Industrial
The bottleneck is qualified digital and systemic expertise—not production capacity.
The demand is clearly shifting towards specialists in automation, robotics, control and software engineering, data analysis and predictive maintenance, supply chain and production optimization, as well as project and transformation management. Pure mechanical manufacturing expertise is no longer sufficient; interdisciplinary profiles that combine technology, IT, and processes are in demand.
Competition is no longer determined by machine quality alone, but by efficiency, data, and service integration. The industrial sector is transforming from traditional machine and plant engineering to digitized, networked, and service-oriented business models. Rising energy and material costs, volatile supply chains, and sustainability and CO₂ requirements are increasing the pressure for efficiency and innovation. At the same time, automation, robotics, IoT, and data-based services are creating new sources of revenue beyond pure product sales. Companies are increasingly evolving into solution and platform providers with software, service, and lifecycle businesses.
PUBLICATIONS ON THIS TOPIC
Interim engineering manager supports the launch of a PDM system at a medium-sized company as part of the planned process digitalisation.
Interim engineering manager supports the launch of a PDM system at a medium-sized company as part of the planned process digitalisation.
The owner of a small, medium-sized company in the plant engineering sector commissioned his CTO to upgrade the company’s technical processes. The interim manager’s task was to work with the CTO to set up a CAD environment based on SolidWorks and to implement the SolidWorks PDM system “PDM Professional”. He was also in charge of the step-by-step migration of relevant inventory data. When selecting the interim manager, it was crucial for the candidate to have extensive experience in the implementation of PDM Professional in a similar environment in order to meet the specific requirements in terms of cost and complexity of the PDM system at a small, traditional plant engineering company.
Accountant supports manufacturing company with annual financial statements on an interim basis
Accountant supports manufacturing company with annual financial statements on an interim basis
After various key players were absent due to illness in the finance department of an multinational manufacturing enterprise, the decision-makers were faced with the task of finding an experienced and independent accountant at short notice who could ensure the annual financial statements were properly prepared despite a very short training period and an unfamiliar ERP system.
When selecting the candidate, it was important to the management for the candidate to be technically skilled in preparing annual financial statements, able to quickly familiarise themself with an unfamiliar ERP system, have an excellent grasp of accounting processes and be willing to make sub-entries in the ledgers if so required. It was furthermore important to all stakeholders involved for the candidate to be very practical and proactive and inclined to question processes in day-to-day business while actively making suggestions for improvement.
In addition to producing a surprisingly prompt annual financial statement, which the company had not expected, and providing professional support for the annual audit, the interim manager also left behind a list of suggestions for improvement. These were meant to boost transparency in accounting while reducing the workload.
Interim Transition Manager for the establishment of an external shared service centre at a chemical company
Interim Transition Manager for the establishment of an external shared service centre at a chemical company
The management of an international group decided to outsource its accounting processes to an external shared service centre. An international project team was formed to support the transformation in terms of both the processes and the employees involved and to ensure communication with the various stakeholders.
In selecting the interim manager for the region Germany/Austria/Switzerland, stringent demands were placed on their experience and personality, especially in comparable large projects. In addition, the interim manager needed to have extensive conceptual and operational experience in all areas of accounting. It was also important for the candidate to possess excellent communication skills in order to be able to communicate confidently and authoritatively with various national and international stakeholders.
Partner for ERP selection and project management
Partner for ERP selection and project management
The CIO decided to outsource moderation of the software selection process and partner integration in order to ensure that procedural skills were taken into account in future.
It was decided to replace the existing accounting system with a cloud-native solution. To ensure that methodological skillsets were taken into account in the future, it was necessary to moderate the software selection process and integration partners. The CIO decided to outsource this function, with a particular focus on stakeholder management and partner management. By supporting requirements management, understanding standard software processes and collaborative project planning, the aim and objective was to secure a functional implementation that would remain viable over time and which came as close as possible to the standard.
Jens Hahn
Managing Partner
Founder von hahn+friends
Olaf Ritter
Senior Partner Business Engineering + Operations