The potential of data utilization in the manufacturing industry enables companies to develop new service offerings for their customers. This creates an opportunity for manufacturers of machine tools and their components to implement innovative, service-oriented business models. These business opportunities can open new sources of revenue and optimize the economic performance of a company. A development of innovative, data-based and service-oriented business approaches involves a number of paradigm shifts for traditionally product-centred machine tool manufacturers. However, a large proportion of companies in the industry only have very limited know-how in data utilization. As a result, most of the projects initiated in the industry to develop data-based service offerings fail. Besides problems with the available database, a lack of understanding of the business approach and a failure to assess the entrepreneurial feasibility of offerings are the main causes of failure. This paper presents an approach to evaluating data-based, service-oriented business models for machine tool manufacturers. Starting with an overview of the state of the art in business models and data-based applications in production, the special features of data-based business models are examined. In doing so, the paradigm shift from an analogue, product-centric to a data-based, service-oriented business model is highlighted. Based on this, requirements for the method are derived and its place in the development process of business models is defined. After a presentation of the developed method, it is finally applied in a practical example of a manufacturer for milling machines
