Performance Impacts of New Production Concepts

Abstract

In the mid-1990s, the economic situation of the German investment goods sector was problematic. Macroeconomic indicators showed that incoming order levels were weak, while major concerns had arisen over the sector’s international competitiveness and the loss of industrial employment. The self-assessments of investment goods firms confirmed this discouraging picture. In the Fraunhofer ISI’s Manufacturing Innovation Survey (see appendix), one fifth of manufacturing respondents stated that they would not be able to continue to survive if their profitability remained at the present level. One third of the establishments in the survey considered their present profit level as being only sufficient to keep the business alive. Just two fifths of the respondents stated that their present profit level was satisfactory (figure 3-1).