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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.
Entgegen der von Porter postulierten Inkompatibilität von Economies of Scale und Economies of Scope sind in Hochlohnländern produzierende Unternehmen in zunehmendem Maße herausgefordert, sowohl individuelle Kundenbedürfnisse zu befriedigen als auch gegen den Kostendruck globalisierter Märkte zu bestehen. Diese Herausforderung entspricht einer Auflösung der Scale-Scope-Dichotomie. Aufgrund der hochgradigen Interdependenz der strukturbildenden Elemente eines Produkt-Produktionssystems müssen diese zur Auflösung der Dichotomie in ihrem spezifischen Standardisierungsgrad aufeinander abgestimmt werden.
Diese Abstimmung entspricht der Aufgabenstellung der integrativen Bewertungs-und Konfigurationslogik, die im Folgenden präsentiert wird. Auf Basis eines integrierten Bewertungsmodells, das Produkt-Produktionssysteme in vier quantifizierbare Spannungsfelder gliedert, kann hierbei der aktuelle Betriebspunkt eines Produktionssystems analysiert werden. Über die gewonnenen Analyseergebnisse ermöglicht dieses Bewertungsmodell die Steuerung des Konfigurationsprozesses eines Produkt-Produktionssystems in Form einer Konfigurationslogik.
One of the central success factors for production in high-wage countries is the solution of the conflict that can be described with the term “planning efficiency”. Planning efficiency describes the relationship between the expenditure of planning and the profit generated by these expenditures. From the viewpoint of a successful business management, the challenge is to dynamically find the optimum between detailed planning and the immediate arrangement of the value stream. Planning-oriented approaches try to model the production system with as many of its characteristics and parameters as possible in order to avoid uncertainties and to allow rational decisions based on these models. The success of a planning-oriented approach depends on the transparency of business and production processes and on the quality of the applied models. Even though planning-oriented approaches are supported by a multitude of systems in industrial practice, an effective realisation is very intricate, so these models with their inherent structures tend to be matched to a current stationary condition of an enterprise. Every change within this enterprise, whether inherently structural or driven by altered input parameters, thus requires continuous updating and adjustment. This process is very cost-intensive and time-consuming; a direct transfer onto other enterprises or even other processes within the same enterprise is often impossible. This is also a result of the fact that planning usually occurs a priori and not in real-time. Therefore it is hard for completely planning-oriented systems to react to spontaneous deviations because the knowledge about those naturally only comes a posteriori.
In a subproject of the cluster of excellence “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” at RWTH Aachen University a configuration logic is under development that enables companies to configure their production system according to the dynamic requirements of the market. As a result of this project, a holistic description model for production systems has been defined. With numerous attributes in the sub-models a detailed characterization of the production system is possible.
The sub-model for the design of the supply chain will be depicted in detail in this paper. Representative for the design of a supply chain, the spare parts logistics of the wind energy industry is analyzed in depth. Designing this supply chain is not only one of the most challenging tasks in logistics. Only a responsive but also cost efficient design of the spare parts supply chain guarantees high productivity, extended life spans of the wind turbines as well as the expected profit for all companies in the supply chain.
Dynamische Märkte verlangen nach effizienten Produktionssystemen. Um Unternehmen in die Lage zu versetzen, ihre Produktionssysteme auf diese Anforderungen einzustellen, entwickelt der Exzellenzcluster „Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries“ an der RWTH Aachen im Rahmen eines Unterprojekts eine Konfigurationslogik, die eine ganzheitliche und gleichzeitig detaillierte Beschreibung des Produktionssystems erlaubt.
Dieser Artikel stellt das entwickelte Modell zur Gestaltung der Supply-Chain detailliert dar. Als Betrachtungsgegenstand wird die distributionsseitige Lieferkette der Ersatzteillogistik gewählt, da deren Gestaltung und Betrieb eine der größten Herausforderungen der logistischen Planung bilden. Die Ersatzteillogistik wird dazu in drei wesentliche Gestaltungsfelder aufgeteilt: Netzwerkdesign, Kooperationskonzepte und Bestandsmanagement. Im Fokus der Betrachtungen stehen die Interdependenzen zwischen den Gestaltungsfeldern und ihren Elementen, da sie die Entscheidungsfindung häufig erschweren.
