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A large number of product-accompanying services in the machinery and plant engineering industry is based on the cross-company exchange of data and information. By providing services, additional sales potential on the manufacturer side as well as far-reaching product and process advantages for appliers can be reached. However, the necessary cross-company exchange of information is nowadays limited due to a lack of trust in the interacting partner and the applicable existing technologies, which results in significant losses in the terms of business potential. The uncovering of this potential now seems to be made possible by the use of the Blockchain technology. Through the key factors security, immutability, transparency and decentralisation, it serves as an enabler for cross-company communication and product-accompanying services. The technological implementation of a Blockchain can take on a broad spectrum of attributes, which can lead to decisive restrictions for the execution of services. This justifies the necessity for a qualified and context-related assessment of service-types-individual specifications and the resulting requirements on the system. Within the scope of this paper, different types of product-accompanying services are identified and analysed regarding their requirements for a Blockchain-based machinery and plant connection. This can serve as a basis for a qualified and goal-oriented configuration of the Blockchain.
Digital networking via the company and as well, the overall supply chain, can only succeed if digital planning reflects reality as accurately as possible and if production control can react to deviations in real time. In essence, this leads to a development of process control towards process regulation. While longterm production and resource planning is usually mapped by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, detailed planning, including short-term deviations and real-time data at the production level, is increasingly supported by Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) at the production control level. However, in order to bring the underlying system concepts into line with Industry 4.0 efforts in a standardized manner, mutual functional integration within the framework of interoperable production planning and control is of crucial importance. For this purpose, studies were carried out in particular into cause-effect relationships. Thus, the overarching research objective is a valid design model to increase the controllability of production planning and control systems (PPC) in the context of Industry 4.0.
Smartification and digital refinement of products to enable the design of smart ones is a pivotal challenge in the manufacturing industry. Companies fail to design smart products due to missing knowledge of digital technologies and their integral part in product development processes. This paper presents a methodology that enables the derivation of digital functions for smart products through selected cases in manufacturing usage. We develop a morphology that consists of digital functions for smartification. In this context, we explained and derived characteristics by a set of examples regarding smart products in the manufacturing industry. Our methodology reduces the time spent initiating a development project with the focus on smartification.
The planning and implementation of migration projects in global production networks is a complex planning task that is confronted with a dynamic global environment with highly complex interdependencies. Today's migration approaches are either large projects or isolated local
investments. As such, they are not suitable for simultaneously addressing interdependencies and continuity. This paper illustrates a holistic and continuous methodology for rolling migration planning and implementation in global production networks. Seven steps enable the transformation from the current state of the production network into a target state regarding internal as well as external dynamics and interactions.
Manufacturing companies face the challenge of selecting digitalization measures that fit their strategy. Measures that are initiated and not aligned with the company’s strategy carry the risk of failing due to lack of relevance. This leads to an ineffective use of scarce human and financial resources. This paper presents a target system to help companies select relevant digitalization measures compliant with their strategy for IT-OT-integration projects. The target system was developed based on literature research and expert interviews, and later validated in two use cases. The target system considers the goals of production companies and combines them with digitalization measures. The measures are classified by different maturity levels required for their realization. Thus, the target system enables manufacturing companies to evaluate digitalization measures with regards to their strategic relevance and the required Industrie 4.0 maturity level for their realization. This ensures an effective use of resources.
The number of available technologies is constantly rising. Be it additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence (AI) or distributed ledger technologies. The choice of the right technologies may decide the fate of a company. Due to the overwhelming amount of information sources, regular technology market research becomes increasingly challenging, especially for SMEs. In order to assist the technology management process, the authors will introduce the architecture of an automated, AI-based technology radar. The architecture will automatically collect data from relevant sources, assess the relevance of the respective technology (i.e. their maturity level) and then visualize it on the radar map.
Numerous traditional, agile and hybrid development approaches have been proposed for the development of CPS. As the choice of development process is crucial to the success of development projects, it has become a major challenge to identify the best-suited process. This paper introduces a methodology for identifying the best-suited CPS development process, based on the individual boundary conditions for a certain development project within a company. The authors used a set of eight indicators to assess a CPS-development project. The results of the assessment were matched with CPS-development approaches. Based on the matching results a best-suited development process was selected. The application is shown for a use case in the German manufacturing industry. The developed method aims to reduce the risk of project failure due to the wrong choice of development process.
Auf Basis einer systematischen Literaturanalyse wurden insgesamt 11 Kennzahlen identifiziert, welche die Grundlage zur Beschreibung der operativen Leistungsfähigkeit von Unternehmen bilden. Die Kennzahlen wurden in die vier Leistungsdimensionen Effizienz, Qualität, Zeit und Flexibilität eingeteilt.
