© Nmedia – Fotolia.com
Industry 4.0
From strategy to implementation
Having the ability to innovate, transform
and adapt is the key to a company positioning
that can remain successful in the future – that
was the case with Industry 1.0, and it will remain
the case for Industry 4.0.«
Sascha Hackstein Atreus Director
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01010 010101010101010010101110010010001010001010010101010010000101001000101
Transformation
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Innovation
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Adaptability
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Editorial
Success 4.0 only works together
As an industrial venue, Germany is one
of the strongest competitors there is, and
at the same time it is the world’s leading
maker of production equipment. This is
not least of all due to its specialization in
researching, developing and manufacturing innovative production technologies
and its ability to manage complex industrial processes. In order to consolidate and
build on this position, German industrial
companies need to not only face up to the
continually changing market conditions,
they have to shape the market, lead it and
anticipate its future developments.
If they are to achieve that, it is essential that they review the profitability and
competitiveness of existing business
models, initially irrespective of whether
they have a digital strategy or not. The
ability to innovate, transform and adapt
2
remains the success factor for a positioning of the company that will enable it to
remain strong in the future. That was the
case with Industry 1.0 and it will remain
the case with Industry 4.0 and all other
transitions.
One difference does have to be observed,
however: Whereas in the past, companies
developed on the basis of their tradition
and specific role in the market structure,
today they open up their networks and
develop business models together that
mean added value and more benefits for
all those involved. Only by opening up in
this way can the advantages that Industry
4.0 promises actually be realized: smarter
factories, smarter production plants, digitalization of the entire process chain and
new business models based on digital value-added services.
Sascha Hackstein is a Director at Atreus, the leading German provider of
interim management. He has more than 20 years of general-management
experience in the international industrial field, working for manufacturing companies
and in technical distribution.
In this context, the technical distribution
sector has already begun to adjust its
range of services to the future, and to offer data-based solutions to the industry in
addition to product-related services: technical distributors, manufacturers, industrial customers and consulting companies
have all taken the initiative of making the
benefits of new business models real and
tangible. This edition of Atopic provides
some examples of this: In the fields of
distribution and mechanical and plant engineering, services are no longer part of
the business – in the future they will be
the business! •
Your
Sascha Hackstein
© kentoh – Fotolia.com
Digitalization
FOCUS: SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
Technical transformation with all partners in unison
Innovations along a supply chain only lead to more profitability if the partners involved in the supply chain develop at the
same speed. Technical distribution is the link in the supply chain between the manufacturers and the end customers in the
industry. This sector’s challenge lies in reconciling differing speeds of innovation, breaking down dissonances and ensuring
that the transformation takes place with all parties involved in unison.
The digitalization of manufacturing and
the evolution to Industry 4.0 not only
means new possibilities, but also new
demands on interaction and collaboration:
Machines and plants that can become
“smart” and include more sensors to
monitor their own activity and automatically order replacement parts when the
time comes, and interconnecting through
Clouds can only realize their full potential
if there are partners available for this networking and this flow of information. Production has developed and digitalization
also advances the suppliers and service
providers in the chain. At the moment it
is not the innovations that are determining the speeds, but changes in the way
production is managed, coordinated and
delivered.
For the technical distribution sector, this
means adding new know-how in network
technology to its traditionally in-depth understanding of the product technology
and the services relating to the product.
When the reliability and flexibility of the
supply chain become increasingly determined by digital communication, success
as a distributor is then also decided by
the expert and value-generating way of
dealing with the data: with the own data
about products, customer needs and deliverability, but also with the information
flow across the entire supply chain. In order to handle this information-dominated
supply chain successfully, the technical
distribution sector not only needs an even
closer connection to the trends and digital innovations in the industry – which is
both supplier and customer for it – it also
has to reassess its organizational foundations and infrastructure. The distributor’s
knowledge, ability to interact with and
access to customers are determined essentially by the degree to which it is digitalized. IT is then no longer merely a tool
that supports the commercial processes,
it is an essential prerequisite for taking an
active role in the supply chain. Whether
a distributor can get its partners working
together in unison, and whether it can dic-
tate the pace of that collaboration through
the efficiency of its digital interfaces depends on its understanding of the technology and the technical options it has at
its disposal. •
3
ROUND TABLE
Expert discussion: Industry 4.0 is a CEO topic
What potential does digitalization offer to industry? Four experts from the industry and technical distribution fields discussed this question at a round-table talk in Frankfurt. Their conclusion: The fruits of Industry 4.0 still hang high. And they
not only have to be harvested in the production process and the materials flows, but also in machine maintenance and
services.
