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The efficient dealing with the dynamic environment of production industries is one of the most challenging tasks of Supply Chain Management in high-wage countries. Relevant and current information are still not used sufficiently, to handle the influence of the dynamic environment on intra- and inter-company order processing adequately. Among other things, the problem is caused by missing or delayed feedback of relevant data. As a consequence of that, planning results differ from the actual situation of production. High Resolution Supply Chain Management describes an approach aiming on high information transparency in supply chains in combination with decentralized, self-optimizing control loops for Production Planning and Control. The final objective is to enable manufacturing companies to produce efficiently and to be able to react to order-variations at any time, requiring process structures to be most flexible.
Electricity generated by wind turbines (WT) is a mainstay of the transition to renewable energy. In order to economically utilize WT is, operating and maintenance costs, which account for 25% of total electricity generation costs in onshore WT’s, are a focus of cost reduction activities. Implementing a data-driven prescriptive maintenance approach is one way to achieve this. So far, various approaches for prescriptive maintenance for onshore WT’s have been suggested.
However, little research has addressed the practical implementation considering sociotechnical aspects. The aim of this paper is therefore to identify success factors for the successful implementation of such a maintenance strategy with clear and holistic guidance on how existing knowledge on prescriptive maintenance from science can be transferred to business practice. These recommendations are developed through case study research and classified in the four structural areas of Acatech’s Industry 4.0 Maturity Index: Resources, Information Systems, Organizational Structure and Culture.
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.
With big data-technologies on the rise, new fields of application appear in terms of analyzing data to find new relationships for improving process under-standing and stability. Manufacturing companies oftentimes cope with a high number of deviations but struggle to solve them with less effort. The research project BigPro aims to develop a methodology for implementing counter measures to disturbances and deviations derived from big data. This paper proposes a methodology for practitioners to assess predefined counter measures. It consists of a morphology with several criterions that can have a certain characteristic. Those are then combined with a weighting factor to assess the feasibility of the counter measure for prioritization.
Failure management in the production area has been intensely analyzed in the research community. Although several efficient methods have been developed and partially successfully implemented, producing companies still face a lot of challenges. The resulting main question is how manufacturers can be assisted by a sustainable approach enabling them to proactively detect and prevent failures before they occur. A high-resolution production system based on analyzed real-time data enables manufacturers to find an answer to the main question. In this context, Big Data technologies have gained importance since the critical success factor is not only to collect real-time data in the production but also to structure the data. Therefore, we present in this paper the implementation of Big Data technologies in the production area using the example of an actual research project. After the literature review, we describe a Big Data based approach to prevent failures in the production area. This approach mainly includes a real-time capable platform including complex event processing algorithms to define appropriate improvement measures.
Datenbasierte Services rücken durch die Vernetzung zunehmend in den Fokus von Unternehmen. Für produzierende Unternehmen jeder Größe ist es immanent, die eigenen Daten stärker zu nutzen. Durch ein historisches Wachstum des Unternehmens sind IT-Lösungen oftmals über das Unternehmen verteilt und Daten werden mehrfach gehalten. Mithilfe des Konzepts eines digitalen Schattens können die aufgezeigten Herausforderungen gelöst werden. Dessen Umsetzung erfolgt über software-definierte Plattformen. Diese ermöglichen ein Abbild der relevanten Unternehmensdaten und schaffen Transparenz über aktuelle und vergangene Ereignisse. Unter Nutzung von Datenanalyseverfahren und Visualisierungssystemen tragen sie zur Entscheidungsunterstützung im Unternehmen bei. Dieser Beitrag enthält eine Definition dieses Plattformtyps und eine Morphologie zur Einordnung verschiedener Plattformen vor. Anhand des morphologischen Kastens werden die zentralen, notwendigen Merkmale einer software-definierten Plattform herausgearbeitet und beschrieben. Integrationsanforderungen zur Einführung in Unternehmen werden in den vier Dimensionen Technik, Organisation, Prozesse sowie Anforderungen zur Datenintegration dargestellt.
Ergänzt wird diese Betrachtung um Praxiserfahrungen bei der Umsetzung einer software-definierten Plattform. Damit liefert der Artikel einen Beitrag zur Diskussion um software-definierte Plattformen und unterstützt Unternehmen bei der Einführung einer solchen.
ECM im Mittelstand
(2017)
Mit der ganzheitlichen Strategie des Enterprise Content Management (ECM) werden alle Dokumente eines Unternehmens verwaltet und organisiert. Durch den Einsatz geeigneter ECM Werkzeuge erhalten Unternehmen zum Beispiel Unterstützung beim effizienten Erfassen, Ablegen und Wiederauffinden von Dokumenten, bei der Abwicklung dokumentenbasierter Prozesse sowie bei der Einhaltung rechtlicher Vorgaben, etwa zur revisionssicheren Archivierung. Damit können ECM-Lösungen einen maßgeblichen Beitrag zur Digitalisierung der Geschäfts- und Arbeitswelt im Sinne des »Digital Office« leisten.
Das Konzept des umfassenden ECM ist mittlerweile in großen Unternehmen etabliert. Wesentliche Treiber sind hier neben offensichtlichen Rationalisierungseffekten und hohen Anforderungen an die Rechtssicherheit im Umgang mit Dokumenten(Compliance) vor allem auch neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit in Teams sowie die Automatisierung und Integration von Geschäftsprozessen. Auch die voranschreitende Digitalisierung von Geschäftsmodellen benötigt eine komplett digitale Unterstützung, zum Beispiel die automatisierte Ablage und Weiterverarbeitung von Verträgen oder Bankgeschäften, die im Internet geschlossen werden. Um Medienbrüche zu vermeiden und damit ein Geschäftsvorfall schnell nach den Compliance-Gesichtspunkten verarbeitet werden kann, ist eine ECM-Strategie, die der Unternehmensstrategie folgt, angeraten.
Vor diesem Hintergrund bietet die Studie »ECM im Mittelstand 2017« anhand der Aussagen von über 600 mittelständischen Unternehmen eine Bestandsaufnahme der ECM-Praxis im Mittelstand. Im Vordergrund stehen Fragen zum Begriffsverständnis, zur Verbreitung, zu Nutzen und zu Kosten von ECM-Software ebenso wie zu zukünftigen Entwicklungen und Trends rund um ECM im Mittelstand. Aufgrund vergleichbarer Fragestellungen sind in weiten Teilen Aussagen zur Entwicklung seit 2013 möglich, die auf entsprechenden Studienergebnissen aus einer Vorgängerstudie basieren.
Nachhaltige Lieferketten
(2021)
Das Thema der Nachhaltigkeit ist nicht zuletzt aufgrund aktueller Entwicklungen zunehmend in den gesellschaftlichen und unternehmerischen Fokus gelangt. Pandemien, Naturkatastrophen, aber auch regulatorische Auflagen zur Erfüllung von Klimaschutzzielen haben zu einem Umdenken geführt. Im Rahmen des Thementags „Sustainable Supply-Chain-Management“ hat das FIR an der RWTH Aachen zusammen mit Expert:innen aus Wirtschaft und Forschung Thesen erarbeitet, die widerspiegeln, wie das Thema Nachhaltigkeit aktuell in deutschen Unternehmen wahrgenommen und umgesetzt wird und welche besondere Bedeutung dem Supply-Chain-Management dabei zukommt. Nachhfolgend werden diese und deren Implikationen für die Praxis vorgestellt.
Ein ständig wachsender Preisdruck und immer individuellere Kundenaufträge sind nur zwei Kennzeichen der industriellen Produktion im europäischen Wirtschaftsraum. Gerade in Deutschland ansässige Unternehmen können im internationalen Wettbewerb in den wenigsten Fällen allein aufgrund des Produktpreises konkurrenzfähig bleiben. Stattdessen bauen diese Unternehmen ihre Wettbewerbsvorteile anderweitig aus und verfolgen vielmehr eine konsequente Kundenorientierung, hohe Logistikleistung oder Prozessbeherrschung. In diesem Umfeld setzten zahlreiche Unternehmen bereits frühzeitig auf eine Reduzierung ihrer Wertschöpfungstiefe und verlagerten verschiedene Entwicklungs- oder Produktionsschritte auf andere Unternehmen mit komplementären Kompetenzen. Damit rückte die überbetriebliche Zusammenarbeit bzw. Koordination der Auftragsabwicklung entlang einer mehrstufigen Lieferkette oder innerhalb eines polyzentrischen Unternehmensnetzwerks zunehmend in den Mittelpunkt betrieblicher Anstrengungen. So gilt es also heute, in Netzwerkstrukturen zu denken, diese ganzheitlich zu gestalten und effizient zu organisieren. Der Beitrag konkretisiert am Beispiel des Aachener PPS-Modells geeignete Referenzmodelle und zeigt Entwicklungspfade einer wertorientierten Logistikgestaltung auf.
In Germany’s transition to a more sustainable industrial landscape, electricity generated by wind turbines (WT) remains a mainstay of the energy mix. Operating and maintenance costs, which account for roughly 25% of electricity generation costs in onshore WTs make improvements of maintenance activities a key lever in the economic operation of WTs. Prescriptive maintenance is a possible approach for improved maintenance activities. It is a concept where asset condition data is used to recommend specific actions and has great potential for the operation of wind parks. However, especially small, but also large wind park operators, and maintenance service providers often struggle with the implementation of such a new maintenance approach. As a part of the research project ReStroK, a learning game has been developed to support the training and familiarization of maintenance technicians with the concepts and underlying principles of this maintenance approach. In this paper, the concept for the development of a learning game will be presented. Multiple scenarios for its usage and their corresponding requirements will be discussed and an overview over the game will be given.
