Voith Siemens Hydro: Transforming Hydro Plant Delivery for a Competitive Edge

Project Overview

Voith Siemens Hydro, a subsidiary of one of Europe’s largest family-owned companies, delivers large-scale hydroelectric plants across the globe. Despite a legacy of engineering excellence, the company was under pressure from fast-moving, low-cost rivals from emerging markets. To maintain relevance and profitability, Voith needed to deliver lower delivery costs, faster project cycles, and a customer-centric approach to selling and executing hydro projects.

Challenge

With global utilities becoming increasingly cost-focused, Voith Siemens Hydro faced declining margins, longer sales cycles, and growing price pressure. Competitors from China, India, and Russia were gaining traction by offering turnkey hydro plants at significantly reduced prices – often at the expense of reliability, but with appealing economics.

Internally, Voith’s operations were structured around traditional engineering priorities rather than project outcomes. This misalignment created rework, delays, and missed opportunities to deliver value faster to customers.

Approach

VISION partnered with Voith Siemens Hydro to lead a transformation across its commercial and delivery functions. Our two-pronged strategy focused on:

Cost Reduction Through Process Redesign

We conducted a full diagnostic of processes across marketing, sales, engineering, and project delivery. Using Commitment-based Management™ techniques, we helped Voith streamline operations, eliminate redundancies, and foster cross-functional alignment. Each function was redesigned to support faster, more efficient execution.

Accelerated Delivery to Improve ROI

Sales teams were trained to engage customers earlier with economic value conversations, helping clients visualise faster paybacks. Engineering practices were restructured to avoid last-minute design changes, and project management was improved through tighter handoffs and better coordination with civil contractors. Procurement locked in pricing earlier to manage risk and cost variability.

All changes were tested in pilot projects before being scaled across the business. Voith Siemens Hydro teams were upskilled to take full ownership of the transformation going forward.

Results

10% Reduction in Project Costs
Delivered through improved cross-functional coordination, reduced rework, and better sales-to-execution handoffs.

7% Faster Cycle Time on Medium Hydro Projects
Resulting in earlier revenue generation and a more compelling value proposition for customers.

Strategic Differentiation
Voith combined competitive pricing with faster plant commissioning—creating a value advantage that neither legacy incumbents nor low-cost challengers could match.

A New Competitive Edge

VISION helped Voith Siemens Hydro shift from an engineering-driven legacy organization to a modern, project-focused business with clear cost and time advantages. By reshaping how teams sell, design, and deliver hydro plants, we enabled Voith to break the trade-off between quality and price – securing a renewed competitive edge in a disrupted global market.