Reorganization of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions puts customers at the center
The Industrial Solutions business area, the engineering and construction arm of the thyssenkrupp Group, is being reorganized as part of the transformation program “planets”. The aim is to secure growth, enhance performance, focus more strongly on customers, markets and high-margin service business, and drive culture change within the business area. A central element of this is the further development of the organizational structure towards a modern management structure focused on customers and business fields.
In the future the plant technology business will have one less management tier. The current Resource Technologies and Process Technologies business units are to be dissolved. The operating units previously one level down in the organization will now in part be restructured and upgraded to business units. In the future these units will have global responsibility for the development of their business, project management and profit and loss. They will report directly to the management board of the Industrial Solutions business area. The new structure will be implemented at the start of the new fiscal year on 01.10.2016. Industrial Solutions will then have eight business units: Industrial Specialties, Mining Technologies, Cement Technologies, Electrolysis & Polymers Technologies, Fertilizer Technologies, Services, Marine Systems and System Engineering.
To strengthen service business, the service activities of Industrial Solutions will for the first time be combined in the new Services business unit. Going forward, the aim is to double the share of service business from the current level of around 10 % to over 20 %. Project execution and management functions will be combined in a Network of Excellence operated as a cost center and managed centrally for the entire business area.
The transformation program “planets” will also speed up the integration begun in 2014 of thyssenkrupp Group’s previously separate engineering companies – Uhde, Polysius and Fördertechnik. Under the roof of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions a uniform network structure is now being created that will make it possible to share expertise and capacities across all business units and also integrate Marine Systems and System Engineering more closely.
The Industrial Solutions business area held up well in the 1st half of the 2015/16 fiscal year, reporting year-on-year improvements in order intake, sales and adjusted EBIT. However, there were sharp differences in order intake in the various businesses. The growth was mainly attributable to a major cement plant contract from Saudi Arabia, while demand for mining equipment and chemical plants was impacted by volatile raw material prices. The reorganization will help secure jobs in this difficult engineering environment and create a basis for long-term profitable growth.