Towards a Methodology to Determine Intersubjective Data Values in Industrial Business Activities
(2021)
This paper contributes to a valuation framework for valuing data as an intangible asset. Especially those industrial manufacturers developing and delivering holistic digital solutions are limited in calculating the true business value of data initiatives. Since the value of data is strongly dependent on the respective use case, a completely objective valuation is not possible. This complicates decision-making on the internal side regarding investments in digital transformation, and on the external side to communicate existing benefits to third parties via financial reporting. Therefore, the target is to design a valuation framework that allows industrial manufacturers to determine an intersubjective, i.e., traceable and transparent, data value. In order to develop a framework that can be applied in practice, the approach is based on industrial case study research.
Influenced by the high dynamic of the markets the optimization of supply chains gains more importance. However, analyzing different procurement strategies and the influence of various production parameters is difficult to achieve in industrial practice. Therefore, simulations of supply chains are used in order to improve the production process. The objective of this research is to evaluate different procurement strategies in a four-stage supply chain. Besides, this research aims to identify main influencing factors on the supply chain’s performance. The performance of the supply chain is measured by means of back orders (backlog). A scenario analysis of different customer demands and a Design of Experiments analysis enhance the significance of the simulation results.
In immer komplexer werdenden Wertschöpfungsketten wird die Geschwindigkeit, mit der Informationen weitergegeben und entsprechende Maßnahmen umgesetzt werden können, zu einem entscheidenden Wettbewerbsvorteil. In der Realität kommt es jedoch auf dem Weg zwischen einem Ereignis und einer passenden Reaktion zu verschiedenen zeitlichen Verzögerungen, sogenannten Latenzen, die die Agilität eines Unternehmens erheblich hemmen. Insbesondere das Supply-Chain-Management mit seiner koordinierenden Funktion wird dadurch vor enorme Herausforderungen gestellt. Schlüsseltechnologien im Zeitalter von Digitalisierung und Industrie 4.0 bieten jedoch enorme Potenziale, die verschiedenen Formen von Latenzen zu reduzieren. Der Beitrag untersucht die unternehmensübergreifenden Effekte dieser Verzögerungen entlang der Supply-Chain und beleuchtet darüber hinaus die Potentiale konkreter digitaler Technologien auf selbige.
A large number of product-accompanying services in the machinery and plant engineering industry is based on the cross-company exchange of data and information. By providing services, additional sales potential on the manufacturer side as well as far-reaching product and process advantages for appliers can be reached. However, the necessary cross-company exchange of information is nowadays limited due to a lack of trust in the interacting partner and the applicable existing technologies, which results in significant losses in the terms of business potential. The uncovering of this potential now seems to be made possible by the use of the Blockchain technology. Through the key factors security, immutability, transparency and decentralisation, it serves as an enabler for cross-company communication and product-accompanying services. The technological implementation of a Blockchain can take on a broad spectrum of attributes, which can lead to decisive restrictions for the execution of services. This justifies the necessity for a qualified and context-related assessment of service-types-individual specifications and the resulting requirements on the system. Within the scope of this paper, different types of product-accompanying services are identified and analysed regarding their requirements for a Blockchain-based machinery and plant connection. This can serve as a basis for a qualified and goal-oriented configuration of the Blockchain.
The development of renewable energies and smart mobility has profoundly impacted the future of the distribution grid. An increasing bidirectional energy flow stresses the assets of the distribution grid, especially medium voltage switchgear. This calls for improved maintenance strategies to prevent critical failures. Predictive maintenance, a maintenance strategy relying on current condition data of assets, serves as a guideline. Novel sensors covering thermal, mechanical, and partial discharge aspects of switchgear, enable continuous condition monitoring of some of the most critical assets of the distribution grid. Combined with machine learning algorithms, the demands put on the distribution grid by the energy and mobility revolutions can be handled. In this paper, we review the current state-of-the-art of all aspects of condition monitoring for medium voltage switchgear. Furthermore, we present an approach to develop a predictive maintenance system based on novel sensors and machine learning. We show how the existing medium voltage grid infrastructure can adapt these new needs on an economic scale.
The digitalization of manufacturing processes is expected to lead to a growing interconnection of production sites, as well as machines, tools and work pieces. In the course of this development, new use-cases arise which have challenging requirements from a communication technology point of view. In this paper we propose a communication network architecture for Industry 4.0 applications, which combines new 5G and non-cellular wireless network technologies with existing (wired) fieldbus technologies on the shop floor. This architecture includes the possibility to use private and public mobile networks together with local networking technologies to achieve a flexible setup that addresses many different industrial use cases. It is embedded into the Industrial Internet Reference Architecture and the RAMI4.0 reference architecture. The paper shows how the advancements introduced around the new 5G mobile technology can fulfill a wide range of industry requirements and thus enable new Industry 4.0 applications. Since 5G standardization is still ongoing, the proposed architecture is in a first step mainly focusing on new advanced features in the core network, but will be developed further later.
Es ist davon auszugehen, dass einfache, repetitive Tätigkeiten in absehbarer Zeit in zunehmendem Maße automatisiert werden. Daher wird für Beschäftigte, die maßgeblich mit diesen Tätigkeiten betraut sind, Qualifizierung zu einem zentralen Faktor. Darüber hinaus wird es für einen großen Teil der Höherqualifizierten zu einer deutlichen Verschiebung der Qualifikationsanforderungen sowie zu einer zunehmenden Informatisierung der Arbeit kommen. Der Buchbeitrag von Volker Stich, Gerhard Gudergan und Roman Senderek verdeutlicht, dass angesichts dieser Herausforderungen für die Unternehmen, das arbeitsnahe Lernen eine Möglichkeit darstellt, Menschen und Unternehmen für den aktuellen industriellen Wandel zu befähigen. Hierbei sind nach Ansicht der Autoren jedoch zunächst Arbeits- und Produktionssysteme zu schaffen, die lernförderlich geplant und gestaltet sind. Um dies zu ermöglichen, bedarf es einer Kategorisierung der verfügbaren arbeitsorientierten Lernformen und insbesondere neuer technologiegestützter Lernformen. Darüber hinaus sind die Rahmenbedingungen und Voraussetzungen von Unternehmen zu prüfen und im Hinblick auf die Anwendung der verschiedenen Lernformen zu bewerten. Eine Systematik hierfür und die Erfahrungen bei der Implementierung von arbeitsorientierten Lernformen bei vier Unternehmenspartnern schließen diesen Beitrag ab.
The aim of the related research project eCloud is to enable small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to implement flexible energy management without in-depth energy knowledge and with little distraction from day-to-day business, which is prepared for current and future challenges in the field of energy use. The overall result is a validated prototype for a plug and automate capable (i.e. without implementation effort) operational energy management, which can be successively set up in SMEs based on a cloud platform. Through its gradual and modular implementation, energy management meets the individual needs of each company and contributes to energy system transformation and climate protection by reducing energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25%. In total, three expansion stages are available with the levels of monitoring, load management and grid usage, which consist of various Software as a Service (SaaS) modules from the cloud that can be retrieved as required. Thus, the user only needs a minimal hardware intervention in his production and saves a complex IT infrastructure. The methodology developed has been successfully applied by two user companies so far. This proves the effectiveness of the method.
The technical development of the 5G mobile communication technology has been successfully completed. Now, vendor companies struggle with the analysis of industrial application and sales strategies as well as the development of business cases for their customers. Since this challenge is faced by many technology providers with innovative technologies in the “trough of disillusionment”, FIR’s information technology management has developed a methodology to bridge the gap, based on the example of 5G. This paper presents a methodology for identifying applications and defining business cases to select the most profitable ones. We also validate the methodology in the 5Gang research project.
Since 2016, the “Digital in NRW” Competence Centre has been supporting SMEs in the manufacturing industry in designing their individual digital transformation. With an Industry 4.0 maturity assessment, we define the status quo of SMEs, derive SME-specific measures from this, develop a digitalization roadmap and accompany the SME transformation. This paper presents the results of the four-year SME support. By analyzing the results of all maturity assessments, potential analysis and design workshops, we present the most frequent and most effective measures for a successful digital transformation of SMEs. The result of the paper is an action guideline for SMEs to initiate their own digital transformation based on formalized experience.
Eine Herausforderung für produzierende Unternehmen in der Entwicklung intelligenter Produkte besteht darin, dass die Zielstellung, die mit einem intelligenten Produkt verfolgt wird, nicht expliziert ist. Zudem ist oftmals nicht spezifiziert, in welchem Anwendungsfall ein intelligentes Produkt agieren soll. Produzierende Unternehmen benötigen Unterstützung, um eine zielorientierte und folglich wirtschaftliche Melioration existierender Produkte zu gewährleisten. Ebendiese Melioration wird im Kontext von intelligenten Produkten als Smartifizierung bezeichnet und stellt damit einen Entwicklungsprozess dar, der ein bestehendes Produkt als Ausgangssituation im Sinne einer Anpassungskonstruktion expliziert. Die originäre Produktfunktion wird folglich nicht verändert, sondern das Produkt um digitale Funktionen und Dienstleistungen erweitert. Der Artikel befasst sich daher erstens mit der Beschreibung generischer Ziele für den Einsatz intelligenter Produkte im Maschinenbau. Eine Zusammenstellung und Erläuterung solcher Ziele unterstützt Unternehmen, eine Präzisierung der Zielfestlegung in der Initiierungsphase eines Smartifizierungsprojekts durchzuführen. Zweitens wird unter Anwendung der Ziel-Mittel-Beziehung ein Anwendungsfall intelligenter Produkte beschrieben. Abschließend werden beide Aspekte in einer Methode zusammengefasst, wie mittels Ziel- und Anwendungsfallbetrachtung Anforderungen abgeleitet und wie diese Elemente in Vorgehensmodelle der Produktentwicklung eingebettet werden können. Exemplarisch wird anhand eines Energiekompensators aufzeigt, wie die Methode und die sich daraus ableitenden Ergebnisse im Smartifizierungsprozess zur Entwicklung eines intelligenten Energiekompensators eingesetzt werden.
