Professor Stilz, your Steinbeis Transfer Center (STC) for Metal Working and Work Organization is at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences and thus right in the middle of the Neckar-Fils region, an area with a strong emphasis on R&D. There is an innovative atmosphere in the area, fuelled by a long list of successful small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as well as large companies. Does this also have an impact on the work of your Steinbeis enterprise?
It certainly does. There’s hardly anywhere else in Europe with such a high concentration of SMEs. This has a huge impact on fields like mechanical engineering and automotive engineering. Few of these companies are well known but they’re extremely strong on the international stage and that’s only possible with cutting-edge technology. My Steinbeis Transfer Center also currently does the majority of its business with SMEs, in contrast to the larger companies which were the source of our turnover in the beginning.
You’re the vice rector of research at Esslingen University of Applied Sciences. How do you see your interaction with Steinbeis? What synergies are there and what are the future prospects?
As far as the quality of education at the university is concerned, Steinbeis is totally beneficial to us. The people who head up a Steinbeis enterprise can only sell their services through competition. Their knowhow has to be up to date, valuable and based on actual business practice. That’s something we also want in teaching. When it comes to research, the answers are more varied. Not all active members of the Steinbeis community are also busy researchers. There are exceptions, but not many. What we have to do is to make it a win-win situation in both areas and that’s something we’re currently holding talks with Steinbeis headquarters about.
The services profile of your center contains a surprise or two: Your key areas of activity are two completely different fields – metal working and work organization. How did you arrive at this combination?
This stems from my career which involved both topics. Over the years there’s been a strong shift toward metal working.
You founded your Steinbeis Transfer Center in 1993 and can now look back on many years’ experience with the university as well as with Steinbeis. In retrospect, what developments in the industry, but also within your center, had the most influence on the direction your center is headed in today?
In essence, the emphasis hasn’t really changed that much. It’s just that public awareness has heightened. Lightweight construction, which I’m primarily referring to in terms of materials, has always been and still is the topic in metal working. The fact that you need energy to shift weight is no less true now than it has ever been – no one wants to have to keep refueling. A balance had to be struck and still has to be struck between vehicle safety, driving comfort and vehicle weight. You don’t have to be clairvoyant or Einstein to figure that out. The conundrum stays the same, no matter what drive a vehicle uses, no matter where it is – in the air, on the railroad or on the highway.
That was looking back, so how about if we look to the future. What challenges await us and what goals have you set for yourself?
Material issues will be crucial in metal working. Modern materials – whether they’re steel, aluminum or magnesium – have their own distinctive characteristics, with pros and cons, whether you’re processing them or just using them. Finding the right material to use in a component is no easy task. And of course the material also has to be as cheap as possible. Alternative techniques are also a really exciting area: plastics or molded materials. This is where it would help to be clairvoyant.