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…

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…

Servitization is a process of creation of new services that are based on existing products already offered by a company. This eventually leads to improving the offering by adding additional services to existing product (product-service systems) or even replacing the product with an innovative service. Also, servitization fosters digitalization of manufacturing SMEs by creating new revenue streams based on digitalized products and maximizes the potential of the Industry 4.0 infrastructure. …

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…

On April 29th 2021, the third session of capacity building for business support organizations was held, this time with the focus on the business implications that occur during adoption of new technologies by the companies aiming to improve their business. The aim of this session is to present tools and methods that allow the assessment of opportunities, challenges, risks and change requirements regarding business model, strategy and organisation of the company that wants to introduce new…

The InnoPeer Advanced Manufacturing (AVM) courses offer a practical introduction to the topic of Industrie 4.0. The transformation towards Industrie 4.0 is one of the key challenges for European companies. Traditional factories turn into “smart factories” by adding connectivity and self-intelligence. Components are printed instead of casted or forged, and profit drivers will be data instead of real products. However, technological changes are not the only challenges awaiting companies…