EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

SensoPack provides retrofit solutions for companies to help make condition monitoring of assets and old machines easier to service, maintain and ultimately reduce downtime and save cost.

The word SensoPack is a combination of the words sensor and package. The project name should connect with the main business idea. We want to offer retrofit bundles with sensors and software and sell them to the customer.

Goal

There are already existing retrofit solutions available. However, they all have one common problem: They are expensive, require technical knowledge and take lots of effort and time to implement. In addition to these problems some solutions lack features that the customer wants. Due to these restrictions, many customers did not implement any predictive maintenance solutions.

Therefore, SensoPack’s goal is to be a strong and independent provider of user-friendly and easy-to-use retrofit solutions. We want to provide an easy to implement and holistic package solution that contains all the needed parts and software. This way the customers can focus on other tasks and only get the information they require.

Methodology

In order to tackle this problem we started with an extensive market research (Competitor Matrix, SWOT Analysis, 5 Forces, Market potential). The goal was to understand the market, find out whether there are competitors in the market and which industries need these kinds of solutions. Similarly, we used established analytical frameworks to analyse and map our competitors. In general, we validated our hypotheses through expert interviews with plant supervisors. Applying this process, we were able to define our entry market - the paper industry. This industry fulfils the aspects of a 24h production, often with older machinery. Thus, there is a high willingness for investments to keep the machinery running. The SAM for the DACH region amounts to 9.6mn EUR.

Hand in hand with an interested party we worked on our prototype. The simple installation of the hardware and a pleasant user experience with the software were the focus.

Results

We were able to develop a working prototype through the course of the semester. Our product provides a plug and play retrofit solution without the need for a complex configuration.

Additionally, we developed an innovative business model that reduces the involved risk for our customers. SensoPack earns its revenue as a share of the saved costs of the costumer that can be attributed to reduced machine downtime. So ultimately, our customers pay once they realize cost savings with our solution.

In the near future, we have planned to further test our prototype in the “TU Wien Pilotfabrik” in Aspern. We also want to develop a wireless sensor, so that there is no need for cables anymore. Moreover, our goal is to expand our offerings on the software side, where we want to focus on developing greater machine learning capabilities.
In the meantime, we also seek to acquire our first customer. There is already one interested party. 
To finance our development needs we are also searching for funding, grants and subsidies.

Cooperation Partner

• SensoPack (company in foundation)

Contact Person

• Christian Lau
  christian.lau@tuwien.ac.at

Student team

• Laurenz Heigl (WU)

• Christian Lau (TU)

• Michael Mayr (WU)

• Armin Nocker (TU)

• Helmut Schwarze (TU)

Project-Manager

• Alexander Staub

• Thomas Pannermayr