Data services
数据服务
Established in 1874 and Europe’s second-biggest maker of central heating boilers, Vaillant has 12,000 employees — a third of whom work in the service side of the business in jobs such as maintenance and repair.
创建于1874年的欧洲第二大中央供暖锅炉制造商Vaillant拥有1.2万名雇员，其中三分之一在服务端工作，承担着维护和修理等工作。
An increasing proportion of the 2m boilers it manufactures each year are equipped with communications systems to allow machines or people to monitor their operation from afar.
该公司每年生产的200万台锅炉中，有越多越大比例的锅炉配备了通信系统，让机器或者人能够远程监测锅炉的运行。
Carsten Voigtländer, chief executive, says this means Vaillant can think about new forms of service based on big data.
该公司首席执行官卡斯滕.福格特伦德(Carsten Voigtländer)表示，这意味着Vaillant能够考虑基于大数据的新型服务。
The company is working out how to assimilate and analyse the huge amount of data generated from boilers, and then use it to build new sources of revenue.
这家公司正在研究如何吸收并分析锅炉产生的海量数据，然后利用它们创造新的收入来源。
We can provide consumers with ways to control their appliances better than in the past and at the same time analyse factors such as energy use, says Mr Voigtländer.
我们能够为客户提供比过去更好的操控设备的方式，同时分析能源使用等因素，福格特伦德说。
Philipp Leutiger of the Munich consultancy Roland Berger says Vaillant is typical of Mittelstand businesses.
慕尼黑咨询公司罗兰贝格(Roland Berger)的菲利普.洛伊蒂格尔(Philipp Leutiger)说，Vaillant的做法对于德国中小型企业是典型的。
Just as many are now in hardware niches, he says some will carve out service niches, based often on their own proprietary software.
就如许多此类企业处于硬件缝隙市场一样，他说一些企业将开辟服务缝隙市场，往往基于它们的专有软件。
Connected tools
联网工具
Knipex makes pliers — producing more than 12m pairs a year in 800 different types, nearly all of which are made in the company’s Wuppertal headquarters, which employs 1,000 people.
Knipex公司专业制造钳子，每年生产逾1200万把800种不同型号的钳子，几乎所有这些钳子都是在该公司位于伍珀塔尔(Wuppertal)、雇佣了1000名员工的总部生产的。
Ralf Putsch, chief executive, says his 134-year-old company’s strategy mixes anything from new forms of alloys to improved ways to control the device to create leverage.
首席执行官拉尔夫.普奇(Ralf Putsch)说，这家拥有134年历史的企业运用了从新式合金到改进工具操控方式等各种策略，以创建竞争优势。
Mr Putsch emphasises using his company’s in house-built forging and grinding machines.
普奇强调，该公司在生产中使用公司自建的锻造和磨削机床。
I don’t see how we can be innovative and different if we rely on production methods open to everyone, he says.
如果我们依赖对任何人都开放的生产方法，我看不出我们该如何进行创新和差异化，他说。
One approach, developed by a subsidiary in eastern Germany, involves connecting pliers to a computer so technical experts in safety-critical industries, such as aerospace electricians, can monitor the forces being applied.
Knipex位于德国东部的子公司开发的一种方法是把钳子和计算机连接起来，使航空航天电工等安全关键行业的技术专家能够监控所施加的力。
His company has spent EURO200,000 researching the technology.
普奇的公司投入了20万欧元对这项技术进行研究。
Gathering inspiration from a recent trip to Silicon Valley he says: It’s important to create a receptive environment for new thinking.
最近的一次硅谷之行让他得到了启发，他说：营造一个愿意接纳新思维的环境很重要。