Due to shorter product life cycles and the increasing internationalization of competition, companies are confronted with increasing complexity in supply chain management. Event-based systems are used to reduce this complexity and to support employees' decisions. Such event-based systems include tracking & tracing systems on the one hand and supply chain event management on the other. Tracking & tracing systems only have the functions of monitoring and reporting deviations, whereas supply chain event management systems also function as simulation, control, and measurement. The central element connecting these systems is the event. It forms the information basis for mapping and matching the process sequences in the event-based systems. The events received from the supply chain partner form the basis for all downstream steps and must, therefore, contain the correct data. Since the data quality is insufficient in numerous use cases and incorrect data in supply chain event management is not considered in the literature, this paper deals with the description and typification of incorrect event data. Based on a systematic literature review, typical sources of errors in the acquisition and transmission of event data are discussed. The results are then applied to event data so that a typification of incorrect event types is possible. The results help to significantly improve event-based systems for use in practice by preventing incorrect reactions through the detection of incorrect event data.
Companies operate in an increasingly volatile environment where different developments like shorter product lifecycles, the demand for customized products and globalization increase the complexity and interconnectivity in supply chains. Current events like Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic or the blockade of the Suez canal have caused major disruptions in supply chains. This demonstrates that many companies are insufficiently prepared for disruptions. As disruptions in supply chains are expected to occur even more frequently in the future, the need for sufficient preparation increases. Increasing resilience provides one way of dealing with disruptions. Resilience can be understood as the ability of a system to cope with disruptions and to ensure the competitiveness of a company. In particular, it enables the preparation for unexpected disruptions. The level of resilience is thereby significantly influenced by actions initiated prior to a disruption. Although companies recognize the need to increase their resilience, it is not systematically implemented. One major challenge is the multidimensionality and complexity of the resilience construct. To systematically design resilience an understanding of the components of resilience is required. However, a common understanding of constituent parts of resilience is currently lacking. This paper, therefore, proposes a general framework for structuring resilience by decomposing the multidimensional concept into its individual components. The framework contributes to an understanding of the interrelationships between the individual components and identifies resilience principles as target directions for the design of resilience. It thus sets the basis for a qualitative assessment of resilience and enables the analysis of resilience-building measures in terms of their impact on resilience. Moreover, an approach for applying the framework to different contexts is presented and then used to detail the framework for the context of procurement.
Task-Specific Decision Support Systems in Multi-Level Production Systems based on the digital shadow
(2019)
Due to the increasing spread of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) suitable for shop floors, the production environment can more easily be digitally connected to the various decision making levels of a production system. This connectivity as well as an increasing availability of high-resolution feedback data, can be used for decision support for all levels of the company and supply chain. To enable data driven decision support, different data sources were structured and linked. The data was combined in task-specific digital shadows, selecting clustering and aggregation rules to gain information. Visual interfaces for task-specific decision support systems (DSS) were developed and evaluated positively by domain experts. The complexity of decision making on different levels was successfully reduced as an effect of the processed amounts of data. These interfaces support decision making, but can additionally be improved if DSS are extended with smart agents as proposed in the Internet of Production.
Monetizing Industry 4.0: Design Principles for Subscription Business in the Manufacturing Industry
(2019)
Subscription business models have a major role for monetizing products and services for manufacturing companies in the age of Industry 4.0. As the manufacturing industry has difficulties generating revenues through digitalization, the implementation of innovative business models are essential to remain successful. Physical assets are often capital-intensive and require a more complex manufacturing process than subscription business models. Moreover, subscription models can focus on the individual customer benefit and a consistent service transformation, constituting a unique selling proposition and a competitive advantage. Hence, the following paper provides a management model that enables manufacturing companies to successfully realize the transformation towards a subscription business model. The management model presents four major fields of action, each matched with one design principle that must be considered when dealing with subscription models in the manufacturing industry. These principles were determined by an in-depth case study analysis among various manufacturing companies. Opportunities, challenges and recommendations for action were then systematically derived and integrated into the management model.
In the age of digitalization, manufacturing companies are under increased pressure to change due to product complexity, growing customer requirements and digital business models. The increasing digitization of processes and products is opening up numerous opportunities for mechanical engineering companies to exploit the resulting potential for value creation. Subscription business is a new form of business model in the mechanical engineering industry, which aims to continuously increase customer benefit to align the interests of both companies and customers. Characterized by a permanent data exchange, databased learning about customer behavior, and the transfer into continuous innovations to increase customer value, subscription business helps to make Industry 4.0 profitable. The fact that machines and plants are connected to the internet and exchange large amounts of data results in critical information security risks. In addition, the loss of knowledge and control, data misuse and espionage, as well as the manipulation of transaction or production data in the context of subscription transactions are particularly high risks. Complementary to direct and obvious consequences such as loss of production, the attacks are increasingly shifting to non-transparent and creeping impairments of production or product quality, which are only apparent at a late stage, or the influencing of payment flows. A transparent presentation of possible risks and their scope, as well as their interrelationships, does not exist. This paper shows a research approach in which the structure of subscription models and their different manifestations based on their risks and vulnerabilities are characterized. This allows suitable cyber security measures to be taken at an early stage. From this basis, companies can secure existing or planned subscription business models and thus strengthen the trust of business partners and customers.
