The 14th VDMA Variant Management Conference will take place on February 24, 2026, in Langen (Hesse).
The demand for customer-specific solutions in mechanical and plant engineering continues to rise due to their worldwide use. As a result, the number of variants is also increasing continuously. The challenge is and remains to master the increasing complexity in variant management and thus keep quality, costs, and delivery dates in mechanical and plant engineering under control.
Only through smooth processes across all areas of the company can companies successfully meet this challenge. This requires a powerful variant management system in mechanical engineering that provides all departments involved with consistent, i.e., correct and up-to-date, data – from the product idea to disposal.
The basic prerequisite for this is high data quality in variant management. In addition, a CPQ (Configure-Price-Quote) system as the central variant management system must be linked to other enterprise software such as CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to ensure consistent processes.
AI (artificial intelligence) can provide useful support in many areas. For example, generative AI can be used in mechanical engineering to create sales texts based on the configuration. AI solutions in mechanical engineering can also relieve the burden on employees who are already heavily involved in the development of rules and kits.
The 14th VDMA Variant Management Conference will show specifically how companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector are meeting this challenge and using AI and digitalization to meet the high demands of the market.
More at: www.vdma-academy.eu/tagung/vdma-tagung-variantenmanagement/
