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Real estate markets are known to fluctuate. The real estate market in Stuttgart, Germany, has been booming for more than a decade: square-meter price hit top levels and real estate agents claim that market prices will continue to increase. In this paper, we test this market understanding by developing and analyzing a system dynamics model that depicts the Stuttgart real estate market. Simulating the model explains oscillating behavior arising from significant time delays and endogenous feedback structures – and not necessarily oscillating interest rates, as market experts assume. Scenarios provide insights into the system's behavior reacting to changes exogenous to the model. The first scenario tests the market development under increasing interest rates. The other scenario deals with possible effects on the real estate market if the regional automotive economy suffers from intense competition with new market players entering with alternative fuel vehicles and new technologies. With a policy run we test market structure changes to eliminate cyclical effects. The paper confirms that the business cycle in the Stuttgart real estate market arises from within the system's underlying structure, thus emphasizing the importance of understanding feedback structures.
Today 40 Gbps is in development at IEEE 802.3bq over four pair balanced cabling. In this paper, we describe a transmission experiment of 25 Gbps enabling either a single pair transmission of 25 Gbps over a 30 meter balanced cabling channel, or a 100 Gbps transmission via a four-pair balanced channel. A scalable matrix modeling tool is introduced which allows the prediction of transmission characteristics of a channel taking mode conversion into account . We applied this tool to characterize PCB-channels including the magnetics and PCB for a four-pair 100 Gbps transmission. We evaluated prototype cables and connecting hardware for frequencies up to 2 GHz and beyond. Finally we investigated possible line encoding schemes and provide measurement results of a transmission over 30 m with a data rate of 25 Gbps per twisted pair.
The 21st century: an era where emojis and hashtags find their way into every sentence, where taking selfies, live tweeting and mining bitcoin are the norm, and where Insta-culture dictates what we say and do. This is the era into which the digital native was born. With so many changes in every aspect of our lives, how is it that one of the most influential aspects, our education, has remained unchanged? Our education system not only fails to appeal to today’s students, but more importantly, it fails to equip them with the skills required in the 21st Century. It is thus of no surprise that industries feel graduates entering the workplace lack skills in critical thinking, problem solving and self-directed learning. AI, machine learning and big data: Tools and mechanisms we so eagerly incorporate to create smart factories yet are hesitant to use elsewhere. Gamification and games have shown great results in education and training; with most research suggesting a stronger focus on personalization and adaptation. When combined with analytics and machine learning, the potential of games is yet to be realized. A real-time adaptive game would not only always present an appropriate degree of challenge for the individual but would allow for a shift in focus from the recitation of facts, to the application of information filtered to solve the particular problem at hand. South Africa, a country faced with a severe skills gap, could benefit greatly from games. If used correctly, they may just offer a desperately needed contribution toward equipping both current and future employees with the skills needed to survive in the 21st century. This paper explores the feasibility of using such games for enhanced knowledge dissemination and the upskilling of the workforce.
Rapidly growing population and increasing amount of shipments induced by the e-commerce are two of the main reasons for the constantly rising urban freight traffic. Cities are therefore overwhelmed by a growing stream of goods and the available infrastructure, shared between people and goods traffic, often reached its maximum capacity. Phenomena such as traffic congestion, pollution and lack of space are direct consequences of this trend and their impact on the quality of life in the city is not negligible. City administrations are keen to evaluate innovative city logistics concepts and adopt alternative solutions, to overcome the challenges posed by such a dynamic environment, constrained in existing infrastructure. In this paper, a heuristic method based on the utility analysis is presented. Thanks to a modular approach accounting for stakeholders´ requirements, possible different scenarios and available technologies, the development of new city logistic concepts is supported. The proposed method is then applied to a case study concerning the city of Reutlingen (Germany). Results are presented and a brief discussion leads to the conclusion.
The members of the European TRIZ Campus (ETC) have been learning from and working together with many honorable members of MATRIZ Official for many years and feel very connected to the official International TRIZ Association.
