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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.
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.
Outsourcing of logistics operations (especially transportation, distribution & warehousing) is one of the most viable options exercised by the customers to excel in their logistic operations. Despite the growing outsourcing of logistics services to 3PL providers, both the service providers & their customers are facing tremendous problems in synchronizing the business processes & analyzing the performance using common key performance indicators. There is a huge demand for an integrated approach to help 3PL and their customers better synchronize their business processes and have common goals & perspectives. Such integrated approaches often take shape of a process oriented reference model covering many diverse aspects related to the operations & controlling of any business. In this paper, an integrated reference model to support 3PL service operations is presented. The Logistics Reference Model (LRM) developed & validated in some 3PL service companies encompasses standard business processes, performance measurement system and best practices.
Assets of integrated production systems, especially in the heavy industry, are facing high requirements in terms of reliability and availability. In case of component breakdown, the operating firm is confronted with high costs due to downtime and loss of production. Modern maintenance concepts in combination with advanced technologies can help to improve the plant availability and reduce the downtime costs caused by unplanned breakdowns. Against this background, the research institutes FIR and IMR from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, are collaborating within the research project “SiZu”. This project deals with the integration of condition monitoring system and real time simulation to assess the condition of components and to support failure cause analysis.
DIN PAS 1074: myOpenFactory: Prozess- und Datenstandard für die überbetriebliche Auftragsabwicklung
(2007)
Diese öffentlich verfügbare Spezifikation (PAS = Publicly Available Specification) beschreibt den Prozess- und Datenstandard myOpenFactory. myOpenFactory ist ein Standard für den elektronischen Datenaustausch zwischen verschiedenen ERP-/PPS-Systemen zur Koordination der überbetrieblichen Auftrags- und Projektabwicklung.
Ziel ist es, den Aufwand zum Informationsaustausch zwischen Unternehmen im Rahmen der Auftragsabwicklung nachhaltig zu reduzieren. Der Standard besteht aus einem standardisierten Prozess- und Datenmodell, das DV-technisch in verschiedenen ERP-/PPS-Systemen implementiert werden kann, und ist frei verfügbar. Für Kleinstanwender ohne eigenes ERP-/PPS-System existiert ein Web-Cockpit, das als einzige Voraussetzung eine Internetverbindung benötigt. myOpenFactory wird insbesondere im Maschinen- und Anlagenbau angewendet, kann aber auch in anderen Branchen zum Einsatz kommen. Durch den schlanken und gleichzeitig flexiblen Umfang der Schnittstelle ist myOpenFactory besonders für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen geeignet. Der Prozess- und Datenstandard wird von der myOpenFactory eG gepflegt und weiterentwickelt.
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.
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.
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.
Prinzipien zur erfolgreichen Umsetzung von KI-Geschäftsmodellinnovationen
In Zeiten des zunehmenden globalen Wettbewerbs und hoch vernetzter Wertschöpfungsketten entwickelt sich Künstliche Intelligenz zu einem immer wichtiger werdenden Wettbewerbsfaktor für Unternehmen am Wirtschaftsstandort Deutschland. Durch den Einsatz von KI-Verfahren können nicht nur interne Geschäftsprozesse kostensenkend optimiert, sondern auch neue, digitale Geschäftsfelder und -modelle erschlossen werden. Es lassen sich zum einen Trends identifizieren, denen der Einsatz von KI in deutschen Unternehmen folgt. Zum anderen zeigt sich, dass sich KI unterschiedlich stark auf verschiedene Dimensionen innovativer Geschäftsmodelle auswirkt. Insgesamt lassen sich so Prinzipien ableiten, die die erfolgreiche Umsetzung von KI-Geschäftsmodellinnovationen beschreiben.
Neue Technologie- und Anwendungstrends kennzeichnen KI-Nutzung
Die tatsächliche KI-Landschaft in den Wertschöpfungsketten von KI-nutzenden Unternehmen ist durch Trends gekennzeichnet. Diese lassen sich in Technologie- und Anwendungstrends unterteilen. Experteninterviews zeigen beispielsweise, dass KI-Anwendungen bevorzugt auf Cloud-Infrastrukturen entwickelt und bereitgestellt werden. Das wiederum rückt die Frage nach der Wahrung der Datensouveränität in den Vordergrund. Anwendung findet KI tendenziell zur Prognose und Überwachung.
