FEV Consulting, Mitsubishi Corp. form “Beyond Materials” for metals, ceramics, composites

Management consultancy FEV Consulting (FEV, Aachen, Germany) and Mitsubishi Corp. (MC, Tokyo, Japan), a globally integrated business enterprise, are combining industrial material capabilities, industry expertise and networks with the formation of “Beyond Materials.” The joint venture establishes a specialized strategy and engineering service provider advising and supporting material suppliers on their path to global and sustainable growth. The customer-centric consulting services cover the areas of market research, strategy and product development, implementation support, and scalable digital solutions. “Beyond Materials” will be headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

“Our team consists of experienced management consultants specializing on application technologies, business and product portfolio strategies in the material industry. Additionally, we have functional material experts with broad experience on chemical products as well as metals, ceramics, composites and others,” Johannes Houben, executive vice president of “Beyond Materials” located in Germany, says. “This helps us to bridge the two worlds — materials and high-tech applications — and provide valuable insights not only about the ‘what’ and ‘why,’ but actually go beyond that, and explain the ‘how.’”

As the world of materials continues to develop rapidly, so do the requirements on future product designs, such as decarbonization and the circular economy. This is where “Beyond Materials” will come into play, a project that FEV and MC have been jointly laying out for more than three years.

“When navigating our customers towards global and sustainable growth we are not limited to advisory services around the material itself and the typical value chain — we go beyond existing structures and processes in the material industry,” Tetsushi Abe, executive president of “Beyond Materials” located in Japan, says. “We think and act beyond the conventional material supplier/customer relationship and grow and enhance our customer’s product portfolios as well as organizations by offering them a set of holistic and scalable solutions.”

FEV contributes intelligence on applications and customer requirements, engineering, broad application and product know-how. MC contributes its global network and broad experience in the material industry. By combining this strong set of complementary capabilities, “Beyond Materials” is reportedly able to provide tailormade solutions for the vast range of customer-specific challenges and problems and builds a bridge between the material suppliers and product manufacturers.