Listen Carefully, Then Act!
As an industry pioneer steeped in tradition, Heidelberg
Druckmaschinen AG currently holds around 5,000 patent applications
and patents worldwide. Annually - in global terms - around 500
additional patents and applications are added to the sum total. The
more than 1,500 employees in areas involved in research and
development have more than 230 million Euro (296 million
US-Dollars) at their disposal, to design additional products with
prospects for the future. Heidelberg News learned how and on what
researchers at Heidelberg are currently working, in conversation
with Dr. Jürgen Rautert, Management Board Member responsible
for Engineering, Research, Manufacturing, and Purchasing at
Heidelberg.
Dr. Rautert, products are becoming less and less distinguishable in many areas of technology. Is it even possible to achieve something like a "Vorsprung durch Technik" (head start through technology) any longer?
Dr. Jürgen Rautert: (laughs) Well, this question is not entirely new to the world of engineering. Indeed, when industrialization was just beginning, some were even convinced that the limits of the possible had been reached at around 35 kilometers per hour (22 miles per hour), since the human body - in any event - would not be able to withstand higher speeds. Since then, we've been disabused of this notion multiple times. To be sure, many technologies today are developed to the point where true "revolutionary" breakthroughs have become rarer - but the potential to achieve economically meaningful advances still remains, as before. It is remarkable how boundaries continue to expand in many areas of technology, through better computational tools, for example, or research networks that span the globe, and not least because of sizeable investments. As a technology-driven company, it is naturally an absolute existential necessity that we remain a nose ahead of the competition in this development.
In view of this pressure on research and development departments, a globally active electronics concern once claimed, regarding its innovations, "better only 98.5 percent than 1.5 years too late." Would you stand behind such a motto?
Dr. Jürgen Rautert: Certainly not a false statement in terms of attitude; however, I would still critically examine the elements making up the numerical values once again; something involving apples and oranges, no? What is important, is that we don't try to accomplish everything that might be technically feasible, but rather that we adapt ourselves to the needs of our customers. When it comes to capital investment goods, this is not even so very difficult: the value to customers of most technical innovations is quite easily calculated in terms of Euro, Dollars, Yen, or Renminbi. Add in a degree of user-friendliness, an attractive design, and above all reliability and you have the basic recipe for successful products.
How, then, does research and development at Heidelberg function concretely?
Dr. Jürgen Rautert: We invest more than six percent of our turnover in research and development projects with three main thrusts of attack. The lion's share of investment flows into concrete product ideas, which will go into full production within the next 36 months. A smaller portion benefits pre-development, projects where we anticipate long-term advantages, in the area of surface engineering, for example. Naturally, we also invest a little in "fundamental research" - with correspondingly higher risks and opportunities. We strive to protect the results of all of this work from imitation by applying for patents in all of the relevant countries - for example, over the past ten years consistently in China, also. We are willing to pay a good deal to protect our intellectual property - and for good reason: we know from years of experience that forward-looking thinking is very much to the point here. After all, we are only in a position to offer certain solutions on the market today, because our colleagues already had a good idea years ago that they patented at the time.
You can download the complete document on the top right-hand side.
Dr. Rautert, products are becoming less and less distinguishable in many areas of technology. Is it even possible to achieve something like a "Vorsprung durch Technik" (head start through technology) any longer?
Dr. Jürgen Rautert: (laughs) Well, this question is not entirely new to the world of engineering. Indeed, when industrialization was just beginning, some were even convinced that the limits of the possible had been reached at around 35 kilometers per hour (22 miles per hour), since the human body - in any event - would not be able to withstand higher speeds. Since then, we've been disabused of this notion multiple times. To be sure, many technologies today are developed to the point where true "revolutionary" breakthroughs have become rarer - but the potential to achieve economically meaningful advances still remains, as before. It is remarkable how boundaries continue to expand in many areas of technology, through better computational tools, for example, or research networks that span the globe, and not least because of sizeable investments. As a technology-driven company, it is naturally an absolute existential necessity that we remain a nose ahead of the competition in this development.
In view of this pressure on research and development departments, a globally active electronics concern once claimed, regarding its innovations, "better only 98.5 percent than 1.5 years too late." Would you stand behind such a motto?
Dr. Jürgen Rautert: Certainly not a false statement in terms of attitude; however, I would still critically examine the elements making up the numerical values once again; something involving apples and oranges, no? What is important, is that we don't try to accomplish everything that might be technically feasible, but rather that we adapt ourselves to the needs of our customers. When it comes to capital investment goods, this is not even so very difficult: the value to customers of most technical innovations is quite easily calculated in terms of Euro, Dollars, Yen, or Renminbi. Add in a degree of user-friendliness, an attractive design, and above all reliability and you have the basic recipe for successful products.
How, then, does research and development at Heidelberg function concretely?
Dr. Jürgen Rautert: We invest more than six percent of our turnover in research and development projects with three main thrusts of attack. The lion's share of investment flows into concrete product ideas, which will go into full production within the next 36 months. A smaller portion benefits pre-development, projects where we anticipate long-term advantages, in the area of surface engineering, for example. Naturally, we also invest a little in "fundamental research" - with correspondingly higher risks and opportunities. We strive to protect the results of all of this work from imitation by applying for patents in all of the relevant countries - for example, over the past ten years consistently in China, also. We are willing to pay a good deal to protect our intellectual property - and for good reason: we know from years of experience that forward-looking thinking is very much to the point here. After all, we are only in a position to offer certain solutions on the market today, because our colleagues already had a good idea years ago that they patented at the time.
You can download the complete document on the top right-hand side.
pdf Document
Here you may download the complete article in pdf format in English, French or Spanish.
Dr. Jürgen Rautert
Personal details and infor- mation about the profes- sional background of Heidelberg's Management Board Member can be found here Curriculum Vitae
