• Production

Interview with WITTENSTEIN Head of Development Dr. Michael Engelbreit



INTERVIEW

Dr. Michael Engelbreit is Head of Development at WITTENSTEIN and supported the student project with KIT. In an interview, he describes the experiences and benefits of the cooperation.

Thinktank at KIT-IPEK: Professor Albert Albers brainstorming with students.
Thinktank at KIT-IPEK: Professor Albert Albers brainstorming with students.

What was the decisive motivation for WITTENSTEIN to cooperate with KIT?

In last year's project, we were impressed by how many ideas were generated in a very short time using a very structured approach

How important are external impulses for a global market company like WITTENSTEIN?

External impulses are indispensable and very important for WITTENSTEIN because they are the only way to broaden our horizons of ideas and match our own ideas with customer needs. What's more, you always get additional perspectives and completely new questions from the outside.

As an experienced product developer, what was your experience with the students?

The students were very committed and goal-oriented, but never restricted their creativity too much. This was also evident from the fact that, at the end of the day, a really good idea was implemented in a prototype by each team.

Was the collaboration also able to provide sustainable impetus in the product development process?

One key point that WITTENSTEIN is taking away from the project is the structured approach to idea generation. Here, the first phase in particular is of paramount importance in order to have as broad and comprehensive a starting point as possible in product development. We also noticed that extraordinary results can be achieved even with a very limited budget.

Only a few months passed between the start of the cooperation and the product launch of the rack assembly developed together with the students. How was this speed of innovation possible?

The main factors were, on the one hand, the students’ good documentation and, on the other hand, the fact that many discussions took place at KIT already during the project, which resulted in a good understanding of the topic at a very early stage. We were then able to start the series production very quickly.

Where do you see the role of public research institutions and universities in the interaction with industry?

It is very important to integrate industry into the university landscape. This should happen during the entire course of study and not just at the time of the final thesis. This gives students an insight into the real processes of companies at a very early stage, enabling them to better understand and apply the content of their studies. They can also get an idea of the area in which they would like to start their careers later on.

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