Industry 4.0 and Smart Maintenance represent a great opportunity to make manufacturing and maintenance more effective, safer, and reliable. However, they also represent massive change and corresponding challenges for industrial companies, as many different options and starting points have to be weighed and the individual right paths for achieving Smart Maintenance need to be identified. In our paper, we describe our approach to evaluating maintenance organizations in a case study for the oil and gas industry, developing a shared vision for the future, and deriving economical and effective measures. We will demonstrate our approach, by showcasing a specific example from the oil and gas industry, where a need for action on HSE-relevant critical flanges in the company's piping systems was identified. We describe the steps, that were taken to identify the need for action, the specifications of the project and the criticality analysis of the piping system. This resulted in the derivation of a digitalization measure for critical flanges, which was first commercially analyzed and then the flanges were equipped with a continuous monitoring solution. Finally, a conclusion is drawn on the performed procedure and the achieved improvements.
Subscription business transforms traditional business models of machinery and plant engineering. Many manufacturing companies struggle to pull out the potential created by Industry 4.0 and make it economically usable. In addition to technological innovations, it is necessary to transform the business model. This leads to a shift from ownership-based and product-centric business models to outcome-based business models, which focus on the customer's value and thus realize a unique value proposition and competitive advantage – the outcome economy. Based on a case study analysis among manufacturing companies, this paper provides further clarification including a definition and constituent characteristics of subscription business models in machinery and plant engineering.
Subscription business models provide an important component for monetizing the potential of Industrie 4.0. Subscription business is based on a long-term and participative business relationship between customer and provider. However, only digitalization offers the necessary framework conditions to realize the characteristic recurring and performance-based billing, and to ensure the necessary transparency about the usage phase of products as well as continuous performance improvements in the customer process. Against this background, companies must not only recognize the much-cited potential that lies in the total dedication to the success of individual subscription customers. Rather, the central obstacles must be addressed, examined, and subsequently overcome in a targeted manner in order to successfully establish subscription business models and place them on the market.
The successful use of Business Analytics is increasingly becoming a differentiating competitive factor. The ability to extract data-driven insights and integrate them into decision-making is becoming growingly important. The underlying technologies are evolving exponentially, the value proposition differs from simple descriptive applications to automated decision-making. Existing approaches found in literature and practice to classify those levels only insufficiently mark down the boundaries between the different technology levels. As a consequence, it is often unclear which characteristics of the technology interact with the working environment, which can be described as a socio-technical system. Using a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the characteristics of Business Analytics and delineates three types of Business Analytics based on case studies. Thus, a starting point for the socio-technical system design and optimization for the use of Business Analytics is created.
Nowadays, the market for information and communication technologies used for IOT-applications grows daily. Since companies need technologies to transform their business processes corresponding to the digital revolution, they need to know which technologies are available, and fit the best for their use case. Their inertial issue is the lacking overview of technologies suitable to connect their production or logistics. Hence, this paper presents a methodology to select technologies (and combinations) based on their functions. It differentiates between information and communication technologies, digital technologies and connecting technologies by the physical function and its role in a cyber-physical system. Depending on the use case, the applicability of every technology varies. Due to that reason, the paper illustrates a ranked qualification of the technologies for typical use cases, focussing tracking and tracing issues in the intralogistics of producing companies. The evaluation is performed upon a literature research, a market study to identify suitable technologies, and various expert interviews to assess the applicability of the technologies.
Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is a well-known approach to simulate production environments. However it was rarely used for operative planning processes and to our knowledge never in terms of multiple disposition levels.In this paper we develop the necessary adjustments to use DES for this purpose and show some theoretical advantages.
Competitive differentiation in the manufacturing sector is no longer based on product and service innovations alone but on the ability to monetize the usage phase of products and services. To this end, manufacturers are increasingly looking at so-called subscription business models as a way of supplementing the traditional sale of products and services. Since supplier success in the subscription business is directly dependent on customer success, the setup and expansion of a so-called Customer Success Management (CSM) is required. While CSM has already been established in the software industry for several years, companies in the manufacturing sector are often still in the conceptual phase of a CSM, parallel to the setup and expansion of their subscription business. Therefore, this paper aims to support the set-up of a CSM by providing a reference data model, based on case study research, that can be used to support the organizational or daily CSM tasks and to serve as a blueprint for conceptualizing CSM-specific IT systems.
