Motivation
Werkzeug-Eylert GmbH & Co. KG from Chemnitz is a third-generation tool wholesaler with a product range of over 40,000 articles for industry, commerce, trade and authorities. The company maintains a close and trusting relationship with its numerous customers. An informal network already exists through which customers contact each other in order to take over or place short-term orders. Customers are thus motivated to exchange orders, despite possible competitive situations.
Werkzeug-Eylert would like to expand this network and establish a digital platform for a simple and fast capacity balancing within its own customer base. In this way, the company is pursuing the vision of strengthening the economy of Chemnitz (and Central Germany) in its sector.
Objective
Werkzeug-Eylert’s goal is to establish a digital platform for short-term capacity balancing in its own customer network. Since the platform should be non-commercial, it must be designed as simple as possible for all participants, for example to share capacity data easily (“minimum viable platform”). Therefore, it is also necessary to investigate which technical platform solutions are suitable for the (virtual) business network.
In addition to the vision of strengthening the regional economy, the digital platform should primarily serve to strengthen customer loyalty and brand awareness of Werkzeug-Eylert. A further research objective is thus the analysis of how the benefits of the digital platform are achieved or distributed for the stakeholders in the business network and what additional value creation potential can be achieved by sharing common data.
Results
The result of the joint multi-stakeholder case will be a concept for a digital platform for short-term capacity balancing in the customer network of Werkzeug-Eylert. The following essential steps are planned:
- Market analysis of existing platforms for capacity balancing, in particular with focus on configurations, functionalities, participants, and success factors
- Idea development workshop based on the market analysis
- Clarification of the feasibility of the digital platform through discussions with selected potential stakeholders of the business network
- Aggregation of the contents into an implementation concept for the digital platform and gradual refinement in workshops