Raus aus der Schockstarre!
(2019)
Nie war die Stellung von vermeintlichen Marktführern unsicherer als im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung. Die neuen technischen Möglichkeiten, in innovativen Geschäftsmodellen Wert aus der explodierenden Datenmenge zu schöpfen, wirbeln den Markt durcheinander. Wer mit dem technischen Wandel nicht mitgeht, riskiert, rasch abgehängt zu werden. Die gute Nachricht: Der Weg zur Industrie 4.0 ist ein Weg der kleinen Schritte. Überschaubare Maßnahmen heute sind allemal besser als der ganz große Wurf übermorgen.
Machine Learning
(2019)
Störungen und Änderungen des Produktionssystems führen zu Kosten und Aufwänden, bieten jedoch auch die Chance zur kontinuierlichen Verbesserung.
Um Änderungsanfragen zu erfassen, können etablierte Ansätze genutzt werden. Diese vernachlässigen jedoch die Anforderungen, denen sich ein Produktionssystem im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung ausgesetzt sieht. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt einen Ansatz zur standardisierten Erfassung von Änderungsanfragen vor, welcher die Ausgangsbasis für die Bewertung von Änderungsanfragen in bestehenden IT-Systemen bietet.
This paper addresses the challenge of a systematic requirement-oriented configuration and selection of cyber physical systems (CPS) for SMEs. As the key technologies of realizing the digitalization and interconnection of production processes, manufacturing companies have realized the potential benefits brought by CPS. However, due to the
complexity and fast development of CPS technology, it is difficult for SMEs, which lack expertise and financial resources, to select the appropriate CPS technologies meeting both functional and financial requirements. To overcome the issue, an online matching platform is developed to let SMEs express their needs and assist them onceptualize
the individual CPS. This paper presents the matching methodology of the matching platform, which can not only match technical characteristics but also evaluate economic potentials. Then, it was demonstrated by a tracking and tracing use case in the end-of-line assembly of a small-sized German electric automobile manufacturer.
Zeugnis der Reife
(2018)
Aktuell sehen sich deutsche Unternehmen damit konfrontiert, dass ihre bisherigen Produktionsabläufe und Arbeitsweisen immer weniger mit der Digitalisierung und den damit veränderten Maßstäben des 21. Jahrhunderts mithalten können. Neue innovative Lösungen werden benötigt, um produktiv voranzugehen und den Wandel für sich zu nutzen.
Die digitale Transformation hat mittlerweile alle Wertschöpfungsstufen im industriellen Sektor erfasst. So ist ein großer Teil aktuell produzierter Maschinen bereits mit Sensorik und Software ausgestattet und kommuniziert über digitale Infrastrukturen. Stetig sinkende Kosten für Sensorik , Vernetzungstechnologien, Rechen- und Speicherleistung erlauben Unternehmen die wirtschaftliche Erhebung und Verarbeitung von Daten in einem bisher nicht gekannten Ausmaß. Diese Veränderungen durch Digitalisierung und Industrie 4.0 müssen Unternehmen als Chance für den industriellen Service nutzen.
It is crucial today that economies harness renewable energies and integrate them into the existing grid. Conventionally, energy has been generated based on forecasts of peak and low demands. Renewable energy can neither be produced on demand nor stored efficiently. Thus, the aim of this paper is to evaluate Deep Learning-based forecasts of energy consumption to align energy consumption with renewable energy production. Using a dataset from a use-case related to landfill leachate management, multiple prediction models were used to forecast energy demand.The results were validated based on the same dataset from the recycling industry. Shallow models showed the lowest Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), significantly outperforming a persistence baseline for both, long-term (30 days), mid-term (7 days) and short-term (1 day) forecasts. A potential decrease of up to 23% in peak energy demand was found that could lead to a reduction of 3,091 kg in CO2-emissions per year. Our approach requires low finanacial investments for energy-management hardware, making it suitable for usage in Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs).
This paper addresses the challenge of modelling individual cyber-physical systems (CPS) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in manufacturing industries. CPS are key technology building blocks for the implementation of Industrie 4.0. Especially for SMEs the increase of production efficiency and reduction of manufacturing costs through CPS offer potential to maintain their competitiveness and innovation capacity. Although SMEs perceive the potential of CPS, they often lack financial and human resources to acquire the necessary CPS-competencies as well as an overview of all the currently available technological solutions. To overcome this issue a matching platform will offer SMEs support in finding suitable CPS-components by letting them express their functional and technical requirements. The matching logic is based on a set of morphologies that encompasses the functional and requirement spectrum of CPS-components. The matching algorithm analyses the input for congruence of requirements and available technologies and suggests suitable technology combinations. This paper describes the methodology of the matching platform, and introduces the research work to define and to develop the technology morphologies. The presented results facilitate the selection and configuration of CPS for SMEs.
In recent years, the complexity of the management of supply chains has increased significantly due to the growing individualization of products and dynamics of the market environment. To remain competitive, ensuring efficient and flexible processes and procedures along the entire supply chain are of particular importance for companies. Especially in the inter-company context, decisions must be made as quickly and correctly as possible. To enable good decision-making processes data must be processed and provided in a targeted manner. Currently, however, the necessary transparency is often lacking within the supply chains. In this article, a software-based assistance system for decision support on supply chain level is presented that aims to increase the transparency and efficiency of the decision-making process. A concept for decision support on supply chain level is presented. This paper focuses on the conceptual linkage of relevant decisions and data. Therefore, indicators are identified and linked with the relevant decisions. Moreover, a suitable way of visualizing the identified indicators for each decision in a user-friendly manner is defined. These results are then used to implement the software tool.
Data Driven Services
(2020)
Als größter Berufsverband für Beschäftigte im Kundendienst und im After-Sales-Service innerhalb der DACH-Region verbindet der Kundendienst-Verband Deutschland e. V., kurz KVD, unterschiedliche Akteure
im Thema Service, so zum Beispiel aus Wissenschaft und Wirtschaft. Dabei gelingt es dem KVD nicht nur, seine Mitglieder untereinander zu vernetzen, sondern ihnen stets brandaktuelle Inhalte anzubieten.
Die enge Kooperation mit Forschungseinrichtungen ermöglicht es dem KVD und seinen Mitgliedern immer wieder, neue Themen und nützliche Werkzeuge für die praktische Anwendung zur Verfügung zu stellen.
In diesem Paper wird eine Architektur für Kommunikationsnetze für industrielle Anwendungen vorgestellt, die neue 5G-Technologien mit vorhandener Kommunikationstechnik auf der Feldbusebene kombiniert. Diese Architektur verbindet private und öffentliche Mobilfunknetze mit lokalen Funktechnologien, um einen flexiblen Aufbau zu ermöglichen, der in der Lage ist, viele industrielle Anwendungsfälle zu unterstützen. Es wird gezeigt, wie die Errungenschaften, die mit der neuen 5G-Technologie eingeführt werden, einen großen Bereich der industriellen Anforderungen erfüllen können. Weiterhin werden relevante Anwendungsfälle beschrieben und eine Gesamtsystemarchitektur vorgeschlagen, welche nicht nur die technischen, sondern auch die funktionalen Anforderungen, welche von den spezifischen Anwendungen heutiger und zukünftiger Herstellungsprozesse gestellt werden, erfüllen kann.
Unvorhergesehene Störungen gefährden in vielen Fällen den Kundenliefertermin. Die Produktionssteuerung hat die Aufgabe, effektiv und effizient auf diese kurzfristigen Störungen zu reagieren. Der Entscheidungsprozess beruht jedoch häufig auf einer qualitativen Analyse einer komplexen Situation anhand subjektiver Einschätzungen durch den Produktionsplaner. Zur Verbesserung der Entscheidungsfindung stellt dieser Beitrag eine App vor, die auf Basis von Echtzeitdaten und einer Simulation des Produktionssystems eine quantitative Entscheidungsfindung ermöglicht.
The industrial food production is currently caught between the increas-ing demands of numerous stakeholders, economic profitability and the challenges of digitization. A solution to face these various challenges can be seen in the aggregation of data into higher-value, independent data products that can be of-fered and sold on a buyer's market. Large amounts of heterogeneous data are already available in the value chain of the industrial food production, e.g. throughout the data-driven harvesting of primary products, further processing by interconnected production facilities and the information-intensive product distri-bution to end consumers. However, the data is usually only evaluated and used locally for the optimization of internal processes or, at the most, within compre-hensive partnerships. The purpose of this paper is to identify new revenue oppor-tunities for current and future players in the industrial food production by using data as an independent economic good (data products). For this purpose, scenar-ios for the development and use of data products via Industrial Internet of Things platforms are developed for a food technical reference process, the industrial chocolate production and its value chain. On this basis, examples for different types of data products and their value propositions are derived. The results can not only serve food producers and relevant stakeholders but all industrial produc-ers as an input for the future, yield-increasing orientation of their business models.
Die Variantenfließfertigung ermöglicht die Herstellung konfigurierbarer Produkte bei kurzen Durchlaufzeiten und geringen Beständen. Im Vergleich zu anderen Organisationsformen der Produktion gestaltet sich die Produktionsplanung und -steuerung aufgrund der Variantenvielfalt als anspruchsvoll. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird der erste Schritt einer Methodik vorgestellt, welche für die Konfiguration der Reihenfolgeplanung entwickelt wurde.