Sechs Prinzipien beeinflussen die erfolgreiche Umsetzung von KI-Geschäftsmodellinnovationen
Fallstudien über ein breites Spektrum der deutschen Wirtschaft beleuchten, welche Aspekte eines KI-basierten Geschäftsmodells den größten Effekt auf das Unternehmen haben. Hier lässt sich ein besonders hoher Einfluss von KI auf das Nutzenversprechen neuartiger, digitaler Leistungen der Unternehmen an die Kundinnen und Kunden feststellen. So lassen sich sechs Erfolgsprinzipien zur erfolgreichen Implementierung von KI-Technologien identifizieren, um die wirtschaftliche Nutzung von KI für Unternehmen in Deutschland im globalen Wettbewerb weiter zu steigern. So empfiehlt es sich zum Beispiel – neben der Auswahl des richtigen KI-Anwendungsfalles – ebenfalls darauf zu achten, dass die KI-Anwendung sowohl den Anbietenden wie auch den Anwendenden nützt. Diese und weitere Erfolgsprinzipien werden detailliert in der Studie Künstliche Intelligenz – Geschäftsmodellinnovationen und Entwicklungstrends beschrieben.
Ziel des Beitrags ist es, aufzuzeigen, wie produzierende Unternehmen entlang der Customer-Journey systematisch kundenbezogene Daten erheben können. Nach einer Einleitung zur Motivation der Themenstellung, einer Begriffserläuterung und einer Vorstellung des Studiendesigns wird ein Referenzprozessmodell der Kundeninteraktionen produzierender Unternehmen gestaltet, darauf aufbauend ein Datenmodell des digitalen Schattens der Kundeninteraktionen abgeleitet und zuletzt ein Vorgehensmodell zur Implementierung des digitalen Schattens der Kundeninteraktionen präsentiert.
In short-term production management of the Internet of Production (IoP) the vision of a Production Control Center is pursued, in which interlinked decision-support applications contribute to increasing decision-making quality and speed. The applications developed focus in particular on use cases near the shop floor with an emphasis on the key topics of production planning and control, production system configuration, and quality control loops.
Within the Predictive Quality application, predictive models are used to derive insights from production data and subsequently improve the process- and product-related quality as well as enable automated Root Cause Analysis. The Parameter Prediction application uses invertible neural networks to predict process parameters that can be used to produce components with desired quality properties. The application Production Scheduling investigates the feasibility of applying reinforcement learning to common scheduling tasks in production and compares the performance of trained reinforcement learning agents to traditional methods. In the two applications Deviation Detection and Process Analyzer, the potentials of process mining in the context of production management are investigated. While the Deviation Detection application is designed to identify and mitigate performance and compliance deviations in production systems, the Process Analyzer concept enables the semi-automated detection of weaknesses in business and production processes utilizing event logs.
With regard to the overall vision of the IoP, the developed applications contribute significantly to the intended interdisciplinary of production and information technology. For example, application-specific digital shadows are drafted based on the ongoing research work, and the applications are prototypically embedded in the IoP.
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.
Reinforced through the pandemic and shaped by digitalization, today's professional working environment is in a state of transformation. Working remotely has become a vital component of many professions' regular routines. The design of remote work environments presents challenges to organizations of all sizes. By providing a classification, this paper reveals a comprehensive understanding of the fields of design to be considered to establish lasting remote work concepts in organizations. A hierarchical classification with four dimensions consisting of human, technology, organization, and culture, seven design elements and, twenty design parameters indicates to organizations the fields of design that need to be examined. To satisfy both the theoretical foundation and the practical application, design elements are derived by implementing a systematic review of the literature that represents key areas of interest for remote work. Additionally, these are verified and complemented by a dedicated case study research to incorporate practice-oriented design parameters.
