Assessing the Ecological Value: Monetizing Process Innovations in Tailored Forming

Companies must innovate to survive in competitive markets. The pressure to bring innovations to market faster and meet market and regulatory requirements challenges companies to assess early on whether an innovation delivers economic value added (EVA), even with a lack of quantification data. Sustainability, now a crucial industrial pillar, is integrated into this article's semiquantitative method for monetarily evaluating sustainable value drivers of innovations. The method is applied to the “Tailored Forming” innovation, developed in Collaborative Research Center 1153. The procedure employs an EVA driver tree to guarantee a net present value orientation within the innovation evaluation. A systematic literature review further systematizes the driver tree, thereby establishing a link between the sustainable value drivers of the EVA to develop a literature‐based impact model. A weighted scoring model (WSM) compensates for limited data, with interviews from CRC 1153 providing additional input. The data evaluation demonstrates that implementing Tailored Forming technology does not currently represent an effective strategy for achieving a higher EVA from a sustainability perspective, as evidenced by an increase in the WSM value. However, levers are being identified to facilitate the transfer of the Tailored Forming innovation into practice, reducing the WSM and positively influencing the EVA.