Cost management: How to increase productivity in product development

For the manufacturing industry, not only purchasing and production are targets of cost management; research and development costs are increasingly coming into focus again. After all, they make up between four and eight percent of sales. Because investing in Research and Development also helps safeguard the company's future, cost-cutting initiatives are quickly under suspicion of threatening the company's future viability - "you don’t bite the hand that feeds you." The synthesis of this dilemma: An increase in productivity within its own development organization. This means either more "output" for the same use or constant "output" for reduced use. The latter is often possible even without the reduction of internal resources due to a significant proportion of external development service providers in product development, which at the same time ensures the retention of important know-how within the company.

(only available in German)