The human being should also be the focal point of Industry 4.0.«
Arne Jörn, SAF Holland, Vice President Operations
4
© Alfred Särchinger
Sascha Hackstein,
Director, Atreus GmbH
The industry has to learn from start-ups when it
comes to agility and speed of execution.«
Sascha Hackstein, Director, Atreus GmbH
Thomas Vierhaus, Managing Director,
VTH Verband Technischer Handel
Arne Jörn, SAF Holland,
Vice President Operations
When the visionaries talk about Industry
4.0, they paint the picture of a digital revolution. Machines networked with each
other running factories virtually devoid of
human beings. But at the moment, that
kind of vision is more of an impressive
indication of the potential than a guideline for business practice. “Industry 4.0 is
good as a key topic, as long as it is not
misused as a buzzword. It has become a
topic for CEOs, because it is growing ever
more obvious that the new technologies
like cloud computing, networks and sensors hold substantial potential for companies,” says Sascha Hackstein, Director
at Atreus, Germany’s leading provider of
interim management. “Industry 4.0 is not
a revolution, it is an evolution, in which
the processes in industry are gradually
improved, from being optimized with lean
transformation to the launching of new
digital-assistance systems. The human
being remains the focal point,” agrees
Arne Jörn, Vice President Operations at
SAF Holland.
Erik de Jongh, Continental, Director Global Cluster
Auxiliaries & Supplies
At a round-table in Frankfurt organized
by Atreus, Hackstein and Jörn analyzed
the effects of digitalization on industrial
production together with two further industry experts: Thomas Vierhaus, Managing Director of the Verband Technischer
Handel association (VTH) association, and
Erik de Jongh, Director of Global Cluster
Auxiliaries & Supplies at automotive components supplier Continental, where he is
responsible for the procurement of indirect materials and replacement parts.
More of an evolution than a revolution –
Jörn, Vierhaus, de Jongh and Hackstein
were all in agreement on that front. But
it must be said that the journey to digitalization is picking up speed fast right now.
“You can’t sit back and watch Industry
4.0. Industrialists and top management
have recognized that they have to occupy
themselves with these technologies,
in order to benefit from them and remain
competitive,” Sascha Hackstein warns.
He sees several different directions of
thrust in the development. Most compa-
nies see the added value in the improved
efficiency, but it is also giving rise to new
products and data-based services.
Before the fruits of Industry 4.0 can be
gathered, however, substantial investments are required in the companies,
not only into their IT infrastructure, but
also into the time-consuming training of
employees and into the organization as
a whole, as SAF-Holland manager Arne
Jörn showed. His company is just about
to introduce a Manufacturing Execution
System (MES) to efficiently manage production. With the MES, data are recorded
in real time that have a direct impact on
the manufacturing process. “Up to now
we have had data from various systems
and could only look back into the past.
With the introduction of an MES system, we are paving the way for Industry
4.0 and can react directly to bottlenecks
in our production line and to incidents,”
says Jörn.
Jörn is aware that the potential of Industry 4.0 lies not only in the direct produc5
We have to integrate ourselves more into our clients’ processes and build
up entire supply systems around the product.«
Thomas Vierhaus, Managing Director of the VTH, Verband Technischer Handel
tion process or in the material flows that
go with it, but much more in the machine
maintenance, which accounts for between two and six percent of the total
costs, depending on the industry in question. Up to now, the SAF Holland manager
says, indirect materials and maintenance
had stood in the shadow of the direct value-creating processes in industry. “There
is still a lot of potential lying fallow here,
which can be used to achieve a great deal
using digital technology – for instance in
the field of communication with the suppliers,” says Jörn. It must be said, however, that optimizing maintenance management within the framework of Industry
6
4.0 would tie up a lot of management and
staff capacity – which is why Jörn sees
the collaboration with service providers as
an attractive option.
