15 From today’s perspective, how would you assess the business and political conditions that influenced the rise of your company? Oliver Hermanns: As far as financing opportunities for start-ups are concerned, the German and also the European capital market is still difficult to access. Venture capital is available, but German investors and banks are much more risk-averse than investors in the U.S. capital market. Looking at the attitude of politicians toward start-ups, however, a positive shift in mentality can be observed. They increasingly recognize the importance of start-ups for establishing Germany as a business hub and launched targeted incentive measures that we also benefit from. In addition, start-ups are mainly developing into medium-sized companies, which are known for their focus on innovation and thus contribute to developing our industrial infrastructure and creating jobs. Recently you’ve focused mainly on the digital design and validation of wiring systems and hose systems for the automotive industry. Is this still your core business or has your product range expanded? What expansions are you planning? Oliver Hermanns: Focusing on 3D design and validation of wiring systems and hose systems is still our core business. However, we are currently expanding our business model to include a more process-oriented application. We want to serve the entire value chain with our products, from original design through development, testing, production, to sales and after-sales. What opportunities do you see arising from the 3D software-based human model IPS IMMA that you have developed? Daniel Dengel: Our view is that there is still a very high proportion of human work in machine-human interaction, especially in assembly and production. The question is, can people perform a task at all later on down the assembly line, and what are the ergonomic effects on them? Our digital human model IPS IMMA can provide the answers to these questions. It gives customers the possibility to not only simulate the design and installation of cable harnesses but also to extend the simulation to virtually all components. By digitally checking these tasks early in the product development process, valuable insights can be gained and the number of prototypes reduced. This directly saves development time and costs. Question: Your current customer base is the automotive industry. Will this change in the future and if so, into which industry sectors do you plan to expand? Oliver Hermanns: Given the significantly expanding range of applications for our NDE 4.0 – Fraunhofer IZFP! info@izfp.fraunhofer.de www.izfp.fraunhofer.de SENSOR AND DATA SYSTEMS FOR SAFETY, SUSTAINABILITY, AND EFFICIENCY NDE 4.0 and Cognitive Sensor Systems – The Future of NDT of tomorrow!
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