criteria critical to the future business success. By involving the customer at an early stage, MBtech succeeds in creating a win-win situation for everybody involved. In addition, all of the current and future customer projects also benefit directly from the experience and the results of MBtech's internal innovation management.
Implementing and learning from innovations for customers
Hybrid drive systems represent an especially good example of innovation processes in the automotive industry. Manufacturers and suppliers face challenges that they can often only master with support from experienced development service providers. As a result of its extremely broad spectrum of competencies in both the drive, electronics and vehicle development areas as well as in process optimization MBtech has the right answer to every question - beginning with defining and developing the hybrid concept to adapting and integrating the new components or systems into the full vehicle onward to prototyping & vehicle testing. MBtech is currently involved in numerous hybrid projects, handling a diverse range of tasks. In order to continuously expand and bundle the required competencies MBtech has adapted its corporate structure to handle the high volume of hybrid projects: A super-ordinate project house managed by Martin Ott is responsible for the project management and specifically integrates the know-how from MBtech's individual segments (vehicle engineering, powertrain solutions, electronic solutions and consulting) which is essential for the specific customer function. Depending on the requirements and project structure the teams are complemented by including competent specialists from MBtech's headquarters. This structure also aims to expand the company's competencies in the alternative drives field.
