Adrian Rüedy is a Lecturer of Industry 4.0 at the University of Applied Sciences OST (Switzerland) and Co-founder of the SFN AG. With his practical experience in special machinery and plant engineering as a design engineer, he has a deep understanding of the processes and challenges in manufacturing. In various industry- and government-funded research projects, he uses his experience in digital transformation to advise companies on the path to digitization.

The Pop in Your Job:
Combining applied research and consulting experience with knowledge of dealing with complexity and change management, I love to empower students on their future path in industry.

André Ziemke is CEO at nextLAP Inc. and chairman of the board of directors at SFN AG. Until 2014, André Ziemke worked as an IT manager at Volkswagen for the Group CIO for two years, then for the Audi CIO for six years. At Audi AG, André Ziemke was responsible for the car manufacturer's production IT. Among other things, he was responsible for the introduction of SAP in the Audi press shops in Neckarsulm and Ingolstadt, the implementation of paperless production at the Ingolstadt site and the introduction of an SAP-based parts list in the Volkswagen Group. Before joining VW, André Ziemke had already successfully set up an e-business company and gained several years of experience in IT consulting. He graduated with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe.

The Pop in your Job:
I love my job the most when it has once again worked out to advance a customer in the digitization of their processes and to give innovative processes and solutions a chance.

SFN AG, based in St. Gallen, was founded in December 2022 as a spin-off of the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST). In over 5 years of research, 44 generic use cases were scientifically derived and defined from more than 800 industrial companies, forming the "Smart Factory Navigator Framework". Using the Smart Factory Navigator Framework, SFN AG develops the appropriate individual Smart Factory strategy for industrial companies and identifies the use cases with the highest business value for the customer. From the individually matching use cases, the Smart Factory Navigator matches the optimal IT solutions and IT solution providers for the customer. In this way, industrial companies gain investment security, implementation speed and transparency in a previously largely confusing IT market. In addition, SFN AG offers neutral and scientifically based consulting services for the selection of solutions and their implementation. The founding team of SFN AG consists of Adrian Rüedy (CEO), André Ziemke (COB), Dr. Thomas Stöckel (CTO) and Dr. Lukas Budde (COO). SFN AG is supported scientifically by Prof. Dr. Roman Hänggi (Ostschweizer Fachhochschule OST), on the Scientific Advisory Board.

Die Universität St.Gallen (HSG) wurde 1898 – in der Hochblüte der St.Galler Stickereiindustrie – als Handelsakademie gegründet und ist heute eine Hochschule für Wirtschafts-, Rechts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Internationale Beziehungen und Informatik. 1899 fanden die ersten Vorlesungen statt. Praxisnähe und eine integrative Sicht zeichnen unsere Ausbildung seit jenen Gründungstagen aus. Wir gehören zu den führenden Wirtschaftsuniversitäten in Europa und sind EQUIS-, AACSB- und AMBA-akkreditiert.