topic Hightech Strategy

Integration of production and services

The manufacturing industry already has a great deal of experience when it comes to services. The provision of product-related services fits in with the traditional understanding of customer services, through which customer-specific manufacturing solutions have always been developed and then combined with a range of different services on the basis of dialogue between the supplier and the customer. To date, however, the economic potential of the integration of products and services to solve customers' problems has hardly ever been exploited in full.

Research

Research carried out under the "Integration of production and services" research priority focuses on the development of integrated approaches ranging from the provision of technological support for services to cost-effective service offerings and staff qualification measures. This is not just about opening up new service areas, but also about identifying existing services as such, assessing them, and visibly increasing their cost-effectiveness by packaging and combining them with products.

The "Integration of production and services" research priority includes the following areas:

• Optimizing service portfolios and service management with the aim of increasing the profit contributions of production-related services
• Developing and implementing new business models for service packages and hybrid services that are based on new forms of division of labour in new value creation architectures, but also in new revenue and benefit models
• Developing new offerings for production-related services
• Developing concepts for the integration of production-related services in strategic management

Objectives

The aim is to help companies integrate production-related services into their innovation and value creation processes as an integral part of their corporate strategies. A great deal of information, knowledge and coordination is necessary to successfully integrate services in established business processes, thus rounding off product portfolios. This applies to interaction with the customers as well as to efforts within companies and in value creation networks. In order to incorporate services into established business processes in a cost-effective way, service offerings must fulfil the following criteria more effectively than in the past:

• A transparent cost structure, efficient controlling within the company and in global service networks
• Adaptability of the service to different products and production challenges; established innovation processes with the aim of offering complete solutions
• Modularity and reconfigurability in accordance with agreed standards
• Customer-specific service packages in connection with capital goods
• Transferable solutions for maintaining and improving the reliability, security and availability of production machines and plants
• New forms of cooperation with customers 
• Increased customer value before, during and after a product's useful life
• Integration of planning, controlling and value creation processes for products and product-related services (hybrid services)