Progress in the development of small electric and hybrid aircraft promises business opportunities for thin-haul air mobility services. In order to develop demand-oriented flight plan scenarios for Germany, this paper presents a model to estimate the marked volume of thin-haul air mobility. To quantify the potential demand, our model includes the steps of trip generation, trip distribution and mode choice. Trip generation and distribution takes place between 412 geographic subdivisions of Germany and is based on calibrated traffic forecast data for the year 2030. For the first time the five relevant modes of transport, namely: car, intercity train, intercity bus, commercial aircraft and thin-haul air mobility services, have been included in one model. The step of choosing the transport mode is implemented via a generalized cost approach, taking into account travel costs and travel time. Additionally, route modeling of all transport modes is enhanced by real market data using large-scale data readouts of web interfaces. As primary result we predict a market share of 6 % or 81 million trips per year for thin-haul air mobility services. The demand concentrates on a small number of airports: 30 % of the trips are estimated to be between only 20 airports. Hubs and main routes are identified to offer the potential for scheduled air services.
Auf Basis einer systematischen Literaturanalyse wurden insgesamt 11 Kennzahlen identifiziert, welche die Grundlage zur Beschreibung der operativen Leistungsfähigkeit von Unternehmen bilden. Die Kennzahlen wurden in die vier Leistungsdimensionen Effizienz, Qualität, Zeit und Flexibilität eingeteilt.
Es geht um die Entwicklung eines Software-Tools zur Unterstützung bei der Auswahl von geeigneten 3D-Druckdienstleistern im Kontext der additiven Ersatzteillogistik. Im Fokus steht der Logistikdienstleister als potentieller Nutzer des Softwaretools. Das Softwaretool erfüllt zwei zentrale Funktionen: Überprüfung ob ein Ersatzteil additiv gefertigt werden soll und Auswahl eines konkreten Produzenten durch Matchingalgorithmus.
Immer noch ist es um die Zufriedenheit der Kunden mit der Qualität von Diestleistungen hierzulande nicht gut bestellt. An der Verbesserung dieses Zustands müssen wir arbeiten, in den Unternehmen, in den staatlichen Organisationen und in den Bildungseinrichtungen, denn die Frage, ob und wie wir den Wandel zur uneingeschränkten Servicegesellschaft bewältigen - der ohne eine konsequente Digitalisierung der Wertschöpfung unmöglich ist -, hat auch entscheidenden Einfluss auf die Zukunft des Wirtschaftsstandorts Deutschland.
Influenced by the high dynamic of the markets and the steadily increasing demand for short delivery times the importance of supply chain optimization is growing. In particular, the order process plays a central role in achieving short delivery times and constantly needs to evaluate the trade-off between high inventory and the risk of stock-outs. However, analyzing different order strategies and the influence of various production parameters is difficult to achieve in industrial practice. Therefore, simulations of supply chains are used in order to improve processes in the whole value chain. The objective of this research is to evaluate two different order strategies (t, q, t, S) in a four-stage supply chain. In order to measure the performance of the supply chain the quantity of the backlog will be considered. A Design of Experiments approach is supposed to enhance the significance of the simulation results.
The shop floor is a dynamic environment, where deviations to the production plan frequently occur. While there are many tools to support production planning, production control is left unsupported in handling disruptions. The production controller evaluates the deviations and selects the most suitable countermeasures based on his experience. The transparency should be increased in order to improve the decision quality of the production controller by providing meaningful information during his decision process. In this paper, we propose a framework in which an interactive production control system supports the controller in the identification of and reaction to disturbances on the shop floor. At the same time, the system is being improved and updated by the domain knowledge of the controller. The reference architecture consists of three main parts. The first part is the process mining platform, the second part is the machine learning subsystem that consists of a part for the classification of the disturbances and one part for recommending countermeasures to identified disturbances. The third part is the interactive user interface. Integrating the user’s feedback will enable an adaptation to the constantly changing constraints of production control. As an outlook for a technical realization, the design of the user interface and the way of interaction is presented. For the evaluation of our framework, we will use simulated event data of a sample production line. The implementation and test should result in higher production performance by reducing the downtime of the production and increase in its productivity.
"New Service-Work"
(2021)
Durch die Corona-Krise befinden wir uns auf einmal alle in einer völlig neuen Arbeitswelt. Innerhalb kürzester Zeit waren Unternehmen im Service gezwungen, Antworten für – vielleicht auch manchmal schon länger bestehende Fragen – rund um das Thema „New Work“ zu finden. Daher hat sich der KVD in den vergangenen Monaten im Rahmen einer ausgewiesenen Expertenrunde aus Praxis und Forschung mit dem Thema „New Service-Work“ auseinandergesetzt. Vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Herausforderungen haben wir die zentralen Handlungsfelder für die Umsetzung dieser neuen Arbeitswelt einmal intensiver beleuchtet. In über 25 digitalen Treffen wurden die Chancen, Risiken oder auch Hemmnisse zu den jeweiligen Handlungsfeldern intensiv diskutiert und aufbereitet. Mit einigen aktuellen, innovativen Lösungsansätzen aus unseren Mitgliedsunternehmen hoffen wir, auch Ihnen erste Hinweise oder Impulse geben zu können, wie auch bald in Ihrem Unternehmen „New Service-Work“ Einzug halten könnte.
In manufacturing, adherence to delivery dates is one of the main logistic goals. The production control department has to cope with short-term deviations from the planned route sheets. Because of unforeseen disruptions, e.g. machine breakdowns or shortage of material or personnel, in some situations, the promised delivery date to the customer is at stake. In practice, a fast and reasonable decision on how to deal with the delayed order is required. This decision process is often based on a qualitative analysis relying on the planner’s subjective assessment of a complex situation. To improve the quality of possible countermeasures this paper presents an application, which supports the decision process through a quantified analysis using real-time data from business application systems in combination with a simulation of the value stream. The developed app is part of the decision process and estimates the effect of selected countermeasures to accelerate a delayed order. Performance indicators illustrate the effect of the countermeasures on the specific order as well as the whole system. This approach empowers the planner to assess unforeseen situations and aims to improve the quality of the decision-making process. This paper describes the architecture of the application, its simulation ecosystem, the relevant data and the decision process to select the most effective countermeasures.
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.
Inhaltsangabe Band:
Die vernetzte Digitalisierung hat die produzierende Industrie fundamental verändert. Im Rahmen dessen eröffnen sich produzierenden Unternehmen kontinuierlich neue Chancen, in einem zunehmend dynamischen und durch das Internet geprägten Wettbewerb, wirtschaftliche Erfolge zu erzielen. Durch die veränderten Rahmenbedingungen der vernetzten Digitalisierung müssen produzierende Unternehmen jedoch neue Ansätze für die Organisation der digitalen Transformation verfolgen: Sie müssen die neue Führungsaufgabe Digitalisierungsmanagement gestalten. Dabei muss das Digitalisierungsmanagement eine breite Aufgabenvielfalt abdecken.
Dieses Buch befähigt produzierende Unternehmen die digitale Transformation erfolgreich zu gestalten. Dazu werden Nutzen und Funktionsweisen der wesentlichen Aufgaben des Digitalisierungs- und Informationsmanagements praxisnah dargestellt. Ein spezifisch für produzierende Unternehmen, die eine digitale Transformation anvisieren, entwickeltes Digitalisierungs- und Informationsmanagement-Modell verknüpft schließlich die Inhalte.
Das vorliegende Buch ist als ein Nachschlagewerk für Führungskräfte und Entscheider entwickelt worden, die die Herausforderungen der Realisierung von digitalen Geschäftsmodellen, digitalisierten Produkten und digitalen Geschäftsprozessen angehen wollen. Die Methoden in diesem Buch helfen dabei, die richtigen Managementaufgaben zu verfolgen und diese in der Unternehmensorganisation umzusetzen. Dabei werden auch die Schnittstellen zwischen dem strategischen Digitalisierungsmanagement und dem taktischen bis operativen Informationsmanagement behandelt. Das Buch bietet einen schnellen und einfachen Zugriff auf die wichtigsten Methoden und viele unterstützende Beispiele. Es ist Teil der Reihe „Handbuch Produktion und Management“ und ergänzt dessen Ordnungsrahmen.
(Quelle: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-63758-6)
The successful use of Business Analytics is increasingly becoming a differentiating competitive factor. The ability to extract data-driven insights and integrate them into decision-making is becoming growingly important. The underlying technologies are evolving exponentially, the value proposition differs from simple descriptive applications to automated decision-making. Existing approaches found in literature and practice to classify those levels only insufficiently mark down the boundaries between the different technology levels. As a consequence, it is often unclear which characteristics of the technology interact with the working environment, which can be described as a socio-technical system. Using a systematic literature review, this paper identifies the characteristics of Business Analytics and delineates three types of Business Analytics based on case studies. Thus, a starting point for the socio-technical system design and optimization for the use of Business Analytics is created.
Nowadays, the market for information and communication technologies used for IOT-applications grows daily. Since companies need technologies to transform their business processes corresponding to the digital revolution, they need to know which technologies are available, and fit the best for their use case. Their inertial issue is the lacking overview of technologies suitable to connect their production or logistics. Hence, this paper presents a methodology to select technologies (and combinations) based on their functions. It differentiates between information and communication technologies, digital technologies and connecting technologies by the physical function and its role in a cyber-physical system. Depending on the use case, the applicability of every technology varies. Due to that reason, the paper illustrates a ranked qualification of the technologies for typical use cases, focussing tracking and tracing issues in the intralogistics of producing companies. The evaluation is performed upon a literature research, a market study to identify suitable technologies, and various expert interviews to assess the applicability of the technologies.
Many ERP systems support configurable materials. Due to an ever increasing number of product variants the benefits of this approach are well understood. However, these implementations are not standardized. In this article we propose a new standard interface for the exchange of configuration data. This would lead to further benefits as systems as Advanced Planning systems could better use manufacturing flexibility while web shops as Amazon could easily integrate manufacturers of complex products with much reduced implementation effort.
