Nobody knows products as well as the people who build and develop them. Bringing them together leads to solutions, further developments and often reduced costs.

It’s not unusual for our team to consult with technical buyers and developers on our customers’ premises. It is increasingly common for such consultations to involve tractors, construction machinery or buses that have not yet been fully designed on paper. What used to be unusual is now part and parcel of everyday life – the future supplier of the radiator grille and the customer team sit at the same table very early on in the project.

Why? Because although samples with fixed specifications can certainly be ordered during the final stages of development, significant changes are almost impossible. On the other hand, parties that join forces to develop, test and consider other possibilities have the potential to find the best individual options along the entire value creation chain for all work steps. From the material and the ideal combination of manufacturing options to the best logistics solution. This results not only in further technical developments of products, but also uncovers opportunities to achieve cost-efficiency.

Customers are often keen to use our support right up to the ready-to-install component, from the development stage through to the customised logistics solution. Indeed, 64% of our customers now use our development services, and with 65.8% of our orders we manage external processing through one of our partners.  We produce more than 1,000 products together with our partners. However, services at the other end of the value creation chain are in demand too. We deliver more than half of all components we produce through logistics concepts individually tailored to customer needs. And this figure will rise.