Responding to Market Dynamics

Keynote: Mastering Portfolio Uncertainty in Disruptive Times

Manufacturers are under enormous pressure. Technological advances, varying regulatory requirements, and the rise of mechatronic and software components in product models have all increased. The growing variability and complexity of industrial products, combined with growing customer demands for product customization in ubiquitous distribution channels, have pushed manufacturers to the limits of the complexity they can handle with their existing systems and approaches.

Add to this supply chain gaps expose manufacturers to order back-logs and dissatisfied customers, and increasing pressure from regulators, shareholders, and customers to provide more sustainable product options, the manufacturing industry must find solutions to temper both short- and long-term volatility.

In this keynote, Norbert Große Entrup, Partner & Complexity Management Expert, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), will address these challenges and highlight possible solution approaches. He will expand on product and process complexity, showcase the main drivers of product variety, and explore actionable insights and practical solutions to overcome these challenges while increasing operational efficiency and costs control.

How Efficient Management of Product Configuration Data Enables B2B Manufacturers to Navigate Changing Market Dynamics

While manufacturers have always dealt with unexpected market changes challenging their business model, the past several years have seen aggravated problems and threats caused by the pandemic, supply chain gaps and sustainability requirements.

For B2B manufacturers of complex products, swiftly adjusting product portfolios and go-to-market processes in response to changing market dynamics is the key to success. To do this requires having the technologies and solutions in place that create a single source of truth for configuration data.

This presentation will highlight how B2B manufacturers can use Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) capabilities to improve and analyze product models, providing the insight needed to adjust their product portfolio as market requirements dynamically change.

How Improving Quoting Processes Leads to Greater Operational Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction

Arbonia, a focused building components supplier with two divisions active in the areas of indoor climate (heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning technology) and interior doors made of wood and glass, began their Configuration Lifecycle Management journey from the need to improve internal quoting processes.

Beginning with two brands, Prüm and Garant, Arbonia has started to implement a Configit Quote system, allowing for configuration, pricing and quotation in a web-based application based on master data that is authored and maintained in Configit’s cross-functional modeling environment. With a seamless integration to SAP ERP, this ‘headless’ configuration solution will form the platform for future configuration needs.

In this presentation, Philippe König will discuss the background of this project, as well as the projected benefits of increased operational efficiency, revenue growth and sales excellence through faster, more accurate quotes.

How Configit Ace® Integrated with CPQ Provides Greater Scalability, Transparency and Insight

Sidel, one of three industry groups of Tetra Laval, is a leading provider of equipment and services solutions for packaging beverage, food, home and personal care products. Sidel has over 170 years of experience with proven expertise in blowing, filling, labelling, material-handling, end-of-line and line-engineering solutions, including an innovative focus on the factory of tomorrow with advanced systems.

With highly configurable products and machine lines, Sidel was facing challenges with their current configuration solution such as a slow and complex configuration and quotation process, lack of value-pricing function, and updates taking more than six weeks to implement. 

As a result, Sidel sought to replace its entire CPQ stack (Configuration, Pricing and Quoting) with a more powerful configuration solution to handle increasing modeling complexity. 

Sidel chose Configit Ace® as its new future-proof platform to improve overall user experience when configuring Sidel machines and to combine valid product combinations into a single source of truth. Configit’s partner, Coolshop, will be responsible for the CPQ front-end design ensuring improved customer experience.

In this presentation, Vahe Ter Nikogosyan, Chief Digital Officer at Sidel, will share why Sidel chose to partner with Configit on their Digital Transformation journey and discuss the expected business outcomes to be delivered in Sidel’s digital transformation, including greater scalability, transparency and insight. 

How a State-of-the-Art, Cross-Functional Configuration Platform Secures Continued Operational Efficiency and Sales Productivity

Nederman, an environmental technology company and a global leader in industrial air filtration, began working with Configit in 2005 to accelerate their configuration processes. By using Virtual Tabulation® (VT™) technology, Nederman was able to provide more accurate quotes to their customers and resellers faster.

Today, Nederman is migrating to the latest Configit Ace product as part of their new ERP implementation with the goal of establishing a state-of-the-art, global configuration platform.

In this presentation, Søren Bendix, Manager Master Data & Configuration, will present technological, operational and business benefits Nederman has achieved and their plans to continue the development, building and using all product models in Configit Ace.

Bio
Søren Bendix works as Manager Master Data & Configuration at Nederman and has been in the environmental technology sector with Nederman for more than 20 years now. He has profound knowledge and background in configuration management having worked in this area since 1998.

Get Started with CLM – How to Master Complexity with an End-to-End Configuration Process Facilitating Operational Efficiency and Shorter Time to Market

PwC views Configuration Lifecycle Management (CLM) as a top priority for global B2B manufacturing companies with complex products to stay competitive. With today’s economic downturn and workforce shortages, B2B manufacturers are under pressure to lower costs and increase operational efficiency across the organization.

As an efficient and scalable approach for providing reliable, up-to-date product configuration data, CLM enhances sales, engineering, manufacturing and service solutions based on a seamlessly integrated CLM-PLM-ERP backbone. But the true value of CLM is providing an enterprise-wide platform for cross-functional collaboration that breaks down IT silos to not only digitally transform the organization but also make it more agile and responsive to rapidly changing market requirements.

In this presentation, Jochen-Thomas Morr, Partner, Digital Operations & R&D at PwC, will explain how CLM consolidates configuration processes that are often scattered throughout the functional silos of a company to create quantifiable business results. Jochen-Thomas will provide actionable insights on how to leverage existing IT investments to accelerate product lifecycles and shorten time-to-market, as well as a blueprint on how and where to start a CLM project to gain the quickest return.