Industrial companies are moving to a solution driven business by offering smart product service systems (Smart PSS). In addition to an existing portfolio of physical goods and technical services, companies develop new digital services and combine all three offerings to an integrated digital solution business. While the development of new digital services does not pose any major challenges for companies, the successful sale of Smart PSS does. Due to changing customer requirements and value propositions of a solution, the sale of Smart PSS requires new design principles for the sales organization compared to the simple sale of physical goods or technical services. While there are already many publications on the topic of industrial sales in research, the description of Smart PSS in particular represents a new field of research. The combination of both topics is therefore not only interesting from a theoretical point of view, but also has a particularly high practical relevance and impact for industrial companies. This paper therefore describes on the one hand, which characteristics can be used to derive customer requirements for Smart PSS and on the other hand, which effects these requirements have on the sales organization of the industrial company. The design principles give recommendations for the organizational structure, the resources, the information systems and the culture of the company depending on the targeted customer type. In order to identify and describe both the customer requirements and the design principles, two morphological boxes were developed based on a literature research and semi-structured interviews with industrial companies. The paper gives an outlook on the different characteristics of the design recommendations and describes first best practices for the successful transformation of the sales organization.
Systematisation Approach
(2023)
Current megatrends such as globalisation and digitalisation are increasing complexity, making systems for well-founded and short-term decision support indispensable. A necessary condition for reliable decision-making is high data quality. In practice, it is repeatedly shown that data quality is insufficient, especially in master and transaction data. Moreover, upcoming approaches for data-based decisions consistently raise the required level of data quality. Hence, the importance of handling insufficient data quality is currently and will remain elementary. Since the literature does not systematically consider the possibilities in the case of insufficient data quality, this paper presents a general model and systematic approach for handling those cases in real-world scenarios. The model developed here presents the various possibilities of handling insufficient data quality in a process-based approach as a framework for decision support. The individual aspects of the model are examined in more detail along the process chain from data acquisition to final data processing. Subsequently, the systematic approach is applied and contextualised for production planning and supply chain event management, respectively. Due to their general validity, the results enable companies to manage insufficient data quality systematically.
The European Commission set out the goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, which shall be achieved by fostering the twin transition - sustainability through digitalization. A keystone in this transition is the implementation of a prospering Circular Economy (CE). However, product information required to establish a flourishing CE is hardly available or even accessible. The Digital Product Passport (DPP) offers a solution to that problem but in the current discussion, two separate topics are focused on: its architecture and its application on batteries. The content of the DPP has not been an essential part of the discussion, although access to high-quality data about a product's state, composition and ecological footprint is required to enable sustainable decision-making. Therefore, this paper presents a classification of product data for circularity in the manufacturing industry to emphasize the discussion about the DPP's content. Developed through a systematic literature review combined with a case-study-research based on common operational information systems, the classification comprises three levels with 62 data points in four main categories: (1) Product information, (2) Utilization information, (3) Value chain information and (4) Sustainability information. In this paper, the potential content structure of a DPP is demonstrated for a use case in the machinery sector. The contribution to the science and operations community is twofold: Building a guideline for DPP developers that require scientific input from available real-world data points as well as motivating manufacturers to share the presented data points enabling a circular product information management.
The almost boundless possibilities of realizing saving potentials and innovations drive manufacturing companies to implement Business Analytics as part of the digitalization roadmap. The increasing research within the field of algorithm design and the wide range of user-friendly tools simplify generating first insights from data also for non-professionals. However, small and medium sized companies struggle implementing Business Analytics company-wide due to the lack of competencies. Especially the customization of a multitude of analytic methods in order to match a superordinate, business-relevant question is not done easily. This paper enables researchers as well as practitioners to close the gap between business relevant questions and algorithms. From a practical point of view, this paper helps shortening the search time for a suitable algorithm. Out of a research perspective, it aims to help positioning new algorithms within a structured framework in order to enhance the communication of algorithms’ capabilities.
Pricing is one of the most important, but underestimated tools, to enhance a company's profitability. Especially in the furniture sector, customers place a special interest in cost-efficient products and easy processes. Individualised and sustainable furniture can help to create a unique selling point and deliver real value to the customers. Therefore, a platform to create designs together is needed and can involve several stakeholders in the design and production phase. However, in order to include several stakeholders, the pricing and revenue model need to reflect individual needs and be a benefit to all. In this paper, the initial situation and potential revenue model options will be presented. Furthermore, multiple scenarios for practical use will be discovered and an overview given.
Digital technologies have gained significant importance in the course of the 4th Industrial Revolution and these technologies are widely implemented, nowadays. However, it is necessary to bear in mind that an ill-considered use can quickly have a negative impact on the environment in which the technology is used. For more responsible and sustainable use, the regulation of digital technologies is therefore necessary today. Since the government is taking a very slow response, as the example of the AI Act shows, companies need to take action themselves today. In this context, one of the central questions for companies is: "Which digital technologies are relevant for manufacturing companies in terms of regulation? This paper conducted a quantitative Delphi study to answer this question. The results of the Delphi study are presented and evaluated within the framework of a data analysis. In addition, it will be discussed how to proceed with the results so that manufacturing companies can benefit from them. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the development of an AI platform in the German research project PAIRS by investigating the compliance relevance of artificial intelligence applications.