To further spread the TRIZ methodology and TRIZ teaching in the European area in the past 12 months the ETC has put a lot of thought in how making TRIZ accessible to a broader audi-ence and getting more professionals in touch with the methodology was one of the focal points.
To this end, we have developed new formats such as the "Trainer Day" to support trainers on their way into practice. We have drawn up detailed quality guidelines for the teaching of the TRIZ methodology, which are intended to provide orientation for the design of training classes and docu-mentation. We strive for exchange with representatives of "neighbouring" methods such as Six sigma, Lean, DFMA and Design Thinking to indicate synergies and added value among methods and approaches of different kinds. We are testing formats for community building, in order to connect users of all places more strongly with the TRIZ methodology through communication and information of-fers. If TRIZ users feel alone in their organizations, the exchange outside their organi-zation helps them to keep up with the TRIZ methodology. Moreover, the ETC strives to increase the ability to communicate the benefits of TRIZ-usage inside organizations. We discuss, how to reach teachers and students of all age, to make them the unique way of inventive thinking accessible.
In our paper we want to give other MATRIZ Official members insights and share our experi-ences and best practices with our fellow MO members.
The high system flexibility necessary for the full automation of complex and unstructured tasks leads to increased complexity, thus higher costs. On the other hand, the effectiveness and performance of such systems decrease, explaining the unfulfilled potential of robotcs in sectors such as intralogistics, where the benefits of a robotic solution rarely justify its costs. Taking the distance from the false idea that a task should be either fully automated, or fully manual, this aper presents a method for design of a lean human-robot interaction (HRI) withe the objective of the "right level of automation", where functions are divided among human and automated agends, so that the overall process gains in performances and/or costs. ... The 10 progressive steps of the method are presented and discussed with reference to their graphical tool: the House of Quality Interaction.
The financial crisis of 2007-2010 was probably one of the greatest, most lustrous black-swan events that people of our generation(s) will experience – and at its heart, it was a dynamic phenomenon. It is stated in the vision of the System Dynamics Society that we aspire to transform society by influencing decision-making. Yet, it seems as if system dynamics did not play any significant role in this crisis: we did not examine the markets, we did not provide insights to banks, and we did not warn governments or the people. In our presentation we describe the dynamics involved in a housing bubble, and describe what made the last one different. With the insights gained from this exercise we conclude that, from a system dynamics perspective, the dimension of the financial crisis of 2007-2009 was eminently foreseeable, which will lead us to pose the following question: where were we as a field while this crisis was unfolding, why were we not active players? We present a range of potential answers to this question, hoping to provoke some reflection… and maybe some (re)action.
Blockchain is a technology for the secure processing and verification of data transactions based on a distributed peer-to-peer network that uses cryptographic processes, consensus algorithms, and backward-linked blocks to make transactions virtually immutable. Within supply chain management, blockchain technology offer potentials in increasing supply chain transparency, visibility, automation, and efficiency. However, its complexity requires future employees to have comprehensive knowledge regarding the functionality of blockchain-based applications in order to be able to apply their benefits to scenarios in supply chain and production. Learning factories represent a suitable environment allowing learners to experience new technologies and to apply them to virtual and physical processes throughout value chains. This paper presents a concept to practically transfer knowledge about the technical functionality of blockchain technology to future engineers and software developers working within supply chains and production operations to sensitize them regarding the advantages of decentralized applications. First, the concept proposes methods to playfully convey immutable backward-linked blocks and the embedment of blockchain smart contracts. Subsequently, the students use this knowledge to develop blockchain-based application scenarios by means of an exemplary product in a learning factory environment. Finally, the developed solutions are implemented with the help of a prototypical decentralized application, which enables a holistic mapping of supply chain events.