Towards the Generation of Setup Matrices from Route Sheets and Feedback Data with Data Analytics
(2018)
The function or department of production control in manufacturing companies deals with short-term scheduling of orders and the management of deviations during order execution. Depending on the equipment and characteristics of orders, sequence dependent setup times might occur. In these cases for companies that focus on high utilization of their assets due to long phases of ramp up and high energy costs, it might be optimal to choose sequences with minimal setup time times between orders. Identifying such sequences requires detailed and correct information regarding the specific setup times. With increasing product variety and shorter lot sizes, it becomes more difficult and rather time intense to determine these values manually. One approach is to analyse the relevant features of the orders described in the route sheets or recipes to find similarities in materials and required tools. This paper presents a methodology, which supports setup optimized sequencing for sequence dependent setup times through constructing the setup matrix from such route sheets with the use of data analytics.
Manufacturing companies worldwide recognized the high potential of Industrie 4.0 in order to increasing production efficiency. Key benefits include creation of integrated systems, networked products and improvement of service portfolios. However, for many companies deriving and evaluating necessary measures to use Industrie 4.0 potentials represents a major challenge. This paper introduces the "acatech Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index" as an approach to meet this challenge. The development of multidimensional maturity model intents to provide companies an assessment methodology. The aim is to capture the status quo in companies in order to be able to develop individual roadmaps for the successful introduction of Industrie 4.0 and manage the transformation progressively.
Service Engineering Models
(2019)
Since the field of service engineering emerged in the late 20th century, the service industry has undergone drastic changes. Among the reasons for these changes is the increasing digitalization, which has made it difficult for companies to successfully develop new service offerings. While numerous service engineering models are available to provide guidance during the design of new services, many of them cannot keep up with the requirements of today’s economic environment. The present paper examines the requirements that service engineering models need to meet in order to be suitable guidelines for the digital age. To this end, the introduction illustrates how digitalization has changed the service industry. Afterwards, selected service engineering models and related norms are presented. Finally, a set of requirements for modern service engineering models derived from best practices from recent years is introduced.
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.
The use of chatbots has hardly been established in B2B companies to date and involves various challenges. The goal of this paper is to identify the biggest barriers to the successful implementation of chatbots in B2B customer service and to develop measures to overcome them. The barriers are identified by conducting expert interviews within the framework of Eisenhardt's case study research. These are examined through a socio-technical analysis focusing on people, technology, and organization. By means of systematic literature research and in-depth interviews with German chatbot providers and customers of chatbots, measures for overcoming the barriers are identified. Using interviews with experts from German chatbot providers, the responsible stakeholders of each measure according to the RASCI Responsibility Matrix are determined. A total of 46 implementation barriers and 100 measures to overcome these barriers are identified. The study shows that there are major barriers in the areas of people, technology, and organization of a socio-technical system that can cause the implementation of a chatbot to fail. A holistic view is therefore essential. The results provide firms with a guideline on how to overcome potential barriers during chatbot implementation in B2B customer service.
Forecasting-based skills management, which is oriented to the respective corporate goals, is gaining enormous importance as a central management tool. The aim is to predict future skills requirements and match them with existing interorganizational skills. Companies are required to anticipate changes in markets, industries, and technologies at an early stage as well as to identify changes in job profiles within an occupational profile by tapping into and evaluating various data sources. Based on these findings, they can then make informed decisions regarding skill gaps, for example, to implement targeted further training measures. Forecasting-based skills management offers the opportunity to optimally qualify employees for constantly changing tasks. At the same time, however, the targeted development of such skills requires a high level of time, financial and personnel resources, which small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generally do not have at their disposal. In addition, many SMEs are not yet aware of the importance of this issue. Within the framework of research and industrial projects of the Smart Work department at the FIR (Institute for Industrial Management) at the RWTH Aachen University, an AI-based skills forecasting tool will be developed. The goal of the paper is to conceptualize the future machine learning method, that is able to generate individualized skills forecasts and recommendations for SMEs. This is achieved by linking societal forecasts and sector trends with company-specific conditions and skills. In order to generate a corresponding database, the derivation system is made available to various companies (large companies and SMEs) in order to obtain as many data sets as possible. The data sets obtained via the derivation system are then used as training data sets for the machine learning method, with the help of which an automatic derivation of competencies depending on new trends is to be made possible.
Digitization is constantly affecting the working world and is of enormous interest in many fields of science. But to what extent are innovative technologies actually being applied in regional SMEs and what are the obstacles to their introduction? From a psychological point of view, it is essential to consider the employee's health and the effects of innovative technologies on their everyday work. The aim of using innovative technologies should not be to completely replace human labor or to dequalify employees, but to relieve the workforce and free up working time for more meaningful activities. One concept that should be included in the human-centered design of human-machine interaction in artificial intelligence is the HAI-MMI concept (Huchler, 2020), which offers starting points for high-quality collaboration at various levels. To reduce the gap between science and industry, this paper focuses on the actual demands of SME in the Aachen region in Germany referring to a requirements analysis within the research project AKzentE4.0 (N = 50 SME) and discusses how appropriate innovative technologies of the Industry 4.0 and AI can be implemented and deployed in a human-centred way. Moreover, the establishment of a Human Factors Competence Center for Employment in Industry 4.0 is outlined, which is meant to be used for the dissemination of research results from the project and should narrow the gap between science and industry in the long run.
For developing a European industrial cooperation and involvement in the furniture industry, the international research project INEDIT conducted a survey for furniture customers. By finding out the needs and wishes of the customer regarding innovative products and the production process the project will establish a new way for designing and producing furniture. Within INEDIT a platform is built on which customized, technologically innovative and sustainable furniture can be created and produced in a co-creation process. The furniture industry should thus become significantly more flexible, transparent and sustainable. Following the "do-it-together" approach, a business ecosystem will be generated which creates added value not only for customers but also for designers, suppliers and manufacturing companies. In order to involve the customer even more actively in the design process and the production, the platform will provide access to a mix of digital and physical services and is linked to all other stakeholders in the value chain. To match the platform and the process to the needs, wishes and demands of the customer an anonymous survey with 300 participants was developed and conducted. By analyzing the survey, important factors were found for buying and for using furniture considering new technological inventions (e.g. 3D-printing or smart objects), sustainability of the products and the production process. Furthermore, the potential customer-group and their usage of the do-it-together process and additional activities can be tightened.
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.
Objectives and Key Results (OKR) is an approach that focuses on the company's goals through trust-based agreements between leaders and employees. With the OKR framework in its original form, strategic business goals are aligned with the employees' active involvement, which promotes intrinsic motivation, transparency, commitment, and alignment. Inspired by the successes at Google and Intel and shaped by its use in the tech industry, the use of OKR increased across industries. Although companies within all sectors use the OKR framework, numerous implementation efforts fail. The challenges of practitioners are not fully addressed in the development of implementation concepts for OKR. One main reason is that these challenges are not taken into account in scientific publications. The paper aims to investigate to what extent existing OKR frameworks need to be adapted to provide companies with suiting implementation guidance. Firstly, OKR is placed in the context of academically widely discussed Performance Management Systems (PMS).
Secondly, criteria for successful PMS implementation are identified and used as a baseline for analyzing existing OKR implementation concepts. A systematic literature review shows the current state of research, identifying existing OKR implementation concepts from practice and theory. The OKR implementation concepts identified are systematically mapped to the series of identified criteria for PMS implementation. It is shown that the existing OKR frameworks do not address the described criteria necessary for a successful implementation of PMS, thus the adaptation of existing OKR implementation concepts is required.
The quarrying industry, which largely consists of less digitized SMEs, is an integral part of the German economy. More than 95% of the primary raw materials produced are used by the domestic construction industry. Quarrying companies operate demand-oriented with short planning horizons at several locations simultaneously. Due to the low level of digitization and the reluctance to share data, untapped efficiency potential in data-based demand forecasting and capacity planning arises. The situation is aggravated by the fact that SMEs have a heterogeneous mobile machinery so as not to become dependent on individual suppliers, and that transport distances of over 50 kilometers are uneconomical due to high transport costs and low material values. Within the research project PROmining a data-centric platform which improves demand forecast accuracy and multi-site capacity utilization is developed. One of the core functionalities of this platform is an industry-specific demand forecasting model. Against this background, this paper presents a methodology for establishing this forecasting model. To this end, expected demands of secondary industry sectors will be analyzed to improve mid-term volume-forecasting accuracy for the local quarrying industry. The data-centric platform will connect demand forecasting data with relevant key performance indicators of multi-site asset utilization. Following this methodology, operational planning horizons can be extended while significantly improving overall production efficiency. Thus, quarrying businesses are enabled to respond to fluctuating demand volumes effectively and can increase their personnel and machine utilization across multiple quarry sites.
The use of Business Analytics (BA) helps to improve the quality of decisions and reduces reaction latencies, especially in uncertain and volatile market situations. This expectation leads a continuously rising number of companies to make large investments in BA. The successful use of Business Analytics is increasingly becoming a differentiator. At the same time, the use of BA is not trivial, rather, it is subject to high socio-technical requirements. If these are not addressed, high risks arise that stand in the way of successful use. In particular, it is important to consider the risks in relation to the different types of BA in a differentiated way. So far, there is a lack of suitable approaches in the literature to consider these type-specific risks with regard to the socio-technical dimensions: people, technology, and organization. This paper addresses this gap by initially identifying risks in the use of Business Analytics. For this purpose, possible risks are identified using a systematic literature review and verified with a Delphi survey with various partners experienced in dealing with BA. Subsequently, the identified and validated risks are assigned to three different types of Business Analytics (Descriptive, Predictive and Prescriptive Analytics) and assessed in order to systematically address and reduce the risks. The result of this paper is an overview of the interactions between the socio-technically assigned risks, summarized in a risk catalog, and the different types of Business Analytics.
