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Methods of machine learning (ML) are notoriously difficult for enterprises to employ productively. Data science is not a core skill of most companies, and acquiring external talent is expensive. Automated machine learning (Auto-ML) aims to alleviate this, democratising machine learning by introducing elements such as low-code / no-code functionalities into its model creation process. Multiple applications are possible for Auto-ML, such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), predictive modelling and optimization. However, employing Auto-ML still proves difficult for companies due to the dynamic vendor market: The solutions vary in scope and functionality while providers do little to delineate their offerings from related solutions like industrial IoT-Platforms. Additionally, the current research on Auto-ML focuses on mathematical optimization of the underlying algorithms, with diminishing returns for end users. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview over available, user-friendly ML technology through a descriptive model of the functions of current Auto-ML solutions. The model was created based on case studies of available solutions and an analysis of relevant literature. This method yielded a comprehensive function tree for Auto-ML solutions along with a methodology to update the descriptive model in case the dynamic provider market changes. Thus, the paper catalyses the use of ML in companies by providing companies and stakeholders with a framework to assess the functional scope of Auto-ML solutions.
Increasing productivity in product-service systems is a vital success factor for industrialized economies and individual businesses. The service production is typically described as an integrated value chain setting, in which the provider and the customer are co-creators.
This paper embraces a characteristic curve model in order to illustrate the influence of the customer on the productivity of service production. The characteristic curves are derived from a system dynamics simulation model for a synchronized takt-based service production. In conclusion this research leads to designs recommendations for service production systems in order to reduce lead times and increase adherence to delivery dates.
Applying Game Theory in Procurement. An Approach for Coping with Dynamic Conditions in Supply Chains
(2014)
Producing companies are facing continually changing conditions accompanied by higher requirements with respect to the flexible configuration of their supply chain. The challenge resulting from this initial situation is to develop systems that have the availability of adjusting their planning procedures and aims depended on the situation and therefore accommodate the increasing demand for flexibility. To address this challenge game theory seems to be a new and promising approach. The aim and added-value of the research work described here is to develop a decision model for the area of procurement using solutions concepts of game theory. Especially in times of high volatility such a decision model can support material requirements planners better than today's common selective planning logics.
In this paper the model to be solved by game theoretic solution concepts is presented. A research study has been conducted which proved the need for combining existing methods of procurement quantity calculation by means of game theoretic solution concepts. Some of the results of this study are presented in this paper. In the last part of the paper a structure for classifying game theoretic models is presented. This structure should support in selecting the appropriate solution concept for real-life decision-situations and is able to support in any practical application-field finding out the most appropriate game theoretic solution concept.
The growth of installed wind capacities generated a market with a huge variety of service offers for operation & maintenance of wind turbines. Different parties like manufacturers, component suppliers as well as independent service providers compete for the attractive after sales market. An innovative service offer which seems to meet the customers’ requirements is the guarantee of availability for wind turbines. However, these service providers are facing new challenges regarding their performance potentials and their financial risks occurring from possible penalties. Service providers have to reconsider their preparedness of performance, their new occurring financials risks, their cooperation and qualification level as well as their localization of service bases. To be able to quantify these new challenges and risks a simulation model has been designed in the context of a German research project named “WinServ”.
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.
In this paper, an approach towards energy management 4.0 will be presented. Energy management 4.0 is understood as an encompassing energy data based concept for manufacturing companies acting in an flexible energy grid of the future with the final goal of autonomous self-optimization Controlling, supervising and scheduling production and logistic steps based on a reliable communication infrastructure and real time data in accordance to achieve a maximum of profitability with regard to human factor is executed.
Guided by a four maturity levels of the "acatech Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index" developed by the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) different use cases are presented according to the steps of visibility, transparency, prognostic capacity and self-optimization. The basic idea of energy management 4.0 is described and an outlook of further steps that are needed to be evaluated for an implementation are presented.
