Planning of hybrid portfolios for industrial solution providers in machinery engineering

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Günther Schuh
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 554929445

Companies in the machinery engineering sector are increasingly faced with the challenge of successfully shaping their transformation into solution providers. A necessary element for this is the adaptation of the portfolio and the alignment to the changed customer needs. The aim of the research project is therefore to develop a methodology for planning a hybrid portfolio consisting of physical products and value-added services for solution providers in mechanical engineering. For this purpose, target dimensions for the portfolio of a solution provider are first described and operationalized by suitable targets, which are used in the further process to plan the portfolio in accordance with the targets. Relevant characteristics for structuring and describing the portfolio are then identified. Due to the high level of customer interaction resulting from the transformation to a solution provider, these must be recorded in collaboration with potential customers and their relevance for the company evaluated accordingly. In the next step, possible packages consisting of product components and value-added services are formed on the basis of integrated solution staggering. The prerequisite for this is the expansion of the existing product architecture into an integrated solution architecture and the linking of the individual components with the identified characteristics so that the elements required to implement a characteristic can be derived. Finally, the derived packages are evaluated with regard to their conformity with the targets, so that it is ensured that the transformation of the portfolio is value-creating from both an internal and an external company perspective. In addition, the project described minimizes the effort required to develop new solutions. The results will be validated with partners from science and industry.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants