On March 4 and 5, 2010 a two days field trip to 3 Austrian component supply industries took place. The first station was BMW Steyr Plant which produces more than half of all BMW engines. In 2009 more than 700,000 gasoline as well as diesel motors were produced. The competence centre in Steyr is responsible for the development of all BMW diesel engines.

At Miba Sinter Austria automotive components are produced based on the sinter technology - metal powder mixes are compressed using highly complex tools and sintered at a temperature of up to 1350 °C. Compared with other production processes, sinter technology allows maximum material utilization with the lowest possible energy use. After a tour through the factory the managers of the company explained the concept that their success lies in the quality standards during the production of high-precision sintered components and the process oriented, integrated management system improving all processes in production as well as organization.

On the second day the excursion continued at the Bosch-Plant in Hallein near Salzburg. It is one of the world’s leading suppliers of diesel injection systems. It manufactures systems for emission reduction in commercial vehicles and fuel-supply components for Common Rail Systems in passenger cars. At the presentation of the Bosch Production System (BPS) the efforts to achieve the standardized, lean, and accelerated processes are described. BPS is improving customer satisfaction by producing the highest quality, shortest delivery times, and the lowest costs. It increases the satisfaction and motivation of all workers through standardized and transparent processes.

Onwards the excursion kept going to the company KISKA whose core competence is to provide the design solutions, for example design of the bottle of mineral water, motorcycles and cars. This company uses Integrated Design Development (IDD) Design process which integrates business–, market-, brand- and product-relevant aspects into the overall design process to create the whole design solutions.