Manufacturing companies face the challenge of managing vast amounts of unstructured data generated by various sources such as social media, customer feedback, product reviews, and supplier data. Text-mining technology, a branch of data mining and natural language processing, provides a solution to extract valuable insights from unstructured data, enabling manufacturing companies to make informed decisions and improve their processes. Despite the potential benefits of text mining technology, many manufacturing companies struggle to implement use cases due to various reasons. Therefore, the project VoBAKI (IGF-Project No.: 22009 N) aims to enable manufacturing companies to identify and implement text mining use cases in their processes and decision-making processes. The paper presents an analysis of text mining use cases in manufacturing companies using Mayring's content analysis and case study research. The study aims to explore how text mining technology can be effectively used in improving production processes and decision-making in manufacturing companies.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) gewinnt durch die Möglichkeit, repetitive Administrationsprozesse zu automatisieren und Effizienzpotenziale zu heben, zunehmend an Bedeutung. In der Praxis scheitern jedoch viele Implementierungsprojekte. Dies resultiert primär aus dem fehlenden Verständnis darüber, wie sich die Einführung von RPA auf das Gesamtsystem Organisation auswirkt. Es entsteht eine wachsende Kluft zwischen dem Leistungsversprechen von RPA und der Fähigkeit von Unternehmen, jenes auszuschöpfen. Trotz der exponentiellen Geschwindigkeit des technologischen Fortschritts mangelt es vielen Unternehmen an der notwendigen Adaptionsfähigkeit, welche für den nachhaltigen Erfolg einer RPA-Implementierung essenziell ist. In diesem Kontext spielt die Optimierung der im Einklang stehenden Dimensionen Mensch, Technik und Organisation eine zentrale Rolle. Durch eine systematische Literaturrecherche wird aufgezeigt, dass bisherige Ansätze diesen Zusammenhang nur unzureichend betrachten. In der heutigen Forschungslandschaft existiert kein Modell, welches die technischen, sozialen und organisatorischen Komponenten, die im Zuge der RPA-Einführung zu berücksichtigen sind, darlegt. Angelehnt an das soziotechnische Systemdenken und den Prozess der Fallstudienforschung werden theoriegeleitet Dimensionen und Elemente einer RPA-spezifischen soziotechnischen Systemarchitektur identifiziert und erläutert. Das daraus resultierende Modell zur Unterstützung von Unternehmen bei der RPA-Einführung wurde mit einer Vielzahl Industrievertretern im Rahmen des öffentlichen Forschungsprojekts RPAsset des FIR e. V. an der RWTH Aachen validiert.
Long-term production management defines the future production structure and ensures the long-term competitiveness. Companies around the world currently have to deal with the challenge of making decisions in an uncertain and rapidly changing environment. The quality of decision-making suffers from the rapidly changing global market requirements and the uniqueness and infrequency with which decisions are made. Since decisions in long-term production management can rarely be reversed and are associated with high costs, an increase in decision quality is urgently needed. To this end, four different applications are presented in the following, which support the decision process by increasing decision quality and make uncertainty manageable. For each of the applications presented, a separate digital shadow was built with the objective of being able to make better decisions from existing data from production and the environment. In addition, a linking of the applications is being pursued:
The Best Practice Sharing App creates transparency about existing production knowledge through the data-based identification of comparable production processes in the production network and helps to share best practices between sites. With the Supply Chain Cockpit, resilience can be increased through a data-based design of the procurement strategy that enables to manage disruptions. By adapting the procurement strategy for example by choosing suppliers at different locations the impact of disruptions can be reduced. While the Supply Chain Cockpit focuses on the strategy and decisions that affect the external partners (e.g., suppliers), the Data-Driven Site Selection concentrates on determining the sites of the company-internal global production network by creating transparency in the decision process of site selections. Different external data from various sources are analyzed and visualized in an appropriate way to support the decision process. Finally, the issue of sustainability is also crucial for successful long-term production management. Thus, the Sustainable Footprint Design App presents an approach that takes into account key sustainability indicators for network design. [https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-98062-7_15-1]
Smart Services – die effektive Trias aus Produkt, Service und kundenorientiertem Leistungsversprechen – bieten Chancen für produktionsorientierte Unternehmen eine Differenzierung und neue Marktchancen zu erreichen. Der bislang geringe Einsatz von Smart Services zeigt, dass im produzierenden Gewerbe vielschichtige Herausforderungen bestehen, die Bausteine Produkt, Service und Leistungsversprechen zu nachhaltigen und wettbewerbsfähigen Smart Services zu kombinieren, erfolgreiche Geschäftsmodelle abzuleiten und Organisationen auf das Smart-Service-Geschäft anzupassen. Nur die großen Player schaffen dies eigenständig, der Innovationsstandort Deutschland lebt aber auch von seinen Hidden Champions: Kleinunternehmen und Mittelständlern.
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.