Die volle Bandbreite aller Abhängigkeiten ist in der Regel nicht zu erfassen. Daher erfolgt eine Reduzierung der Komplexität durch eine Fokussierung der für verschiedene Ersatzteilkategorien wesentlichen Gestaltungselemente. Hierzu wird zunächst eine Klassifizierung der Ersatzteile im Hinblick auf ihre Schlüsselcharakteristiken durchgeführt. Für jede Kategorie muss im Anschluss nur eine reduzierte Menge von Gestaltungselementen berücksichtigt werden, sodass eine vertiefte Analyse dieser relevanten Elemente möglich wird. Mithilfe eines systemdynamischen Ansatzes wird schließlich eine verbesserte Konfiguration des Netzwerkdesigns, des Kooperationskonzepts und des Bestandsmanagements der Ersatzteillieferkette auf der Basis spezifischer logistischer Anforderungen für die entsprechenden Ersatzteilkategorien erreicht.
Vor dem Hintergrund des unvorhersehbaren Unternehmensumfelds gewinnt das Risiko-Management in Produktionsnetzwerken zunehmend an Bedeutung. Um den dynamischen Anforderungen gerecht zu werden, ist der Aufbau von Flexibilitätspotenzialen besonders wichtig. Da jedoch für die auftragsspezifische Fertigung keine Sicherheitsbestände aufgebaut werden können, ist ein alternativer Ansatz zur Flexibilitätssicherung zu finden. Im diesem Artikel wird ein Ansatz zur Bewertung des Nutzens der Bestellflexibilität vorgestellt.
Within each of the three design fields numerous design elements exist (e.g. degree of centralization, number of warehouses etc. in the field network design). Hence, the interdependencies of all design elements have to be analyzed to allow optimal decisions for the design of an efficient and effective spare parts logistics. Nevertheless, the complexity among all interdependencies can hardly be understood. Therefore it is necessary to reduce the complexity of design decisions by focusing on the most important design elements according to the logistical requirements of different spare part categories. In order to achieve this goal, a classification of spare parts in terms of their key characteristics has been developed. For different spare part categories only a smaller set of design elements and their interdependencies has to be taken into account. The reduced number of key design elements per spare part category can be analyzed and understood in depth. Thus a Systems Dynamics approach is used to allow a better configuration of network design, cooperation concepts and inventory management in spare parts Supply Chains on the basis of specific logistics requirements of different spare part categories.
In dynamic markets flexible and efficient production systems are the main success factor for companies. The production system in this context includes all five phases of the SCOR-Model: Source, Make, Deliver, Plan and Return. In a subproject of the cluster of excellence "Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries" at RWTH Aachen University, a configuration logic is being developed that enables companies to configure their production system according to the dynamic requirements of the market. As a major intermediate result, a holistic description model for production systems has been defined. In combination with numerous attributes in the sub-models, a detailed characterization of the production system is possible.
The sub-model for the design of the Supply Chain (mainly Deliver) will be depicted in detail in this paper. Representative for the design of a Supply Chain, spare parts logistics - as one of the most challenging tasks in logistics planning - is analyzed in depth. For this purpose spare parts logistics is divided into three design fields: network design, cooperation concepts (e.g. with logistics providers, customers, suppliers) and inventory management. Decisions in the design fields are highly interdependent, any spare parts logistics configuration has to take these interdependencies into account.
Holistic PLM- Model
(2010)
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is a widely discussed topic concerning the increase of efficiency of product development in terms of time to market as well as customizing products to the different needs of customers worldwide adequately. Historically PLM focuses the early phases of the product’s lifecycle, namely the product development phase. Therein the roots of PLM are based in supporting the information logistics of product data: Consistent data sets should be available to all stakeholders in the different departments at all times. Due to the increasing product complexity PLM has to be extended in terms of the temporal dimension (not limited to product development phase) and systemic dimension (not limited to the information logistic aspect). In this paper the authors derive a holistic framework for Product Lifecycle Management by analysing existing integrated management approaches. The framework consists of four dimensions: PLM strategy, PLM process, Product structure and PLM IT-Architecture. The sustainability and benefits of the framework is demonstrated by applying the framework to the communication service provider industry (CSP).
Industrial companies face tremendous challenges to plan the resources needed to meet future market demands when implementing a PSS based solution portfolio. This paper deals with enhancing the PSS research landscape by presenting an approach to enable better resource-planning in PSS based businesses. In particular, a model is proposed which links resource structures with customer offerings. Linkages are implemented, which connect resources and their use in processes. The model contributes to better understand the complexity in resource structures and elements in the PSS and helps to better understand and describe the structural integration of resources in PSS. This is an important prerequisite for the planning of PSS and allows a qualitative and quantitative description of the service resources allocation enabling companies to build the competence needed to meet customer requirements. A case study based approach was applied for model development.
