Creating Data-Driven Products and Services in Industry 4.0: A Case Study on Companies in the German Machine and Tool Industry

During the past ten years, lots of new data-driven products and services for tools, machinery and equipment have been developed. While several new players from other industries gained a certain market share, plant and machinery producers also started to enhance their portfolio to take on new data-driven products and services because of the technological changes in Industry 4.0. As a first part of the research, an extensive market study was carried out to analyze how many German companies already offer data-based products and services in addition to their core machines and understand what kind of offerings they make. To classify these offerings, a scheme based on established Industry 4.0 maturity models was developed. In brief, the market for data-driven products and services is still developing, with few technology leaders and fast movers taking the largest share. While the market study gave an overview of what was on offer, the second part of this contribution analyzes how the fast movers with a high level of Industry 4.0 maturity conducted their data-driven services and products. Thus, these few companies were analyzed in more detail, based on public material as well as subsequent expert interviews. Most fast movers in this study relied on the same patterns and approaches, especially when looking at organizational issues such as customer-driven innovation, agile organization of operations, mixed teams, partnering and portfolio enhancement.