Growing information systems (IS) often come along with growing IT complexity, because of emerging rag rug landscapes. This development causes rising IT costs and dependencies, which hinder the maintenance and expansion of the IS landscape. This article outlines the current research on published and presented methods to manage the rising IT complexity in a literature review. Because definitions of “IT complexity” vary a lot in literature, this paper also includes a definition of the term. In addition to that, it delivers a presentation of the used research methodology. Subsequently, it presents the findings in literature, highlights the research gap and – based on the literature analysis – presents, the steps that need to be taken. A discussion of the results and a summary complete the article.
Nowadays one of the most challenging tasks of producing companies is the growing complexity due to the globalization and digitalization. Especially in high wage countries, the ability to deliver fast and to a fixed date gets more and more important. To achieve this logistic target, it is necessary to optimize the Production Planning and Control (hereinafter PPC). This study investigates the effects of a change of the scheduling parameters on a target system. The focused research questions are: How can the effect of a scheduling parametersvariation on the target system of the PPC can be displayed efficiently? Is it possible to review the effect of the scheduling parameters-variation quantitatively and to derive action options?
The topics Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 increasingly lead to the fact that the customer is increasingly focused on manufacturing companies. He wants to know delivery date of the product, wants to make changes at short notice, get an individualized product and much more. Technologically, these requirements have already been met, but the structures within the company as well as the operational processes are not yet or only partially prepared to cope with the increasing complexity and dynamics of production. This leads to many deviations with which the production controller must deal, whether they are complex or trivial.
In order to counteract the increasing number and frequency of deviation situations which are currently encountered with complex manual interventions, it is necessary to systematically evaluate deviations and then to allocate them a dominant reaction strategy (manual, partially automated, automated) from which a suitable reaction measure can be derived. This relieves the production controller, since assistance systems partially eliminate deviations independently.
As a result, the production controller gets more time to deal with the cause of deviations so that a new occurrence of deviations can be avoided and the number of deviations can be reduced sustainably. The following paper provides a solution for the assessment of deviations. In addition, it includes differentiation logic to allocate one of the three different reaction strategies to the identified deviation.
Nowadays, providing purchasable goods is not enough for a company to survive on the global market. Because of competitive prices and a large range of products available, companies need to offer additional benefits to their customers in order to create a unique selling point. They add services to their product portfolio and offer clients the opportunity to acquire an additional service solution to go with it. The offered services need to fit to the customer's needs, resulting in a variety of available services, great complexity of the service range and decreasing transparency of the resource utilization. This paper addresses the problem by identifying variant-creating factors in product service systems, transferring them into an organizational framework and verifying their significance.
This paper contributes to an assessment framework for valuing data as an asset. Particularly industrial manufacturers developing and delivering Smart Product Service Systems (Smart PSS) are comprehensively depended on the business value derived by processing data. However, there is a lack in a framework for capturing and comparing the Smart PSS data value with the purpose of increasing the accountability of data initiatives. Therefore a qualitative data value assessment approach was developed and specified on Smart PSS, based on an industrial case study research. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-57997-5_39]
Reliability-centered maintenance for production assets is a well-established concept for the most effective and efficient disposition of maintenance resources. Unfortunately, the approach takes a lot of effort and relies heavily on the knowledge of individuals. Reliability data in Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) is scarce and almost never used well. An automated risk assessment system would have the potential to contribute to the dissemination and effective use of risk information and analysis. The individuality of production setting, however, prevents current systems from being practically relevant for most industries. The presented approach combines ontologies to store and link knowledge, an information logistics model displaying the various information streams, and the Internet of production to take the different user systems and infrastructure layers into account. The provided model of a reference digital shadow for risk information and a detailed information logistics model will help software companies to improve reliability software, standardize and enable assets owners to establish a customized digital shadow for their production networks. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-57993-7_2]
In this paper, we firstly present a target system which is deduced to assess the economic profitability of reverse supply chains. Considering this, we analyse process reference models to define relevant components of an appropriate target system.