Technical distribution is ready to act as a
partner to the industrial sector in maintenance projects. “In many of our companies, digitalization has already arrived,”
says Thomas Vierhaus, Managing Director at VTH Verband Technischer Handel.
The distribution sector, he continues, has
already invested a great deal in categorizing replacement parts and recording their
master data. He says there are already
excellent examples of interfaces between industry and technical distribution
© Alfred Särchinger
through which the automated orders are
processed. Smart containers report withdrawals to the inventory management
system, which triggers a replenishment
order when a predetermined stock level
is reached. Technical distribution is developing its product-related services into
data-based services and today offers industry end-to-end machine maintenance
solutions.
As Vierhaus sees it, the technical distributors have the opportunity, thanks to Industry 4.0, to expand their business. “We
have to integrate ourselves more into our
customers’ processes and build up entire
supply systems around the product,” he
says, and goes on to explain that simply
handing over a spare part at the factory
gate is not a satisfactory solution for either party. “The technical distribution sector has to take its goods right to where
they are needed. This requires, of course,
that our employees dispose over special
process know-how,” the distribution expert adds.
Lower costs through more simple
processes
Conti manager Erik de Jongh puts the expectations on Industry 4.0 in a nutshell:
“We expect an increase in machine uptimes that doesn’t have to be bought by
increasing inventories.” He also sees
further potential in reducing the number
of process steps and thus lowering the
process costs – for example by further
developing the automatic replenishment
systems. However, de Jongh is not willing to purchase these benefits through a
Obstacles on the way to Industry 4.0
Lack of strategy
In a study conducted by Ingenics AG together with the Fraunhofer Institute for
Industrial Engineering (IAO), 55 percent
of the companies surveyed admitted
that they still have to work to acquire
the skills required for Industry 4.0. These
companies often lack a strategy for how
and where the new technologies should
be employed in the value chain. “So the
first step should be a thorough diagnostic
procedure,” Sascha Hackstein, Atreus Director, advises.
Poor data quality and standards
In order to be able to profitably use the
new technologies, many companies first
have to solve old problems. One of these
is that they have not sufficiently recorded
master data. In the maintenance field, it is
particularly troublesome when important
features of replacement parts are not documented or if a company uses its own
classification system. That makes smart
communication with the systems of the
technical distribution sector virtually impossible, and leads to intransparent, excessive spare-parts inventories.
Lack of management capacities
Industry 4.0 should now be driven forward in the companies, otherwise a value-creation gap arises between them and
the pioneer companies, which is difficult
to close later on. But often the management capacities required for the highly
complex Industry 4.0 projects are lacking.
That is why it makes good sense to use
interim managers in the project phases.
Thinking in old structures
Industry 4.0 is not a synonym for automation. It is not about digitalizing existing
processes and business models, it entails entirely new ways of doing things,
at least in part. For this reason, the way
the company collaborates with suppliers,
customers and service providers also has
to be looked at very closely in Industry 4.0
projects. The new technology makes it
possible to work together in networks or
on electronic platforms.
7
You also have to be able to change suppliers. The key to that is open standards.
Proprietary systems of individual distributors are no help.«
Erik de Jongh, Continental, Director Global Cluster Auxiliaries & Supplies
dependence on individual suppliers: “You
have to remain able to change suppliers.
The key to that lies in open standards.
Proprietary systems of individual distributors are no help here,” he warns.
The four experts see improving the data
quality in the companies as a key prerequisite to the success of Industry 4.0
projects. “Maintenance personnel sometimes need half an hour to identify the
right replacement part. That prolongs
the machine downtimes,” explains de
Jongh. Poor data quality not only makes
communication within the company
more difficult, it also complicates order
management and even the participation
in electronic or automatic procurement
platforms. Good data quality enables the
computerized finding and ordering of
replacement parts. That structurally reduces the process costs. The vision is to
achieve entirely automated ordering and
8
provision. In groups of companies it enables comprehensive data management,
optimized warehouse structures and the
pooling of inventories.
