We asked Maximilian Schacht | Center Smart Services

In October 2021, Maximilian Schacht took over the management of the Center Smart Services in the Smart Logistics Cluster and follows in the footsteps of Benedikt Moser. After studying industrial engineering in the mechanical engineering department at RWTH Aachen University with stays abroad in Norway and the USA, Maximilian Schacht started as a project manager in the service management department at FIR at RWTH Aachen University.
His interests lie primarily in the customer-centric development of smart services. Originally from idyllic Schwäbisch Hall, you can still hear a slight Swabian accent even after a decade in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, he has already become good friends with its carnival and thus does not miss it in his new home.

What will you do differently from your predecessor? What goals have you set yourself?

Benedikt Moser has done an outstanding job in the last 2 years, so it is not my ambition to be different, but to continue the path started with the team. The Center Smart Services will continue to support companies in the manufacturing industry in their transformation into providers of digital solutions. Because that is our core competence. In the future, we want to enrich our unique ecosystem with additional companies from the areas of technology, insurance and financing, in order to be able to map the complete value creation around business models for digital solutions. And, I can already reveal this much, we are currently holding promising talks with potential new members for our community.

What is special about the Center Smart Services? What makes it so unique?

Digitization makes it possible, at least from a technical point of view, to generate great added value for suppliers and customers in the manufacturing industry. Together with my team, I want to ensure that both sides actually benefit from these added values. To this end, we support the design of business models with a strong customer focus. The focus is on the development & innovation of new services and the management & sales of existing offers. And to be able to fill this focus with life together with the team, experts on the RWTH Aachen Campus and our members is a unique opportunity. You are constantly inspired and can develop incredibly fast.

What significance will the RWTH Aachen Campus ecosystem have for your center and your members in the future?

The network that the Center Smart Services has built up on the RWTH Aachen Campus and beyond is the basis of our actions.
Nowhere else can you get access to the latest research results and developments so quickly and unbureaucratically. You can also find meaningful experts or companies on almost any topic at short notice who are interested in working together on relevant issues, as we do in our innovation projects.
Here, the ecosystem offers diversity, as stakeholders from a wide range of industries often struggle with similar problems and have the opportunity to approach these challenges quickly and together.
This is an added value that more than 420 companies have now recognized and through which the RWTH Aachen Campus has convinced them – an ecosystem in which our community is firmly integrated and continuously grows. It is precisely this development, this growth, that I would like to continue to drive forward with my team, so that we continue to be a reliable partner for our community in the future.