Closer to the market, closer to the customer

Produktmanagement bei Sumitomo (SHI) Demag (v.l.n.r.: Christoph Wynands, Peter Gladigau, Dr Thorsten Thümen, Dr Thomas Schilling, Dominic Böhm. / Product management at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag (left to right): Christoph Wynands, Peter Gladigau, Dr Thorsten Thümen, Dr Thomas Schilling, Dominic Böhm.

Following the successful market launch of the second generation IntElect series, which has positioned Sumitomo (SHI) Demag as the all-electric machine world market leader, the company has defined additional product management experts, each of whom are aligned to future strategic topics. Positioning the company to respond even faster to the product strategies of tomorrow as they emerge.

Now responsible for 75% of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag‘s order intake, the company’s focus remains strongly influenced by the all-electric IntElect series. Yet, product strategy increasingly includes elements that lie outside of the team’s mechanical engineering expertise, notes Dr Thorsten Thümen, Senior Director of Engineering at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag. He explains: ”Industry-specific requirements are integrated and further developed with digital added value. The structured integration of these complex requirements from machine, application, industry, systems and digitisation requires professional product management, which we have now established."

The new team will be integrated into the engineering department under Dr Thümen’s leadership. Ensuring that the entire engineering department is closer to the customer. ”This allows for market requirements to be quickly recognised, developed and implemented. Through this, our product management approach factors in the current trends by combining industry-specific sales with product-related developments," explains Dr Thümen.

Four product managers have been appointed and they are responsible for further advancing the company’s respective product machine series, process technologies and digital solutions. "This approach is about monitoring the life cycles of our products, identifying new market requirements if necessary, implementing the necessary technologies and marketing our solutions accordingly," summarises Peter Gladigau. The highly-qualified plastics technician has been working for Sumitomo (SHI) Demag since 2011 and is responsible for the all-electric IntElect machine series. Under the new structure, Gladigau will also specialise in silicone processing.

The latest addition to the product management team is Christoph Wynands, responsible for the high-speed packaging machines El-Exis SP and PAC-E. He brings several years of experience from his work as a product manager for a supplier of quality control systems in plastic packaging, most recently marketing functional additives within the PET beverage and recycling industry.

Another product manager team member is Dominic Böhm, who is responsible for Sumitomo (SHI) Demag‘s servo-hydraulic Systec machine series. Within this function, he also oversees developments in multi-component technology. The technician for plastics and rubber technology was previously head of production technology at a global automotive supplier. His most recent role was head of production and technology at a plastics processing company.

The fourth product manager, Dr Thomas Schilling is responsible for digital solutions. He spent ten years in a plastics processing company accountable for process digitisation. Dr Thomas Schilling sums up his outlook:  "Increasing efficiency through digitalisation is a major issue. Virtual techniques, data acquisition and presentation, augmented reality, usability or hyper automation are just some of the keywords that we use to collect information, prepare it according to requirements and apply profitably for our customers.“

The aim of this restructuring is to respond faster to evolving market needs, customer wishes and industry-specific development trends and to implement these more effectively into the various business areas. In doing so, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag is again setting a new course for the future.