Industrial Service Providers (ISP) are exposed to constantly raising competitive pressures regarding both cost and performance aspects. The massive challenges caused by the current worldwide financial and economic crisis even intensified the need for process optimizations aimed at increasing the productivity of service production. To reach this goal the evaluation and elimination of waste in their production processes becomes a crucial ability for ISPs. This paper proposes a new approach for increasing productivity in service production processes using a generic measurement model for the detection and evaluation of waste. The model is based on established lean management principles, but tailored to the specifics of ISPs by adopting a customers’ perspective to track down and eliminate waste. The evaluation builds on an in-depth-analysis of particular types of waste in the industrial service production processes. Viewed from the customers’ perspective and taking into account the specific characteristics of services (e.g. intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability, and perishability) and service production (e.g. volatile demand, a tendency to over-capacity, and limits to planning) the approach employs a service blueprint reference model to then determine the different types of waste in the various parts of the service production process.
In the near future, tooling companies will offer their customers not just maintenance services, but complex remote service packages for their engineering asset management, which is the total management of physical – not financial – assets. The overall goal is to enhance the efficiency of the engineering asset, e.g. to reduce TCO, on the customers´ site by means of value creating partnerships. These partnerships may be, e.g. the classical output or reliability partnership, but also process optimizing partnerships or lifecycle partnerships. The process optimizing partnership offers, e.g. the optimization of the system’s performance or the output quality, an optimized ramp-up and restart procedure or optimization of the production process parameters. The lifecycle partnership, on the other hand, accompanies the intelligent tool-machine-system throughout the whole lifecycle, which includes, e.g. provision of spare parts during the entire usage phase, storing, refurbishment, recycling and even the support of relocation of production facilities. Intelligent remote services have great potential for realizing all these partnerships.
To realize such engineering asset-related partnerships, two major tasks have to be done. First, there has to be the intelligent tool-machine system, which delivers the information that is required for these services. And furthermore, this information has to be integrated into the maintenance processes, so that it is delivered at the right place and time and in the required form. Second, the activities and processes that are combined to the engineering asset-related partnerships have to be configured out of standardized service and process modules. Therefore configuration logic is essential.
Rebound Logistics
(2009)
Today, the flow of product returns is becoming a significant concern for many manufacturing companies. In this research area, three fundamental aspects of product returns need to be taken into consideration: First, companies become increasingly aware of the fact that product returns may offer an opportunity for enormous profit generation and for improving the competitive advantage of a manufacturing company when taking into account the accretive value of the products and technology. Second, the impact of green laws, legislative provisions and the increasing impact of a sustainable production management due to marketing aspects force companies to design and manage the reverse supply chain actively. Third, the importance of managing the reverse supply chains effectively will be enforced by the currently volatile economic climate. This paper outlines first results of designing a methodological framework for implementing an integrative reverse supply chain for manufacturing companies based on a type-specific Reverse Supply Chain Reference Model.
The House of Maintenance
(2009)
In order to guarantee an efficient and effective employment of production equipment, it is essential to identify any possible potential for improving performance, not only in the production process, but also in supporting areas such as maintenance. One of the major tasks in increasing maintenance performance consists of systematically identifying the company’s most significant weaknesses in maintenance organisation and thus being able to implement improvements there where they are most needed.
But how is a company to tackle this important task? To answer this question, this paper describes an assessment and improvement approach, based on a capability maturity model (CMM). By means of this approach, the status-quo of a maintenance organisation can be analysed and its individual improvement opportunities identified.
Due to shorter product life cycles the number of production ramp-ups is increasing, while customers have a soaring demand for more variable and individualized products. In the future, optimizing the production ramp-up will become an important differentiation criterion for companies. Considering the whole supply chain in the ramp-up process becomes therefore indispensable. This is what the presented research in this paper concentrates on. The intention of the research project is to develop a model of a supply chain in the production ramp-up stage. Through this model, approaches for optimizing the production ramp-up in the whole supply chain will be derived.
Further the research project concentrates on measuring the production ramp-up performance in the supply chain, showing the impact on economic and financial measures. The result of this research is an approach to align the tasks and objectives of Supply Chain Management with the tasks and objectives of ramp-up management in order to optimize the whole supply chain in the ramp-up stage.