Shift, Lift, or Fall Behind

What if German manufacturers aren't losing to Chinese technology, but to Chinese speed? In this episode of Beyond Cost, host Jakob Etzel talks with Prof. Dr. Martin Koers about the one area where German manufacturers still lead: combustion engineering. Then they turn to the three where China has already passed them: battery electric vehicles, software-defined vehicle architecture, and autonomous driving. Martin Koers ran the VDA, Germany's automotive industry association, for seventeen years and visited China many times, but he didn't understand the real speed of the country until he moved there to teach at Shenzhen Technology University. What he found was a 9-9-6 work culture, a cashless economy, and five-year government plans that set the goal while a brutal domestic market decides who survives.  In this episode, you will learn: Why Germany's edge survives in exactly one of four competitive dimensions, and loses in the other three How centralized decision-making and a different work mentality compress Chinese development timelines Why the lack of software-first design is leaving Germany behind What young Chinese consumers now think of BMW, Mercedes, and Audi  Germany still builds the best combustion engine in the world. The question is whether that's enough, and for how long. 🎙️Find Beyond Cost Podcast on: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6rTr7QqITMJrHgnoa8DT7F?si=e5a53d24c2cf48f2 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-cost/id1837436790 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond_Cost YouTube Music https://music.youtube.com/@Beyond_Cost 

Europe's answer to every risk: find someone to blame, add a regulation, slow down. But what if that answer is the real risk? *See German version below.  In this episode of Beyond Cost, host Jakob Etzel talks with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Kampker, Chair of Production Engineering of E-Mobility at RWTH Aachen, about Europe's battery production deficit, regulatory overload, and why the fastest always beats the biggest. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kampker's argument is blunt: waiting for perfect conditions is the fastest path to irrelevance. From scrap rates as the most underestimated cost factor, to AI in manufacturing, to the wrong question being asked about autonomous driving. In this episode, you'll learn: Why Europe needs a dual strategy on battery production, and why one giant factory isn't enough  What scrap rates actually cost in e-mobility manufacturing, and why nobody budgets for them  How AI, laser drying, and humanoid robots will change manufacturing costs  Why the autonomous driving debate is asking the wrong question  What cost engineers and procurement leaders must learn today that didn't exist ten years ago  📖 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kampker covers this in depth in his latest book, check it out here: https://amzn.eu/d/09Ji11jK ___________________________________________________________________________________________  Antwort auf jedes Risiko scheint dieselbe zu sein: Schuldige suchen, neue Vorschriften schaffen, Prozesse verlangsamen. Doch was, wenn genau das zum größten Risiko wird? In dieser Folge von Beyond Cost spricht Jakob Etzel mit Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Kampker, Leiter des Lehrstuhls Production Engineering of E-Mobility Components (PEM) an der RWTH Aachen, über Europas Rückstand bei der Batteriezellproduktion, die Folgen zunehmender Regulierung und warum in Zukunft nicht die Größten gewinnen werden, sondern die Schnellsten. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kampker vertritt eine klare Position: Wer auf perfekte Rahmenbedingungen wartet, macht sich selbst irrelevant. Im Gespräch geht es um Ausschussraten als einen der am meisten unterschätzten Kostentreiber der E-Mobilität, den Einsatz von KI in der Produktion und die Frage, warum die Debatte über autonomes Fahren oft am eigentlichen Thema vorbeigeht. In dieser Folge erfahren Sie: Warum Europa bei der Batterieproduktion eine Doppelstrategie braucht und weshalb eine einzige Gigafactory nicht die Lösung ist  Welche Kosten Ausschussraten in der E-Mobilitätsfertigung tatsächlich verursachen und warum sie häufig unterschätzt werden  Wie KI, Lasertrocknung und humanoide Roboter die Produktionskosten der nächsten Jahre verändern werden Warum die Diskussion über autonomes Fahren die falsche Frage stellt  Was Cost Engineers und Einkaufsverantwortliche heute lernen müssen, das vor zehn Jahren noch keine Rolle spielte  📖 Mehr dazu im aktuellen Buch von Prof. Dr.-Ing. Kampker: https://amzn.eu/d/09Ji11jK   🎙️Den Beyond Cost Podcast finden Sie auf: Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6rTr7QqITMJrHgnoa8DT7F?si=e5a53d24c2cf48f2 Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-cost/id1837436790 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond_Cost YouTube Music https://music.youtube.com/@Beyond_Cost 

