Rising demands on manufacturing technologies lead to an increase in the complexity of corresponding machines and systems. This complexity acts as an obstacle to the development and realization of digital, usage-based business models for complex manufacturing systems. Particularly in the case of pay-per-use business models, it is necessary to monitor the actual machine load in operation to minimize the business risk on the operator and supplier side. This complicates the transition towards data-oriented value creation in manufacturing system environment. To overcome this challenge, a novel method to assess machine components regarding their potential to monitor the actual load and usage behavior of the whole manufacturing system is proposed. On this basis, the transparency and therefore confidence in digital, usage-based value creation like pay-per-use business models can be increased. The resulting approach is demonstrated by taking the example of a sheet metal forming press.