Whereas in Europe and especially in Germany we are well-known for our excellent engineering competencies, in the 1970s and 1980s we took a look at the Asian part of the world. Several methods, mainly the Japanese ones, have been adapted to our processes. As an example today in many companies KANBAN is implemented for providing material, based on the pull principle. This leads to many advantages regarding the main aspects of time, cost and quality as well as flexibility (s. news 1/2015).
Whereas Asia has still a leading position in some areas of the electronic industry, in recent years the United States draw the attention of the rest of the world with innovations that have quite often a disruptive character. Thus a lot of companies already sent representatives to the source of these innovations, the Silicon Valley. And nowadays in Germany representatives of the most well-known American companies are always invited to events with companies as well as with politicians.
Innovation has always been very important for German companies. That is the reason why we have such a strong economy with big groups and companies and a tremendous number of smaller companies that are doing successfully business with their products and services all over the world. Many years ago innovations in Germany have been mainly based on technology. Then the companies had to learn that the customer does not pay for everything. The involvement of the customer became an important part of the development process as well as the involvement of suppliers (s. news 1/2014). Development processes have been improved and optimized. And today not only in Europe the term “digitalization” is on the top of the agenda of the EU and thus also in Germany. As an example the percentage of software in vehicles already increased in recent years. But there is a high additional potential based on digitalization and thus the stronger use and development of IT and the internet applications, big data and the robotic technology. And digitalization (s. news 4/2014, news 3/2015) does not only mean a technological change. Moreover complete value chains are changed and business models are replaced by new ones.
Thus in Europe and in Germany we are working on that topic. And we are also very interested in learning how it is possible to develop disruptive innovations. Cooperation has been started with start-ups and meanwhile many European companies have representatives in the Silicon Valley. A bigger openness for new ideas, a higher financial basis as well as a different attitude towards “failing” seem to be main success factors as well as pursueing a clear target.
In Germany meanwhile there are some few big companies encouraging their staff to develop new ideas and to become entrepreneurs. The existing networks have been extended to other groups who might give an input, e.g. by working together with start-ups or by the use of open innovation. But this should all be done on a level playing field! And already since some years many German companies have no longer only central research and development departments but worldwide.
In this way various methods are used today to develop and realize new ideas and innovations. But while in Germany some companies are producing their products already in a so called digital factory, develop innovation based on the lean development concept or open innovation, there are still a lot of companies in Europe and as well in Germany that still don’t really know a lot about the possibilities that digitalization offers. Thus we have to strengthen our efforts to be more open and to learn faster. Otherwise others offer disruptive innovations changing the game as well as the underlying business model of companies that have been very successful so far.
Summary: Innovations have always been very important for European and especially for German companies. Depending on the type of innovation already existing development methods might still fit. But at the same time we have to become more open for new ideas and innovations. We have to take a look at the chances and risks that digitalization might have. Complete value chains and business models can be changed and replaced based on innovations within the digitalization. This leads to a change in organization, communication and cooperation. Therefore it is necessary that companies change their corporate culture. They have to have required competencies or at least the competence to evaluate digital applications available on the market. Thus all companies are asked to check their current innovation strategy and to execute changes in the operational areas in a future-oriented way!
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