Subsequently, we define applicable business models which are the basis for the manufacturer to offer new services to its customers on the one hand and to manage a goal-oriented return, recovery and resell of used products and components on the other hand. This will be done based on the morphology methodology in order to understand the characteristics and attributes of reverse supply chains.
Today, manufacturing companies are facing the influences of a dynamic environment and the continuously increasing planning complexity. Using advanced data analytics methods, processes can be improved by analyzing historical data, detecting patterns and deriving measures to counteract the issues. The basis of such approaches builds a virtual representation of a product – called the digital twin or digital shadow.
Although, applied IT systems provide reliable feedback data of the processes on the shop-floor, they lack on a data structure which represents real-time data series of a product. This paper presents an approach for a data structure for the order processing which overcomes the described issue and provides a virtual representation of a product. Based on the data structure deviations between the production schedule and the real situation on the shop-floor can be identified in real time and measures to reschedule operations can be identified.
One of the major challenges facing today´s manufacturing industry is to differentiate from competition in a highly globalized world. As a consequence to the increasing competitive pressure, many companies transform their product centered business models towards service based business models to differentiate from competition. However, the transformation is often underestimated regarding its complexity and its management challenges to behavioral change.
As a consequence lots of transformation initiatives fail. Besides difficulties in structuring the magnitude of changes in processes and structures, many transformation managers do not perceive the risk of employee resistance against changes, which is one of the key factors causing the failure of transformation. The objective of this paper is to enhance the existing body of research on manufacturer´s organizational transformation towards Product-Service Systems. More detailed, the objective is to develop new knowledge to support the management during the decision-making process in the way how and by means of which instruments the change of behavior can be supported when transforming from a manufacturer to a solution.
We developed a reference framework which structures and defines the relevant dimensions of behavioral change. The identification and validation of the success factors build the second component of our research. We conducted an empirical investigation in the German manufacturing industry and got 79 data sets.
Structural equation modelling was applied for the analyses and the validation of the hypotheses. By this analysis we linked management practice with employee behavior and transformational success variables. On the basis of the gained insights decisions can be made concerning the successful transformation from manufacturer to a solution-oriented service provider.
Today, machine manufacturers generate a significant share of their revenues with the provision of services. At the same time, they are confronted with the challenge of adopting of Industrie 4.0.
One of the most important Industrie 4.0 concepts is the idea of the digital shadow, which contributes to the comprehensive structuring of different kinds of data from different data sources. It can be defined as the sufficiently precise, digital representation of reality in real-time.
Thus, it also functions as a database of the considered area of a company that can be used for numerous applications. It serves as a central platform for the aggregation and distribution of data. Thereby, it helps to open isolated data silos. A system architecture that enables extraction of data from various sources and the aggregation of that data is an important prerequisite for the digital shadow.
In addition, the merger of data from different sources requires a model of the part of the company to be mapped digitally. In this paper, we focus on maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services of machine manufacturers. The scope comprises the whole order processing of a service including the utilized resources and the obtained results.
MRO services and their single elements are mapped and structured using a case study research in a first step. Those elements provide a basis for designing the digital shadow. A second contribution of this paper is a data model for the digital shadow of MRO services that entails a comprehensive representation of that department.
Due to the drastically increasing amount of data, decision making in companies heavily relies on having the right data available. Also because of an increasing complexity of structures and processes, quick and precise flows of information become more important.
This paper introduces a new approach for modelling information flows, creating a basis for an efficient information management. It can be used to structure the information requirements and identify gaps within the information processing.
To display its benefits, the proposed Information Logistics Notation (ILN) is applied to the information logistics of todays and future energy market and grid stability management, both processes of increasing complexity.
The manufacturing industry has to exploit trends like “Industrie 4.0” and digitization not only to design production more efficiently, but also to create and develop new and innovative business models. New business models ensure that even SMEs are able to open up new markets and canvass new customers. This means that in order to stay competitive, SMEs must transform their existing business models.