Highly complex projects
need support
One core result of the round table is:
Industry 4.0 is not an isolated topic for
certain parts of a company, it is a CEO
issue. “Production, technology and purchasing are becoming more interconnected, which means a holistic strategy
is required,” says Atreus Director Sascha
Hackstein. However, according to a survey held by Ingenics AG and the Fraunhofer IAO Institute, only 29 percent of
companies already have such a strategy.
And most companies are also treading
new ground in the often highly complex
projects. Here, interim managers can take
a lot of pressure off the company man-
agement and inject change-management
expertise into the company for the transition to Industry 4.0.
There is a lot of pressure on companies.
Parallel to the daily operational challenges, they also have to realize organizational
changes and leave their traditional path in
order to quickly reap the benefits of the
digitalization. Companies that are already
on the journey to digital transformation
have found that they cannot develop solely from within their own environment and
understanding, but that they need support from outside the company. •
Björn Helmke
© Sophie – Fotolia.com
Production, technology and procurement are becoming more heavily
networked with one another – that makes a holistic strategy necessary.«
© envfx – Fotolia.com
Central communication
FOCUS: CHANGE MANAGEMENT
From understanding to success
There is no disputing that Industry 4.0 has significant consequences for the supply chain. And almost nobody denies that
manufacturers and distributors have to change their business processes and realize service-oriented business models. But
not every market player has the know-how and experience that are required to do so successfully.
The sales and procurement markets are
global. The competitive pressure is increasing, as is the dynamic of technological change. In particular the fact that nearly all markets are digitalizing is leading to a
constant need for change, and hence
transformation projects. In this situation,
the primary task is not to solve the problem that this fact is not being recognized,
it is about actually implementing the
transformation projects. But many companies cannot, or don’t want to, build up
the experience required to reliably master
these critical challenges quickly enough,
especially as they are generally only required for a limited period of time. This is
why interim management is a route ever
more companies are taking, to realize important transformation tasks or resolve
special corporate situations. Examples of
this are the expanding of the pure product
and delivery model into added-value-oriented service and solutions business, the
converting of know-how already available
in the company into competitive advantages and additional business, and the restructuring of the company’s IT in order to
truly interconnect the supply chain.
A lot of management and change-management experience is required to build
up the processes, structures and systems
and manage the change process with the
greatest possible certainty of achieving
the desired results. The interim manager
has already mastered similar challenges
with his experience, qualifications and expertise.
As the German market leader in the field
of interim management, Atreus assists its
clients by providing exactly the right interim manager or team to best succeed at
completing the client’s task. It does so by
maintaining close contact to several thousand experienced management personalities, and with Atreus Interim Management’s high level of expertise in company
demands at all stages of the supply
chain.•
9
FOCUS: SERVICES
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen:
Remote services bring the company
closer to its customers
Thanks to sophisticated sensors in its printing machines and their connection to the
internet, Heidelberg can permanently monitor the condition of each entire machine
and react to disturbances before they even occur – precisely when it best suits the
customer. To this day the Heidelberg service is one of its kind in the industry.
With its remote services, Heidelberger
Druckmaschinen laid the foundation ten
years ago for future technologies that are
under intense discussion today: big data
and the Internet of Things. The possibilities are endless and Heidelberg now has
to exploit the new potential through creative ideas.
The system is based on a big-data platform, parts of which were developed by
10
Berkeley University, and components of
which Heidelberg uses to systematically
analyze machine data. The question here
is how these machine data can be utilized so that printing companies gain even
more benefit from new, smart services.
React before the disturbance occurs
Reports of values approaching their allowable thresholds, tendencies and voltage
Kerstin Rabbel designed the remote monitoring service range at Heidelberg Druck
with a technical project team. This service range is currently in its pilot phase, and the
tests with pilot customers in Germany, Great Britain and the USA have already shown
positive trends: Initial evaluations show that unplanned machine downtimes have
reduced by around 15 percent.
fluctuations that are received by the service center in Heidelberg are examined
and evaluated by a service expert. In doing
so, the company makes use of the experience of a global service organization with
more than 3,000 staff members in finding
the right solutions. Their input is stored
in a smart knowledge-management system and made available for future cases.
