Problem statement and motivation

There is a limited diffusion of new business models, especially by SMEs, and in particular in the sectors of interest of this project. More often than not capital goods manufacturers act as pure suppliers of pieces of equipment, while they neglect the opportunities stemming from a more service-oriented approach. Thus, they tend to lose control over their installed base in field, and fail to achieve the customer intimacy that is quintessential to devise and offer customized products and services.

The predominant presence of models at a low-level of maturity (i.e. renting is simple renting without a more comprehensive perspective), the still limited attention to the Total Cost of Ownership of products in their design phase, the still limited attention to the environmental effects of product design choices, and the limited use of condition monitoring and health assessment analysis in the production domain are the causes that motivate new business models where the manufacturer should design the products and the related services to achieve the minimum Life Cycle Cost, by for instance: extending the product lifecycle, reducing the costs connected to the product usage and maintenance, even at the expenses of higher costs related to materials production processes, and supporting technologies.
Acting on the thorough development and implementation of the business model and on the core processes / techniques, i.e. product and service offer design, data collection, service&maintenance operations, with a theoretical-practical perspective (through conceptual deliverables and business demonstrators) T-REX aim to show how such obstacles could be overcome. In measure of the generalisability of results, T-REX has chosen 3 different industrial contexts for its application (machinery, transportation and robotics), that ensure a broad business applicability of the outcome of this project.