Unternehmen & Trends 1/2023

28 Delivering or operating highly productive and reliable machinery and equipment alone will not suffice as a distinguishing feature forming the basis of business success of equipment suppliers in the future. This results from the fact that we are currently undergoing a paradigm shift away from the focus on products towards benefit-oriented added values; these are called product service systems (PSS), which add new value and ensure future-proof jobs for highly qualified staff. They are completed by software-based services in the area of production, which will ensure data-based subscription business models in an “as-aservice economy“. These are considered less susceptible to fluctuations in demand and investment cycles. Simultaneously, they strengthen customer loyalty and thus the sensitive customer interface. The key to product-related digital services and additional potentials can be found in information and communication technology (ICT). ICT ensures transparency with respect to value added chains, enhances resilience and Digitization Data ecosystems and data spaces create added value By Dr. Olaf Sauer, Automation business unit/Deputy Institute Director Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation (IOSB), Karlsruhe In Germany, almost 7.6 million men and women were working for manufacturing companies employing 50 or more people in 2022. Directly or indirectly, about 15 million of the barely 45 million jobs in Germany depend on the manufacturing sector of industry. This implies that the prosperity of Germany, being a country with few natural resources, will continue to depend immensely on innovative and efficient creation of value. New product service systems provided by machine builders and factory outfitters support the manufacturing sector in doing so, rendering them more resilient. Data ecosystems provide new opportunities for manufacturing enterprises and their equipment suppliers. (Source: Fraunhofer ISST) enables material cycles fostering a circular economy. Data spaces for simple and secure exchange In addition to the traditional hardware-related competences, team members of manufacturing enterprises have to acquire comprehensive competences quickly to be able to benefit from new tools such as GAIA-X, privacy and data sovereignty, platforms and data eco systems. The skills gap can only be addressed in cooperation with partners. An exemplary lighthouse project presenting a sector-related data space, which is basically a data space of the automotive supply chain, was started by the automotive industry in 2021, sponsored by the Federal Government. The Catena-X project aims at enabling the secure and simple exchange of information within the automotive supply networks while ensuring data sovereignty. The project is designed to increase the level of digitalization of the sector, the collaboration and the efficiency of processes, ensuring that the German automotive ecosystem will remain competitive in the future. To this end, Germany‘s three big original equipment manufacturers (OEM) BMW, Mercedes and Volkswagen cooperate with large and medium-sized suppliers from the entire automotive supply chain in the context of the Catena-X project. Expanding core competences – outsourcing activitiesData ecosystems enabling decentral data storage in industry-specific data spaces (figure 1), multilateral data sharing as well as the control of data access and data usage provide new opportunities for manufacturing enterprises and their equipment suppliers. Core competences can be expanded and other activities can be outsourced to specialized partners. This results in new provider profiles and forms of cooperation (figure 2). Data spaces require: infrastructure basic services such as the interpretation

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