The creation of new business models require smart products. The required data base for new business models cannot be provided by SMEs alone, whereas smart products are able to provide a foundation, given the creation of smart data and smart services they enable. These services then expand functions and functionality of smart products and define new business models.
However, the development of smart products by small and medium-sized enterprises is still lined with obstacles. Regarding the product development process the inclusion of smart products means that new and SME-unknown domains diffuse during the process. Although there are many models regarding this process there appears to be a substantial lack of taking into account the competencies enabled by the implementation of digital technologies. Hence, several SME-supporting approaches fail to address the two major challenges these enterprises are faced with. This paper generally describes valid objectives containing relevant stakeholders and their allocation to the phases of the product life cycle.
Within each objective the potential benefit for customers and producers is analyzed. The model given in this paper helps SMEs in defining the initiation of a product development project more precisely and hence also eases project scoping and targeting for the smartification of an already existing product.
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.
Real-time data analytics methods are key elements to overcome the currently rigid planning and improve manufacturing processes by analysing historical data, detecting patterns and deriving measures to counteract the issues.
The key element to improve, assist and optimize the process flow builds a virtual representation of a product on the shop-floor - called the digital twin or digital shadow. Using the collected data requires a high data quality, therefore measures to verify the correctness of the data are needed. Based on the described issues the paper presents a real-time reference architecture for the order processing.
This reference architecture consists of different layers and integrates real-time data from different sources as well as measures to improve the data quality. Based on this reference architecture, deviations between plan data and feedback data can be measured in real-time and countermeasures to reschedule operations can be applied.
The design of data-driven industrial services in the context of industry 4.0 represents a major challenge for industrial service providers and manufacturing companies for investment goods. Data-driven services require technological and strategic components that most companies have not build up yet and that differ from current configurations. That is why many companies lack a systematic approach and implementation competence for the use of data in the context of industrial services and therefore face the challenge of not being able to expand their market position in an ever-growing competition for data.
The present paper addresses this research deficit with the aim of describing strategic features and characteristics of data-driven industrial services by identifying the related crucial features and characteristics through a morphological approach. This will enable industrial service providers to improve strategic and operative management decisions in order to define a specific strategy and to configure data-driven services.
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.
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.
Industry 4.0 is driven by Cyber-Physical Systems and Smart Products. Smart Products provide a value to both its users and its manufacturers in terms of a closer connection to the customer and his data as well as the provided smart services. However, many companies, especially SMEs, struggle with the transformation of their existing product portfolio into smart products. In order to facilitate this process, this paper presents a set of smart product use-cases from a manufacturer’s perspective. These use-cases can guide the definition of a smart product and be used during its architecture development and realization. Initially the paper gives an introduction in the field of smart products. After that the research results, based on case-study research, are presented. This includes the methodological approach, the case-study data collection and analysis. Finally, a set of use-cases, their definitions and components are presented and highlighted from the perspective of a smart product manufacturer.
Manufacturing companies are constantly increasing their efforts in the subscription business, also known as product-as-a-service business, offering usage and outcome based solutions (value-in-use) instead of transactional services and products (value-in-exchange). Customers are becoming contractual subscribers of the solution in return for recurring, performance-related payments. To address arising, inevitable challenges like (1) reducing customer churn, (2) increasing usage intensity and outcome quality, (3) ensuring the adoption of product and software releases as well as (4) fostering customer loyalty, leading manufacturing companies are setting up a new organizational, customer-facing unit, called Customer Success Management (CSM). This unit has its origins in the software-as-a-service business, operating next to established entities like sales, key account management and customer service. Since there are currently no holistic models for an end-to-end description of CSM-tasks in the manufacturing industry, this paper contributes to a taskoriented reference model, using a grounded theory approach, examining both manufacturing and software companies. Containing a reference framework with 8 main tasks, 17 basic tasks and 76 elementary tasks, the reference model supports manufacturing companies in adapting and customizing a company-specific CSM concept.
