New Business Models Based on Smart Transport Container and Data-Based Services

The Internet of Things, Data, and Services is changing markets and competitive environments of most industries. The modularization and digitalization of products enable a fundamental change of business models. Based on the systematic analysis of product and process data, product-related services with significant usage improvement potential can be offered to the customers. This chapter presents the creation of new service-system-based business models by the example of the transport container industry. The findings presented are based on the results of the research project “iSLT.NET”, that was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The project has pre-competitively applied technologies of the “Internet of Things” in automotive supply chains, by constructing intelligent loading equipment and by designing and implementing a cloud-based service system for smart container management. Core target of this “cross-company network for smart load carrier” is to enable fundamentally new business models for the load carrier industry with hybrid – data-based and container-based – services and cloud-based implementations. In particular, data platforms and IT-services such as cross-company management of load carrier enable hardware-independent revenues and offer manufacturers the opportunity to escape from the downward spiral of cost competition by transforming their business model. The digitalization of transport container offers the customers, among other things, more transparency of the material flows and of the actual conditions of the loaded goods by smart sensors, cross-organisational optimization of the supply chain processes, and lower costs by network operator and pay-per-use payment models.