Upgrading the core

How are companies modernizing their established engineering practices to deliver greater efficiency at a lower cost?

Companies' motivations for optimizing core engineering vary. Some see it as a straightforward cost-cutting opportunity, while others see it as a route to being more competitive or streamlining their operations to get products to market quicker.

38%

of companies are optimizing core engineering processes
to maintain profitability

What are the top benefits you aim to realize with the
optimization of core engineering processes?

The top three areas with the biggest potential benefits are design, engineering and manufacturing.

80%

Over

of companies see
product design and manufacturing as the
biggest benefits of
optimizing core
engineering

Expected cost savings potential across core engineering workflows

How would you rate your current core
engineering optimization initiatives?

But many firms are not where they want to be. Only 2% consider themselves industry leading and nearly 27% of organizations say they are lagging behind their competition.

Core engineering optimization proves to be a people challenge. Skillset evolution and teams’ ability to adopt change stand out as the main challenges, way ahead of technology or financials. The overall sentiment of leaders towards their transformation journey is mixed.

What are the top three internal challenges your firm faces while implementing its core engineering optimization strategy?

How would you rate your adoption of technologies
for optimizing core engineering processes?

Operational technology is seen as at least part of the solution to optimizing core engineering.

Many are fairly advanced in deploying the more mature operational technologies: automation, connectivity, data science, and analytics.

Though even in these areas, a quarter to a third are still only in the planning stage, showing the struggles companies face deploying technologies at scale.

Generative AI was further behind, but progressing fast for such a new technology.

XR has by far the furthest to go, despite half saying it had potential.

What avenues has your firm adopted or is
planning to adopt for its core engineering optimization?

Companies are exploring a mix of strategies to improve their core engineering, from in-house modernization programs, to partnerships with service companies, technology and platform providers.

Many discussions on strategy focus on the big visionary plays that companies should be making. That’s important. But the truth is that one of the top concerns is maintaining quality and reducing costs. This is not about wholesale transformation – it is about doing what you already do, more efficiently.

CSi Palletising provides smart solutions for automated pallet processing and handling. Their machines, robots, and other technologies help customers save time, space, and costs. Pallets are efficiently loaded, moved through the logistics process, and prepared for transport. However, each installation was custom-made, which took too much time, resources, and effort. To improve this, CSi partnered with Capgemini to create a standardized architecture. This change aimed to save time and resources, offering more flexibility and better custom solutions.