Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Conference Proceeding (105) (remove)
Language
- English (105) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (105)
Keywords
- 02 (9)
- 03 (9)
- 04 (1)
- 5G (2)
- AI (2)
- APMS (1)
- APS (1)
- Advanced Planning System (1)
- Anomaly detection (1)
- Architektur <Informatik> (1)
Institute
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.
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.
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.