Personal and competent
Get in touch with us.

Systems engineering

Seeing, understanding and mastering complexity in systems

Intelligent technical systems and products are highly interdependent and thus require novel developmental approaches. Only if you can understand and visualize a product across contexts can you identify cost drivers, estimate customer benefits and make optimal product and portfolio decisions (systems thinking). This is where the systems engineering method comes into play. This approach aims to define customer needs as well as the necessary functionality early in the development process and to think ahead about all the life cycle costs to derive product specifications. With our in depth expert knowledge, we understand the complexity of your system and point out opportunities for optimization to you.

Life cycle cost analysis

Decision support throughout the life cycle
Life cycle assessment (LCA) includes life cycle costing (LCC) and is the systematic consideration of the environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycle. The aim is to examine your company for ecological and sustainable opportunities as well as optimization potential. Using software-based modular and allocation methods that enable fast and valid cost predictions, we can not only determine statistical data but also carry out real, dynamic simulations over several years. The goal of our LCC simulation is to transparently determine all the costs incurred by a product, from purchase to disposal.

Value & cost engineering

Competitive advantages through high-value products and lower manufacturing costs
Products must fulfil customer needs. However, at the same time they must not offer any superfluous functions that drive up costs but are not valued by the customer, which would represent a cost disadvantage in comparison with competitors. We use a structured, scalable and proven approach to support you in optimizing the cost and value of your product, taking into account the current market.

Important pillars of our Value & Cost Engineering Methodology should thereby be considered

1 Design to Cost (DtC)

We run a cost and value analysis throughout your product development, keeping an eye on the most cost-effective solution (cost reduction potential, cost down). In particular, any costs that will subsequently arise (follow-up costs) are also considered.

2 Design for Manufacturing (DfM)

Your product design should be focused on ensuring that the components can be produced as simply and cheaply as possible. The goal is to reduce costs with the help of innovation methods (design thinking), newly realized functions or standardized interfaces.

3 Design for Assembly (DfA)

The individual components are designed so that they can be assembled as simply and efficiently as possible.

4 Design for Excellence (DfX)

By means of complexity management, we incorporate end-user experience into product design.

5 Lean Production

The economical and time-efficient use of production factors must be central factors in all your corporate activities along the value chain, especially in terms of personnel, planning and organization.

Supplier management

Value and cost engineering is based on increasing value by integrating procurement into the product development process at an early stage. A make-or-buy analysis is carried out to decide whether an element should be produced in-house or acquired externally through outsourcing. By identifying potential savings through target costing and supplier analysis, transparency is created and manufacturing costs optimized. We help you to understand your suppliers’ cost structures more quickly so you can understand the prices of individual components and compare them with predefined target costs (should costings). The aim is to improve the long-term performance of your own company and the supply chain as a whole (supply chain management).

System architecture

A continuous process from market to product
System architecture describes how a product is put together from different components and how they relate to each other via interfaces. We use a design structure matrix (DSM) to map the entire system architecture and networking of a product, from the market requirements to the product structure. Through the platform development approach, modular, reusable and standardized components can be provided (simplification). We thus support you in achieving cost, time and quality targets, thereby increasing the competitiveness of your product.

Project management

Rely on our know-how and experience and learn how to apply the knowledge you have acquired. Whether you are interested in system architecture for your product, or want to use value and cost engineering to optimize manufacturing costs and the value of your product, or find out which investment good generates the lowest costs over a defined period of time by means of a life cycle cost analysis: We will help you with implementation.