Laddha, N. (2017). Development of a method to determine productivity in engineering services for creating lean offers [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2017.43667
“The single great challenge... in developed countries of the world is to raise the productivity of knowledge .... This challenge will ultimately determine the competitive performance of companies … and the quality of life in every industrialized nation” (Drucker, 1991, p. 94). The automotive industry is in a fast transition towards clean energy driven powertrains and digitalization. To win the outsourced opportunities from the ‘Original Equipment Manufacturers’ (OEMs), apart from technical competences, ‘leanness of the offers’ is the key for the ‘Engineering Service Providers’ (ESPs). From the well-established principles of lean, this means: ‘deliver customer-defined value by reducing waste’. The measurement of productivity is an important element in the assessment of leanness. The common methods of productivity measurements in the manufacturing sector cannot be applied in the engineering services, due to the highly intangible contents of both output and input. This research: (1) Identifies and analyses the parameters, which constitute the inputs & outputs of an automotive ESP and establishes quantifiable ‘Key Performance Indicators’ (KPIs) of these parameters; (2) Develops a method to analyze an offer for its productiveness; (3) Recommends a framework of proposals to achieve lean offers. The method developed for the productivity measurement was tested using offers of an ESP. The results demonstrate the suitability of the method and its capability in highlighting the areas of improvement in an offer, to make it lean.