German mechanical engineering is characterized by high-quality and innovative products with a large configuration space to offer customers the best possible solutions. To further strengthen their competitive position, companies face the challenge of providing a wide range of products while also addressing the increasing development efforts required due to the shortening product life cycles. Particularly in the automotive industry, which is very important for German mechanical engineering, the number of models offered has doubled since the 1980s, while life cycles have shortened from ten years to just two to three years today. A study from 2012 shows that the variety of variants among the surveyed mechanical engineering companies more than doubled between 1997 and 2012. For example, the product range of Ortlinghaus.