Insights
"Our innovation pipeline is full of ideas"
| KraussMaffei
Interview with Digital-President Nadine Despineux
At K, KraussMaffei presented a firework of new digital products. In an interview, Nadine Despineux, President Digital & Service Solutions, talks about the digital future and other innovations for the plastics industry.
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As president of digital & service solutions, what has been your top priority for 2019? And what is your top priority for 2020?
Nadine Despineux
In 2019 we have been working on building up the team and developing our digital and service strategy. In 2020 we will consequently execute our strategy – always with the clear focus on adding value to the business of our customers – and continuing with the digital transformation of our company.
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It’s been about two years, since KraussMaffei announced its machinery leasing program. Can you provide an overview of the program today? Are there any other financing alternatives planned for 2020?
Nadine Despineux
We have introduced the program “Rent-it” about two years ago with the idea to provide our customers with the opportunity to rent production capacity instead of buying or owning the machines. This was just the first step towards moving into a more flexible business model for our customers. The next step is, that we introduce a pay-per-use model, which is a kind of “Injection Molding As-a-Service”. This goes beyond any traditional leasing model and is a data based asset management model, which dramatically reduces the operational risk of our customers. This concept has been developed in co-creation with key customers and we are currently in the process of realizing the first pilot cases.
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K 2019 is over - KraussMaffei has positioned itself as a pioneer of digitization in the plastics industry. What are the next steps?
Nadine Despineux
Our innovation pipeline is full of ideas and concepts, which are in the process of validation. The great advantage within digital and service business is, that the time from idea-to-market is much shorter than in the traditional business. So, you can stay curious about the next features to come.
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Can you explain your digital strategy?
Nadine Despineux
We made a conscious decision to focus on digitalization activities to create customer value. This covers the whole span, from further developour machine offering by adding digital technologies like our APCplus function – to stand-alone digital offerings to promote the machinery business like our new socialProduction app – up to complete new digital offerings beyond our machinery business like our new B2B digital market place polymore.
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What are the big advantages of this digital strategy?
Nadine Despineux
Mechanical engineering is and stays the heart of our company. However, building the best machines will not differentiate ourselves enough from our competition. We strongly believe that new business models and digital offerings are key to creating unique customer experiences. And, this is exactly what we – as KraussMaffei – are aiming for with our digital strategy: “Creating unique customer experiences” with and for our customers.
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What are the challenges?
Nadine Despineux
The key challenge for every successful engineering company – and with 180 years of experience even more - is the change in mindset, which is necessary for digital transformation. This starts with a full commitment of the top management and extends to an equally strong enablement of the employees. The digital transformation is a journey and we strongly believe that our company values of being curious, enriching and bold will guide us towards a successful future.