For 35 years, the world has measured sustainability by one number: carbon. But the same steel coil can produce carbon footprints that differ by more than 35%, all ISO-compliant, all "correct."  In this episode of Beyond Cost, host Jakob Etzel sits down with Prof. Dr. Jana Backes, Junior Professor for Safety, Security and Sustainability Evaluations in Foresight Research at RWTH Aachen University, to unpack what cost engineers and procurement leaders actually need to know about carbon accounting.  From CBAM and emission costs already moving through European supply chains, to why CO2 was just the warm-up, to how AI is starting to help LCA practitioners manage the complexity of real value chain data, Jana explains why standardization, not certification, is the real fix.  In this conversation, you will learn:  Why two ISO-compliant carbon footprints can land 35% apart  How procurement should be pricing carbon into supply chain forecasts today  Why biodiversity is the next indicator to watch - Where AI helps in LCA, and where human judgment still wins  🎙️Find Beyond Cost Podcast on: • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond_Cost • Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/6rTr7QqITMJrHgnoa8DT7F?si=e5a53d24c2cf48f2 • Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beyond-cost/id1837436790

Every year, A2MAC1 tears down around 70 vehicles, analyzing everything from battery cell chemistry to semiconductor sourcing. For over 25 years, the company has built one of the most comprehensive automotive benchmarking databases in the world.  Sascha Voglgsang, Director of Costing and Insights, works at the intersection of teardown analysis, standardized costing, and market intelligence. His work reveals how architecture decisions, supply chain strategy, and integration levels translate into cost advantage or cost burden.  In this conversation with host Sasan Hashemi, Sascha Voglgsang explains what Benchmarking at an industrial scale really requires and how AI is beginning to change how cost insights are extracted from massive engineering datasets.   In this episode, you will learn:  Why scale and standardized methodology determine the value of Benchmarking  How integration trends reshape EV cost structures  What supply chain localization reveals about long-term competitiveness  How AI can support cost engineering without replacing expert judgment  Why continuous yearly iteration outpaces long platform cycles  The data is available. The real question is whether your organization is able to turn it into a competitive advantage.

For every €1 invested in cost engineering, companies get €10 to €100 back. So why do most still miss the savings? Because they start too late.  Severin Heimrath, Managing Director at AWS Innovation Partners, has spent 15 years inside manufacturing organizations and keeps seeing the same pattern: treating cost engineering as a procurement tool instead of a design tool. By the time a product reaches negotiation, 80-90% of its costs are already determined because engineering decisions, tolerances, and supplier choices have locked in the cost structure.   In this episode, Severin shares what actually drives results:  ☑️ Why cost engineering must start in early product development  ☑️ How centralized data and cross-functional collaboration outperform Excel estimates  ☑️ Where AI helps and where human expertise still wins  ☑️ And how leading teams consistently achieve 10–100x ROI  The technology exists, and the methods are proven. The only question is: are you starting early enough? 

For 35 years, Dr. Rainer Balbach built automotive supply chains for Daimler AG Mercedes-Benz across Germany, India, Singapore, Egypt, and Russia. From deep-drawing aluminum to high-pressure die casting that replaced 150 sheet metal parts with one, he witnessed firsthand how innovation struggles against organizational resistance.  In this episode, Rainer tells host Sasan Hashemi what nobody wants to admit: Europe stopped promoting entrepreneurs and started promoting controllers. The engineers who built empires were replaced by consultants who worship spreadsheets. Meanwhile, Singapore became a paradise for innovation.  The technology isn't the problem. Europe has world-class engineering. The problem is cultural: we stopped acting like entrepreneurs and started acting like auditors.  We're not failing because we can't innovate. We're failing because we won't. 

Germany's economy is losing momentum while many European peers continue to grow. What needs to change? In this episode, Sasan Hashemi speaks with Dr. Andreas Cornet, former McKinsey senior partner with 30+ years in the automotive industry. They discuss why Germany may need an economic pivot, how "Shift and Lift" can guide investment and productivity, and where energy policy and regulation hold the biggest impact. The discussion is led through 30 years in consulting, from systems thinking to constructive dissent - and reflections on where past transformations could have gone further. Follow the podcast along for monthly conversations with insiders and innovators as we explore where cost management and manufacturing are heading. Find the video episodes on our YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@Beyond_Cost

From the factory floor to the boardroom, Thomas Dieringer has seen what it takes to build software that manufacturers actually use.   In this episode of Beyond Cost, host Sasan Hashemi sits down with Thomas Dieringer, an entrepreneur and business angel with 20 years of experience founding B2B software companies in cost engineering. Mr. Dieringer shares what separates successful software companies from those that fail, from navigating complex sales cycles to managing investors and knowing when to pivot.   Follow the podcast along for monthly conversations with insiders and innovators as we explore where cost management and manufacturing are heading. 

Is Germany losing its most powerful industry right in front of our eyes? In this premiere episode of the Beyond Cost podcast, Tset CEO & Co-founder Sasan Hashemi sits down with Andreas Hartmann, former board member at ZF Friedrichshafen AG, to explore what's really at stake for the German automotive industry. As electric vehicles reshape the global market and Chinese automakers surge forward, we ask the tough questions: Why did Germany underestimate the speed of the EV shift? Can traditional OEMs survive in a software-driven, battery-powered market? And most importantly, will Germany still be a global automotive leader in 20 years? Follow along for monthly conversations with insiders and innovators as we explore where the manufacturing world is heading and who is getting it right.