More flexibility dealing with market and economic fluctuations as well as increased access to the latest technologies is the promise of the “Woodworking as a Service” business model launched by the Weinig Group. The program will be implemented over the next two years.

In the future, the company says, the program will enable customers to pay for machines according to actual usage. This means that a machine will not be purchased once for a specific amount, but customers will receive a machine whose utilization is invoiced at regular intervals. 

With support from the “InvestBW” funding program of the state of Baden-Württemberg, the Weinig Group has received approval for funding of the new program. The program provides funding for companies based in Baden-Württemberg for technological research and development projects aimed at novel, data-based business models and services.

Within this sponsored project, Weinig will cooperate with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), Roth Steuerungstechnik and Hogra-Holz.

Feraunhofer IPA from Stuttgart will supports the consortium with the latest equipment technologies and methods, and with expertise in business modeling.

Roth Steuerungstechnik from Billigheim is the software expert in the team and an important partner for developing the technical application of the service. Weinig is working with Hogra-Holz from Limbach as a pilot customer, said Jochen Ganz, head of Weinig's New Business & Innovation department. According to Ganz, "Their involvement will ensure that the business model will be developed close to customer requirements and that the customer perspective will be integrated from the very beginning."