Microsoft Inspire: Trends from the manufacturing sector: The journey to Product-as-a-Service has accelerated enormously!
A major industry trend is the so-called “Product-as-a-Service”. More and more manufacturing companies understand a stronger customer orientation as an essential requirement for their business success. In particular, with a business model in which products are offered “as a service”, the aim is to improve margins and intensify customer loyalty.
The purchase of a machine or a system is often more in focus than the product itself. Customers want to know what the product itself does and expect this service to be provided in the expected quality. Whether this is the punching power of a punching machine or the driving force of a motor. The manufacturer then makes these product properties available and thus changes from being a system seller to a service provider. The added value is inseparable from the reliability of the service provision. For the user of a Product-as-a-Service, this means that they can concentrate on the essentials and their own core competencies.
We have been working for several years to support our customers in their vision of Product-as-a-Service with innovative approaches and state-of-the-art technologies. In this way we enable our customers to create real added value for their customers.
Companies in the manufacturing industry tell us that there is a great need for a fully networked system that offers a common central insight into their customers and systems. This is exactly where our expertise comes in: We are developing smarter, integrated systems to enable proactive service, accelerate the productivity of suppliers and technicians, and simplify the contact center’s technology stack to reduce fragmentation and maintenance costs.
To this end, our partner Microsoft has also invested in the critical scenarios that manufacturers need to optimize support provision and increase customer satisfaction.
Smart automation
daenet can offer you the intelligent integration of the production landscape and the machine park with these tools.
In 2016, daenet and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences presented “Smart Automation” at the Hannover Fair. Smart automation is a portable device that is connected to two machines and one person via the cloud. The use case was aimed at the vast majority of German companies with fewer than 500 employees that drive Europe’s economy.
Today, the clear focus in the manufacturing industry is on the central issue of customer loyalty, i.e. the customer results. Product-as-a-Service is not just a buzzword in the industry: it is essential to remain competitive and create a sustainable future.
As a result, new business models are being made possible and the entire manufacturing value chain has to be fundamentally rethought. Technologies such as cloud computing, AI, IoT, mixed reality and digital twins can help take companies to the next technological level.
We have put together 5 digital transformation scenarios for you:
# 1 Connected sales force
The ideal first step to approaching a Product-as-a-Service model is to seek close and proactive customer support throughout the product lifecycle.
With networked field service solutions, it is possible to remotely monitor the “intelligent” product that has been sold to your customers. This gives you the knowledge you need for predictive maintenance - and minimizes your customers' downtime.
# 2 Connected sales and service
Delivering your Product-as-a-Service also means taking a new, collaborative approach to the sales process to help sellers, and ultimately your customers, navigate their increasingly complex product and service portfolios and create long-term relationships and to build continuous customer loyalty. If you want to provide your product “as a service” in the future, the sales processes must of course be adapted accordingly. Cooperation is the key to success here - whether in the sales department itself or with other areas of your company. This is made possible by improving the quality of information on product features, product usage and product maintenance. A complete view of the product data and telemetry from use during operation, which we can offer you with the most modern and cost-effective IoT technologies, helps here.
Networked sales and service solutions enable sellers to offer the entire spectrum of an to see customer needs. Sellers can analyze past product usage and performance and then use intelligent tools to predict potential needs.
# 3 Factory of the future - Connected Factory
You need an agile, responsive manufacturing process so that you can design your products and services individually and at the same time drive innovations much faster. You need solutions that help you to create a “factory of the future”. It’s about a complex ecosystem of self-regulating machines and sites that adapt the output, allocate resources optimally and offer a seamless interface between the physical and the virtual world.
The path to the factory of the future begins with the connection of factory facilities - the addition of sensors to machines and systems in order to collect data, and then to monitor and adjust the operation accordingly.
# 4 Smart supply chains
Intelligent supply chain systems enable closer cooperation in complex value chains. As you create more product variants while providing bespoke connected services, your supply chain becomes more complex and diverse. You can cope with this complexity with “intelligent” supply chain solutions.
# 5 Connected product innovation
Last but not least, you can leverage all of this data from IoT sensors, field service, sales, factories, and the supply chain to accelerate innovation.
With networked product innovation solutions, you get real-time insights into the products and functions. Instead of having to wait for the results of customer surveys or market research as in the past, you always have a finger on the pulse of the times with appropriate technological solutions. You can also get more accurate and up-to-date information on what parts failed and what the best solutions to the problem were to improve product and service performance.
Product-as-a-Service is one of the 5 trends that form the basis for an industry-specific cloud for manufacturing. Read more about it
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