Studies, white papers and industry papers

How managers, those responsible for personnel development, and employees work together to ensure effective training and development

The Staufen 2023 study “The Future of Training” reveals that employees, managers, and those responsible for professional development must work together to design a continuous learning process and advance further training and development effectively. 

THE FOUR DIMENSIONS OF COMPETITIVENESS

Becoming digital, efficient, sustainable, and resilient all at once is a major challenge for many companies today.

However, the Staufen “Future Industry” study shows that boards and management teams in industry have clearly set their strategic compass. The foundation for a sustainable, change-ready and resilient business is and will remain operational and digital excellence. When set up in this way, a multi-faceted challenge for a company can become a multi-faceted opportunity.

Staufen AG has compiled the German Industry 4.0 Index every year since 2014. Thus, the metric is nearly as old as the term Industry 4.0 itself. The 2022 index indicates that the German economy is threatening to split down the middle. 2, the German Industry 4.0 Index was compiled as part of the study “Companies in Transformation.”

For this, we surveyed a total of 363 companies in Germany in the fall of 2021, a good two-thirds of whom are from the mechanical and plant engineering industry, the electrical industry, and the automotive sector.

In mechanical engineering, experts currently see three megatrends, which must be combined at companies. Sustainability, digitalization, and systems engineering. According to expert opinions, in order to be able to guarantee comprehensive sustainability, mechanical engineering must work symbiotically with its customers. It is only possible to tackle systematic tasks such as the circular economy by uniting system builders and operators.

So that the green transformation succeeds, companies and their suppliers must cooperate more closely and increase their readiness for transformation. As the results of the study show, it’s likely that not all companies will succeed.

Change Readiness Index 2022

The German economy is under continuing pressure to transform. Yet, the current Change Readiness Index shows that companies have only been able to increase their ability to change slightly in recent years, despite turbulent times. Many measures that had to be implemented at speed during the COVID-19 pandemic have so far quite obviously had no deep impact.

Processes, structures, employee qualifications, leadership and corporate culture – everything that has shaped companies to date continues to be put to the test. If companies want to emerge successfully from the transformation, they must look beyond acute challenges and work intensively on their ability to change.

There’s no more hesitating when it comes to the green transformation – a harsh realization the industry has had to come to terms with. Companies like to believe they’re at an advantage over other industries. Yet, despite their marked success, the following still remains true: the automotive industry is not going to evolve into an exemplary green industry overnight. It’s a long – and, to a degree, also very arduous – process. However, increasingly stringent requirements and growing societal pressure have set a process in motion that is gradually but surely accelerating.

The path to emission- and CO2-free production will require the industry to reflect on their core strengths: an engineering spirit, courage, and commitment.

The Road to Success is a constant Construction Site

The spectrum of challenges to be mastered at the same time ranges from digitalization and corporate and leadership culture to cost and financing issues. Predictive restructuring is the key to ensuring that these factors that impact the success of a company do not turn into major construction sites that have to be managed simultaneously.

In essence, it is about establishing a clear process that holistically puts the future viability of their own company to the test. And to do so when there are no clearly visible cracks.

In our “Collaboration” study, we delved deeper into collaboration as a factor for success: We were curious about how companies organize collaboration in difficult times to stay on track. In cooperation with Valuestreamer, we surveyed 326 German companies in spring 2021. For international cross-comparison, companies from China, Brazil and Central Eastern Europe also participated in the survey.

What is the secret to long-term corporate success?

We have decoded the DNA of the model companies and our analysis has identified recurring parameters in these top enterprises. They can be bundled together to form the 7 characteristics of the world market leaders.

The potential for ecologically sustainable management has yet to be exhausted in the automotive industry Nine out of ten companies still have some catching up to do in this regard, as is clearly shown in the recent study “Green Transformation in the Automotive Industry”. To find out, the automotive experts at the management consultancy Staufen surveyed more than 250 OEMs and suppliers from the automotive industry in Germany.

A study from Staufen AG and Staufen Digital Neonex GmbH
For more than two decades, digitalization has been influencing our society, making everyday life much easier, speeding up our economy, and enabling new business models and sources of profit. Nevertheless, the power of persistence was previously much greater than the need to introduce long overdue change – precisely in processing industry….

As part of the German Industry 4.0 Index 2019, consulting firm Staufen AG and Staufen Digital Neonex GmbH surveyed a total of 323 companies in Germany on the topic of Industry 4.0 and digitization. The survey was conducted in July 2019. Nearly 70 percent of the companies surveyed are in the mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering, and automotive industries.

The Staufen business consultancy surveyed a total of 421 companies in Germany on the subject of “Success in Change” for the German “Change Readiness Index 2019.” The survey took place in the spring of 2019 and was conducted a second time in 2017.

A study from Staufen AG and Staufen Digital Neonex GmbH – For the “German Industry 4.0 Index 2018,” business consultancy Staufen AG and Staufen Digital Neonex GmbH surveyed a total of 450 companies in Germany on the topic of Industry 4.0. The survey was conducted in mid-2018. A good two thirds of the companies surveyed come from the mechanical and plant engineering, electrical engineering and automotive industries.

For the German Industry 4.0 Index 2017, Staufen AG, together with Staufen Digital Neonex GmbH, surveyed a total of 394 German companies. More than 70 percent of the companies surveyed were from the mechanical and plant engineering, automotive and electronics industry.

For the “Change Readiness Index 2017”, Staufen Consultancy surveyed a total of 658 companies in Germany on the topic of “Success in Transformation” in the spring of 2017. More than 60 percent of the companies surveyed are in the mechanical and plant engineering, electronics and automobile industries.

Study Infographic – German Industry 4.0 Index 2017 (German)

Cost considerations often play only a secondary role in purchasing for German manufacturers. Only 41% of companies with over 1,000 employees calculate a detailed total cost of ownership in selecting their suppliers. This figure is even lower among smaller companies — a mere 24%. Staufen polled over 100 manufacturing companies in Germany for this research.

The German Industry 4.0 Index grew for the second year in a row. In the meantime, four in ten companies have had direct experience with smart industry. The index, which was generated for the third time, was commissioned by Staufen and surveyed 277 businesses in Germany.

Failure to meet deadlines, going over budget, losses in quality — nearly four in ten development projects in German mechanical and plant engineering fail to meet their targets. This was the outcome of a study Staufen conducted jointly with Germany’s Mechanical Engineering Industry Association (VDMA). It appears that the principles of efficient and effective development projects are applied in a wide range of ways among German mechanical and plant engineers.

Manufacturing companies are anticipating changes due to I4.0: 57% of German manufacturers state that their business model will tangibly change within the next five years due to smart factories and connected products. This was the take-home message of the German Industry 4.0 Index, which Staufen conducted for the second time in 2015.

The German aviation industry will transfer more and more of its development and processing capacities to Asia in the years ahead. There is the threat of local plants closing, especially among the larger players in the field, according to the findings of the 2015 aviation study. Staufen and the German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) spoke to over 100 manufacturers in the German aviation industry.

In the meantime, half of all Chinese manufacturers have the topic of intelligent factories on their agenda. And 80% of Swiss manufacturing companies are convinced that Industry 4.0 will be linked to major commercial success for them, according to the findings of an international study entitled “Industry 4.0 Index 2015.” A total of 329 manufacturers in Switzerland, Germany and China were surveyed for the index, which was conducted in the summer of 2015.