This system is directly connected to the
big data analysis tool and is continuously
updated.
The basis for this extensive service is a
service agreement, with which the customer agrees to transmit the data. Conspicuous data can be reacted to before an
actual disturbance ever arises.
To make the service process even faster
and more efficient, the service technicians
are automatically given proposed solu-
tions and they execute these solutions in
close collaboration with the customer, in
a manner that causes the least possible
disturbance to the production process.
With smart coordination, the idea is to
schedule the required work within service or maintenance times that were already planned. This reduces the amount
of times a technician has to intervene and
thus also the unscheduled downtimes of
the machine.
Customized recommendations
Another positive effect: Thanks to the
data transmitted, Heidelberg can also see
when production processes are not running smoothly. The data give insights into,
for example, what improvement potential
a printing shop has in its setup and washing times, or into whether an inordinate
amount of waste paper is produced. In
such cases, the customer can be contacted with advisory offerings for optimizing
the production processes, or with training
course offers to help it improve its efficiency and productivity. In addition, the
customers are regularly informed about
the technical status, upcoming and completed service visits and important parameters such as the totalizer status, printing
speed, and statistics about the efficiency
of their machines in the form of a detailed
report. •
11
FOCUS: VALUE CREATION
Added value and adding value for the company
For new processes and systems to be implemented successfully, the management has to be convinced of their value, and
solution agents from the company have to be involved so that the desired added value is achieved. How can the path from
spare-parts supplier to problem solver be travelled in a way that conserves resources and is profitable?
When you are or feel as if you are the
market leader in a special segment with
an established product range, you don’t
feel as if you have any pressure to move
toward greater service orientation, until competitors invade your field or your
sales stagnate although the rest of the
sector is doing well. When that happens,
management has to act.
The start of designing a change strategy
is in evaluating options for further developing the business model. What is often
promising is the approach “Value creation
through added value,” combined with
a dovetailing with the key customers to
achieve problem-solving competence.
And the all-important question in value
creation is: “Can we grow and earn money with it?”
1
In step one, risks and opportunities are analyzed: which customer benefits can be achieved in the possible value
(-creation) chain, with which resources?
How important is it to keep existing process steps, to solve problems or to expose new opportunities? The results are
put into three value-creation categories:
a)Products with additional needs, b)
12
Product-related services before, during or
after delivering the spare part and
c) – as the dimension with the greatest
intrinsic value – problem-solving expertise
as a facilitator and agent of solutions, for
example by having the entire procurement process taken over by networked
ERP systems. Possible customers are
determined for each category, and the
lacking resources and cost estimates
compiled for the realization by the solution agent appointed within the company.
2
In step two, a CCC topic analysis
(Customer/Competition/Company) shows
the actual benefit for the customer and
the own company and assesses the ways
of setting oneself apart from the competition through value-generating modules.
Splitting up the identified value-creation
potential into modules makes it possible
to address different customer groups
specifically and facilitates step-by-step realization.
3
In step three, representative test
customers are chosen for the pilot phase,
informed openly about the goals, closely supported in the pilot by the solution
agents and asked for their opinion of the
tested modules.
4
Step four is ultimately the realization, using the available resources,
divided up into a short-term and a medium-term realization concept.
In our case example, which followed
the described steps, five of the originally developed nine modules were realized
immediately in a phased approach and
three more scheduled for the medium
term. Based on the experiences gained
in the pilot, the new plan generated by
this project had the goal of significantly
increasing sales vis-à-vis the identified
competitors and the industry as a whole.
The most important investment for the
short-term modules is the human resource, which the solution agents, now
experienced through the pilot, led in the
new processes. The medium-term plan
included the value-generating modules,
which required investments in systems
with the key customers, but which also
promised a doubling of sales. •
Dirk Boventer
© kentoh – Fotolia.com
Value creation
© scandinaviastock – Fotolia.com
Industry 4.0
FOCUS: AGILE SUPPLY CHAIN
Rethinking the supply chain on the way to Industry 4.0
The smart networking of processes, Industry 4.0 and big data are some of the most hotly discussed topics right now. And
yet, in practice they only play a key role for a minority of the people responsible for the supply chain: In a study conducted
by Candidus Management Consulting, 44 percent of the decision-makers surveyed considered Industry 4.0 to be highly
relevant at the moment. The agility of the supply chain is the topic that is occupying these people.
