Are the functions of my product being used at all? Which ones can be left out? Until now, it has been a challenge for many companies to identify requirements of this kind and adapt their products accordingly. "Customer requirements have not yet been sufficiently reflected back to manufacturers," explains Henry Himmelstoß from the DigITools Competence Center at Fraunhofer IPA and head of the study. This is where data-supported product development comes in: If data is collected from products that are already in use, new products can be tailored more specifically to customer needs. In addition, development times can be shortened and the prospects of product success increased. Himmelstoß's team examined the extent to which this is already being implemented in the study "Data-supported product development" and evaluated companies' approaches in the areas of data management, analysis and use. The study is based on an online survey of 58 companies from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The survey was supplemented by five expert interviews with company representatives.

The results show that most product data has so far been collected via traditional channels and not via the Internet of Things (IoT) - for example from feedback from sales (20.4%) or from on-site maintenance work (18.5%). This is followed by raw data via IoT (8.1%) and pre-processed product data via IoT (7.1%).

A fully digitalized environment is therefore not absolutely necessary for data-supported product creation. However, smart products can provide a much larger database in a short space of time. This results in a cycle: The data from smart products helps to develop improved smart products in the next step. However, smart products are still a rarity among the companies surveyed. The majority of respondents (43%) stated that only 9.9% or fewer smart products are included in their product range. This is changing as we look to the future: within the next five years, the companies surveyed expect a noticeable increase in smart products.

This development, which will lead to an increase in the data basis, has so far been met with a lack of methodical approach to data analysis. Over two thirds (68.4%) of respondents state that their company has not established a systematic approach to analysis. "If there is no systematic analysis and verification of product data, there is a risk that data-supported developments will fail," warns Himmelstoß.

In addition to existing challenges, there is also promising potential. For example, more than half of those surveyed (56.6%) are generally willing to share the product data they collect with others - such as other manufacturers. At the same time, 42.6% of respondents state that they are currently only allowed to collect data from a small number of customers.

On a positive note, the technical conditions for collecting product data are mostly advanced. Half of the companies already use digital images to record product data. This means that product usage, fault reports and operating data can already be recorded - the technical possibilities are therefore not a limiting factor. Instead, the study participants state that greater reliability (32.6%) and increased usefulness (30.3%) of the data would be particularly helpful in product development. The expert interviews reveal that this development will require more specialists and greater data sensitivity among employees in the future.

The "Data-supported product creation" study was conducted as part of the "Future Work Lab" research project, an innovation laboratory for work, people and technology in Stuttgart, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.