An interview with Professor Dr.-Ing. Jörg W. Fischer, Steinbeis Entrepreneur at the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Computer Applications in Engineering (STZ-RIM)
Steinbeis expert Professor Dr.-Ing. Jörg W. Fischer talks to TRANSFER about how we can solve the most complex business and technological challenges of our time and make companies fit for the future. He is a firm believer that, in order to be and remain successful, businesses must question all their existing processes and be agile in how they adapt to new requirements, while at the same time retaining their own identity.
Professor Fischer, what strategic priorities should businesses adopt today in order to succeed tomorrow?
That’s a complex question because of the number of challenges facing businesses today. On the one hand, you have the “classic” issues like the market’s growing complexity, managing this complexity, customized smart products and digitalization. At the same time, new issues are constantly arising, such as the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains and the increasingly important topic of resilience. So there’s a lot of talk about resilient supply chains and businesses right now. These developments are helping to drive an increase in production site networks. For example, a company might move particularly energy-intensive parts of the production process to locations with lower energy costs. The local regulatory environment is also a major factor here.
Businesses are currently under a huge amount of pressure. They have to keep delivering innovative products despite facing numerous problems, such as supply chain issues. So the fundamental question is what can businesses do to ensure their long-term competitiveness? There are two aspects to the answer. The first is the timeframe of the measures – are they geared toward short-term success, medium-term goals (three to five years) or long-term prospects (five to ten years)? The second is the company’s current market position. Once these things have been established, targeted measures can be developed that will aim to achieve either short-term effects or medium- to long-term impacts, depending on the company’s situation.
You use the “strategy cascading” approach in your consulting work. Can you tell us a bit more about this concept?
It is vital for businesses to think in a targeted manner about what their goals are and where they want to get to. When I started diving deep into the world of digitalization, it struck me that a company’s product structure is strongly influenced by its strategy. So I started asking my clients about their business strategy and was shocked by how vague many of their answers were. This led us to engage in strategic consulting and develop the methods needed to enable effective strategy work.
With our “strategy cascading” approach, we support our clients throughout the strategy development process. The process starts with the formulation of a strategy and encompasses everything from defining targets to measuring success. In this way, we help our clients to identify the necessary capabilities, define the areas where action is required, and clearly structure and formulate the actions in these areas. We also help them to implement their strategy. In other words, we offer our clients a complete, all-inclusive package. I like to use the image of the North Star to describe our approach. We begin by helping the business to clearly define its “North Star” – in other words, its overarching goal. Step by step, we then help them build a staircase that will enable them to reach their North Star.
What concrete benefits does this approach offer your clients?
When a business comes to us with an issue or a problem, we start by arranging a method workshop to identify problems and objectives. We use a specially developed “map” system called “company cubing” that helps
businesses to formulate clear goals and identify areas requiring action. Together with our client, we determine the status quo and the goal at different levels of abstraction. At the end of this process, we have a cascade of maps that enable the company to precisely plan and prioritize its strategies. This is especially important for SMEs. One example is the classification of materials by availability to ensure that the required quantity is always on hand, avoiding shortages but without holding excessive amounts of stock.
We work like a team of doctors. We examine the company’s condition, identify priorities and develop targeted measures covering everything from strategy to software implementation. Our aim is to create customized, sustainable solutions through a combination of consulting, management, appropriate methods and IT implementation.
Your service portfolio also includes “industrial data science”. What’s so special about this and how do businesses benefit from it?
Industrial data science is a special methodology that combines industrial processes with modern data analysis tools. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of a company’s systems and deliver precise, insightful analyses. It’s not just about collecting data, but also about interpreting the data correctly in the context of the company’s processes and providing targeted decision-making support.
While many businesses measure KPIs such as delivery time, they often do so without the right context. Our method allows us to statistically evaluate this data and reveal the true state of affairs – it’s a bit like an ultrasound machine for businesses. We not only help to describe what’s happening, but also to understand why things are the way they are and how to improve them.
Our approach goes far beyond simple business intelligence. As well as showing how well a company is doing, we also identify what it needs to do in order to become more successful in the long run. In this sense, we’re like “company doctors”. We carry out a careful examination, ask the right questions and develop customized solutions that can be implemented in practice.
One final question for you. What do you personally see as the key to strengthening businesses’ resilience and sustainability?
In business, resilience first and foremost means being equipped to deal with different challenges arising from factors like market requirements, supply chain problems or production capacity issues. The key to this is evidence-based portfolio management that makes it possible to respond rapidly to change, coupled with the ability to design production processes flexibly and with foresight. Effective supply chain management and the selection of critical materials are also essential. A “hybrid construction kit” for the supply chain can help to flexibly adjust production to changing market conditions.
Sustainability is also a key issue that is increasingly coming to the fore. It’s important to think about how to reduce resource consumption and operate in a more environmentally-friendly manner at every level – from product development right through to the supply chain. As well as choosing materials with a lower carbon footprint, this also entails optimizing processes such as the energy-intensive use of compressed air in production. A lot of small adjustments can result in big savings and improve a company’s sustainability. The key is to implement sustainability in a targeted, strategic manner, for example through considered decisions with regard to product development, process design and the choice of suppliers. Sustainable business management can’t be achieved through superficial measures – it must be based on an in-depth analysis and a clear plan.
Resilience and sustainability call for a deep understanding of business processes and the ability to continuously challenge and improve them. If businesses are to remain competitive and cope with external challenges in the long run, they must be able to make transparent, evidence-based decisions.
Contact
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jörg W. Fischer (interviewee)
Steinbeis Entrepreneur
Steinbeis Transfer Center for Computer Applications in Engineering (STZ-RIM) (Karlsruhe)