Philipp Koebnick is a PhD student in both the Business Model Innovation Group and the Distributed Information and Automation Laboratory. Philipp is jointly supervised by Dr Chander Velu and Prof Duncan McFarlane.

Philipp's PhD examines which processes support management teams in manufacturing companies in innovating their business models against the background of Industry 4.0 developments (cf. also Industrial Internet of Things, Digital Manufacturing).

In the course of his project, Philipp has conducted interviews and workshops with senior management teams of more than a dozen hidden-champion manufacturer. Industries include automotive, mechanical & plant engineering, food & beverage.

Before Philipp began his PhD in the fall of 2016, he gained nearly six years of industry experience at thyssenkrupp, Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Voith Paper, working as a production engineer, including two years as temporary deputy operations manager. Philipp holds a B.Eng. and M.Phil in Industrial Engineering from Germany and the UK respectively.