With predictive maintenance, machine and system failures can be avoided by continuously collecting and evaluating operating data and taking appropriate measures in good time. On this basis, components can be replaced at the optimum time and maintenance intervals can be closely aligned with actual requirements. Lapp is also developing systems for predictive maintenance. After all, even the most robust cables can sometimes fail. Not to forget: If a cable is replaced during routine maintenance when it is not actually necessary, this drives up costs unnecessarily. Lapp has therefore developed a system that monitors data cables and calculates their ageing and expected remaining service life from changes in their transmission properties. The recorded data is compared with the information on the ageing properties of cables that Lapp has researched, documented and stored.

During development, the engineers at Lapp initially focused purely on technical feasibility, explains Guido Ege, Head of Product Management and Development. "Nobody asked themselves which customers would need it and how much they would be prepared to pay for it." At the Hannover Messe, it became clear that the solution was meeting with demand. Now they want to "develop a suitable business model with pilot customers," says Ege.

New process supports innovation
With "Innovation for Future", Lapp has developed a new process for its innovation management specifically for this purpose. The new approach primarily supports the development of radical, disruptive innovations that cannot be optimally managed using the tried-and-tested stage-gate process. This is because with stage-gate, the management sets targets that have to be achieved step by step. A key element of such processes is, among other things, the assessment of potential sales and profit opportunities.

But this can become a problem: The greater the change that can accompany an innovation, the less clear the opportunities that arise from it. There may not yet be any concrete business cases if the developers are entering completely new territory. In such a case, the project would not be able to start at all as part of a stage-gate process. This is why "Innovation for Future" creates targeted scope for the development of new technologies and business models that have so far only existed as ideas that are not very concrete.

Nevertheless, Lapp has defined three requirements that must be met before the start of an "Innovation for Future" project. Despite all the freedom, they should provide a certain structure and objective. Firstly, the innovation team must develop a technical solution. Secondly, it must talk to at least one potential customer. And finally, thirdly, the team must create a business model canvas in advance in which all nine elements of the stage-gate process are completed.

One major change in the new innovation process is the role of management. Previously, managers were informed about the development status at defined intervals and then decided how to proceed. Now they are specifically involved as idea providers and supporters - in other words, enablers. For example, they establish network contacts for the innovation team and approve the financial and time budget. Guido Ege clarifies: "Stage-Gate is not dead". On the contrary, Stage-Gate is part of the "Innovation for Future" process and is still the method of choice when it comes to step-by-step innovations, such as the development of a new cable type based on a predecessor product.

Ethernet for IoT applications
The second innovation presented by Lapp, Single-Pair Ethernet, is a good example of this. The background to this is the rapid increase in the number of data connections in the factory of the future. This is because more and more systems and machines are currently being equipped with sensors, keyword IoT. They generate data that is needed for predictive maintenance, among other things. However, it is often small amounts of data that emanate from such sensors, such as pressure and temperature values.

A fast Cat.6A cable is completely oversized for such a low data rate. Single-pair Ethernet cables therefore only have one pair of wires instead of the usual four. This makes these cables thinner and cheaper. And they can still transmit up to one gigabit per second. This is completely sufficient for many applications. Single-pair Ethernet is neither the basis for a generally new business model nor is it new technological territory. It is a consistent further development of existing lines in order to meet changing requirements. The stage-gate innovation process was therefore exactly right here. as