Complex service solutions

Abstract

Voith Paper, the world leader in the manufacture of paper machines, introduced a program across all business units to increase efficiency in 2008. This also affected the graphic paper machine business unit, the most profitable product group. Yet, managers of this entity resisted the typical path toward cost reduction, because it would have led to layoffs among the hundred employees in sales, sales support, and project management. Instead, managers planned to generate increased revenues with these very same employees and to use their know-how to market complex services.