Zollner expands with new R&D team in Silicon Valley

The team will be headed by Dr. Michael Manansala, VP of Technology – American, who will report to Ulrich Niklas, Head of Zollner Global R&D at the company headquarters in Zandt, Germany. The complexity of global R&D organisations poses an increasing management challenge as companies continue to grow through acquisition and expansion into new markets. Coordinating global R&D projects across time zones, harmonising systems and processes, supporting new markets, leveraging decentralised capabilities, managing knowledge and avoiding duplications and inefficiencies are all important priorities. At the same time, R&D functions are increasingly expected to accelerate the pace of innovation in response to global competitive pressures while maintaining tight control of costs. To counter these challenges, the Zollner team developed and pioneered "Adaptive Design and Agile Manufacturing" (ADAM). ADAM is a collaborative design methodology, which takes advantage of the robust infrastructure and expertise at the headquarters in Germany and combines that with deep collaboration with top-notched ecosystem partners based in the US. The effort is aimed to accelerate innovation while maintaining tight budgets.