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Open-source hardware (OSH) is on its way from a grassroots movement to a major social and industrial development. Open product development processes and products promise innovations for new markets and new customers. OSH could be the answer to the question of how the shift to local and sustainable production could look like. To make this possible, essential core questions need to be answered. How can a business model based on openness and exchange make money at all? (Only in German)

Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter studied industrial engineering at the Technical University of Berlin. After several positions in Germany and abroad, he accepted the call to the University of Bremen in 2000, where he initially held the professorship of Planning and Control of Production Systems in the Department of Production Engineering. From 2002 to 2012, he also headed the Bremen Institute for Production and Logistics (BIBA). From 2012 to 2022, Bernd Scholz-Reiter was rector of the University of Bremen.

Following the success of subscription models such as Netflix or Spotify in the IT and multimedia sector, the implementation of Industry 4.0 is increasingly creating the conditions for offering comparable models in the industrial context. Accordingly, pioneers are offering subscription models for printing machines, compressors or locomotives, for example. Providers do not act alone, but are supported in the design and implementation of the subscription offer by various players such as financiers, insurance companies or digitization service providers. This creates what is known as a subscription ecosystem. This article sheds light on these ecosystems and shows to what extent which players can participate in industrial subscription models. Depending on customer acceptance of these models, a wide variety of companies have the opportunity to benefit from the subscription trend and to tap into new markets and customer groups