Aufzüge und Fahrtreppen - IMU Institut

Industry report
Lifts and escalators – an industry in flux
Dr. Jürgen Dispan 1)
An up-to-date analysis of the situation
and developments in the lift and esca lator
industry was submitted by the IMU
Institute Stuttgart in the summer of
2007.
Employing a combined workforce of
around 18,000 and encompassing around
800 different companies, the lift and escalator
sector forms a part of the mechanical
engineering industry. Despite
enormous internationalization pressure
and the closure of production plants here
in Germany as a result of globalized production
concepts over recent decades,
the sector remains a signifi cant mainstay
of the economy. As a sector in which service
has traditionally been of overriding
importance, it may be considered something
of a pioneer of the mechanical engineering
industry in the light of the
transformation brought about by the
general increase in service orientation.
Furthermore, the lift and escalator sector
is an industry characterized by a marked
process of concentration, emanating primarily
from its four major players (Big 4).
There is also a marked process of transformation
under way in terms of employment
in the sector, particularly among
the Big 4, but evident also among the industry’s
small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs). There is a tendency for permanently
tenured staff to be thinned out
and increasingly replaced by other forms
of employment such as contract work,
while assembly and maintenance work
are being farmed out increasingly to subcontracting
service providers. At the
same time, the holding companies and
other “internal competitors” are playing
an increasingly important role in the
Big 4. Other factors analysed in the Industry
Report include the innovation,
market and service trends taking place in
the sector. The lift and escalator Industry
Report investigates these and a range of
other developments and trends underlying
the structural transformation under
way in the industry, and was compiled by
the IMU Institute for the IG Metal trade
union and the Centre for Rationalisation
and Innovation of the German Economy
(RKW).
The objective of the Industry Report is to
provide a well-founded inventory of the
status and development of the lift and
escalator industry in Germany taking into
account market and innovation trends,
and to arrive at a statement regarding
corporate strategies. The study is based
on an evaluation of economic and employment-related
data and on industryrelated
publications. By conducting qualitative
interviews, the study also takes
stock of current developments in the industry’s
companies, primarily with a view
to ascertaining the challenges facing the
industry and its players, and elaborates
points of approach for securing Germany’s
position as an industrial location and
1) IMU Institute Stuttgart
32 LIFT-REPORT 33. Jahrg. (2007) Heft 6
© DiskArt 1988