KomiD

Initial situation

Manufacturing companies are forced to offer an increasing number of different products or product variants due to ever more individual customer requirements. This is accompanied by a constant growth in the service portfolio, as the right service must be provided for each variant. Furthermore, the progressive equipping of products and machines with sensors and actuators is increasingly enabling data-based services to be offered.

Due to the resulting complexity, companies are faced with the challenge of providing this variety of services flexibly without losing efficiency and effectiveness. SMEs in particular underestimate the challenges posed by an unstructured, growing service system. The growing range of classic industrial services and the addition of data-based services to meet individual customer needs ultimately leads to the creation of extensive service systems (“service jungle”).

Solution approach

• Identification of use cases and best practice solutions of complexity management of industrial and data-based services
• Development of complexity and success metrics and analysis of cause-effect relationships
• Linking of complexity dimensions and characteristic curves as well as identification of type-specific instructions for action

Expected result

A web-based IT tool for self-assessment of the complexity of industrial service systems will be developed during the project.

Benefits for the target group

SMEs in the mechanical engineering sector are to be enabled to optimize their service systems in terms of flexibility, efficiency and costs by means of a model for the complexity management of industrial service systems.