“It does have potential, but at the moment we can’t really see the added value,” was the comment from the representative of one of the engineering
companies taking part in the study on the
topic of Industry 4.0. Candidus Management Consulting investigated which approaches the decision-makers in leading
companies are currently pursuing in supply chain management, which topics they
think will shape the future and what priorities the person responsible should take
into consideration in the strategic leadership approach, in order to master the upcoming challenges. The study ascertains
that everyone has heard of the keywords
for the future like digital transformation
and Industry 4.0, cyber-physical systems
and big data. The top companies have begun considering the digitalization of the
supply chain and the interconnection of all
market partners as a strategic topic and
are launching the first pilots for testing
digital solutions in practice. As a rule,
however, these solutions are not suited
for everyday use yet, and are in an early
stage of development. Every good company wants to meet all the requirements
of all of its customers, and they therefore
all find themselves faced with increasingly rigorous expectations regarding innovation, speed and flexibility. Alone meeting
these expectations generally requires profound adjustments to the supply chain
and a willingness to digitalize. But increasing customer demands are not the only
factor challenging established companies
these days.
Differentiation requires change
Often they are confronted with the question of how to modify business processes
and strategies in order to secure their
competitive position and keep up with the
leaders in their markets. Excellence in the
mentioned performance factors, innovative and individually tailored solutions, operational efficiency and of course the ability to supply and be profitable give the
companies the opportunity to set themselves apart from their competition. A
holistic approach is essential in order to
be and remain successful over the long
term. The study ascertains that the individual components of the value chain
have to be strategically segmented and
adapted to the changing circumstances in
the global economic structures. The complex challenges are best met by those
decision-makers who devote their attention not only to achieving operational excellence, but also to the strategic agility of
their supply chain: Agility is the one-word
answer to the question of what will be
required in the future.
“The agile supply chain is ideally suited to
dealing with the new complexity in various industrial sectors,” one study respondent from the automotive industry
summarizes. In some cases, for instance
at Amazon and Zara, companies with an
agile supply chain can actually shape their
markets because they can provide their
customers with superior performance,
while also taking into account trends such
as “Glocalization” that researchers like
Matthias Horx have pointed out: Local
and global elements will be mixed with
each other more again in the future, both
in procurement and in production. Agility
enables you to react faster than the competition to changing demands in the volatile markets and trends. An agile supply
chain focuses on adaptability and speed in
13
Trend factors and topic relevance
Trend factor of the topic
Industry4.0
Change
management
Forecast of
customer
behavior
– big data
1
Networks
& strategic
partnerships
5
Leadership
models
Global
production
and
distribution
networks
4
Modularization &
Building block systems
3
Global vs. local
sourcing
Performance
controlling
Agile supply
chain
Supplier
management &
integration
2
Cost
reduction
(lean)
Relevance of study participants
ø 4,02
The participants in the study determined the following
top 5 success factors:
Agile supply chain:
Average ranking 4.6. Among the top 5
for 90 percent of the companies.
Modularization:
Average ranking 4.2. Among the top 5
for 70 percent of the companies.
Cost reduction (lean philosophy):
Average ranking 4.6. Among the top 5
for 80 percent of the companies.
Production and distribution
networks (segmenting):
Average ranking 4.1. Among the top 5
for 72 percent of the companies.
Supplier management and
integration:
Average ranking 4.3. Among the top 5
for 78 percent of the companies.
Each of these issues is a building block in a holistic orientation toward agility.
the face of demand fluctuations and
tougher requirements for the ability to
supply. But that also means that without
standardized, efficient and adaptable supply chain processes, companies will find it
difficult or even impossible to further develop in the age of digitalization and networks. Many companies do not yet have
to find the right, future-proof strategy,
14
because many issues have not yet been
clarified. Examples of this are the standardization of interfaces and data security.
And not least of all, the transition to Industry 4.0 and more agility is a major transformation that will profoundly alter company
structures and has to be well managed. If
one is to make a lasting success of the
changes, the prerequisites for a radical
change process have to be provided. This
is why the topic of change management
will also become increasingly important.
