Interview: Consulting - Planning - Managing

12/07/2007

Dr. Achim Agostini

Dürr Consulting handles all aspects of advisory services and it has a reputation for ensuring efficient processes throughout the value adding chain and for effective and cost-efficient implementation of projects.  Dr. Achim Agostini  leads Dürr Consulting. We spoke to him about the business fields in which Dürr Consulting is active and about the work methods used by his team.

Dr. Agostini, there are a great many consulting companies in the market place offering a broad spectrum of fields of competence. Where has Dürr Consulting positioned itself?

Unlike a great many smaller consulting companies, we mainly take on projects that are either technically very complex or are of a large, wide-ranging scale. On the one hand these are medium term projects involving the planning perhaps of complete production systems, green field factories or a redesign of existing manufacturing facilities; long term contracts, on the other hand, include the planning of complete production locations or of research and development centers. With projects of this kind consideration has to be given to any influence they might have on production networks and this is one of the elements involved in providing strategic advice on the future direction of a client’s business. Dürr Consulting’s range of services covers a broad field that includes the auto and commercial vehicle industry, general industry, R&D facilities and the aerospace industry.    

At the present time more than 100 consultants are at work at Dürr Consulting. What background experience and qualifications do these consultants bring to the planning exercises? 

Our consultants generally have an engineering or management science and economics background; they have gained many years of professional experience and have specialized expert knowledge in specific fields. Our initial approach is always to ask ourselves – what is the best solution for the customer and for the process that he wants? In Germany and Europe a high level of technical know-how is available, so it is the specialist expertise that D­ürr Consulting has to offer that is most in demand. Outside Europe our wide ranging capabilities in general are more frequently needed.  In both cases we ask questions that are critical to the concept then present several alternative scenarios to the customer or we work jointly with the customer to develop even better solutions.     

Consulting, planning, management – these are the key words you use to describe the fields in which Dürr Consulting operates. What exactly does the last of these – the term management – cover?

Management, for us, is the provision of assistance and support in the control of projects and throughout their realization. This usually means supervision and administration of implementation of the modifications or new facilities planned, so that the customer is able to achieve sustainable targets. In addition we help our customers to introduce production philosophies and we mould production process specifically to suit those philosophies.

In its plant and machinery business Dürr focuses mainly on the automotive and aeronautical branches of industry. What experience do you draw on when planning for other industrial branches?

In my view the automotive industry displays complexity of the highest degree. You only have to think about vehicle assembly: several different models are produced on one line, an enormous number of variants are possible for each of those models, yet the components required are always there ready for assembly – just in sequence. Our experience with exercises like this can usually be applied in other fields. So far we have successfully handled more than 1,500 projects. They include just about everything, ranging from pure strategy development tasks through to turnkey solutions for complete factories.

Internationally active OEMs plan, build and produce on a global basis. How international is Dürr Consulting?

We consider providing intensive customer support to be a vital aspect of our business. Generally speaking, we work with the customer at his location and we often rent office space there for the duration of the project. This means added efficiency for the customer as it improves interaction with the customer. Taking the short, direct route means that solutions can be worked out so much faster. It is also the reason for having set up our own offices in the world’s most important manufacturing countries.

 

Your contact:

Dr. Achim Agostini achim.agostini(at)durr.com