Engineering knowledge boosts the competitiveness of small businesses

What made the biggest impression on Associate Professor Torben Hede was how little it sometimes took to make a huge difference. Together with more than 10 colleagues from DTU Engineering Technology , he provided advice, input, and skills enhancement to 58 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Zealand as part of the KomLøft Sjælland project.

“In some places, just an hour-long meeting could make a huge difference to a small business. We brought in new eyes and were just there to help,” says Torben Hede about the two-year project period, during which he led the many collaborations aimed at boosting the companies’ engineering skills and strengthening their competitive edge.

Time-consuming day-to-day operations

The companies’ needs were as diverse and varied as their industries. Some received help in thinking five years ahead and setting up a supportive strategy for their business. Others were drowning in IT systems that had been cobbled together over the years and which they were now struggling to get to talk to each other.

“Many small businesses are under pressure. Everyone works hard and is typically busy with day-to-day operations and has no time—and sometimes not the skills—to think strategically or figure out how to optimize their production or processes. We were able to help some of the businesses quite quickly,” explains Torben Hede.

One of the businesses clearly remembers Torben Hede. The business employed 120 people who worked with laboratory tests at a high technical level. They lacked a systematic way of implementing improvements.

“Once we had identified the challenge, we ran a three-month course for 20 employees in the Lean Six Sigma model, which is a systematic way of identifying and implementing improvements. This meant that the business introduced six very significant improvements simply because they took the course,” says Torben Hede.

Successful project

The entire KomLøft project was a success. In an evaluation, 95 per cent of the participating businesses stated that they had improved their competence levels.

Torben Hede and his colleagues now want to continue with a similar project and are therefore seeking funding. But this time, they want to reach the whole of Denmark.

“We want to reach more parts of Denmark with our knowledge and assistance. We also want to focus on the challenges of digitization in the Danish manufacturing sector, and we will look at how to better involve employees to ensure that businesses implement the changes in a useful way,” says Torben Hede.

He hopes that the new project can be launched in the autumn of 2025.