Lean Management hat in viele Unternehmen Einzug gehalten. Lean Konzepte stellen neue Anforderungen an die Art und Struktur der benötigten Kosteninformation, welche von traditionallen Kostenrechnungssystemen nicht unmittelbar erfüllt werden. Vertreter eines „Lean Accounting“ schlagen deshalb teils radikale Änderungen und eine Vereinfachung der Kostenrechnung vor. Der Beitrag diskutiert die Beschränkungen der traditionellen Kostenrechnung bei der Umsetzung von Lean Management und stellt ausgewählte Ansätze eines „Accounting for Lean“ vor. Die Analyse zeigt, dass Ansätze des Lean Accounting zu eng fokussiert sind und die in der Praxis vorhandene Pluralität der Kostenrechnungsfunktionen nicht adäquat abbilden können. Eine radikale Neugestaltung bestehender Kostenrechnungssysteme wird deshalb als unrealistisch und unbegründet verworfen. Der Beitrag entwickelt alternative Vorschläge, wie Konzepte des Lean Managements und die dafür benötigte Kosteninformation in traditionellen Kostenrechnungssystemen integriert werden können.
Im Fokus der AG stand in erster Linie die Auseinandersetzung mit Konzepten und Praxismodellen aus den Lehrangeboten der Sprachzentren ... Es ging ... um Themen und Aspekte, die noch nicht in den GER aufgenommen und beschrieben sind, um die Grenzen und Lücken des GER; die das Thema des 6. Bremer Symposiums waren : interkulturelle, soziale, strategische und mediatorische Kompetenzen.
The production environment experiences copious challenges, but likewise discovers many new potential opportunities. To meet the new requirements, caused by the developments towards mass-customization, human-robot-cooperation (HRC) was identified as a key piece of technology and is becoming more and more important. HRC combines the strengths of robots, such as reliability, endurance and repeatability, with the strengths of humans, for instance flexibility and decision-making skills. Notwithstanding the high potential of HRC applications, the technology has not achieved a breakthrough in production so far. Studies have shown that one of the biggest obstacles for implementing HRC is the allocation of tasks. Another key technology that offers various opportunities to improve the production environment is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Therefore, this paper describes an AI supported method to improve the work organization in HRC in regards to the task-allocation. The aim of this method is to build a dynamic, semi-autonomous group work environment which keeps not just employee motivation at a high level, but also the product quality due to a decreased failure rate. The AI helps to detect the perfect condition in which the employee delivers the best performance and also supports at identifying the time when the worker leaves this optimal state. As soon as the employee reaches this trigger event, the allocation of the tasks adapts based on the identified stress. This adaptation aims to return the employee to the state of the optimal performance. In order to realize such a dynamic allocation, this method describes the creation of a pool with various interaction scenarios, as well as the AI supported recognition of the defined trigger event.
The supply of customer-specific products is leading to the increasing technical complexity of machines and plants in the manufacturing process. In order to ensure the availability of the machines and plants, maintenance is considered as an essential key. The application of cyber-physical systems enables the complexity to be mastered by improving the availability of information, implementing predictive maintenance strategies and the provision of all relevant information in real-time. The present research project deals with the development of a cost-effective and retrofittable smart maintenance system for the application of ultraviolet (UV) lamps. UV lamps are used in a variety of applications such as curing of materials and water disinfection, where UV lamps are still used instead of UV LED due to their higher effectiveness. The smart maintenance system enables continuous condition monitoring of the UV lamp through the integration of sensors. The data obtained are compared with data from existing lifetime models of UV lamps to provide information about the remaining useful lifetime of the UV lamp. This ensures needs-based maintenance measures and more efficient use of UV lamps. Furthermore, it is important to have accurate information on the remaining useful lifetime of a UV lamp, as the unplanned breakdown of a UV lamp can have far-reaching consequences. The key element is the functional model of the envisioned cyber-physical system, describing the dependencies between the sensors and actuator, the condition monitoring system as well as the IoT platform. Based on the requirements developed and the functional model, the necessary hardware and software are selected. Finally, the system is developed and retrofitted to a simulated curing process of a 3D printer to validate its functional capability. The developed system leads to improved information availability of the condition of UV lamps, predictive maintenance measures and context-related provision of information.
