For many industrial companies, 2026 is not a year of major investment leaps, but one of careful consideration. The pressure to modernise is mounting, whilst the investment climate remains tense. KPMG forecasts only moderate investment growth of 1.3 per cent for the eurozone in 2026. At the same time, the EY Europe Attractiveness Survey 2025 highlights just how deep-seated the uncertainty is: 37 per cent of the companies surveyed have postponed, scaled back or cancelled investment projects in Europe altogether. The number of investment projects in Europe fell to a nine-year low in 2024, with the manufacturing sector recording a 9 per cent decline. EY cites weak growth, persistently high energy prices and geopolitical tensions as the main drivers.
For manufacturing companies, particularly in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, this is shifting the criteria for investment decisions. The focus is no longer solely on the purchase price, but on the economic impact a piece of equipment will have over the years in actual operation. Where processes are tightly scheduled, subject to stringent regulations and material-intensive, a technical detail can quickly become an economic factor.
“Especially under cost pressure, people often look first at the purchase price. In operation, however, it very quickly shows that the actual costs arise elsewhere – for example, due to instability, additional operating effort or unplanned downtime,” says Yannick Salzmann, Product Manager at Minebea Intec, a leading global manufacturer of industrial weighing and inspection technologies.
Precision is not a luxury, but cost control
This is particularly evident in weighing processes. Whether bench and floor scales, container, silo or truck scales: even minimal measurement deviations can add up to significant material losses at high throughput rates. In the food industry, this means unnecessary overconsumption; in the pharmaceutical industry, it compromises reproducibility and validity; in the chemical industry, it can jeopardise the stability of sensitive processes.
Precision thus becomes more than just a technical specification. It directly influences raw material consumption, process reliability and product quality. Systems with long-term stability not only reduce deviations but also the need for readjustments, manual corrections and additional testing efforts. This is precisely where the business relevance of weighing and inspection technology begins.
TCO does not start with purchasing, but with the process
The term Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) provides a more precise description of these interrelationships than any consideration of price alone. It encompasses not only the initial investment, but all costs throughout a system’s lifecycle: integration, commissioning, maintenance, calibration, energy consumption, spare parts, training costs, unplanned downtime and the consequential costs of scrap, measurement errors or recalls.
This is particularly relevant in times of economic uncertainty. For systems that appear cheap may prove to be the more expensive choice in the long run – for instance, if they are sensitive to environmental conditions, require frequent readjustment, or can only be integrated into existing lines or moved to other lines at considerable expense.
“Total Cost of Ownership means not evaluating technology in isolation. What matters is how robust, durable, precise and low-maintenance a system is – and how reliably it fits into the actual process,” says Salzmann.
Inspection technology is no longer limited to the end of the line
The situation is similar in inspection technology. Checkweighers, metal detectors and X-ray inspection systems are now far more than mere inspection stations at the end of a line. They ensure product quality, protect consumers, reduce the risk of complaints and recalls, and at the same time provide data that can be used for ongoing process monitoring.
What matters here is not just the detection performance on the spec sheet, but stability during continuous operation. False alarms, fluctuating detection rates or high maintenance costs can slow down production lines, increase reject rates and significantly boost operational costs. It is clear that cost-effectiveness is not determined solely by the initial purchase price, but by the combination of availability, reliability and usability.
Integration is now part of the investment calculation
Added to this is an aspect that is often underestimated in practice: integrability. Modern production environments require systems that fit seamlessly into automation and IT landscapes – for example, via interfaces to SPC applications, statistics and reporting solutions, or higher-level production systems.
This is not a convenience feature, but an operational necessity. Where data is consistently available, manual effort is reduced, deviations become apparent sooner and improvements can be systematically derived. Investments in weighing and inspection technology are therefore always also investments in transparency, traceability and process knowledge.
“The benefit of modern systems lies not only in the measured value itself, but also in the way data can be further processed. It is only through integration into higher-level processes that the basis for transparency and continuous optimisation is created,” says Salzmann.
What quality actually looks like in operation
For suppliers, this means that what is in demand are not just high-performance individual components, but solutions that operate stably over the long term, under real production conditions. Quality is demonstrated less by promotional claims than by measurable characteristics: low drift, stable results over long calibration intervals, high system availability, reproducible detection performance, and as few false alarms and rejections as possible.
Added to this is another distinguishing feature that is often decisive in practice: the ability to adapt systems to specific requirements. This is because production environments can differ considerably – for example, in terms of environmental conditions, cleaning regimes, regulatory requirements, line architecture or data connectivity. A solution that performs well in a standard setup does not automatically operate economically in every application.
This is precisely where it is determined whether a system merely functions technically or creates sustainable added value in operation.
Customisation is becoming a key business factor
Minebea Intec offers weighing and inspection technologies across the entire process chain – from weighing, fill level control, batching and filling, through to statistical process control and foreign body detection. The key factor here lies not so much in the breadth of the portfolio but the ability to tailor solutions to specific customer requirements.
This applies, for instance, to design for specific environmental conditions, industry-specific regulations or integration into existing production and IT structures. Such adaptations reduce interface costs, stabilise processes and improve the operational usability of a system. From a TCO perspective, this is relevant because it allows follow-up costs to be reduced, costs that often remain invisible in traditional price comparisons.
“In many projects, the decisive question is not whether a technology is fundamentally suitable, but how precisely it can be tailored to the specific application. This is often precisely what distinguishes a solution that simply works from one that is truly economically compelling,” explains Salzmann.
Not the lowest price, but the most resilient benefit
The investment landscape of 2026 is characterised by caution – and for that very reason by greater precision in evaluation. When budgets are under pressure, it is no longer sufficient to compare systems based on purchase costs. What matters is which solution operates reliably under real-world conditions, safeguards processes and incurs lower follow-up costs in the long term.
This relationship is particularly evident in weighing and inspection technologies. This is because technical performance, regulatory requirements and business impact are directly interlinked here. Those who base investment decisions solely on the purchase price are optimising for the short term. Those who focus on the total cost of ownership make more robust decisions – and in many cases, more cost-effective ones too.