5G offers the manufacturing industry a wireless, fast and secure transmission technology with high range, low latency and the ability to connect a large number of devices. Existing transmission technologies are reaching their limits due to the increasing number of networked devices and high demands on reliability, data volume, security and latency. 5G fulfills these requirements and also combines the potential and use cases of previous transmission technologies so that unwanted isolated solutions can be merged. Use cases of transmission technologies that previously required a multitude of solutions can now be realized with a single technology. However, the general literature often refers to 5G use cases that can also be realized over cables in particular. In this paper, a literature review presents the current state of research on the various 5G application scenarios in production . Furthermore, concrete characteristics of 5G use cases are identified and assigned to the identified application scenarios. The goal is to verify the identified 5G use cases and to work out their 5G relevance in order to be able to concretely differentiate them from already existing Industrie 4.0 applications.
Feeding the growing world population is a scientific and economic challenge. The target variables to be optimised are the yield that can be produced on a given area and the reduction of the resources used for this purpose. High-wage countries are faced with the problem that the use of personnel is a significant cost driver. Developing countries, on the other hand, usually operate on much smaller field sizes, so that the work in the field is still strongly characterised by manual labour. One solution to meet these challenges is the use of smaller autonomous harvesting robots. These can be networked into a swarm of machines to work even larger fields. The networking of autonomous agricultural machines is a key use case for rural 5G networks. 5G technology can offer many advantages over older mobile communications standards and therefore make use cases more efficient or enable new ones. Various use cases are also conceivable in the field of agriculture, yet it is unclear how 5G networks can and must be specified for this purpose. In this paper, using the example of 5G-connected harvesters powered by swarm robotics, we present the challenges that have arisen and the specification that has been developed.
In road haulage, transports are interrupted by truck drivers to comply with driving and rest times. On long-distance routes, these interruptions lead to a considerable increase in transport time. Transport interruption can be avoided by so-called relay traffic: a vehicle (e. g. semi-trailer) is handed over to a rested driver at the end of the driving time. This type of transport requires a certain company size. In Germany, however, transport companies have 11 employees on average. Intra-company relay traffic is therefore not economically viable for most transport companies. To organize an intermodal transport across forwarding companies, long-distance routes need to be split into partial routes to divide them between freight forwarders and carriers. This paper presents a data concept for an algorithm to find the best possible route sections along a previously defined start and endpoint. The developed data concept includes order-specific data, forwarder-specific data, real-time traffic data, geographical data as well as data from freight forwarding software and telematics to be the basis for the route sectioning algorithm. In this paper, different data sources, external services and logistic systems are analyzed and evaluated. It is shown which data is needed and what the best ways are to select and derive this data from the different data sources.
Crises are becoming more and more frequent. Whether natural disasters, economic crises, political events, or a pandemic - the right action mitigates the impact. The PAIRS project plans to minimize the surprise effect of these and to recommend appropriate actions based on data using artificial intelligence (AI). This paper conceptualizes a cascading model based on scenario technique, which acts as the basic approach in the project. The long-term discipline of scenario technique is integrated into the discipline of crisis management to enable short-term and continuous crises management in an automated manner. For this purpose, a practical crisis definition is given and interpreted as a process. Then, a cascading model is derived in which crises are continuously thought through using the scenario technique and three types of observations are classified: Incidents, disturbances, and crises. The presented model is exemplified within a non-technical application of a use case in the context of humanitarian logistics and the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, first technical insights from the field of AI are given in the form of a semantic description composing a knowledge graph. In summary, a conceptual model is presented to enable situation-based crisis management with automated scenario generation by combining the two disciplines of crisis management with scenario technique.
Innovation is one of the key drivers of growth, development, and profitability, which increases competitive advantages and has recently been moving towards industry 4.0 technologically. This motivates companies to update their business models (BM) towards industry 4.0. Moreover, there is a technique with the primary characteristics for achieving this motivation called "cross-industry innovation". Cross-industry innovation is a new method of innovation that concerns the creative translation and imitation of existing solutions from other industries for responding to the needs of the current market, sectors, areas, or domains. The challenge is to find out how far managers can rely on that to innovate their BM towards Industry 4.0. The aim of this study was to investigate the application of cross-industry innovation for designing industry 4.0 BM and explore the extent to which companies can rely on it as it has not been used for this purpose previously. This study utilized a database analysis to compare cross-industry innovation practices with industry 4.0 BM's characteristics in terms of value proposition, value creation, and value capture levels. In addition, some interviews were conducted with companies that had previously implemented cross-industry innovation to validate and generalize the results. The results indicated that cross-industry innovation practices can better fulfill flexible and dynamic networks, connected information flows, high efficiency, high scalability, and high availability in terms of value creation as well as variabilization of prices and costs in terms of value capture. Therefore, it demonstrated that cross-industry innovation was a more dependable and applicable strategy for designing the BM of Industry 4.0 than current practices.
Blockchain-Lösungen sind bisher vor allem im Finanzbereich bekannt
und erfolgreich. Doch ihre unbestreitbaren Vorteile bieten weit darüber
hinaus Potenzial und machen sie auch für industrielle Anwendungen
interessant. Vor allem Lieferketten mit ihren komplexen Strukturen,
vielen Beteiligten sowie verschiedensten Material-, Informations- und
Finanzströmen lassen sich mit der Technologie erheblich effizienter
gestalten.
Mehr als nur ein Hype
(2021)
Blockchain-Lösungen sind bisher vor allem im Finanzbereich bekannt und erfolgreich. Doch ihre unbestreitbaren Vorteile bieten weit darüber hinaus Potenzial und machen sie auch für industrielle Anwendungen interessant. Vor allem Lieferketten mit ihren komplexen Strukturen, vielen Beteiligten sowie verschiedensten Material-, Informations- und Finanzströmen lassen sich mit der Technologie erheblich effizienter gestalten.
Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) hat sich über die letzten Jahre stetig zu einem Thema mit strategischer Priorität für Unternehmen entwickelt. Das zeigt sich nicht zuletzt in der gesteigerten Investitionsbereitschaft deutscher Unternehmen in KI-Projekte. Wirtschaftliche Akteure haben erkannt, dass durch eine sinnvolle Nutzung von KI-Technologien Wettbewerbsvorteile erzielt werden können. Die vorliegende Studie legt das Augenmerk auf den industriellen Einsatz einer KI-Technologie, die bereits heute von vielen Unternehmen erfolgreich genutzt wird: Die natürliche Sprachverarbeitung (engl. Natural Language Processing, kurz NLP). Die wirtschaftlichen Potenziale der Technologie liegen dabei in ihrer Fähigkeit, betriebliche Abläufe zu automatisieren und die Schnittstelle zwischen Mensch und Maschine zu verbessern und zu vereinfachen. Ziel der Studie ist es, die Potenziale der NLP-Technologie für Unternehmen nutzbar zu machen, indem konkrete Anwendungsfälle und allgemeine Handlungsempfehlungen sowie Nutzen und Risiken aufgezeigt werden.
Smart Services als Enabler von Subscription-Geschäftsmodellen in der produzierenden Industrie
(2022)
[Der Sammelband] Widmet sich den in Wissenschaft und Praxis aktuell intensiv diskutierten Fragestellungen zu Smart Services. Befasst sich mit Geschäftsmodellen, Erlösmodellen und Kooperationsmodellen von Smart Services. Geht auf branchenspezifische Besonderheiten von Smart Services ein. (link.springer.com)
The operation of CNC milling is expensive because of the cost-intensive use of cutting tools. The wear and tear of CNC tools influence the tool lifetime. Today’s machines are not capable of accurately estimating the tool abrasion during the machining process. Therefore, manufacturers rely on reactive maintenance, a tool
change after breakage, or a preventive maintenance approach, a tool change according to predefined tool specifications. In either case, maintenance costs are high due to a loss of machine utilization or premature tool change. To find the optimal point of tool change, it is necessary to monitor CNC process parameters during machining and use advanced data analytics to predict the tool abrasion. However, data science expertise is limited in small-medium sized manufacturing companies. The long operating life of machines often does not justify investments in new machines before the end of operating life. The publication describes a cost-efficient approach to upgrade legacy CNC machines with a Tool Wear Prediction Upgrade Kit. A practical solution is presented with a holistic hardware/software setup, including edge device, and multiple sensors. The prediction of tool wear is based on machine learning. The user interface visualizes the machine condition for the maintenance personnel in the shop floor. The approach is conceptualized and discussed based on industry requirements. Future work is outlined.
Technology management can significantly influence the strategic decisions of a company and thus cause success or failure. Basic templates for technology management are technology radars as well as the determination of the technology readiness level (TRL) to be able to evaluate the maturity of newly deployed technologies (e.g., newcomer vs. established). The radars, as well as the TRL, are identified in time-consuming, manual research by subject matter experts from external consultancies. This process is often repeated due to the further development and new development of technologies so that the necessary research becomes an ongoing task. The TechRad research project, therefore, aims to automate the identification of the TRL as well as technology radars using web crawling and Natural Language Processing (NLP). To commercialize the pre-competitive prototype, the development of a pre-competitive business model is the goal of this paper. Based on customer analyses, a target group definition is created. Based on user interviews, the precompetitive business model will be detailed in a four-step approach using a business model canvas and a value proposition canvas.
Klar Schiff
(2009)
Im Rahmen dieser Studie untersuchten das Forschungsinstitut für Rationalisierung e. V. an der RWTH Aachen und die Universität St. Gallen
(Lehrstuhl Produktionsmanagement) 24 Veröffentlichungen von 11 Beratungsunternehmen. Dabei wurden über 200 Aussagen zur Bewältigung der Krise bewertungsneutral identifiziert und analysiert.
Factory automation and production are currently
undergoing massive changes, and 5G is considered being a key
enabler. In this paper, we state uses cases for using 5G in the
factory of the future, which are motivated by actual needs of the
industry partners of the “5Gang” consortium. Based on these use
cases and the ones by 3GPP, a 5G system architecture for the
factory of the future is proposed. It is set in relation to existing
architectural frameworks.
