VDMA
Frugal innovations in mechanical and plant engineering
Frugal innovations aim to address price-sensitive customers and markets with precisely tailored quality products. A new study by the VDMA's Impuls Foundation addresses precisely this topic.
The study provides companies with a guideline and helps them to understand that a precise knowledge of customer requirements brings many advantages. Because less is often more: less energy, less material, less transportation, less complicated, less expensive.
Tailor-made products for defined markets
Acquisition costs are often the most important purchase criterion, but the quality must also be right. It is therefore important to be able to offer price-sensitive customers affordable solutions - so-called frugal products. This means developing tailor-made quality products for a defined target group in a specific market. Such offers are not only attractive for emerging markets, they are also highly interesting for price-sensitive customers in industrialized countries.
No compromises in terms of quality
"Achieving the perfect price-performance ratio without compromising on quality - that's what frugal innovations are all about. In addition to knowing what the customer actually needs, it also requires strategy, organization and a mindset among employees and management," says Henrik Schunk, VDMA Vice Presidentand Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Impuls Foundation.
"We are finding that our current innovation approaches and, above all, our innovation culture are often too lengthy and complex to find quick, sustainable and customer-centric solutions to the challenges of our time,"
adds Professor Katharina Hölzle, Director of the Fraunhofer IAO.
Inspiration for practice
To ensure economic success, the costs must of course match the achievable price level. It is therefore important for everyone to consider frugal innovations and possible ways to implement them successfully. This becomes all the more important if emerging markets are increasingly in focus as sales markets.
"The new impulse study is remarkable and helpful because it shows the current status and provides clear indications and inspiration as to what is possible in the field of frugal innovations and how the development of frugal machines, systems, devices and components can be operationalized," says Professor Thomas Bauernhansl, Director of Fraunhofer IPA.
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