Page 21 - MTW JANUARY 2022 Digital Magazine

COVER STORY

a slowdown of the global economy. situation. Depending on the vertical
Import duties on raw materials, metal integration in manufacturing, this resulted
components, and machinery affected in longer periods of short-time work or
the machine tool industry and the export even layoffs.
of machine tools. At the same time, the More than 50 percent of the companies
growing number of competitors in the are about to rethink their strategy
low quality segment, mainly from China, regarding the new circumstances of their
challenged the market. market environment. For one-third of the
On the customer side, the paradigm companies, this results in organizational
shift in the automotive industry towards changes and restructuring activities.
electric drivetrains has resulted in a While SMEs tend to respond with
structural crisis. The corresponding more radical changes to their operative
decline in demand for cars powered by business, most large companies adjust
internal combustion engines leads to a their existing structure and organization to
drop in demand for many manufacturing better align with the new situation.
technologies in the automotive drivetrain. Long-term consequences for the
Car manufacturers are reluctant to invest machine tool industry are difficult to
in new production assets due to the predict, but the changing supply chain
uncertain future of conventional engines, requirements and increasing demand
while the ramp-up of new production lines for digital services are likely to become
for e-cars is still in the early stages. This permanent. Since services are still
mainly affects machine tool builders that necessary to keep the installed machines
focus on specialized cutting machine tools productive, OEMs and suppliers expand
for the automotive industry. their service portfolio focused on digitally
However, it is rather unlikely that the enhanced service innovations like remote
declining demand for machine tools can be services. The new circumstances and
fully replaced by the new production lines the social distancing lead to a growing
since the production of e cars requires demand for advanced digital services.
fewer high-precision metal parts. But the On the customer side, permanent
diversification of the drivetrain beyond changes are more clearly visible. The
combustion and battery-powered engines aerospace industry is suffering from
will require new production technologies in worldwide travel restrictions. Airbus and
the next years. Boeing announced plans to reduce their
production for the next few years. The
Current Challenges for Machine Consequences of the COVID-19 same applies to the shipbuilding industry,
Tool Builders Crisis where the demand for cruise ships
Capital goods industries are sensitive The enormous impact of COVID-19 is has dropped to zero. These production
to general economic downturns. Since felt in the machine tool industry as well cutbacks will also have a negative impact
machine tools are mainly used to produce as in most other industries. The general on the machine tool demand in the next
other capital goods, this applies especially economic downturn due to the global couple of years.
for the machine tool industry, making it pandemic led to a massive drop in demand
vulnerable to economic fluctuations. The in the first two quarters of 2020. Factory Potential of New Technological
recent economic downturn triggered by shutdowns, interrupted supply chains, a Trends
the pandemic and other negative effects lack of sourcing parts, logistics challenges, Changing Customer Requirements
was mentioned as the biggest challenge and other problems aggravated the Mass customization, reduced time-to-
faced by most machine tool builders. situation. consumer, and urban production are a few
In 2019, growing economic uncertainty Among the internal consequences, two- trends that require enhanced machine
through geopolitical events like the thirds of the companies surveyed reported flexibility. Besides core aspects like
US China trade war and Brexit led to general cost cutting due to the current price, usability, longevity, process speed,

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