Steinbeis Transfer Center Computer Applications in Engineering

We guide our clients on their journey to digitalization – from strategy development to implementation and beyond.

As a holistic consulting firm, we develop corporate and digitalization strategies for our clients. We also design and support transformation processes, IT system selection, and IT implementations.

Our focus is on the design and implementation of holistic, digitalized information architectures for companies and the interplay of major system classes such as CRM, PLM, ERP, MES/MOM, PIM, and CPQ. Related methodological topics, such as modularization, supply chain management, production design, and organizational structure planning, are also part of our portfolio. This is complemented by our RIM (Industrial Data Science) methodology, which incorporates current topics such as artificial intelligence, portfolio management, and process mining. In the areas of PLM, MES, and Industrial Data Science, the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Computer Applications in Mechanical Engineering (STZ-RIM) is one of the leading centers of expertise in Central Europe.

Strategy consulting
With our approach to strategy consulting – strategy cascading – we support you throughout the strategy development process, from strategy formulation and target definition to performance measurement. Our consulting helps your company clearly identify and shape the necessary capabilities. We support you in defining the right fields of action and structuring and formulating the tasks within them.

In addition, we work with you to develop guiding principles that serve as a “north star” for each field of action and define the direction of transformation. To ensure that this transformation aligns smoothly with your corporate culture, we jointly design a customized transformation framework.

This framework places the fields of action and implementation steps along a timeline in a logical and manageable sequence. At the same time, we ensure that each completed initiative delivers tangible and measurable value for your company.

Process and methodology consulting
We support you in process and methodology consulting. Based on your strategy, you have defined fields of action that now need to be further specified and made operational. This involves formulating concrete, topic-specific guiding objectives and defining the content of implementation projects.

Successful execution requires the right expertise, methods, and tools across relevant process and domain areas. This is where our consulting comes in. We provide the necessary know-how as well as proven methods and tools across all key business domains and support you in implementation.

Our services range from a full-service approach – where we take the lead and train your employees through learning by doing – to selective support tailored to your specific needs.

We can act as a sparring partner, conduct topic-specific workshops, perform project-related analyses, or develop concepts and initial solution prototypes. We also assist in technology scouting and support implementation and rollout. With our health checks, we analyze your project situation precisely and provide a clear picture of your current status.

IT consulting
What will IT look like in the future? And how should IT be positioned and organized within a company? The ongoing transformation, especially driven by cloud technologies, is fundamentally changing the role of IT departments.

In the past, IT departments often focused on infrastructure, devices, and ensuring ERP systems were running. Organizations structured in this way will face increasing pressure. Many applications are moving to the cloud, reducing traditional IT responsibilities, while IT security is becoming more critical than ever.

Managing and protecting information generated in business processes as key assets will be a central task of modern IT. Another key challenge is ensuring that the right information is available at the right time to define and deliver products and services – without constant manual transformation.

This requires a consistent information architecture embedded across systems such as PLM, ERP, MOM, MES, CPQ, and others.

We help you position your IT organization to meet future demands by designing suitable organizational structures and developing modern IT processes. We also support the sustainable integration of IT-driven transformation within your organization.

Industrial Data Science
In industrial practice, many decisions are still made based on intuition, despite the long-standing availability of business intelligence, data warehousing, and big data technologies. Often, the success of initiatives cannot be quantified, and companies struggle to assess the potential of possible actions based on available data.

As a result, organizations tend to follow trends and management fads, hoping that some initiatives will succeed by chance. In difficult times, this often leads to broad, undifferentiated interventions that may harm essential parts of the organization.

This situation may seem surprising in the age of data science, machine learning, and AI – but it is not. Many companies are still managed like early steamships: commands are issued centrally, executed through multiple layers, and followed by uncertainty about outcomes.

Now imagine instead piloting your company like a modern aircraft – where precise inputs lead to immediate, controlled responses, supported by intelligent systems that ensure stability even in turbulent conditions.

This is the vision behind our Industrial Data Science approach – and we are convinced that it will become reality.

Training with the RIM Academy
Our seminars and workshops, delivered by leading experts, provide you with the necessary knowledge in relevant domains and support both your company’s development and your personal growth. We continuously expand our portfolio and are happy to design tailored programs that meet your specific needs.

Selected programs from the RIM Academy portfolio:

• Methodical Essentials for PLM Experts
• MES Essentials for PLM Experts
• ERP Essentials for PLM Experts
• PLM Essentials for ERP Experts
• PLM Complex Made Easy
• Diploma of Advanced Studies in Digitalization & Information Architecture (DAS DIA) – a “Shaolin monastery” for digitalization

Steinbeis Transfer Magazine

• The key to success lies in challenging, understanding and continuously improving business processes (Transfer 3/2024)
  An interview with Professor Dr.-Ing. Jörg W. Fischer, Steinbeis Entrepreneur at the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Computer Applications in Engineering (STZ-RIM)
• Editorial (Transfer 2/2019)
  
• Digital transformation means a lot more than digitalization (Transfer 2/2019)
  Small and medium-sized enterprises need to do more than digitalize processes – they also need to keep overhauling their business models
• The Starting Point for Implementing Digital Transformation: Excellent Teaching (Transfer 2/2017)
  Steinbeis experts develop tool kit-based PLM teaching module PLM-Tactile
• A Shaolin Monastery for Managing Product Life Cycles, Smart Factories, and Digital Solutions (Transfer 1/2017)
  Steinbeis experts launch training to become a PLM Principal Consultant

External Publications

• Product Lifecycle Management in the digital age. The catalyst for IoT, Industry 4.0 and Digital Twins. (2019)
  Study „Future PLM“ in cooperation with the BearingPoint Jörg W. Fischer, Stefan Bahrenburg