Driven by different trends, such as digitalization, the number of companies aiming for successful business transformation is increasing, while new structures and systems are paving the way. Strategic agile management systems offer significant potential benefits given the increasing speed of the evolving environment in which organizations find themselves these days. To select and implement the appropriate strategic agile management system, companies need to understand the underlying theoretical principles to be able to select the most suitable for the respective company and to introduce it based on individual adaption. Within this paper, a morphology is presented to improve theoretical knowledge about strategic agile management systems. Creating a common understanding of strategic agile management systems and their current areas of application creates a suitable frame of reference for future research projects.
While digitization is a strategic advantage in numerous industries such as the automotive industry or mechanical engineering, other industries like the German quarrying industry have not yet established a transformation towards a digitized industry. This leads to inefficient work and inaccurate forecasting capabilities. To address these challenges, digital platforms can incentivize digitization
by supporting the capacity utilization and forecasting capability of these companies. In this paper, the quarrying industry is analyzed by a morphology and different types of companies are identified. Knowing the digital maturity of these companies and by determining the key factors to forecast demands and the capacity utilization, different operating models are derived. Combined with a morphology and the value creation system, different scenarios for the identification of platform services are examined. These scenarios are weighted in a utility analysis to get an operating model blueprint to develop and establish digital platforms in less digitized industries.
Das Gegenteil von Theorie ist die Praxis. So sagt man landläufig und unterstellt damit oft, dass wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse nicht immer für den Alltag taugen. Dass Theorie aber nicht gleich Theorie ist und Wissenschaft und Praxis trotz aller Unterschiedlichkeit aufeinander angewiesen sind, darauf weist das FIR an der RWTH Aachen schon mit der Auflösung seines Akronyms hin: „Forschung. Innovation. Realisierung.“ Hier zielen alle Forschungsaktivitäten darauf ab, Lösungen für reale Herausforderungen aus der Praxis zu schaffen, die am Ende auch umsetzbar sind. Eine nutzenbringende Verbindung zwischen den beiden scheinbar so unterschiedlichen Welten ist dafür unabdingbar und diese Lücke schließt das FIR mit Industriekooperationen, Wissens und Technologietransfer sowie Weiterbildungsangeboten auf vielen Ebenen. Nicht zuletzt positionierte sich das FIR als leitendes Institut des Clusters Smart Logistik auf dem RWTH Aachen Campus und füllt diese Rolle seit über 10 Jahren erfolgreich aus.
Digitalization is changing the industrial landscape in a way we did not anticipate. The manufacturing industries worldwide are working to develop strategies and concepts for what is labelled with different terms such as the Industrial Internet of Things in the USA or Industrie 4.0 in Germany. Many industrialized economies are driven by the production sector and this sector needs specific approaches and instruments to take up other than those approaches we know from start-ups and ventures coming from Silicon Valley and other places. In this paper, we demonstrate an appropriate approach to transform producing companies in a systematic and evolutionary approach.
In particular, the objective of this paper is to provide results from two initiatives which conceptually build upon each other and are of particular relevance for the production industry. First, we present a global survey on the state of implementation and the future perspectives of the concept Industrie 4.0 from 2016. Findings from this study have forced parts of the German industry to heavily invest into a common approach to accelerate change towards Industry 4.0 in order to stay competitive in worldwide economy. This approach is presented in a second part.
Understanding the Organizational Impact of Robotic Process Automation: A Socio-Technical Perspective
(2022)
Interest in AI-driven automation software is growing constantly across
all industries, as these technologies enable companies to almost automate administrative processes completely and significantly increase operational efficiency.
However, many implementation attempts fail due to a lack of understanding of how these technologies affect the various socio-technical aspects that are intertwined in an organisation. This leads to a widening gap between value propositions of automation software and the ability of companies to exploit them. For long-term
success, collaboration between humans and software robots in the organization must be optimised. Therefore, the social, technical, and organizational impact of Robotic Process Automation was investigated. Following a socio-technical systems approach, a model was developed and validated in a use case of a company in the mechanical engineering sector. Knowing the influencing factors before launching large-scale automation initiatives will help practitioners to better exploit
efficiency potentials and increase the long-term success.
In der neuen Expertise des Forschungsbeirats Industrie 4.0 untersuchen das FIR e. V. an der RWTH Aachen und das Industrie 4.0 Maturity Center den Status-quo und die aktuellen Herausforderungen der deutschen Industrie bei der Nutzung und wirtschaftlichen Verwertung von industriellen Daten. Handlungsoptionen für Unternehmen, Verbände, Politik und Wissenschaft zeigen auf, wie der Nutzungsgrad der Datenbasis erhöht werden kann und wie sich Potenziale bei der Monetarisierung ausschöpfen lassen. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf produzierenden Unternehmen.
Generation of a Data Model For Quotation Costing Of Make To Order Manufacturers From Case Studies
(2022)
For contract or make to order manufacturers, quotation costing is a complex process that is mainly performed based on experience. Due to the high diversity of the product range of these mostly small or medium-sized companies (SMEs) and the poor data situation at the time of quotation preparation, the quality of the calculation is subject to strong variations and uncertainties. The gap between the initial quotation costing and the actual costs to be spent (pre- and post-calculation) is crucial to the existence of SMEs. Digitalization in general can help companies to get a better understanding of processes and to generate data. For improving these processes, an understanding of the important data for that specific process is crucial. Accurate quotation costing for customized products is time-consuming and resource-intensive, as there is a lack of an overview of data to be used within the process. This paper therefore derives a data model for supporting quotation costing in the company, based on literature-based costing procedures and recorded case studies for quotation and calculation. Based on the results, SMEs will have a first overview of the needed data for quotation costing to optimize their calculation process.
Development of a platform business model for co-creation ecosystems for sustainable furniture
(2023)
Existing design platforms with multi-dimensional value chains currently have deficits in terms of their business models, resulting in insufficient attention to sustainability goals and individual requirements for products of these platforms. Co-creation approaches, such as the Do-It-Together (DIT) approach for furniture, involve customers and manufacturers as equal partners in the design and production process. This allows customers to have more influence on the sustainability and individualization of products. The existing literature addresses sustainability-oriented design principles for platform business models, but concrete platform business models for multidimensional DIT cocreation of furniture are still missing. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to develop a business model for a DIT co-creation platform for the furniture industry based on a four-step business model innovation framework. This method will then be applied to a specific project scenario to derive a project-specific DIT co-creation business model. This generates knowledge about the collaborative manufacture of sustainable and customized furniture and contributes to the cross-sectoral transfer of platform business models for the development of sustainable products.
Um auf steigende Kundenanforderungen und das sich änderndes Unternehmensumfeld reagieren zu können, müssen Unternehmen ihre Agilität und Reaktionsfähigkeit, insbesondere in Produktionsprozessen, erhöhen. Dafür müssen die Auswirkungen der möglichen Änderungen im Unternehmensumfeld auf die eigenen Geschäfts- und Produktionsprozesse untersucht und verstanden werden. Das Prozessverständnis allein reicht jedoch nicht: Es werden Daten aus unterschiedlichen Quellen benötigt, um die Ereignisse in der Prozess- und Lieferketten nachzuverfolgen, um das Material eindeutig zu charakterisieren und in Unternehmen vorhandene Algorithmen oder Modelle mit Eingangsdaten zu versorgen. Daher spielt die Datenverfügbarkeit eine wichtige Rolle auf dem Weg zur adaptiven Produktion. In diesem Beitrag wird die Wichtigkeit der Datenverfügbarkeit erläutert sowie ein Konzept der Datenplattform zum sicheren, überbetrieblichen Datenaustausch vorgestellt.
Schwerwiegende Gesundheits- und Wirtschaftskrisen wie die Weltfinanzkrise (ab 2007) oder die Covid-19-Pandemie im Jahr 2020 haben aufgezeigt, in welch turbulentem Umfeld sich die globalisierte Welt heutzutage befindet und wie schnell gewohnte Abläufe in Wertschöpfungsketten unterbrochen und angepasst werden müssen. Die alltäglichen Anforderungen in dem sich immer schneller wandelnden digitalen Zeitalter wachsen stetig und sind komplexer denn je.
Unternehmen sind angehalten, immer kurzzyklischer auf sich ändernde
Bedingungen und Störungen zu reagieren und strategische Entscheidüngen
zur Gestaltung von Wertschöpfungsketten zu treffen. Nur mithilfe
einer umfassenden Datengrundlage und -kommunikation kann die strategische Planung der Supply-Chain effektiv erfolgen und somit die benötigte Robustheit und Agilität ermöglicht werden.
Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) hat als Technologie in den vergangenen Jahren Marktreife erlangt. Es existiert eine Vielzahl benutzerfreundlicher Produkte und Services, welche die Anwendung von KI im Alltag und im Unternehmen vereinfachen. Die Herausforderung, vor denen Anwendende, gerade im betriebswirtschaftlichen Kontext, stehen, ist nicht die technische Machbarkeit einer KI-Applikation, sondern deren organisatorisch und rechtlich zulässige Gestaltung. Zu einer zunehmenden Dynamik in der Gesetzgebung kommt ein gesellschaftliches Interesse an der Kontrolle und Transparenz über die für KI-Modelle erhobenen Daten. Die Diskussion über Datensouveränität im geschäftlichen und privaten Alltag rückt mehr und mehr in das Zentrum der öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit.
