Fractal company structures mastering new challenges
Companies are markedly more efficient when they couple the fundamental principles of the fractal factory adaptability, process-orientation and decentralisation with innovative concepts such as customer-oriented service ranges, networks or e-business. These are the results of a study conducted by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany. The analysis shows more than 20 percent higher productivity for such companies: The Fraunhofer ISI calculated an average value added per employee of Euro 86,000 for these companies, while other companies reached a value-added rate of only Euro 70,000. This productivity edge cannot be explained by structural differences and holds for companies of varying sizes as well as for companies with products of varying degrees of complexity. The analysis is based on data from the representative manufacturing innovation survey "Innovation in Production", conducted by the Fraunhofer ISI among 1,630 companies from the core areas of the German manufacturing industry. These results are part of a joint project together with the Fraunhofer IPA, Stuttgart (Germany). The recently released figures show that the fractal concept is still of importance under today's essential technical-economical conditions. Companies with high marks for realisation of fractal structures also score high for e-business, in the realisation of network structures and in the creation of value-added. Innovative companies are therefore successful in linking the respective concepts; less innovative companies lag behind in all respects. In general it can be said that the more complex the products manufactured, the more extensive the exploitation of the possibilities of fractal structures, network formation and value-added creation is. Only the realisation of e?business strategies remains unaffected by the level of product complexity. Detailed analysis reveals that almost two thirds (65 percent) of German companies have implemented processes for continuous improvement of products and processes (CIP). Also teamwork (63 percent) and task integration (59 percent) are already quite widespread in the manufacturing industry. In the meantime approximately one quarter (26 percent) of industrial companies has established the technical prerequisites for selling their goods via the internet. However the business volumes realised through this channel are rather modest (12 percent). Around two fifths (40 percent) of companies order materials and component assemblies via the internet. Thus e-business is far more widespread in sourcing than in sales, but the scope of services ordered via the internet also remains very limited at 14 percent. Cooperative ventures with customers or suppliers are most widespread in research and development; 58 percent of companies surveyed indicated participation in this type of cooperation. Classic services, in particular product-associated services traditionally found in businesses in the mechanical engineering and plant engineering sectors such as engineering, training and maintenance, are much more the rule here. The same is true of services which extend the service life and effective life of the product for the customer and of services which close the materials cycle once the product's effective life is over. In contrast, innovative services such as teleservice, leasing or build-operate-own models tend to be exceptional, according to the results of the Fraunhofer ISI study. The Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI complements the techno-scientific spectrum of the Fraunhofer Society with economic and societal aspects, analysing technological developments, their market potentials and their impacts on economy, state and society. The Institutes interdisciplinary teams focus their work especially on the fields of energy, environment, production, communication and biotechnology, as well as regional research and research policy. ,