Einleitung
(2008)
Als erfolgreiche Strategie deutscher Industrieunternehmen gilt seit vielen Jahren die Konzentration auf Kernkompetenzen. Dadurch ist meist eine Vielzahl von Unternehmen in die Entwicklung und Produktion eingebunden. Das dabei entstehende Kompetenznetzwerk stellt die hohe Qualität der Erzeugnisse sicher. Jedoch mangelt es in Bezug auf Kommunikationsprozesse und -hilfsmittel häufig an den erforderlichen organisatorischen und informationstechnischen Voraussetzungen für einen effizienten Austausch der zentralen Nachrichten zur Bestellabwicklung (z. B. Anfrage, Bestellung, Rechnung).
The importance of social networks and, in particular, enterprise social networks in business contexts is increasing significantly. Regarding the prerequisites for a successful implementation of an enterprise social network, exclusively providing the technical infrastructure is insufficient. A holistic view that considers and integrates different perspectives is crucial for success. This includes technological, organisational and human aspects as equally important parts of the network. This paper identifies prerequisites for a successful launch of enterprise social networks and groups them along these three dimensions.
Nowadays, cyber physical systems support the improvement of efficiency in intralogistics by controlling and manipulating the production and logistic environment autonomously. Due to the complexity of the individual production processes, designing suitable cyber-physical systems based on their existing production environment is a challenge for companies.
This paper presents a new methodology on how to design cyber-physical systems conceptually to suit an individual production environment. Compared to existing design approaches, this methodology matches immediately the required functions to existing information and communication technology’s components insisting on the neutral assimilation of requirements.
Therefore, the requirement specification asks for needed functions in relating to offered functions of information and communication technology (ICT) components. The paper focusses the use case of implementing a cutting-edge mobile network technology into an existing tracking and tracing process.
In order to introduce load management in the manufacturing industry, some obstacles need to be pointed out. This paper presents a feasible approach on how to implement load management measures in companies. To do so, load management and energy management are explained and distinguished in a first step. Subsequently, the implementation method is introduced. Therefore, by using this paper, companies will be enabled to use load management measure and reduce their energy costs significantly.
More and more companies in the mechanical and plant engineering industry are transforming their business model and evolving from product to solution providers. Subscription business models play a key role in this development. They enable companies to enter long-term collaborative relationships with customers and thus monetize the potential of Industry 4.0. However, this development is not easy for many companies and is associated with numerous hurdles. One of these hurdles is the development of a suitable range of services tailored to customer needs. In this context, the bundling of individual services to service modules plays a key role in realizing new value propositions. In practice, however, companies often lack an understanding of which services need to be combined in what way to be able to realize new value propositions. Accordingly, the goal of this work is to identify relevant services for subscription business models, to cluster them into meaningful value-adding bundles, and to derive new value propositions accordingly. The new value propositions in turn enable mechanical and plant engineering companies to strengthen customer loyalty and thus achieve long-term economic success.
The complexity and volatility of companies’ environment increase the relevance of disruption preparation. Resilience enables companies to deal with disruptions, reduce their impact and ensure competitiveness. Especially in the context of procurement, disruptions can cause major challenges while resilience contributes to ensuring material availability. Even though past disruptions have posed various challenges and companies have recognized the need to increase resilience, resilience is often not designed systematically. One major challenge is the number of potential measures to increase resilience. The systematic design of resilience thus requires a detailed understanding of domain-specific measures. This also includes an understanding of the contribution of these measures to different resilience components and their interdependencies. This paper proposes a systematic approach for configuring resilience in procurement which enables the evaluation and selection of resilience measures. Based on a resilience framework, a resilience configurator is developed. The basis of the configurator are resilience potentials that have been characterized and clustered. Overarching approaches to design resilience and indicators to evaluate resilience are presented. Moreover, a procedure is proposed to ensure practical applicability. To evaluate the results two case studies are conducted. The results enable companies to systematically design their resilience in procurement.
