The Evolution of a Connected Products Strategy: From Remote Service to Digital Thread

A successful connected products strategy is part of the digital transformation journey for many life science companies.

This webinar will present a case study about the decision process of the company Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH to pursue a connected products strategy. Digital transformation began with goals of better uptime and more effective service for their critical laboratory end-users. Then, the digital transformation strategy expanded to support their entire organization with performance information that drives continuous improvement.

Carl Zeiss Microscopy was founded in Germany over 175 years ago. They became the first commercial producers of microscopes that meet the exacting standards required by researchers and users in other laboratory applications that range from quality assurance to clinical testing. Today, Carl ZEISS AG has over 30,000 people worldwide to support one of the industry’s broadest portfolios of optics and optoelectronics, powering the research of more than 36 Nobel Laureates in the fields of medicine, chemistry and physics.

These precision instruments cannot be out of service; downtime can extend project timelines, force interruptions in research protocols or even invalidate works in progress. Because of the critical nature of the work these instruments support, the company has long provided in-person service, dispatching engineers whenever a customer was down. This reactive service model was eroding profits, and with an expanding business they recognized the need for change. The company developed a predictive service based on Internet of Things (IoT) technology, with the twin goals of increasing customer satisfaction and better controlling service costs.

Today, IoT technology is a normal part of the business, powering improvements in both first-time-fix rates and mean-time-to-resolution, with custom dashboards being delivered to their customers, sharing insights into instrument performance and improving the user experience. Further, ZEISS is recognizing the value of the data from the field for more than service improvements. It is now being shared with the product development teams, providing real-time feedback on product performance and informing engineering priorities.

Join this webinar to hear the featured speakers present more about:

• A life science company’s decision process to pursue a connected products strategy
• The benefits and metric improvements delivered
• How delivery of performance data to customers improves the user experience
• How fleet data is used to inform R&D

Speakers

Dr. Christian Schwindling, Head of Remote Service & IT Support, Carl Zeiss Microscopy GmbH

After studying human and molecular biology and earning a doctorate in biophysics at Homburg University Hospital, Germany and Queens Medical Center, Honolulu, USA, Dr. Christian Schwindling joined Carl Zeiss AG in 2009 as a trainee and then assumed the role of Product and Application Specialist in sales support for EMEA region at Carl Zeiss Microimaging GmbH. In 2011, he moved to Zeiss Microscopy Labs in Munich as Senior Application Consultant, where he served as Team Manager from 2013. Since 2017, he acted as Service Product Manager Software in the Service and Customer Care area. Here he was responsible, among other things, for various software projects to optimize customer support (e.g., ZEISS Predictive Service) and oversaw the aftersales software business. Effective December 1, 2019, Dr. Christian Schwindling took over as Head of Remote Service & IT Support.

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Rene Zoelfl, Business Development Director Life Sciences CER and Chairman of the PTC Healthcare Executive Advisory Council, PTC

Rene has experience in life sciences in helping companies to transform to an agile enterprise through Industry 4.0 & digitization. He is qualified as a Certified Professional for Medical Software and has built up the life science practice at PTC in Germany. Based on his experience he has a deep understanding on how new technologies support digital transformation and how companies can benefit from digitization in different process areas and how regulations impact this journey.

As chair of the PTC HC Executive Advisory Council, Rene organizes and runs joint workshops with the council members and PTC Executives on industry topics and requirements.Rene is member of the ISPE and contributes to the Special Interest Group “Pharma 4.0”.
Rene joined PTC in October 2010 and prior he held several positions in consulting, portfolio management, and marketing at Siemens.

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