Pricing for Smart-Product-Service-Systems in Subscription Business Models for Production Industries
(2021)
In the production industry, subscription business models have the potential to create long-term relationships where a supplier provides a continuous value-oriented service to a customer based on digitalisation. Monetising this increase in value through pricing represents a central challenge for suppliers in subscription business. Unlike the current dominant transactional business, the focus of pricing is on the value-in-use of the customer (e.g. on the increase in output for the customer). In this regard, there is so far no pricing approach for practice that allows the linking of the performance data of the customer with the periodically charged price. However, in subscription businesses, such an approach is required to create win-win situations for the customer and supplier through continuous performance improvement. Therefore, this paper develops a novel process model for pricing of smart-product-service-systems in subscription business for production industries. This process can serve as basis for suppliers of subscriptions in the production industry to align pricing with the created value-in-use. In the long term, this allows companies to systematically develop their pricing to monetise the potential of digitalisation.
The Impact Of Manufacturing Execution Systems On The Digital Transformation Of Production Systems
(2021)
With the focus of manufacturing companies on the digital transformation, Manufacturing Execution Systems are market-ready, modular software solutions for manufacturing companies to integrate the value-adding and supporting processes horizontal and vertical in the company. Companies, especially small and mediumsized companies, face high internal and external costs for the implementation of the MES modules. An advantage of MES is the possibility to implement the systems in a continually, module-by-module approach, with the benefit of timely distributed investments. By realizing fast improvements, companies can use the benefits for further module implementations. This paper proposes a maturity model to measure the impact of an MES on the digital transformation of the company’s production systems. The model fulfils two purposes. The first, companies can measure the impact based on the difference between its current maturity index and the potential index of an implemented MES. The second is, the user can identify what impact an MES has in general on the digital transformation since the developed maturity model is derived from an established industry 4.0 maturity model. The development of the maturity model is based on the methodologies of AKKASOGLU and focuses on the further development of an established model. As an outlook, the application of the model will be described briefly. The proposed maturity model can directly be used by practitioners and offers implications for further development of MES functionalities.
Industrial practice shows a strong trend towards digitalization. It is not only economic crises, such as those triggered by Covid-19, that are reinforcing this trend. It is also the entrepreneurial urge to fulfill customer wishes in the best possible way and to adapt to new requirements as quickly as possible. Due to the advancing digitalization, the role of business application systems in manufacturing companies is therefore becoming increasingly important. The data processed in IT-Systems represent a great potential, especially for the evaluation of change requests in production. Through efficient change management, companies can record and process changes quickly. However, the necessary data basis to decide on existing change requests is still hardly used. Existing IT-Systems for change management coordinate the processing of change requests, but do not relate to data of operational application systems such as Enterprise-Resource-Planning. Therefore, a conceptual approach is required for the evaluation of change requests. This approach is based on an objective recording system that enables the transformation from the change description to an evaluation space. The paper presents an approach for the systematic transfer of requirement characteristics into the world of operational IT-Systems.
Manufacturing companies (MFRs) are increasingly extending their
portfolios with services and data-driven services (DDS) to differentiate themselves from competitors, tap new revenue potential, and gain competitive advantages through digitization and the subsequently generated data. Nonetheless, DDS fail more often than traditional industrial services and products within the first year on the market. Particularly, companies are failing to sell DDS successfully and efficiently with their existing (multi-level) distribution structures. Surprisingly, there is a lack of scientific research addressing this issue. Since there are currently no holistic models for an end-to-end description of distribution-tasks for DDS in the manufacturing industry, this paper contributes to a task-oriented reference model for mapping interactions in the multi-level distribution management. Therefore, a case study research approach is used, to identify and describe the interactions in the multi-level distribution management of DDS, as well as to develop a regulatory framework for MFRs and their multi-level distribution management. This research uses the established theoretical framework of Service-Dominant-Logic to address the co-creation in multi-level distribution management of DDS. As a result, this paper identifies different interaction variants as well as the need for a new management function with 4 main and 14 basic tasks.