Agility as a touchstone
There is no “one-size-fits-all” solution for
agility concepts. For that the markets are
too complex, the competitive situation
too specific and the demands too varied.
But agility is the overall test of outstanding supply chain management that focuses across all venues on the specific market and customer requirements of each of
its segments on speed, adaptability and
mastery of the new complexity. In future,
agility will be the decisive differentiating
characteristic in an ever more brutal competitive environment. •
© Tijana – Fotolia.com
Service
SERVICE AS A BUSINESS MODEL
Service isn’t part of the business:
service is the business
Product and service can no longer be considered separately. Combining them into
data-based solutions is the future basis of value creation.
The manufacturers of industrial products,
the engineers, plant manufacturers and
technical distributors all know that one
focus of their business activities will be in
the field of services in the future. Nonetheless, many companies find it difficult
to optimize their existing services into
“smart services”, or even to develop new
services. And that although the business
model for the service doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel: it is much more about
recognizing changes in the market, drawing the right conclusions for one’s own
business model and continuously optimizing existing models.
Here, the companies are in varying phases of their path to becoming true service
professionals. What makes a service professional? It simply means being exactly
the opposite of disorganized or reactive
providers. The service professional is proactive and integrates all the relevant processes, generating value and added value
for its customers. It organizes its service
business professionally as a separate
business and makes it a key component
of its future positioning in the competitive
environment. The “smart products from
smart factories” have extensive sensor
systems and provide manufacturers and
other links in the supply chain with large
volumes of data on the internet. “On this
basis, data-based service offerings are
the actual engine of the service of the
future, as neither the use of sensors
nor the interconnectedness of the machines alone represent an additional value
over solutions offered to date,” writes
Manager Magazin.
Using these data as the foundation for
new and smart services is the logical continuation of the Industry 4.0 concept, and
it is increasingly at the center of the related activities. Already today, the data are
often used to improve services and exploit the potential in productivity and quality. For example, the assessment and
utilization of machine operation data is
widespread when optimizing repair and
maintenance procedures.
So data-based services are already well
established, but the most important innovation of smart services lies in comprehensively interconnecting all the various
different involved parties: the prepared
data will in future be organized through
integrated service platforms that refine
unstructured data sets into structured
ones and enable precise statements to be
made on the current or expected customer needs. Based on this information,
physically rendered services, electronic
services and products will be joined together to form customer-specific solutions – and possibly even offered to the
customer before they even recognize that
they need them. •
15
The importance of services for the growth and competitiveness of companies is
undeniable – regardless of whether we are talking about person-related, knowledgeintensive or product-supporting services.«
Yesterday’s model:
Service when requested by the
customer:
Today’s model:
Proactive sale of product-related
services
Tomorrow’s model:
The service professional –
data-based services
Market-controlled reaction
to observed trends
Chance for extraordinary growth
with services not recognized
Sale of services focused on
existing customers
Customer does not pay for
service separately
High data quality is not recognized
as being business-critical
New fields of expertise and
working processes are only
established reactively
Further qualifying staff is not
considered to be critical for the
business
Service portfolio defined in relation
to the products
The volume of services provided
rises in line with the product
business
The added value of the services
is made known to the customer
and paid for
Service expertise is in Sales and
Marketing
Established individual services
are standardized and configured as
service products
Measures for improving the service
quality are implemented
Data management is one of the
company’s core processes
The service business has its own
department or profit center
Sales, profit margin and market
shares are determined by the
success of the service
The service business grows
irrespective of the product business
Analysis and interpretation of data
are among the core competencies
The innovation process for
developing proprietary services
is established
Investments in IT enable
automation of handling
High level of integration is the
foundation of the customer loyalty
Atreus GmbH
Landshuter Allee 8
80637 Munich
Germany
Phone: +49 89 452249 - 0
[email protected]
www.atreus.de
VTH Verband Technischer Handel e. V.
Prinz-Georg-Straße 106
40479 Düsseldorf
Germany
Phone: +49 211 44 53 22
[email protected]
www.vth-verband.de
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Services