To monetize the potential of digitalization in times of saturated markets, increased machinery and plant engineering companies are starting to transform the transaction-based business model into a customer- and service-oriented subscription business. Even though subscription offerings can create win-win situations for providers and customers, companies encounter significant difficulties in acquiring customers for this innovative business model. Historically linear acquisition processes focused on transactional product sales impede success. To identify key challenges and targeted coping strategies for customer acquisition we conducted in-depth interviews with 18 subscription managers and sales representatives from seven machinery and plant engineering case studies. In our research we uncovered four challenge dimensions: (1) lack of motivation, (2) missing skills and competences, (3) insufficient customer confidence and (4) transaction-oriented sales approach. Beyond that we derived four appropriate coping strategies (1) steering mechanisms, (2) human resource management, (3) trust building instruments and (4) systematic methodology to address them. These insights highlight the key challenges at the management level for customer acquisition that companies face when trying to initiate and sustain the transition from a purely transactional product and service business to subscription-oriented growth. Furthermore, they provide guidance how to cope with these challenges.
The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in manufacturing companies is challenging, particularly for SMEs that lack the necessary skills to develop and integrate AI-based applications (AI applications) into their existing IT system landscape. To address this challenge, the research project VoBAKI (IGF-Project No.: 22009 N) aims to enable SMEs to identify and close skill gaps related to AI application development and implementation using proper sourcing strategies. This paper presents the interim results from the second phase of the project, which involves identifying the tasks in the lifecycle of AI applications and determining the specific skills required for executing these tasks. The presented results provide a detailed lifecycle including the phases for the development and usage of AI applications, as well as the specific tasks that SMEs must consider when implementing an AI application. These results serve as the foundation for future research regarding the required skills to execute the presented tasks and provide a roadmap for SMEs to close skill gaps and successfully implement AI applications.
Gap Analysis for CO2 Accounting Tool by Integrating Enterprise Resource Planning System Information
(2023)
Detailed carbon accounting is the foundation for reducing CO2 emissions in manufacturing companies. However, existing accounting approaches are primarily based on manual data preparation, although manufacturing companies already have a variety of IT systems and resulting data available. The gap analysis carried out based on the GHG Protocol and an reference ERP system shows how much of the required information for CO2 accounting can be integrated from an ERP system. The ERP system can cover 20 % of the required information. The information availability can be increased to 49 % through additionally identified modifications of the ERP system. Integrating the CO2 accounting tool with other systems of the IT landscape, e. g. Energy Information System, enables an additional increase.
Based on the increasingly complex value creation networks, more and more event-based systems are being used for decision support. One example of a category of event-based systems is supply chain event management. The aim is to enable the best possible reaction to critical exceptional events based on event data. The central element is the event, which represents the information basis for mapping and matching the process flows in the event-based systems. However, since the data quality is insufficient in numerous application cases and the identification of incorrect data in supply chain event management is considered in the literature, this paper deals with the theoretical derivation of the necessary data attributes for the identification of incorrect event data. In particular, the types of errors that require complex identification strategies are considered. Accordingly, the relevant existing error types of event data are specified in subtypes in this paper. Subsequently, the necessary information requirements and information available regarding identification are considered using a GAP analysis. Based on this gap, the necessary data attributes can then be derived. Finally, an approach is presented that enables the generation of the complete data set. This serves as a basis for the recognition and filtering out of erroneous events in contrast to standard and exception events.
The mechanical and plant engineering industry faces a stagnation in the new machinery market and is relying on innovative business models such as subscription to overcome these. In this business model, individually customized solution packages are offered. The success of these models depends directly on the future success of the customer, making the selection of the right customers crucial. The aim of this paper is to identify the criteria that indicate the suitability of customers for subscription models. While there are individual descriptions of suitability criteria in the existing literature, there is a lack of comprehensive consideration of customer relationship, customer company, and customer market, as the extensive consideration was not necessary in the transactional sale of machines until now. Therefore, in this study, expert interviews are conducted with companies in mechanical and plant engineering that offer subscription models. The results show criteria that are used to evaluate customers in the six main categories of creditworthiness, market potential, benefit potential, feasibility, relationship, and sales effort. In total, 24 criteria can provide insight into the suitability of the customer for a successful subscription relationship. These criteria are intended to develop target systems that meet the requirements of different stakeholders in the customer and thus support the economic viability of these business models.
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.