Today's logistics systems are characterized by uncertainty and constantly changing requirements. Rising demand for customized products, short product life cycles and a large number of variants increases the complexity of these systems enormously. In particular, intralogistics material flow systems must be able to adapt to changing conditions at short notice, with little effort and at low cost. To fulfil these requirements, the material flow system needs to be flexible in three important parameters, namely layout, throughput and product. While the scope of the flexibility parameters is described in literature, the respective effects on an intralogistics material flow system and the influencing factors are mostly unknown. This paper describes how flexibility parameters of an intralogistics system can be determined using a multi-method simulation. The study was conducted in the learning factory “Werk150” on the campus of Reutlingen University with its different means of transport and processes and validated in terms of practical experiments.
Im Rahmen der wissenschaftlichen Vertiefung an der Hochschule Reutlingen befasst sich diese Arbeit mit der Untersuchung der Anforderungen und der Machbarkeit zur computergestützten Erkennung der Deutschen Gebärdensprache (DGS) und des deutschen Fingeralphabets. Die Erkenntnisse aus dieser Arbeit dienen als Grundlage zur Entwicklung eines Systems zur Übersetzung von Gebärden der DGS oder des Fingeralphabets in die deutsche Schriftsprache. Zunächst werden grundlegende Informationen zu Geschichte, Aufbau und Grammatik der DGS und des Fingeralphabets aufgeführt. Die Erkennung der Gebärden soll durch optische Bewegungssensoren erfolgen. Hierfür werden unterschieliche Sensortypen betrachtet und verglichen. Im weiteren Verlauf erfolgt die Analyse der benutzerspezifischen und technischen Anforderungen. Erstere basieren auf der Befragung einer Fokusgruppe aus gehörlosen und hörenden Menschen aus dem Bereich der Gehörlosen-, Schwerhörigen- und Sprachbehindertenpädagogik. Abgeleitet aus den Informationen der Anforderungsanalyse ergibt sich, bis zu einem gewissen Grad, die Machbarkeit aus technischer und benutzerspezifischer Sicht. Abschließend erfolgen die Zusammenfassung der Anforderungen, welche an das zu entwickelnde System gestllt werden, sowie eine Handlungsempfehlung für die Entwicklung eines Prototyps.
The aim of this paper is to show to what extent Artificial Intelligence can be used to optimize forecasting capability in procurement as well as to compare AI with traditional statistic methods. At the same time this article presents the status quo of the research project ANIMATE. The project applies Artificial Intelligence to forecast customer orders in medium-sized companies.
Precise forecasts are essential for companies. For planning, decision making and controlling. Forecasts are applied, e.g. in the areas of supply chain, production or purchasing. Medium-sized companies have major challenges in using suitable methods to improve their forecasting ability.
Companies often use proven methods such as classical statistics as the ARIMA algorithm. However, simple statistics often fail while applied for complex non-linear predictions.
Initial results show that even a simple MLP ANN produces better results than traditional statistic methods. Furthermore, a baseline (Implicit Sales Expectation) of the company was used to compare the performance. This comparison also shows that the proposed AI method is superior.
Until the developed method becomes part of corporate practice, it must be further optimized. The model has difficulties with strong declines, for example due to holidays. The authors are certain that the model can be further improved. For example, through more advanced methods, such as a FilterNet, but also through more data, such as external data on holiday periods.
Due to Industry 4.0, the full value creation has the chance to undergo a fundamental technological transformation, the realisation of which, however, requires the commitment of every company for its own benefit. The new approaches of Industry 4.0 are often hardly evaluated, let alone proven, so that SMEs in particular often cannot properly estimate the potentials and risks, and often waiting too long with the migration towards Industry 4.0. In addition, they often do not pursue an integrated concept in order to identify possible potentials through changes in their business models. . As part of the research project "GEN-I 4.0 – Geschäftsmodell-Entwicklung für die Industrie 4.0” ", the ESB Business School at Reutlingen University of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering and Organization FHG IAO were engaged by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation from 2016 to 2018 to develop tools and an approach how the local economy can develop digital business models for itself in a methodical, beneficial and targeted manner. Through international analyses and interviews GEN-I 4.0 gained and concretized the knowledge required for the evaluation and selection of solutions and approaches for the transfer to develop digital business models. Together with the know-how of the project partners on Industry 4.0 and business model development, the findings were incorporated into the development of two software tools with which SMEs are shown the potentials of Industry 4.0 for their individual business model, online and in selfassessment, and given a comprehensive structured, concrete approach to development, as well as their individual risk. Users of the tools are supported by the selected platform for the networking of different players to implement innovative business models accompanied by coaching concepts for the companies in the follow-up and implementation of the assessment results.
