The paper describes new developments in extrusion processes for the reduction of process chains and the improvement of the flexibility of the extrusion process itself. Hereby, the presented and discussed technology is the extrusion of profiles with variable cross-sections. Besides the process principle and advantages, several results of experimental investigations are given in order to show the motivation for fundamental and application-oriented research in the field of extrusion technology. First results on the extrusion of profiles with variable cross-section are shown in this paper. Here, the focus was placed on the development of dies for the extrusion of open and hollow profiles with variable wall thickness.