JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017 - 22

BUSINESS construction

Fig. 2: Technology push and market pull

ic approach to identify the future
business opportunities and current drawbacks of the considered
industries, AZL Aachen GmbH
designed a joint market and technology study with a project duration of six months. To involve various perspectives, different views
will influence how the study is designed.
First, AZL's expertise in lightweight production was the basis
for further investigations, representing the research perspective
of the study's approach. The
structural proceeding was proven
in previous studies and is continuously developed by the research-

ers, based on participant feedback. Secondly, the AZL network
partners and external industry
partners provide industry-based
input and discuss the opportunities and challenges during study
meetings with the researchers in
charge. Third, external experts
are involved in every stage of the
study's procedure, giving keynote
speeches and participating in the
meeting discussions.
The objective of the study is to
establish a wide-ranging overview of market opportunities and
a theoretical evaluation of composite applications from market

and technology perspectives. For
a selection of composite components, detailed business cases are
handed over to the participants
regarding market opportunities,
technology specifications and
production possibilities. To face
one of the next vital challenges
for composites in construction, it
is necessary to find mass production opportunities compared to
the common pilot or lighthouse
projects.
To get a differentiated picture of
such a broad field of topics and
perspectives, the most promising
approach is, according to AZL's
experience in research and industry-driven projects, to design a
consortium study in order to include various know-how and requirements. Additionally, the
participants share the research
and investigation costs, so that
the cost per participant remains
at a decent level. The consortium
structure provides diverse networking opportunities, in addition to the booked study content,
in every meeting during the different stages.
General structure of the study
The study includes three main
phases. The first phase, the pilot study, is a large-scale analysis

of the markets of interest. It describes the entire inspection area
and contains a market segmentation and a market breakdown,
down to the component and application level. In the next phase,
a detailed analysis of selected
components is compiled, considering the technological and market perspectives. The last stage
provides detailed business cases of high-potential components,
analyzing the value chain and the
cost structure of the production
process.
Pilot phase
The study started with a kick-off
meeting in November 2016. It
was the first meeting of the consortium, introducing the study's
approach. The participants had
the opportunity to influence the
results directly using a questionnaire. At the beginning of the pilot phase, the two main markets
were segmented into 20 different
market segments. Each market
segment was investigated as a segment profile and was subdivided
into specific sub-segments. The
result was a collection of 66 different sub-segments. To focus on
the most promising parts, a transparent and comprehensive selection method and scoring tool
were used, which evaluated and
selected the sub-segments with
the highest potential. For the chosen 27 sub-segments, the current
and future applications and components were documented in a so
called "technology tree" for each
sub-segment. A "technology tree"
includes a visualization of the
main specific challenges, systems
and components. At the end of

Fig. 3: A systematic
study approach

jec composites magazine / N°114 July 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #114 - July 2017