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Strategic Product Planning and Systems Engineering

Identifying and Exploiting Success Potentials of Tomorrow

Product and production system innovations are important levers for ensuring prosper­ity and employment in the future. Mechanical engineering and related areas, such as the automotive industry, are playing a key role today. These sectors demonstrate the relevant success potentials of the future. It is essential to identify these potentials early on and to exploit them at the right time.

Products from mechanical engineering and related sectors are multidisciplinary: Systems engineering is required to devep these products. Product engineering describes a process that starts with the initial product or business idea and continues until market entry. The process involves three main fields of activity: strategic product planning, product development and product system development.

With all due devotion to “Industrie 4.0”: the rollout and employment of IT systems is the result and not the starting point of a deliberate chain of action.

Effective IT systems need well-structured business processes, which in turn follow an innovative business model. The latter aims at exploiting the potentials of tomorrow. In our bestseller “Future-oriented structuring of companies”, we elaborate how companies can find their specific way to “Industrie 4.0”.

Our research focuses are as follows:


Our spin-offs, Unity AG and Smart Mechatronics GmbH, and the Fraunhofer IEM, all transfer our research results into real practice. The aim of our teaching principles: we provide seminars and theses in our research areas. We communicate entrepreneurial and innovation skills.

Selected contributions