Management & Business Strategies - vdma.org

The latest VDMA marketing survey 2025 in mechanical engineering offers comprehensive insights into the current marketing landscape. Compared to the previous period, the number of participants has increased by 42%.

Global supply chains are prone to disruption - from freight space shortages to geopolitical crises. Choosing the right Incoterms can help minimize risks, control costs and ensure delivery capability.

After more than 15 years, the model for calculating life cycle costs (LCC) is fully established on the market and enables companies to make "Made in Germany" assessable in monetary terms.

In mechanical and plant engineering, a comprehensive analysis of your own service offering is of crucial importance. This allows potential to be identified and utilized for the entire company.

Companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector face various challenges: Supply chain problems, material shortages, rising costs and uncertain markets are making operations more difficult.

Crisis management in mechanical engineering: The practical guide from VDMA and Ebner Stolz shows how to future-proof your company by optimising your portfolio, purchasing and inventory management.

Customer requirements and their implementation are no longer defined only within one's own company, but must be developed in a joint value chain with cross-company teams, so that a holistic, resource-efficient value cycle is created.

Managers face particular challenges in economically difficult times. They have to convey stability while experiencing uncertainty themselves.

Strengthening flexibility and resilience is essential for companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector to successfully overcome crises and remain competitive in the long term.

The QM Corner stands for one topic, one hour and virtual. The session presented the possible applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in quality management.

In economically challenging times, companies face the difficult task of communicating restructuring, short-time work or even job cuts.

The Incoterms define rules for the national and international movement of goods. The Incoterms 2020 are the latest version of these rules, which are updated every ten years by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Efficient process management in mechanical and plant engineering is the basis for successful operation, competitiveness and innovative strength.

On October 16, 2024, 30 lean management experts met for the VDMA Austria's fourth lean experience exchange in Maria Enzersdorf, Lower Austria, at Koenig & Bauer (AT), the world market leader for banknote printing presses.

Professional and personalised application management still has plenty of room for improvement in many cases. Low-threshold application processes (such as via WhatsApp) are an interesting new development.

The topic of Manufacturing-X is now of interest to many of our member companies. We receive many questions, which we have compiled and answered here.

Questioning the status quo, deliberately "producing accidents", deliberately turning existing conventions on their head - finding innovative solutions with new methods.

Bureaucracy holds back innovation and investment in the machinery and plant engineering sector. 

A well-retained, motivated and productive workforce also strengthens the company's image. It helps to avoid high fluctuation costs and secures expertise.

The QM Corner stands for one topic, one hour and one virtual event. The third session of the established format dealt with the current status of the revision of ISO 9001.

Job adverts are the first point of contact with potential applicants. What you should pay particular attention to with service technicians.

What solutions do SMEs find to deal with the high salary expectations of young professionals? Practical report from a VDMA Erfa.

Come to Mainz on November 5, 2024 and find out how you can reach your target groups even better and increase your sales success through innovative sales platforms and the integration of analog and digital sales.

A Forsa survey provides surprising insights into the priorities of German employees. The 4-day week is far behind in terms of importance.

25 sales experts from the mechanical and plant engineering industry met on June 5 at KOMPTECH in Frohnleiten for the 2nd VDMA Austria PresenceERFA

Promoting and challenging players in sales, new AI tools, resource efficiency in volatile markets, online marketing, etc. - many aspects currently need to be considered in sales strategy and organization.

Together with Christian Seifert from avenit, 26 experts discussed trends in digital employer branding on April 12, 2024. A workshop on "Employer Branding with Artificial Intelligence" gave the participants new impetus.

Overview of events on innovation

QM Corner stands for one topic, one hour and virtual. In the second session, the established format dealt with the topic of handling confidential documents and the role of quality management.

The VDMA salary survey provides a detailed overview of the status quo regarding the salaries of a good 160 typical positions in our industry.

Hiding and searching for colorful eggs and chocolate at Easter is great fun for young and old. But when important information is hard to find, the fun in the company stops. A good flow of information is what counts.

The stable participation of companies in updating the accounting benchmarks allows them to be evaluated and analyzed.

QM Corner stands for one topic, one hour and virtual. The established format will be continued in 2024. The first session dealt with the topic of sustainability and management systems.

Tools are helpful if they are suitable for the task and have been tried and tested in use. Unsuitable tools or their improper use often cause damage - both at the workbench and in organizations.

Conversions of machines and systems - complex and profitable projects for mechanical engineering and an opportunity or necessity for the operator?

Against the backdrop of the shortage of skilled workers in purchasing, strategies were discussed on how management and motivation can create a framework to keep talented employees in the company.

For leadership communication to be successful, the core competencies of listening, questioning and feedback should be taken into account - these were central components of the virtual workshop.

Data is the blood of the complex organism of product development. The results report "Digital Product Development" by the WZL of RWTH Aachen University and the VDMA compactly shows how the many pieces of information can be effectively linked.

Sharing production resources with other partners offers opportunities for manufacturers and users at the same time. The IMPULS Foundation published the study "Production as a Service" on this topic.

The shortage of skilled workers is back and leads to production bottlenecks in the mechanical and plant engineering industry. Many companies are asking themselves how to attract qualified employees and retain them in the long term.

QM-Corner NRW, that means one topic, one hour, online - the compact exchange among experts from the industry, this time on the topic "Sustainability meets Quality Management".

As of July 1, 2019, air cargo may no longer be made secure via the special screening procedure "Explosive Trace Detection." Until then, this ETD procedure was approved by the German Federal Aviation Authority if it was not possible to check the cargo using X-rays.

In a company it is part of the daily work to identify optimization needs via benchmarking, to monitor successful processes and to visualize targets. A popular tool here is comparison. The VDMA QuickCheck enables this - similar to a balanced scorecard - via four perspectives.

The calculation schema for non-wage labor costs is a model calculation for determining the imputed surcharge for direct and indirect wage-dependent costs. Here you will find the current version, as of March of the current year.

The first episode of the new podcast series "Nachgehakt - vergleichen, verstehen, verändern" is online! In this format, we talk to experts and go into the essential points of the intercompany comparison. In the first part, we welcomed Prof. Stefan Mayr from the University of Linz.

In inter-company comparisons, particular attention must be paid to structural and formal comparability - only from this can the interpretability be derived.

A possible interpretability in the interfirm comparison results from the data on which it is based. Here, therefore, attention must once again be paid to the meaningfulness of a figure.

In the joint study "Next Generation Manufacturing", management consultants Roland Berger and the VDMA highlight important levers for the successful production of tomorrow. The focus is on the six global trends of sustainability, digitalization, location matters, individualization, populism and industry disruption.

Services in mechanical engineering: The focus is already on people, digitization and sustainability. Will everything be new, will everything be different in the next decade? Four scenarios in the 8th study of the future.

Portfolio vitality above all else, or why key performance indicators from other departments are only partially suitable for adjusting product market success.