The digital transformation is changing the way companies think and design their manufacturing environment. Both due to the increasing number of connections between IoT-Devices, tooling machines, and production lines and the phenomenon of the convergence of IT and OT, systems are becoming more complex than years ago. Organizational and cultural changes within manufacturing companies strengthen this trend and form Industry 4.0 environments and cyber-physical production systems (CPPS). As these systems do not longer stay alone but are connected to each other and the company’s outside, the size of the potential attack surface is increasing as well. Besides that, manufacturing companies, small and medium-sized in particular, are facing complex challenges based on lack of knowledge, budget, and time to understand as well as to interpret their current situation and risk level and therefore to derive necessary counter-measures. Efficient as well as pragmatic tools and methods for these companies do not exist. This paper shows a research approach in which the company-specific set-up of Industry 4.0 environment and CPPS is characterized by its potential vulnerabilities. This enables companies to evaluate their risk potential before setting up this kind of environments and to undJo,erstand the potential consequences more precisely. By doing so, companies can derive and prioritize important counter-measures and so to strengthen their level of cyber-security efficiently. This will decrease the number of cyber-security attacks and increase the company’s competitiveness.
In an increasingly changing market environment, the long-term survival of companies depends on their ability to reduce latencies in adapting to new market conditions. One strategy to meet this challenge is the anchoring of data-driven decision making, which leads to an increasing use of advanced information technologies and, subsequently, to an increase in the amount of data stored. The complexity of processing these data spurred the demand for advanced statistical methods and functions called Business Analytics. Companies are, despite all promised benefits, overwhelmed with the implementation of Business Analytics as indicated by a failure rate of 65 to 80 %. This paper provides an empirically validated, multi-dimensional model that takes an integrative look at critical success factors for the implementation
of Business Analytics and based on which management recommendations can be generated. For this purpose, constructs of the model are conceptualized, before a structural equation model is developed. This model is then validated with data from 69 industrial partners in the food industry. It is shown amongst others, that the three success factors top management support, IT infrastructure and system quality are pivotal to increase the company performance.
Blockchain as Middleware+
(2019)
In supporting decision making of manufacturing companies, the added value of cross-domain data exchange for aggregating information is well established in enterprise organization research and is represented, for example, in the reference model “Internet of Production” (IoP). Currently, there is little research regarding the role of Blockchain technology in such a reference model and how specifically the IoP needs to be expanded to address cross-company data exchange. This paper presents a proposal for such an extension to outline the use of Blockchain technology and to elaborate the open research demands for implementation. In particular, desk research and the development of concrete use cases for cross-company data exchange between business application systems were carried out. The results are, on the one hand, extending the IoP by a third dimension, which corresponds to the supply chain, and, on the other hand clarification of the role Blockchain technology can take in this context.
This paper won the John Burbidge Best Paper Award (see Attachment 2).
In order to cope with the challenges of an increased demand for flexibility, quality and availability of production, maintenance measures provide a major competiveness factor for manufacturing companies. Yet, interdependencies between maintenance and production activities as well as differing target systems within the functional units of an enterprise, especially production and maintenance, raise needs for extended coordination efforts. This paper aims to develop an innovative approach for the coordination between maintenance and production activities for industrial production companies. To achieve this, the novel coordination mechanism is used. It helps to achieve maximised operational availability— for a maximised output of the production system at optimal costs. Based on the developed model, the present paper identifies findings regarding the impact of different maintenance strategies on the medium-term economic efficiency of the production system.
Assessment of IS Integration Efforts to Implement the Internet of Production Reference Architecture
(2018)
As part of a collaborative network, manufacturing companies are required to be agile and accelerate their decision making. To do so, a high amount of data is available and needs to be utilized. To enable this from a company internal information system perspective, the Internet of Production (IoP) describes a future information system (IS) architecture. Core element of the IoP is a digital platform building the basis for a network of cognitive systems. To implement and continuously further develop the IoP, manufacturing companies need to make architecture-related decisions concerning the accessibility of data, the processing of the data as well as the visualization of the information. The goal of this research is the development of a decision-support methodology to make those decisions, taking under consideration the evaluated IS integration effort. Therefore, this paper describes the allocation of IS functions and identifies the effort drivers for the respective IS integration by analyzing the integration possibilities. Conclusively this approach will be validated in a case study.