Datenbasierte KI-Anwendungen stehen damit in einem Spannungsfeld zwischen den Potenzialen, die das Erheben und Teilen von Daten über Unternehmensgrenzen hinweg bietet, und der Herausforderung, die Datensouveränität der involvierten Personen zu wahren. Die vorliegende Studie soll erstens über die Auswirkungen der Datensouveränität und die damit verbundenen aktuellen und kommenden Regularien auf KI-Anwendungsfälle aufklären. Dafür wurden Expertinnen und Experten aus den Bereichen Recht, KI- und Organisationsforschung befragt. Zweitens zeigt die Studie Potenziale und Best Practices von KI-Anwendungsfällen mit überbetrieblichem Datenaustausch auf. Dafür wurden Fallstudien in Unternehmen durchgeführt, die bereits erfolgreich Datenaustausch in ihre Geschäftsmodelle integriert haben, um ihre KI-Applikationen zu betreiben und zu verbessern.
The manufacturing industry consumes 54% of global energy and attributes for 20% of global CO2 emissions, demonstrating the industry’s role as global driver of climate change. Therefore, reducing its carbon footprint has become a major challenge as its current energy and resource consumption are not sustainable. Industrie 4.0 presents a chance to transform the prevailing paradigms of industrial value creation and advance sustainable developments. By using information and communication technologies for the intelligent networking of machines and processes, it has the potential to reduce energy and material consumption and is considered a key contributor to sustainable manufacturing as proclaimed by the European Commission in the term “twin transition”. As organizations still struggle to utilize the potential of Industrie 4.0 for a sustainable transformation, this paper presents a framework to successfully align their own twin transition. The framework is built upon three key design principles (micro level: leverage eco-efficient operations, meso level: facilitate circularity and macro level: foster value co-creation) derived using case study research by Eisenhardt, and four structural dimensions (resources, information systems, organizational structure and culture) based on the acatech Industrie 4.0 Maturity Index. Eleven interconnected areas of action are defined within the framework and offer a holistic and practical approach on how to leverage an organization’s twin transition. Within the conducted research, the framework was applied to the challenge of information quality and transparency required for high-value secondary plastics in the manufacturing industry. The result is a digital platform design that enables information transactions for secondary plastics and establishes a circular ecosystem. This shows the applicability of the framework and its potential to facilitate a structured approach for designing twin transitions in the manufacturing industry.
[Study] Blockchain
(2019)
Distributed ledger technologies, of which the best known example is blockchain, were expected to make their big breakthrough in 2018. Instead, the opposite happened. Cryptocurrency price slumps and delays in promising projects became symptoms of a new sense of caution. Organizations tried to use blockchain in unsuitable applications, and underestimated implementation hurdles. Despite this, the need for effective data exchange and data management in today's connected world remains high. Decentralized solutions, intelligent sensors, global supply chains and vast quantities of customer data will further stimulate demand for specialized and powerful data management systems. Blockchain therefore remains one option to enable a secure and interconnected world. The following five-step approach will help you harness blockchain's potential, avoiding common mistakes and overcoming implementation hurdles on your way.
Augmented reality seems to offer great potential benefits in the field of industrial services. However, the question of the exact benefits, both monetary and qualitative, is difficult to evaluate, as is the case with IT investments in gen-eral. Within the framework of the DM4AR research project, an evaluation model was therefore developed. Based on group discussions and interviews on potential AR use cases, a list of monetary and qualitative benefits was compiled to form the basis for selecting suitable evaluation modules in the existing literature. These include an impact chain analysis in the form of a strategy map, a monetary eval-uation as a calculation of the return on investment, based on the assumptions of the use case as well as existing studies, and a qualitative evaluation in the form of a utility analysis. The outcome is an evaluation model in the form of a multi-perspective approach that considers the impact of AR in the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard (financial, customer, internal business processes, learning and growth). The results of the qualitative and monetary evaluation can be sum-marized in a 2D matrix to support decision-making.
Ziel des Forschungsbereichs "Selbstoptimierende Produktionssysteme" ist es, sowohl technische als auch soziotechnische Produktionssysteme zu entwickeln, die durch Selbstoptimierung eine bessere Performance erreichen, als bei der Auslegung geplant und erwartet werden kann. Im Fokus steht die Steigerung der Produktivität in der Produktion direkt vor Ort. Bedeutend ist die dezentrale Entscheidungsfähigkeit der Mitarbeiter auf dem Shopfloor und in unterstützenden Bereichen, sowie der kognitiven und adaptiven Systeme und Netzwerke in der Produktion.
Die Verschärfung des Wettbewerbsumfelds produzierender Unternehmen und die als Antwort hierauf in den Fokus rückenden agilen Methoden vergrößern die Bedeutung einer effizienten Handhabung von Änderungsprozessen. Am Beispiel des Maschinen- und Anlagenbauers Ortlinghaus zeigt der Beitrag, dass eine Kombination aus ungeeigneten Änderungsprozessen und mangelhaftem IT-Support in der Praxis oft die schnelle und gleichzeitig qualitätsgesicherte Durchführung von Änderungsprozessen verhindert. Der Zielkonflikt aus geringem Zeitbedarf und hoher Prozessqualität lässt sich durch Anpassungen in der IT-Unterstützung reduzieren. Hierdurch können Erfolgsfaktoren für ein effizientes Änderungsmanagement gehoben und die Problemfelder der Workflowunterstützung, Informationsverteilung und Datenhandhabung verbessert werden. Zentrales Hindernis zur Adressierung der Erfolgsfaktoren stellt die aktuell zur Abwicklung von Change Requests genutzte Arbeitsumgebung dar. Der Beitrag präsentiert hierfür als zentralen Lösungsansatz die Internet of Production Infrastruktur. Das Potenzial der Internet of Production Infrastruktur im Kontext des Änderungsmanagements wird anhand von drei Anwendungsbeispielen verdeutlicht. Abschließend wird der Migrationspfad für Unternehmen bei der Einführung eines effizienten Änderungsmanagements aufgezeigt.
This research area focuses on the management systems and principles of a production system. It aims at controlling the complex interplay of heterogeneous processes in a highly dynamic environment, with special focus on individualized products in high-wage countries. The project addresses the comprehensive application of self-optimizing principles on all levels of the value chain. This implies the integration of self-optimizing control loops on cell level, with those addressing the production planning and control as well as supply chain and quality management aspects. A specific focus is on the consideration of human decisions during the production process. To establish socio-technical control loops, it is necessary to understand how human decisions are made in diffuse working processes as well as how cognitive and affective abilities form the human factor within production processes.
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]
Industrie 4.0 is said to have major positive effects on productivity in manufacturing companies. However, these effects are not visible yet. One reason for this is the lack of understanding of maintenance services as a crucial value contributing partner in production processes, although scientific literature already highlighted the importance of indirect maintenance costs. In order to retrieve the unused potential of maintenance services, a digital shadow in form of a sufficiently precise digital representation is required, providing a data model for the value of maintenance actions so that asset and maintenance strategies can be optimized later on. Using case study research for process manufacturers, the first research contribution of this paper consists of 21 value contributing elements being identified. The second contribution is a reference processes model, showing seven major process steps as well as the required intra-organization interaction on an information technology system level. Therefore, it provides the base for the missing data model shaping the targeted digital shadow of maintenance services’ value contribution. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-57993-7_69]
Due to Digital Transformation, also called Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things, the barrier for implementing data collecting technology on the shop floor has decreased dramatically in the past years – leading to an increasingly growing amount of data from a multitude of IT systems in production companies worldwide. Despite that, the production controller still relies heavily on intrinsic knowledge and intuition for the management of disruptions in production. Thanks to advances in the fields of production control and artificial intelligence, potentials for the collected data for disruption management arise. However, in order to transform data into usable information and allow drawing conclusions for disruption management in production, the relevant data-objects, disturbances and alternative actions must be known. Thus, the decision-making can be supported, reducing the decision latency and increasing benefit of alternative actions. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to discuss the prerequisites necessary to perform a data based disruption management and the methodology itself, serving as an approach to allow companies to build a data basis, classify disruptions and alternative actions in order to improve decision making in the future. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-28464-0_13]
Industrie 4.0 is changing the industrial landscape in an unanticipated way. The vision for manufacturing industries is to transform to an agile company, in order to react on occurring events in real-time and make data based decisions. The realization requires also new capabilities for the information management. To achieve this goal agile companies require taking measured data, analyzing it, deriving knowledge out of this and support with the knowledge their employees. This is crucial for a successful Industrie 4.0 implementation, but many manufacturing companies struggling with these requirements. This paper identifies the required capabilities for the information management to achieve a successful Industrie 4.0 implementation. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-65151-4_3]
Die Vernetzung von Mitarbeiter*innen und Maschinen sowie die zunehmende Automatisierung, auch von Wissensarbeit, wird die Rolle der Beschäftigten im industriellen Wertschöpfungsprozess fundamental verändern. Aus diesem Grund ist arbeitsbezogene Kompetenzentwicklung aus wirtschaftlicher, gesellschaftlicher sowie sozialer Perspektive ein zentraler Schlüsselaspekt für die mittelfristige Sicherung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit. Personalabteilungen haben bislang jedoch meist nur bedingt Kenntnisse über die bevorstehenden Veränderungen und die sich daraus ergebenden Kompetenzanforderungen an die Mitarbeiter*innen. Ziel des Forschungsvorhabens LidA war es, die sich aufgrund der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung verändernden Kompetenzanforderungen entlang definierter Industrie-4.0-Reifegradmodelle zu spezifizieren. Hierzu wurden Beschäftigte befähigt, indem zum einen ihre Selbstlernkompetenz gefördert wurde und zum anderen individuelle Lernpfade abgeleitet worden sind. Anschließend wurden diese mit passender Didaktik in Lehr- und Lernmodule überführt und auf einer bewährten Open-Source-Plattform für eine breite Nutzergruppe verfügbar gemacht. Diese soll einem breiten Nutzerkreis, speziell KMU, eine bedarfsgerechte Schulung der Mitarbeiter*innen im Zeitalter des digitalen Wandels gewährleisten.