The early involvement of experiences gained through intelligence and data analysis is becoming increasingly important in order to develop new products, leading to a completely different conception of product creation, development and engineering processes using the advantages that the dedication of the digital twin entails. Introducing a novel stage gate process in order to be holistically anchored in learning factories adopting idea generation and idea screening in an early stage, beta testing of first prototypes, technical implementation in real production scenarios, business analysis, market evaluation, pricing, service models as well as innovative social media portals. Corresponding product modelling in the sense of sustainability, circular economy, and data analytics forecasts the product on the market both before and after market launch with the interlinking of data interpretation nearby in real-time. The digital twin represents the link between the digital model and the digital shadow. Additionally, the connection of the digital twin with the product provides constantly updated operating status and process data as well as mapping of technical properties and real-world behaviours. A future-networking product, by embedded information technology with the ability to initiate and carry out one's own further development, is able to interact with people and environments and thus is relevant to the way of life of future generations. In today's development work for this new product creation approach, on one hand, "Werk150" is the object of the development itself and on the other hand the validation environment. In the next step, new learning modules and scenarios for trainings at master level will be derived from these findings.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in der Markenführung: Künstliche Neuronale Netze zur Markenimagemessung
(2023)
Da Künstliche Neuronale Netze die Modellierung nichtlinearer und vielschichtiger Beziehungen ermöglichen, befasst sich dieser Beitrag mit deren Einsatzmöglichkeiten für die methodisch anspruchsvolle Analyse und Messung des Markenimages. Zur Veranschaulichung des konzeptionellen Ansatzes wird am empirischen Beispiel des Sportartikelherstellers adidas ein mehrschichtiges Künstliches Neuronales Netz zwischen den Bewertungen spezifischer Markenattribute und der Gesamtbewertung der Marke erzeugt. Auf der Grundlage einer Analyse der Verbindungsgewichte des Künstliches Neuronales Netzes wird die Bedeutung verschiedener Markenattribute für die Markenbewertung gemessen, wodurch sich konkrete Implikationen für die Praxis der Markenführung ableiten lassen.
Demand forecasting intermittent time series is a challenging business problem. Companies have difficulties in forecasting this particular form of demand pattern. On the one hand, it is characterized by many non-demand periods and therefore classical statistical forecasting algorithms, such as ARIMA, only work to a limited extent. On the other hand, companies often cannot meet the requirements for good forecasting models, such as providing sufficient training data. The recent major advances of artificial intelligence in applications are largely based on transfer learning. In this paper, we investigate whether this method, originating from computer vision, can improve the forecasting quality of intermittent demand time series using deep learning models. Our empirical results show that, in total, transfer learning can reduce the mean square error by 65 percent. We also show that especially short (65 percent reduction) and medium long (91 percent reduction) time series benefit from this approach.
The promise of the EVs is twofold. First, rejuvenating a transport sector that still heavily depends on fossil fuels and second, integrating intermittent renewable energies into the power mix. However, it is still not clear how electricity networks will cope with the predicted increase in EVs and their charging demand, especially in combination with conventional energy demand. This paper proposes a methodology which allows to predict the impact of EV charging behavior on the electricity grid. Moreover, this model simulates the driving and charging behavior of heterogeneous EV drivers which differ in their mobility pattern, decision-making heuristics and charging strategies. The simulations show that uncoordinated charging results in charging load clustering. In contrast, decentralized coordination allows to fill the valleys of the conventional load curve and to integrate EVs without the need of a costly expansion of the electricity grid.