Generation of a Data Model For Quotation Costing Of Make To Order Manufacturers From Case Studies
(2022)
For contract or make to order manufacturers, quotation costing is a complex process that is mainly performed based on experience. Due to the high diversity of the product range of these mostly small or medium-sized companies (SMEs) and the poor data situation at the time of quotation preparation, the quality of the calculation is subject to strong variations and uncertainties. The gap between the initial quotation costing and the actual costs to be spent (pre- and post-calculation) is crucial to the existence of SMEs. Digitalization in general can help companies to get a better understanding of processes and to generate data. For improving these processes, an understanding of the important data for that specific process is crucial. Accurate quotation costing for customized products is time-consuming and resource-intensive, as there is a lack of an overview of data to be used within the process. This paper therefore derives a data model for supporting quotation costing in the company, based on literature-based costing procedures and recorded case studies for quotation and calculation. Based on the results, SMEs will have a first overview of the needed data for quotation costing to optimize their calculation process.
Methods of machine learning (ML) are notoriously difficult for enterprises to employ productively. Data science is not a core skill of most companies, and acquiring external talent is expensive. Automated machine learning (Auto-ML) aims to alleviate this, democratising machine learning by introducing elements such as low-code / no-code functionalities into its model creation process. Multiple applications are possible for Auto-ML, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), predictive modelling and optimization. However, employing Auto-ML still proves difficult for companies due to the dynamic vendor market: The solutions vary in scope and functionality while providers do little to delineate their offerings from related solutions like industrial IoT-Platforms. Additionally, the current research on Auto-ML focuses on mathematical optimization of the underlying algorithms, with diminishing returns for end users. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview over available, user-friendly ML technology through a descriptive model of the functions of current Auto-ML solutions. The model was created based on case studies of available solutions and an analysis of relevant literature. This method yielded a comprehensive function tree for Auto-ML solutions along with a methodology to update the descriptive model in case the dynamic provider market changes. Thus, the paper catalyses the use of ML in companies by providing companies and stakeholders with a framework to assess the functional scope of Auto-ML solutions.
Increasing productivity in product-service systems is a vital success factor for industrialized economies and individual businesses. The service production is typically described as an integrated value chain setting, in which the provider and the customer are co-creators.
This paper embraces a characteristic curve model in order to illustrate the influence of the customer on the productivity of service production. The characteristic curves are derived from a system dynamics simulation model for a synchronized takt-based service production. In conclusion this research leads to designs recommendations for service production systems in order to reduce lead times and increase adherence to delivery dates.
Applying Game Theory in Procurement. An Approach for Coping with Dynamic Conditions in Supply Chains
(2014)
Producing companies are facing continually changing conditions accompanied by higher requirements with respect to the flexible configuration of their supply chain. The challenge resulting from this initial situation is to develop systems that have the availability of adjusting their planning procedures and aims depended on the situation and therefore accommodate the increasing demand for flexibility. To address this challenge game theory seems to be a new and promising approach. The aim and added-value of the research work described here is to develop a decision model for the area of procurement using solutions concepts of game theory. Especially in times of high volatility such a decision model can support material requirements planners better than today's common selective planning logics.
In this paper the model to be solved by game theoretic solution concepts is presented. A research study has been conducted which proved the need for combining existing methods of procurement quantity calculation by means of game theoretic solution concepts. Some of the results of this study are presented in this paper. In the last part of the paper a structure for classifying game theoretic models is presented. This structure should support in selecting the appropriate solution concept for real-life decision-situations and is able to support in any practical application-field finding out the most appropriate game theoretic solution concept.
The growth of installed wind capacities generated a market with a huge variety of service offers for operation & maintenance of wind turbines. Different parties like manufacturers, component suppliers as well as independent service providers compete for the attractive after sales market. An innovative service offer which seems to meet the customers’ requirements is the guarantee of availability for wind turbines. However, these service providers are facing new challenges regarding their performance potentials and their financial risks occurring from possible penalties. Service providers have to reconsider their preparedness of performance, their new occurring financials risks, their cooperation and qualification level as well as their localization of service bases. To be able to quantify these new challenges and risks a simulation model has been designed in the context of a German research project named “WinServ”.
A company can choose between three generic competitive strategies. Alongside the strategy of cost leadership are the strategy of differentiation and the strategy of focussing on niches, although we will not be discussing this latter any further here. The strategy of cost leadership is based on the achievement of “economies of scale”, so generating advantage from the benefits of cost reduction, learning curve effects and automation. In the strategy of differentiation the focus is on “economies of scope” which enable the customer-specific products to be offered, but this is generally achieved only with an increase in the complexity of products and processes. In the past it was assumed that these two strategies were mutually exclusive, as an increase in the economies of scale basically leads to a reduction in the economies of scope, and vice versa. But in order to survive in the international competitive arena companies in the high-wage countries need increasingly to offer individually tailored products at competitive prices. The target to be aimed at is therefore customer-specific products at the cost of mass production, so resolving the dilemma between economies of scale and economies of scope. For this it is necessary to optimise the alignment of all the structural elements in both the product and its production, because of the high level of their interdependence.
