Research and consulting in data-driven strategic product planning

Industry 4.0 and digitalization have transformed the industrialworld. Many manufacturers create additional customer value byoffering data-based services. However, companies can benefitfrom analyzing data themselves, too. Through data, companiescan learn about product usage and behavior. This enables themto systematically improve their products. But finding improvements through data analysis is not trivial.Henceforth, we developed a method for the data-based identification of product improvements. This method was created in thejoint research project DizRuPt with four companies from different industrial sectors.The paper at hand introduces our approach of combining researchand consulting in terms of a case study from our research projectDizRuPt. The result is a research and consulting concept whichis optimized for a two days workshop. From our point of view,there is no other way in researching methods for strategic productplanning but through working together closely with companies.This is especially important as methods must be researched forpractical usage. Simultaneously, it is essential to never forget thatcompanies only participate in research projects if they clearly seea benefit. A benefit through consulting.