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A lot is happening in the manufacturing industry right now. Rapid growth, scarcity of engineers, rapidly changing technology, new developments and the market becoming increasingly competitive. We spoke to Willem Hofmans, CEO of IXON, about the current state of the market and the growth opportunities for machine builders.
Hofmans used his background in engineering to found IXON, after which it grew into one of the most valued and user-friendly remote service & IIoT platforms in the manufacturing industry.
“The manufacturing industry is growing at a rapid pace. However, due to the component crisis, many machines are still waiting for missing components before they can be delivered to customers. Moreover, the pandemic has made commissioning of machines more expensive and difficult.”
“Machine builders are innovators and are constantly improving their machines. Their biggest challenge today is to find ways to generate revenue throughout the life cycle of the machine, rather than just during commissioning. They need to think of new ways to help customers through the internet and develop business models for this. For this, they need the right people, which is an additional challenge due to the scarcity of engineers.”
“Many machine builders have made the strategic decision to invest in developing new service propositions. They want to use their knowledge to continuously improve their machines and advise customers on how to use the machine in the most efficient way.”
“Many companies are taking the first steps towards these propositions by implementing Industrial IoT. Internal project groups are started and IoT specialists are hired. The strategy is communicated organisation-wide so that all departments, from engineering and service to sales, are involved.”
“The machinery industry will increasingly focus on providing excellent service, rather than selling technology. Machine builders want their own IIoT portal with their own app, where they can prepare automated insights for their customers. Preferably in one central location. With these capabilities, they can sell new service models and generate new revenue streams.”
“With remote access widely considered a must-have, many machine builders are taking their first steps towards condition monitoring - having had it on their roadmap for quite some time.”
“Today, there are many examples of implementations in different industries from which they can learn. Moreover, technology has evolved to the point where it is easier to start implementing IIoT. Analysing collected data is more widely embraced, which is crucial for condition monitoring. In addition, there is more demand for integrations with third-party tools in IIoT platforms, such as ERP or a ticketing system. This makes it possible to put together the best process to make machines perform optimally.”
“I think there are a number of topics that will play a big role for machine builders not only in 2022, but also in the years after. New service propositions will certainly emerge. As mentioned, the focus of machine builders is shifting from selling technology to selling excellent service. As a result, data analytics will become increasingly important. Machine builders will start working not only on condition monitoring, but also on monitoring machine performance and analysing machine data to discover causes of downtime.”
“In addition, cybersecurity and sustainability are becoming increasingly important, requiring machine builders to pay attention and resources to cybersecurity, and to help their customers reduce waste and energy consumption during production.”
“We are in a fast-growing market, with ever stronger competitors, partly due to mergers, and customers demanding more and better services. Therefore, it is crucial to plan for the future and have a strong strategy for the future - a strategy such as selling services as a new business model, for example.”
“Take it one step at a time; put together a project team with a mix of dedicated people from inside and outside the company to start the innovation process. Think out of the box and make sure you invest in the future. At IXON, we follow the motto: Think big, start small, scale fast.”
“IXON wants to inspire machine builders and help them gain a competitive advantage. That means we help machine builders find a strategy that fits their unique needs and plans. We also provide the right technology and tools to successfully implement their strategy - with security across our entire organisation and products.”
