The MITTELSTAND – the small and medium-sized companies that form the backbone of the German business community – is quite rightly referred to as the ENGINE of the German economy. 99.5% of all companies in Germany are SMEs. They possess …
Category: Feature Topic
The Role of SMEs as an Engine of Creativity, Innovation, and Technology
Expanding and fostering the potential of SMEs is a crucial challenge of modern times
Innovative entrepreneurship acts as an driver of change in all areas of value creation in trade and commerce. Entrepreneurial thinking and market-oriented action provide impetus for …
Using Laser Technology to Combat Wear
Steinbeis experts offer customized solutions for medium-sized enterprises
For around two decades, the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Laser Processing and Innovative Manufacturing Technology has been developing applications that use laser deposition welding and laser hardening to deliver wear protection. The …
The Ideal (Air) Flow
A family-owned business develops a test bed for optimizing fans with the support of Steinbeis experts
Since 1999, Hägele, a medium-sized enterprise based in Schorndorf east of Stuttgart, has been developing, producing and selling radiator cooling fans for “off-highway machines” …
“The issues with skilled workers are more of a threat to innovation than the lack of time”
An interview with Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Ritz, entrepreneur at the Steinbeis Transfer Center for Usability and Innovative Interactive Systems for Information Logistics
Innovation at SMEs: Theoretically, the millions of small companies in Germany should be predestined to come up with …
A Nice Place to Take a Seat
Steinbeis experts develop fair-faced concrete street furniture with added functionality
FiberCrete, the Chemnitz-based Steinbeis Innovation Center, develops, tests, and finalizes new fiber- and textile-reinforced building materials, composites, and technologies for production. As part of a joint project, the experts from …
Technological know-how for non-technicians
Steinbeis training provides a grounding in technical knowledge
It’s a problem many industrial enterprises are familiar with: Technical experts and engineers try to explain a complex innovation or a manufacturing process to people in commercial areas, or co-workers working in …
The Technology Radar – Compass for Systematic Technology Management
Steinbeis expert Professor Dr. Helmut Beckmann supports SMEs with the process of digital transformation
Digital transformation in companies is a central driver of advancement and even drives the upheaval strategies, processes, business methods, and technological progress. However, more than half …
Hand Over the Doh
Steinbeis experts use automation technology to pick and pack modeling clay
Lots of kids get excited about Play-Doh and other modeling compounds. It’s a great way to allow young ones to play and explore their creativity, develop spatial thinking, and …
Intelligent Systems for Modeling Real Processes
Industrial mathematics specialist TOPAS develops the digital technologies of the future for medium-sized enterprises
Intelligent systems are becoming increasingly important to companies, and this applies just as much to large corporations as it does to SMEs. But at the same …
A Helping Hand for SMEs: EU Innovation Funding Programmes
Steinbeis experts provide help on finding the right funding
You need many things to translate a novel concept into an innovation – not least secured funding. This can be a major challenge for SMEs. The solution lies in Horizon Europe, …
Bread and Data – Regional Value Creation Meets Digitalization
Steinbeis experts create inter-company cooperative data rooms for enhanced transparency at all stages of the supply chain
Bread, the kind of regional food item that can be traced step by step – from the grain to the loaf – using …
“There’s a shift on the horizon toward a different, collaborative way of working”
An interview with Professor Dr. Sebastian Feldmann on automation, AI, and future collaboration between humans and machines
Despite the rapid pace of development, we probably only have a vague appreciation at the moment of the potential offered by systems based …
“It’s not the material that’s the problem, it’s how we deal with the end product.”
An interview with Professor Dr.-Ing. Sven Friedrich, who is responsible for the Steinbeis Innovation Center for Engineering and Technology
Compostable plastics sound almost too good to be true. But will they really do away with that guilty feeling you have …
“A general uncoupling of economic thinking and business management”
An interview with Steinbeis Entrepreneur Professor Dr.-Ing. Herbert Emmerich
Reconciling production and organizational demands – while still maintaining a strategic view of the future, despite day-to-day priorities – sounds like an oversimplification of what is a highly complex challenge for …
It Should be Tested? Sure. But with Sustainability in Mind, Please!
Steinbeis experts and H+B Hightech develop a sustainable testing rig for bicycle gear hubs
H+B Hightech is a specialist in high-precision engine components used in combustion engines. To open up new fields of business, in 2020 managing director Hilmar Wanner …
The Product Development Process and Applied Standards
The challenges faced by medium-sized enterprises in the automotive industry
If you run an automotive business and want to supply technology services to customers in the automotive industry, one prerequisite will be certification under DIN standard EN ISO 9001. This …
“Traditional engineering disciplines will continue to play an important role”
An interview with the Ulm-based Steinbeis expert Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Schmitz
Far-reaching changes in the world around us necessitate a transformation of the automotive industry, not least among suppliers. TRANSFER magazine spoke to Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Schmitz, Steinbeis Entrepreneur and …
“No reason to look down on conventional printing processes!”
An interview with Professor Dr. Martin Dreher, Managing Director of the DFTA Technology Center for Flexographic Printing in Stuttgart and lecturer at Stuttgart Media University
Even in times of more conscious resource use, it’s impossible to imagine everyday life without …