The UK manufacturing industry has witnessed a rise in service-based business models, but despite clear potential for business growth and reliable revenues, the uptake of servitization in the UK is not as widespread as it could be. The recent report 'Servitisation: from products to profit' seeks to change that by making the business case for servitization and assessing its role in improving manufacturing productivity and contributing to the UK economy. View the recording of the webinar…

By providing access to technical expertise and experimentation as well as the possibility to 'test before invest', EDIHs help companies improve business/production processes, products, or services using digital technologies. They also provide innovation services, such as financing advice, training, and skills development that are needed for a successful digital transformation. Environmental issues are also taken into account, in particular with regard to energy consumption and low carbon…

Digitalization is deeply affecting all industry sectors as the driver of product, service and business innovation, but also as the threat to organizations which are reluctant to change or not keeping pace with the evolving environment. Many Central European production companies are urgently searching for guidance and support to master the transformation towards Industry 4.0. These trends are not challenging only for the companies, but also for the business support organizations in need to…

The first part of this document, issued from Things+ Project co-financed by Interreg Central Europe, contains a set of tools to be used during the third phase of implementing the Service Innovation Methodology. Some of the tools and methods are already used in previous steps – at this phase, those tools are not used to analyse but to design and envision the new state, servitization elements and also to plan the change. Phase 3 is much less prescriptive and suggested steps are supposed to create…

This document, issued from Things+ Project co-financed by Interreg Central Europe, contains a set of tools to be used during the second phase of implementing the Service Innovation Methodology. Some of the tools and methods will be used during the second workshop with participating SMEs while the other will be used by the SMEs on their own in the period after the workshop. The companies will be instructed how to use these tools for self-assessment and data gathering, and also will be…

This document, issued from Things+ Project, co-financed by Interreg Central Europe, contains the tools and methods to be used during the first phase of the Service Innovation Methodology implementation in manufacturing SMEs. The first phase deals with assessment of the company capabilities, existing products and services features and opportunities for modifying the offering. During this first phase the company will start to conceptualise its opportunities for servitization, based on the…

Due to the more competitive environment, manufacturing companies need to complement their offerings with industrial, knowledge-based services. To successfully develop, produce and market these, organizational changes throughout the company and the measurement of this development are necessary. Therefore, in the scope of the Interreg CE project ProsperAMnet, the Industrial Service Excellence Monitor has been developed - a tool that helps companies determine their current situation and derive…

The Service Export Radar is a cutting-edge, artificially intelligent solution to assist advanced manufacturers in their decision-making process regarding their service export into new markets abroad. Especially the time-consuming market research process before any entry into a new market is facilitated. With the help of artificial intelligence, specific information will be collected automatically, and the radar can be used for three different reasons: Use case #1: Search for similar…

On April 22nd, the second session of our wave 2 took place, focusing on understanding Industry 4.0 technology implications. BSOs were invited to listen to the input of two experts, Mr. Harald Weigold and Mr. Jörn Linke from ITQ GmbH/Germany, who helped them identify I4.0 tech blind spots and challenges, which occur when implementing I4.0 projects. By the help of a case study, BSO participants were asked to develop recommendations for an industrial company, aiming at introducing an…

This final round of Wave 2 was organized by Business Upper Austria, which involved the two experts from FH JOANNEUM - University of Applied Sciences in Kapfenberg, Prof. Dr. Martin Tschandl and Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Ernst Peßl, to introduce the key aspects to the participants. In their input, the two experts presented the I4.0 roadmapping process developed by FH Joanneum, which also includes a similar tool for maturity assessment as the VDMA maturity model from the first session of Wave2. Using…