The areas on which we will focus our review and designs in the following will be what are known as product-production systems, or more briefly, production systems. This topic includes not only the resources and processes of the value creation systems, but also the products produced and offered on the market by a company as one connected entity. In order to tackle the challenges mentioned above, it is necessary to make it possible to measure and compare the current position of any given production system on the see-saw between economies of scale and economies of scope, and then be able to redesign specific facets of them as a second phase. A method of integrative evaluation and design of production systems is presented below for this purpose.
Industrial production in high-wage countries like Germany is still at risk. Yet, there are many counter-examples in which producing companies dominate their competitors by not only compensating for their specific disadvantages in terms of factor costs (e.g. wages, energy, duties and taxes) but rather by minimising waste using synchronising integrativity as well as by obtaining superior adaptivity on alternating conditions. In order to respond to the issue of economic sustainability of industrial production in high-wage countries, the leading production engineering and material research scientists of RWTH Aachen University together with renowned companies have established the Cluster of Excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries”. This compendium comprises the cluster’s scientific results as well as a selection of business and technology cases, in which these results have been successfully implemented into industrial practice in close cooperation with more than 30 companies of the industrial production sector.
Maximising economies of scale in individualised production is a vital issue for producing companies in high wage countries. A decisive enabler for this is the management of product and process complexity by systematic standardisation. Due to the strong and far-reaching impact of complexity on the value added chain, its management requires an integrative consideration of the entire product and production system.
The following paper introduces a methodology facing this challenge. The core element of this methodology is an integrative and complexity-focused assessment model. This assessment model has been validated experimentally by analysing key company data from more than 50 German toolmaking firms. Findings of this empirical investigation are presented in this paper.
Manufacturing companies of the machinery and equipment industry find themselves more than ever exposed to a rapidly changing competitive environment. In particular, the resulting diversity of planning and control processes confronts organisations and information systems with a significant coordination effort. To this day, planning and execution of order processing – from offer processing to the final shipment of the product – is still a part of the production planning and control (PPC), which is almost entirely integrated into information systems. Though, in order to manage dynamic influences on processes within order processing, there can be found a deficiency in the processing of decision-relevant and real-time information. Partly, the reason for this is a missing or incorrect feedback of process relevant data, so that the planning results, gained by the use of information systems, differ to the current process situation.
The concept of Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II) still represents the central logic of production planning and control. However, the centralised and push-oriented MRP II planning logic is not able to plan and measure dynamic processes adequately, which, due to diverse disturbances, often occur in production environments. Furthermore, specific weaknesses of MRP II-based systems are the lack of support for order releases, the planning principle based on average values and the successive planning method as well as the use of limited partial models. As a result a successive planning method leads to a dissection of PPC-tasks into smaller work packages and so strides away from a holistic approach and the achievement of an optimal solution. Similarly, a planning, focusing on a general business objective system, using a partial planning approach due to isolated considerations is not possible. Insufficient consideration of the current load horizon and the current capacity utilization, non-existing or delayed feedback on order progress as well as faults and poor availability and transparency of information can be named as further weaknesses of MRP II-based systems.
Remote services are services enabled by information and communication components and therefore do not require the physical presence of a service technician at the service object to provide a task. The impact of remote service on the capital goods industry has been increasingly significant over the recent yeas. Still many companies struggle with developing and implemenling successful business model, for remote service. This leads to a lot of unaccomplished benefits for the customer as well as for the companies themselves. A survey throughout companies in Ihe industrial machine and plant production sector was conducted in order to determine what successful companies do differently from those that cannot efficiently implement remote service business models.
The study presented in this chapter identifies key suceess factors of companies that effectively implemented remote services for their products. In order to identify the successful companies a scale for measuring remote service success was developed. Only by the use of this scale further findings regarding the success factors were possible. Key findings include the fact that successful companies actively market their remotle service to their customers. Generally they try to approach their remote service business from the operating company's perspective.
Growing information systems (IS) often come along with growing IT complexity, because of emerging rag rug landscapes. This development causes rising IT costs and dependencies, which hinder the maintenance and expansion of the IS landscape. This article outlines the current research on published and presented methods to manage the rising IT complexity in a literature review. Because definitions of “IT complexity” vary a lot in literature, this paper also includes a definition of the term. In addition to that, it delivers a presentation of the used research methodology. Subsequently, it presents the findings in literature, highlights the research gap and – based on the literature analysis – presents the steps that need to be taken. A discussion of the results and a summary complete the article.
