Recently I wanted to buy a new espresso machine. Not a particularly big decision, really. Yet I spent hours comparing technical differences, watching videos, reading reviews and working through countless variants. The more closely I looked, the harder the decision became. Many solutions seemed technically convincing. At the same time, the differences that mattered to my actual requirements became harder to recognise. That is the interesting point: a lack of quality was not what made the decision difficult. It was the fact that suddenly almost every solution seemed technically plausible. As the choice grew and the products became more capable, deciding became more demanding, more uncertain and, in the end, partly more arbitrary.
The new problem of technological excellence
A similar development can now be observed in mechanical engineering. Many companies’ technological capabilities are extraordinarily high. Numerous technology companies have impressive engineering expertise, powerful software and highly developed automation systems. Yet this very strength creates a new economic problem: customers find it increasingly difficult to see why one particular solution is the right long-term decision for their business. This can already be observed in many sales processes. Investment decisions take longer, coordination increases and more people become involved. At the same time, the effort required to make a reliable economic assessment of technological differences rises sharply. The technological quality of many systems is high. Clarity about what to buy often is not. This matters increasingly with larger investments. Customers no longer invest only money. They also invest enormous amounts of time, coordination and organisational assurance in establishing which solution will truly be viable in the long term.
Competition is shifting
This is precisely why competition is moving to a new place. It is no longer only about technological performance, but increasingly about the ability to make technological complexity understandable in economic terms. The most successful machine builders are already responding. They do more than develop powerful solutions. They work systematically to make differences understandable sooner, deliberately reduce complexity and give investment decisions a sound basis earlier. They define platforms more clearly, limit variants more deliberately and standardise operation, service and integration.
Above all, they make it more visible which task their solution is intended to fulfil within the customer’s overall system — and which it deliberately does not.
This point in particular will become decisive. If technological strength becomes more readily available, purely technical differences will increasingly lose their influence on purchasing decisions.
Competition arises where companies can translate complex technology into trust, the ability to decide and economic plausibility more quickly.
When products appear more comparable, it is rarely the best solution that wins — it is usually the one that earns the customer’s trust fastest.
Jürgen Schmid is the founder of Design Tech and Jürgen Schmid Maschinendesign in Ammerbuch near Tübingen.