In order to achieve a holistic cost management approach, the maintenance and service costs should already be assessed during the development of machines and equipment. The required information in the company, like PLM, process and test data, are commonly not available or vague, especially in early development phases. This paper introduces a feasible method for an early assessment of maintenance and service costs during product development. In doing so, appropriate cost assessment methods are selected, based on the availability and quality of the existing information in the individual development phases. The evaluations of these methods are aggregated in a software tool, so that the respective cost information is displayed with a maximum, minimum and most probable value. The developed software tool was validated in cooperation with a new electric vehicle manufacturer.
Management of information and the IT systems it is stored in becomes a crucial capability for the industry. However, companies are struggling with the management of the various requirements and frequent changes of technology. Thus, IT complexity has become a major challenge for companies. At the same time, especially manufacturing companies are striving to implement Industrie 4.0 concepts. Many of these even have developed an Industrie 4.0 roadmap including various projects to change the company. Companies can develop such roadmaps by applying the Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index that gives a broad view on necessary capabilities for Industrie 4.0.
In our research, we analyzed data sets from over 10 manufacturing companies that have performed an Industrie 4.0 maturity assessment. Our hypothesis was that IT complexity challenges are hindering the implementation of Industrie 4.0 roadmaps significantly. We could prove this hypothesis at least for the companies analyzed and give insights on the specific challenges. Based on our analysis, we conclude our article by giving concrete recommendations on how to tackle IT complexity.
Working capital management is one of the key disciplines that must be prudently monitored for a firm in pursuit of profits, liquidity and growth. The focus of this paper is on the engineer-to-order manufacturers, and the objective is to analyze the correlations between the reference processes of the engineer-to-order production approach with the key postulates of working-capital management and deliver a mathematical operating curves model, whose purpose and goal is basing on the rationale, that is underlying in the parent logistic operating curves theory. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-66926-7_30]
Human behavior in supply chains is insufficiently explored. Wrong decisions by decision makers leads to insufficient behavior and lower performance not only for the decision maker, but also for other stakeholders along the supply chain. In order to study the complex decision situation, we developed a supply chain game in which we studied experimentally the decisions of different stakeholder within the chain. 121 participants took part in a web-based supply chain game. We investigated the effects of gender, personality and technical competency on the performance within the supply chain. Also, learnability and the effect of presence of point-of-sale data are investigated. Performance depended on the position within the chain and fluctuating stock levels were observed in form of the bullwhip effect. Furthermore, we found that risk taking had an impact on the performance and that the performance improved after the first round of the game. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-39226-9_46]
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.
The main challenge in all application areas of EV usage still is the energy storage within, as well as the energy transmission into an EV. However, this storage and transmission of energy also allows for synergies with a smart grid, if the information is adequately exchanged between roles in the energy and mobility sector. Since the energy transmission is a so called “fixed and intersection point” of E-Mobility, interoperability is required not only on an electrical (e.g. plugs), but also on an informational level. Standardization efforts are currently underway (e.g. IEC 15118), yet a comprehensive, consolidating view on the information system around energy transmission is missing. Therefore, this paper suggests a generic information system architecture for e-mobility (EM-ISA) derived from the Smart Grid Architecture Model (SGAM). EM-ISA shall be a base for companies to develop innovative services for their particular, ICT-enabled E-Mobility application area while at the same time stay at important points informational interoperable at the fixed and intersection point of energy transmission.
In recent years supply chain participants are increasingly suffering the effects of disturbances in transportation supply chains. Both, dynamics in consumer demands and global supply chains lead to a growth in unplanned supply chain events. These can cause from rather manageable disturbances through to complete break-downs of transportation chains, resulting in high follow-up and penalty costs.
