More flexibility dealing with market and economic fluctuations as well as access to the latest technologies: that is the promise of the new “Woodworking as a Service” business model, which the Weinig company will be implementing over the next two years.
In the future, the company says, will enable customers to pay for machines according to actual usage. This means that a machine will not be purchased once for a specific amount, but that customers will receive a machine whose utilization is invoiced at regular intervals. So, it is no longer the machine that is at the centre of the business model, but its performance, its output, its availability, and the service that assures all this.
With support from the “InvestBW” funding program of the state of Baden-Württemberg, the WEINIG Group has received approval for funding of the “Woodworking as a Service” business model innovation. The program provides funding for companies based in Baden-Württemberg for technological research and development projects aimed at novel, data-based business models and services (known as “smart services”).
Within this sponsored project, WEINIG will cooperate with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), Roth Steuerungstechnik and Hogra-Holz. Fraunhofer IPA from Stuttgart supports the consortium with the latest methods from science and with expertise in business modelling.
Roth Steuerungstechnik from Billigheim is the software expert in the team and an important partner for developing the technical application of the service. WEINIG is working with Hogra-Holz from Limbach as a pilot customer, said Jochen Ganz, head of WEINIG’s New Business & Innovation department. According to Ganz, “their involvement will ensure that the business model will be developed close to customer requirements and that the customer perspective will be integrated from the very beginning.”
The official start of the project has already been made. The project plan and the work packages have been finalized in a meeting with the partners involved. According to Julian Geiselhardt, innovation manager and head of the “Woodworking as a Service” project, the company will provide information about further developments at regular intervals in order to ensure full transparency.
Source: woodworkingnetwork.com
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