Consulting via Research in IMPRESS

Abstract

Manufacturing companies in mechanical and plant engineering are increasingly aiming for the change from product manufacturer to digital service provider. Digitalization is bringing data-driven digital services – so-called Smart Services – into focus. However, the resulting systems of hybrid value creation and work differ fundamentally from the systems established today. Especially small- and medium-sized companies face major challenges concerning the transformation to a Smart Service provider. The reason for this are the historically grown corporate structures of value creation and work. Additionally, there is often a lack of sufficient expertise and resources to identify and implement necessary changes. Many small and medium-sized enterprises are aware of the potential of Smart Services. But the realization and offering of Smart Services has so far only taken place occasionally. Therefore, we cannot but deduce that a comprehensive socio-technical consulting approach is required to launch Smart Services efficiently. The paper at hand presents an approach which addresses these challenges holistically by using research-based consulting. It is based on the Design Research Methodology according to Blessing and Chakrabarti. The adapted consulting via research approach is applied and validated by four case studies from tooling machine industry within the joint research project IMPRESS.

Keywords

• hybrid value creation and work
• consulting via research
• design research methodology
• innovation chain
• transformation process
• smart service