Consequently, concepts for an efficient supply chain disturbance management are needed, preferably with a real-time identification and reaction to disturbance events. Therefore in the following paper the research results of the German research project Smart Logistic Grids with the focus on designing an integrated model for the real-time disturbance management in transportation supply networks are presented. This includes the introduction of elaborated classification models for disturbances and action patterns as well as an associated costs and performance measurement system. Finally, a procedure model for the disturbance management is presented.
The steady increasing of supply chain complexity due to a rising global cross-linking of production and sales regions leads to an increasing sensitivity to disturbances while in the meantime the requirements of the availability, the time of delivery and the security of supplies within the supply chain increases. To meet this challenges the security of the supply chain infrastructure and the feasibility of supply chain processes need to be ensured, despite of the high specialization within the supply chain partners, the low stock and time buffers, and the information shortcoming between supply chain partners.
In this research, a System Dynamics simulation model, based on the manufacturing supply chain model of Sterman, has been developed for representing the actual complexity and dynamic in manufacturing supply chains. Therefore, the modeled manufacturing supply chain shows the processes of a four level supply chain focusing the processes and interactions of the mid-positioned two supply chain participants. The main contribution of the work described in this paper, is the description and implementation of necessary additional modules and parameters to Sterman’s basic model for the diagnosis of disturbance impacts as well as for the realization of supply chain adjustments. Finally, the model has been simulated and examined for realistic values.
Systematization models for taylor-made sensor system applications and sensor data fit in production
(2015)
Industrial digitalization to realize smart factories is driven by an informatory base of high-resolution data provided by sensor systems on the shop-floor level. The challenge of technical availability of fitting measurement solutions nowadays turns in a struggle of finding the optimal solution for a specific task in an ever-growing sensor market. This paper analyzes and specifies necessary models to systematically derive and describe organizational, technical and informatory requirements for sensor system applications increasing the technological fit for faster integration and lower misinvestment rates.
Volatile electricity prices caused by an increase of renewable energy sources push producing companies towards taking in an active role in balancing the electricity grid. Possible actions at the customer side to actively adapt to volatile energy prices are called demand response actions. In production logistics such actions can be the modification of production schedules motivated by possible economic benefits. So far, the focus in scheduling problems has been the optimization in the dimensions of quality, time and costs. This paper presents the results of a simulation study on the economic benefits of demand response actions for a generic production system.
Companies in the manufacturing industry are shifting towards a more service-oriented business model. One major challenge of this transformation is the information exchange between the different stages of the product-service-lifecycle.
We extend the existing body of knowledge by conducting an empirical study in the German manufacturing industry, addressing the cause-effect relationship between 1) information gathering over the product-service-lifecycle, 2) data analytics 3) interpretation and use of new information and 4) distribution of new product related information and the impact of these four aspects on performance.
The analysis reveals five different success factors with a significant impact on innovation and operation excellence. The implications from our research can help to develop new and more practical oriented Lifecycle-Product-Service-System approaches on the one hand. On the other hand it enables companies to focus on activities leading to higher service efficiency. Creating new stimuli will transform their existing business model to a more service-oriented one.
Companies are transforming from transactional sales to providing solutions for their customers. Mostly, smart products, enabling companies to enhance their products by providing smart services to their customers, are a key building block in this transformation. However, the development of a smart product requires many digital skills and knowledge, which regular companies do not have. To facilitate the design and conceptualization of smart products, this paper presents a use-case-based information systems architecture prototype for smart products. Furthermore, the paper features the application and evaluation of the architecture on two different smart product projects. The use of such an architecture as a reference in smart product development serves as a huge advantage and accelerator for inexperienced companies, allowing faster entry into this new field of business. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-14844-6_16]
Ongoing digitalization and Industry 4.0 enable the development of new business models due to the increase in available data and digital connected products. A promising business model type for the machinery and plant engineering industry are subscription models, consisting of products and services offered in return for continuous payments. However, subscription-based business models are associated with extensive changes in the traditional machinery and plant engineering industry, in particular, for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs). Established concepts for the development of value propositions and business models neglect important aspects, such as the integrated development and optimization of products and services across the entire life cycle or the data infrastructure. This paper presents a concept for a methodology to support SMEs developing value propositions within subscription models. Therefore, the systematic identification of customer benefits, the determination and prioritization of subscription relevant functionalities as well as the design of product and service elements addressing those functionalities are the main aspects on which the focus is placed on. The result is a subscription value proposition canvas for SMEs to address the impact of subscription models on products and services.
