Sunrise Subscription – Value Networks to Increase the Adaptability of Companies

 

As a result of increasingly dynamic customer needs, adaptability is becoming a decisive competitive advantage for suppliers in machine and plant construction. However, the growing need for flexible and optimized manufacturing solutions is increasingly contrasting with the sale of investment-intensive production equipment. Suppliers must instead evolve from hardware suppliers to solution providers. In this context, usage subscriptions, i.e. so-called subscription models, offer particularly high potential, as they allow access to usage data and continuous adaptation to customer needs without physical purchase. Customers also benefit from a flexible purchase of the service and lower capital commitment. This increases the adaptability of both providers and customers.

This is where the Sunrise research project comes in. Its overarching goal is to enable companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector to establish subscription models. This involves a holistic view of the dependencies within the value network, which includes suppliers and customers as well as enablers of the business model such as financial intermediaries and IoT service providers. A software-based method guide ("Sunrise Navigator") is developed for the introduction of subscription models in large and small companies in the mechanical and plant engineering sector, from the strategic orientation and technical framework conditions to organizational effects and control in the value network.

The project results serve the participating companies to sustainably establish subscription models (providers) and to develop new data-based services (providers, intermediaries such as IoT, and financial service providers). The method guidelines developed are aimed in particular at the manufacturing industry and ensure a company-independent, cross-sector, and flexible transfer of the results. On the research side, the results will be disseminated through publications and events. On the socio-economic level, potential benefits arise above all from the possibility of demand-led supply and demand management for companies.