How a robotics leader turned quick-win cost reductions into long-term value

How KPMG in Germany mapped quick-win cost reductions against long-term strategic objectives to enable a sustainable transformation.

Quick wins to long-term value: Rapid cost reduction

With the effects of the pandemic and supply chain disruptions creating massive uncertainty across the manufacturing sector, this key global industrial robotics supplier and technology developer wanted to find opportunities to reduce the cost base and prepare the company for future growth. 

Leveraging deep experience in high-tech manufacturing, human resources, process optimization and business structuring, the KPMG in Germany team analyzed the organization’s data, comparing the organization against market norms, to identify a number of areas and job roles that could deliver significant cost reduction opportunities.

Critically, the findings were overlayed against the organization’s over-riding objective — to develop new robots and bring them to market — to help ensure any measures taken would not impact future growth.

The project went beyond cost out-take. The team was also able to look across the organization’s product development process to identify key challenges and develop robust action plans to help solve them. In doing so, the organization was able to achieve quick wins and create long-term value.

 

Your journey to quantifiable value

Step 4 | Quick wins to long-term value

Make sure you have the right skills, capabilities and talent to not only deliver your objectives, but also to sustain them. You need to know which capabilities you are going to need. Then you need to be able to identify the gaps. That can give you the level of detail you need to engage a top-notch team of execution professionals with the experience and sector insight to deliver your plan within the context of your specific organization. Look for opportunities to put your own people in control through knowledge transfer and upskilling. Leverage opportunities to speed up the pace of execution in order to help minimize the potential impact of future disruptions. And don’t wait for a ‘perfect plan’ or delay until you have mitigated every risk — strive to ensure your governance model allows you to learn as you execute in an agile fashion to keep the pace going and to continue delivering value.

Explore other steps to creating value below.


Step 1: ­Triangulate the trends

Assess the externalities that might influence your decision-making, and consider what is driving your...

 

Step 2: ­Quantify the right opportunities

Case study shows how creating an action plan for value helped unlock US$150 million in value.
 

Step 5: ­Continuously measure value

Be ready to rapidly course-correct when new trends or disruptions emerge — based on reliable data and...


How can KPMG help?

Perhaps you are going through a transformation, conducting a transaction, or trying to achieve a turnaround in performance. No matter where you are in your organization’s journey, KPMG can help you find, deliver and measure quantifiable value.


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