Methods of machine learning (ML) are difficult for manufacturing companies to employ productively. Data science is not their core skill, and acquiring talent is expensive. Automated machine learning (Auto-ML) aims to alleviate this, democratizing machine learning by introducing elements such as low-code or no-code functionalities into its model creation process. Due to the dynamic vendor market of Auto-ML, it is difficult for manufacturing companies to successfully implement this technology. Different solutions as well as constantly changing requirements and functional scopes make a correct software selection difficult. This paper aims to alleviate said challenge by providing a longlist of requirements that companies should pay attention to when selecting a solution for their use case. The paper is part of a larger research effort, in which a structured selection process for Auto-ML solutions in manufacturing companies is designed. The longlist itself is the result of six case studies of different manufacturing companies, following the method of case study research by Eisenhardt. A total of 75 distinct requirements were identified, spanning the entire machine learning and modeling pipeline.
More and more manufacturing companies are starting to transform the transaction-based business model into a customer value-based subscription business to monetize the potential of digitization in times of saturated markets. However, historically evolved, linear acquisition processes, focusing the transactionoriented product sales, prevent this development substantially. Elemental features of the subscription business such as recurring payments, short-term release cycles, data-driven learning, and a focus on customer success are not considered in this approach. Since existing transactional-driven acquisition approaches are not successfully applicable to the subscription business, a systematic approach to an acquisition cycle of the subscription business in the manufacturing industry is presented, aiming at a long-term participative business. Applying a grounded theory approach, a task-oriented model for themanufacturing industry was developed.
The model consisting of five main tasks and 14 basis tasks serves as best practice to support manufacturing companies in adapting or redesigning acquisition activities for their subscription business models.
Producing companies are confronted with a growing number of product ramp-ups, since product life cycles are decreasing and product diversity is increasing. Production Planning and Control (PPC) of ramp-up products is particularly challenging, as there is a significant lack of reliable experienced data.
The information deficit is exceptionally high for the first step of PPC process, namely Production Program Planning (PPP). The paper in hand proposes an innovative approach of cybernetic PPP that enables companies with numerous ramp-ups to design reliable and fast PPP processes that can react highly adaptable on unpredictable environmental disturbances. The Viable System Model (VSM) is used as frame of reference for the design of PPP processes in line with principles from management cybernetics.
As industrial service portfolios grow, many companies overlook the implications of their business operations: rising complexity and resulting complexity costs. One reason are nonexistent tools that help service managers to decide in planning phases with an adequate effort about the implications that variety and complexity decisions have on the complexity costs of their portfolio. This paper depicts the challenges service companies have to face in this context and presents a concept of a heuristic approach to evaluate the complexity costs for industrial services. The concept is being developed in strong cooperation with industrial partners.
For a considerable time, European companies in the capital goods industry experience stagnating growth in material goods markets. Moreover, increasing international competition forces European companies to improve their market position. In order to stay successful, an increasing number of companies adapt their businesses from manufacturing to service provider. Unfortunately, the number of companies who manage to turn their portfolio change into a competitive advantage is comparatively low. Therefore, this paper focuses on the development of a framework for the positioning as industrial services provider. Besides, it provides support for management in shaping the changes that occur with the transformation.