References

Achieving Digitalization together

We support you if you are looking for possibilities to complement products and services with innovative developments, to become digitally connectable and to put customer demands in the focus of your activities!

We are convinced that successful innovations can only be the result of combined competencies and creative powers. A specific problem or challenge can be solved better and faster when different stakeholders come together than if they tried to do it on their own. We found a suitable partner for this credo in the Center Smart Services” – Klaus Böckers, GEOTAB, about the cooperation with the Service Performance Center

There are many references for how we provide companies with groundbreaking guidance on different digitalization topics. One example of the successful implementation of our development cycle “Smart Service Engineering” is the creation of a strategy for and with InfraServ GmbH & Co. Knappsack KG, a service provider for plant design, construction and maintenance.

Success Story ISK: A tailor-made Digitalization Strategy for Industrie 4.0

ISK KG is one of the leading industrial service providers in the process industry with approx. 1,000 employees and an annual turnover of almost 200 million €. Customers in this industrial sector are also increasingly demanding digital networking, which is why the company decided to take the necessary steps to transform itself into a modern, digitally active business in Industrie 4.0. Together, the following key questions are at the heart of the project:

  1. How is ISK KG currently integrated into the digital value chain of customers and suppliers?
  2. How can a digital transformation be used to increase internal efficiency?
  3. Which new offers and business models can ISK make available to its customers with the help of digitalization?

To answer these questions, a digitalization plan was developed. It is  strictly tailored to the requirements of ISK KG and scheduled to be implemented in 2020. Among other things, the focus is on constantly re-evaluating and taking into account the changing customer requirements. The project was divided into the following phases: 1) analysis and consulting, 2) strategy development and 3) prototype development. The aim is to ensure low-cost, rapid project progress while at the same time achieving highly valid results. The use of Rapid Prototyping in the course of Smart Service Engineering is essential for this, as it offers important advantages for transformation projects like this one.

With the help of Rapid Prototyping, it is possible to…

  • Initiate practical tests under real conditions, feedback loops and optimization cycles
  • Illustrate and communicate project goals to employees and customers
  • Test the integration possibilities of the digital product

Successful Development of Subscription Business

We do not only support digitalization projects in the classical process industry: For the consortium benchmarking “Subscription Business” we are investigating  advantages and success factors of innovative, subscription-based business models together with the FIR at the RWTH Aachen University.  For this purpose, we identifiy successful practices and analyze added values of this new relationship between customer and company. The aim is to enable companies to successfully implement subscription-based business models and to show them how to take the necessary steps to achieve this.

Quality Improvement with Industrial Machine Learning

The “Expert Circle Industrial Machine Learning” covers a completely different topic. Its aim is to highlight, define and analyze the potential of Industrial Machine Learning (IML) for manufacturing companies and to help them select a suitable IML provider based on  of different criteria. It is an extension of the market study on the same topic, which was successfully completed in 2019 and shows where and how best practices are already using IML as an effective tool for increasing product and process quality. Here you can learn more about the completed study and the current project!

Demonstrators: Tradition meets Digitalization

In addition to these projects, which act as a support for companies with concrete practical instructions, projects such as the successfully completed “Get Connected” with the traditional company Prym lead to the transfer of traditional systems to the Internet of Things. In this case, a punching machine in textile production was made digitally connectable. Such successes show: For the step towards digital business almost every machine can be adapted and can quickly generate reliable and useful data. We show you how! Other installations that have been digitally overhauled and made future-proof together are a pump for Flowserve and an industrial 4.0 robot for PTC.

Vorführung der Flowserve Pumpe am Center Smart Services

David Willms

Smart Services Industrie | Demonstratoren am Center Smart Services

KVD e.V./Medienhaus Waltrop

Promoting young talent: The Case Competition

We are also active in the area of talent promotion: generating innovative ideas from young, creative minds is the basic idea behind the Case Competition. Since 2010, we have been organizing the student competition together with the Walter Eversheim Foundation. In the past, companies such as Lufthansa, Telekom, Ford and Bosch have called for use cases to be developed for them. The innovations developed in this way include a new type of weight measurement system for vehicles while driving (Case Competition with GEOTAB), as well as a learning platform for KUKA robotics, which is used to train customers and service technicians using AR/VR technologies. Here you can find out more about the Case Competition in general, the current competition with Schaeffler on the subject of Condition Monitoring and the opportunity to become a Case Partner yourself