In this paper, an approach towards energy management 4.0 will be presented. Energy management 4.0 is understood as an encompassing energy data based concept for manufacturing companies acting in an flexible energy grid of the future with the final goal of autonomous self-optimization Controlling, supervising and scheduling production and logistic steps based on a reliable communication infrastructure and real time data in accordance to achieve a maximum of profitability with regard to human factor is executed.
Guided by a four maturity levels of the "acatech Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index" developed by the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) different use cases are presented according to the steps of visibility, transparency, prognostic capacity and self-optimization. The basic idea of energy management 4.0 is described and an outlook of further steps that are needed to be evaluated for an implementation are presented.
Growing information systems (IS) often come along with growing IT complexity, because of emerging rag rug landscapes. This development causes rising IT costs and dependencies, which hinder the maintenance and expansion of the IS landscape. This article outlines the current research on published and presented methods to manage the rising IT complexity in a literature review. Because definitions of “IT complexity” vary a lot in literature, this paper also includes a definition of the term. In addition to that, it delivers a presentation of the used research methodology. Subsequently, it presents the findings in literature, highlights the research gap and – based on the literature analysis – presents, the steps that need to be taken. A discussion of the results and a summary complete the article.
Nowadays one of the most challenging tasks of producing companies is the growing complexity due to the globalization and digitalization. Especially in high wage countries, the ability to deliver fast and to a fixed date gets more and more important. To achieve this logistic target, it is necessary to optimize the Production Planning and Control (hereinafter PPC). This study investigates the effects of a change of the scheduling parameters on a target system. The focused research questions are: How can the effect of a scheduling parametersvariation on the target system of the PPC can be displayed efficiently? Is it possible to review the effect of the scheduling parameters-variation quantitatively and to derive action options?
The topics Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 increasingly lead to the fact that the customer is increasingly focused on manufacturing companies. He wants to know delivery date of the product, wants to make changes at short notice, get an individualized product and much more. Technologically, these requirements have already been met, but the structures within the company as well as the operational processes are not yet or only partially prepared to cope with the increasing complexity and dynamics of production. This leads to many deviations with which the production controller must deal, whether they are complex or trivial.
In order to counteract the increasing number and frequency of deviation situations which are currently encountered with complex manual interventions, it is necessary to systematically evaluate deviations and then to allocate them a dominant reaction strategy (manual, partially automated, automated) from which a suitable reaction measure can be derived. This relieves the production controller, since assistance systems partially eliminate deviations independently.
As a result, the production controller gets more time to deal with the cause of deviations so that a new occurrence of deviations can be avoided and the number of deviations can be reduced sustainably. The following paper provides a solution for the assessment of deviations. In addition, it includes differentiation logic to allocate one of the three different reaction strategies to the identified deviation.
Production in high-wage countries can be made more efficient, cost-effective, and flexible by solving the conflict between planning and value orientation. A promising approach is to focus on planning and decision-making processes (production planning and control, design of production processes and machinery, etc.) and to aim to maximize overall planning efficiency. Planning efficiency can be expressed as the ratio between the benefit generated by preparing detailed process instructions to produce the parts or components and the corresponding planning efforts. Industrial companies wanting to gain a competitive advantage in dynamic global markets have to identify a set of non-dominated solutions with the most favorable effort–benefit ratio rather than a single solution. The optimum between detailed planning and the immediate implementation of value-adding activities (process steps) in the process chain needs to be found dynamically for each product.
This research area focuses on the management systems and principles of a production system. It aims at controlling the complex interplay of heterogeneous processes in a highly dynamic environment, with special focus on individualized products in high-wage countries. The project addresses the comprehensive application of self-optimizing principles on all levels of the value chain. This implies the integration of self-optimizing control loops on cell level, with those addressing the production planning and control as well as supply chain and quality management aspects. A specific focus is on the consideration of human decisions during the production process. To establish socio-technical control loops, it is necessary to understand how human decisions are made in diffuse working processes as well as how cognitive and affective abilities form the human factor within production processes.
Nowadays, providing purchasable goods is not enough for a company to survive on the global market. Because of competitive prices and a large range of products available, companies need to offer additional benefits to their customers in order to create a unique selling point. They add services to their product portfolio and offer clients the opportunity to acquire an additional service solution to go with it. The offered services need to fit to the customer's needs, resulting in a variety of available services, great complexity of the service range and decreasing transparency of the resource utilization. This paper addresses the problem by identifying variant-creating factors in product service systems, transferring them into an organizational framework and verifying their significance.
This paper contributes to an assessment framework for valuing data as an asset. Particularly industrial manufacturers developing and delivering Smart Product Service Systems (Smart PSS) are comprehensively depended on the business value derived by processing data. However, there is a lack in a framework for capturing and comparing the Smart PSS data value with the purpose of increasing the accountability of data initiatives. Therefore a qualitative data value assessment approach was developed and specified on Smart PSS, based on an industrial case study research. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-57997-5_39]