Pricing is one of the most important, but underestimated tools, to enhance a company's profitability. Especially value-based pricing has a high potential to reach higher levels of satisfaction because it equates the needs of providers and customers. Even though, it is a well-known price model and promises higher satisfaction, many companies struggle to implement it. Especially the manufacturing industry is characterized by cost-plus pricing and competition-based pricing. However, especially for digital products these pricing strategies are insufficient. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the design fields for value-based pricing of digital products in the manufacturing industry. To achieve this, the basics of digital products and value-based pricing are explored. Furthermore, an expert workshop is conducted that follows a framework for value-based pricing consisting of four consecutive steps analysis, price strategy, pricing, and market launch to capture the design fields. This paper concludes with limitations, and practical and research implications.
Companies in the manufacturing sector are confronted with an increasingly dynamic environment. Thus, corporate processes and, consequently, the supporting IT landscape must change. This need is not yet fully met in the development of information systems. While best-of-breed approaches are available, monolithic systems that no longer meet the manufacturing industry's requirements are still prevalent in practical use. A modular structure of IT landscapes could combine the advantages of individual and standard information systems and meet the need for adaptability. At present, however, there is no established standard for the modular design of IT landscapes in the field of manufacturing companies' information systems. This paper presents different ways of the modular design of IT landscapes and information systems and analyzes their objects of modularization. For this purpose, a systematic literature research is carried out in the subject area of software and modularization. Starting from the V-model as a reference model, a framework for different levels of modularization was developed by identifying that most scientific approaches carry out modularization at the data structure-based and source code-based levels. Only a few sources address the consideration of modularization at the level of the software environment-based and software function-based level. In particular, no domain-specific application of these levels of modularization, e.g., for manufacturing, was identified. (Literature base: https://epub.fir.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2704)
Digital technologies such as 5G, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence (AI) are currently being used in various ways by manufacturing companies. As the fourth industrial revolution progresses, it has become apparent that reckless use and inadequate regulation of these technologies have a detrimental effect on the environment in which they are utilized. Therefore, regulation of digital technologies is imperative today to ensure more responsible and sustainable use. While governments usually establish regulations, progress is not keeping pace with the demands and hazards of employing digital technologies. The European AI law serves as an example of the considerable distance yet to be covered before binding guidelines are established. Consequently, companies must take proactive measures today to ensure that they use digital technologies responsibly in their environments. In this context, identifying which digital technologies are pertinent to manufacturing companies in terms of regulation is crucial. Furthermore, a comprehensive approach is required to design compliance holistically for digital technologies and to systematically derive the corresponding guidelines. This paper introduces a set of models that not only determine the importance of
compliance in the application of different technologies but also present a framework for methodically designing compliance. Furthermore, the paper contributes to the development of an AI platform in the German research project PAIRS by investigating the compliance relevance of applications such as artificial intelligence.
Die pandemiebedingt angestiegene Homeofficequote in produzierenden
Unternehmen ist seit Juli 2020 deutlich rückläufig und indiziert ein
geringes Maß an langfristig gestalteten hybriden Arbeitsplatzkonzepten.
Angesichts des Fachkräftemangels besteht Handlungsdruck, eine
attraktive Arbeitsumgebung mit industriellen Tätigkeiten zu vereinbaren.
Um zukunftsorientierte Arbeitsplatzkonzepte zu gestalten, nennt
das vorgestellte Vorgehen systematisch die menschlichen Tätigkeiten
in produzierenden Unternehmen und bewertet deren Remotefähigkeit.
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.
With the development of publicly accessible broker systems within the last decade, the complexity of data-driven ecosystems is expected to become manageable for self-managed digitalisation. Having identified event-driven IT-architectures as a suitable solution for the architectural requirements of Industry 4.0, the producing industry is now offered a relevant alternative to prominent third-party ecosystems. Although the technical components are readily available, the realisation of an event-driven IT-architecture in production is often hindered by a lack of reference projects, and hence uncertainty about its success and risks. The research institute FIR and IT-expert synyx are thus developing an event-driven IT-architecture in the Center Smart Logistics' producing factory, which is designed to be a multi-agent testbed for members of the cluster. With the experience gained in industrial projects, a target IT-architecture was conceptualised that proposes a solution for a self-managed data-ecosystem based on open-source technologies. With the iterative integration of factory-relevant Industry 4.0 use cases, the target is continuously realised and validated. The paper presents the developed solution for a self-managed event-driven IT-architecture and presents the implications of the decisions made. Furthermore, the progress of two use cases, namely an IT-OT-integration and a smart product demonstrator for the research project BlueSAM, are presented to highlight the iterative technical implementability and merits, enabled by the architecture.
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.
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.