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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.