At Roland Berger, we view engineering not just as a technical function but as a strategic enabler of innovation, speed-to-market, cost efficiency, and sustainability. In an era defined by rapid technological shifts, software-defined products, electrification, digitalization, and growing ESG demands, organizations must rethink how their engineering functions operate and deliver value.
Our Engineering Excellence team supports clients across industries in transforming their R&D and engineering organizations to meet today’s challenges and tomorrow’s opportunities.
"It's not just about trimming cost: Engineering Excellence is about smarter decisions, faster development, and delivering real value to customers and the bottom line."
Our approach: Helping companies unlock the full potential of their engineering capabilities
Diagnose engineering performance to uncover inefficiencies, capability gaps, and untapped potential. We conduct a structured assessment of your engineering maturity, organization, and output, leveraging proprietary benchmarks, audits, and maturity models.
Transform R&D and engineering functions to increase efficiency, shorten time to market, and accelerate innovation. We lead comprehensive transformation programs based on proven levers such as modular architectures, agile and lean R&D, optimized make-or-buy strategies, digital engineering excellence, and complexity management.
Link engineering to business value by aligning technical priorities with strategic goals. We embed value-focused practices, such as design-to-cost, value engineering, and sustainability-driven development, directly into the engineering lifecycle.
Embed sustainable, future-proof capabilities by building resilient, digital-native engineering setups. From ESG-compliant innovation to cross-functional collaboration and talent enablement, we help organizations shape R&D teams that are ready for what's next.
Our track record: Proven success
Roland Berger brings broad experience in Engineering Excellence across industries such as automotive, aerospace, and more, having completed hundreds of projects focused on optimizing product development and
operational performance
. We deliver hands-on, end-to-end solutions that dive deep into the technical and organizational details of our clients’ challenges. Below, we provide an extract of examples in case studies that showcase the consistent success and impact of our approach.
"By conducting an Engineering Excellence Maturity Assessment and developing tailored transformation roadmaps, a global industrial OEM was able to significantly reduce R&D costs, accelerate time-to-market, and improve engineering productivity. "
A leading global industrials OEM faced rising R&D costs, inconsistent engineering standards across regions, and relatively slow time-to-market for new products. The company needed to harmonize its engineering processes and strengthen its competitive position in a rapidly evolving industry.
Solution
Roland Berger conducted a comprehensive Engineering Excellence Maturity Assessment, analyzing 14 key dimensions across strategy, development, project work, and organizational setup. Leveraging industry benchmarks and best practices, we identified critical gaps in core component strategies, portfolio management, resource planning, and digital tool adoption. Together with the client, we developed tailored transformation roadmaps for both global and regional R&D centers, focusing on standardization, modularization, and enhanced cross-site collaboration.
Impact
The transformation program resulted in a significant reduction in R&D costs, a six-month acceleration in time-to-market, and improved engineering productivity of approximately 20 %.
By introducing clear component strategies, optimized resource allocation, and digital engineering tools, the client achieved greater efficiency and innovation capacity. The new, harmonized engineering setup positioned the company for sustainable growth and long-term industry leadership.
"Engineering Excellence isn't a cost-cutting lever – it's a strategic advantage. The companies that master it will unlock both profitability and resilience in a changing automotive landscape."
After a series of major acquisitions, a global client turned to Roland Berger to help manage increasing internal complexity. The integration of several business units had led to overlaps in the product portfolio, decentralization of development, and a multitude of product variants: over 80% of the variants generated less than 20% of sales, and up to 60% of them were not sold at all. This situation led to high operating costs, inefficiencies, and slow response times to market demands.
Solution
Roland Berger led a three-phase complexity reduction program. We first created transparency by analyzing and mapping product variants, uncovering major redundancies. We then streamlined the portfolio, cutting low-performers and aligning regional processes. Finally, we introduced modular platforms to preserve market variety while simplifying internal operations—achieving a 45% reduction in product variants and significantly lowering complexity at both product and component levels.
Impact
The impact was substantial and measurable. The company achieved up to 25% cost reduction in R&D, 15% in procurement, and 20% in manufacturing. Development times were shortened by up to 30%, and CAPEX were reduced by 30%. These changes not only improved operational efficiency and product quality but also enabled faster, more flexible responses to market demands, supporting sustainable growth and a stronger competitive position.
"By leveraging AI-driven analysis to optimize technical specifications, automotive manufacturers can achieve significant cost savings and efficiency gains. These can form the foundation of a sustainable reduction in R&D costs of more than 20% by 2030."
An
automotive
OEM struggled with overly complex, outdated technical specifications that had grown organically over time. The documents were excessively long, ambiguously worded, and inconsistently interpreted across departments and suppliers, leading to unnecessary material costs and high development effort.
Solution
Roland Berger analyzed the key specification sheets using a proprietary AI tool capable of processing large documents and identifying optimization potential. Over 70 concrete improvement levers were derived, including clearer wording, tailored content, and streamlined structure. Generative AI agents supported the analysis, with technology expert validation ensuring quality. Implementation workshops followed to drive adoption.
Impact
The analysis uncovered direct material cost-saving potential vehicle and one time investment and R&D efforts savings on a per project basis. Beyond short-term savings, the approach laid the groundwork for reducing R&D costs by over 20% by 2030 through smarter specification management, AI-supported processes, and improved cross-functional alignment.
Why Roland Berger? - Let’s engineer the future together
Deep engineering expertise
: With decades of experience advising global players in automotive, industrial, aerospace, and beyond, we bring a proven methodology for engineering transformation.
Cross-industry best practices: Our insights draw on a rich base of benchmarks, case studies, and lessons from leading innovators and disruptors.
Tailored, actionable solutions: We adapt our approach to your strategic goals, whether you need a targeted performance boost or a full-scale transformation.
Integrated view on innovation: As part of Roland Berger’s broader Innovation and Operations practice, our work connects engineering seamlessly to product strategy, sourcing, sustainability, and manufacturing.
Partner with Roland Berger to turn your engineering function into a high-impact driver of competitiveness. Whether you're navigating complexity, accelerating digitalization, or pursuing cost excellence, we bring the tools, insights, and expertise to help you lead through engineering.
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