The high system flexibility necessary for the full automation of complex and unstructured tasks leads to increased technological complexity, thus to higher costs and lower performance. In this paper, after an introduction to the different dimensions of flexibility, a method for flexible modular configuration and evaluation of systems of systems is introduced. The method starts from process requirements and, considering factors such as feasibility, development costs, market potential and effective impact on the current processes, enables the evaluation of a flexible systems of systems equipped with the needed functionalities before its actual development. This allows setting the focus on those aspects of flexibility that add market value to the system, thus promoting the efficient development of systems addressed to interested customers in intralogistics. An example of application of the method is given and discussed.
According to several surveys and statistics, the great majority of companies previously not accustomed to automation are piloting solutions to automate business processes. Those accustomed to automation also attempt to introduce more of it, focusing on automation-unfriendly processes that remained manual. However, when the decision on what and whether to automate is not trivial for evident reasons, even industry leaders may get stuck on an overwhelming question: where to begin automating? The question remains too often unanswered as state-of-the-art methods fail to consider the whole picture. This paper introduces a holistic approach to the decision-making for investments in automation. The method supports the iterative analysis and evaluation of operative processes, providing tools for a quantitative approach to the decision-making. Thanks to the method, a large pool of processes can be first considered and then filtered out in order to select the one that yields the best value for the automation in the specific context. After introducing the method, a case study is reported for validation before the discussion.
The EU funded project RobLog recently developed a system able to autonomously unload coffee sacks from a standard container. Being the first of its kind, a further development is needed in order for the system to be competitive against manual labor. Financing this development entails a risk, hence a justified skepticism, which can be overcome by the longsighted view of the existing market potential. This paper presents a method to estimate the market potential of autonomous unloading systems for heavy deformable goods. Starting from the analysis of the coffee trade, first the current coffee traffic is investigated in order to calculate the number of autonomous systems needed to handle the imported sacks; Results are validated and the method is extended for the calculation of the potential of other market segments, where the same unloading technology can be applied.
Prior studies ascribed people’s poor performance in dealing with basic systems concepts to different causes. While results indicate that, among other things, domain specific experience and familiarity with the problem context play a role in this stock-flow-(SF-)performance, this has not yet been fully clarified. In this article, we present an experiment that examines the role of educational background in SF-performance. We hypothesize that SF-performance increases when the problem context is embedded in the problem solver’s knowledge domain, indicated by educational background. Using the square wave pattern and the sawtooth pattern tasks from the initial study by Booth Sweeney and Sterman (2000), we design two additional cover stories for the former, the Vehicle story from the engineering domain and the Application story from the business domain, next to the original Bathtub story. We then test the three sets of questions on business students. Results mainly support our hypothesis. Interestingly, participants even do better on a more complex behavioral pattern from their knowledge domain than on a simpler pattern from more distant domains. Although these findings have to be confirmed by further studies, they contribute both to the methodology of future surveys and the context familiarity discussion.
SF-failure, the inability of people to correctly determine the behavior of simple stock and flow structures is subject of a long research stream. Reasons for SF-failure can be attributed to different reasons, one of them being lacking domain specific experience, thus familiarity with the problem context. In this article we present a continuation of an experiment to examine the role of educational background in SF-performance. We base the question set on the Bathtub Dynamics tasks introduced by Booth Sweeney and Sterman (2000) and vary the cover stories. In this paper we describe how we developed and tested a new cover story for the engineering domain and implemented the recommendations from a prior study. We test three sets of questions with engineering students which enables us to compare the results to a previous study in which we tested the questions with business students. Results mainly support our hypothesis that context familiarity increases SF-performance. With our findings we further develop the methodology of the research on SF-failure.
It is assumed that more education leads to better understanding of complex systems. Some researchers claim, however, find indications that simple mechanisms like stocks and flows are not well understood even by people who have passed higher education. In this paper, we test people’s understanding of complex systems with the widely studied stock-and-flow (SF) tasks (Booth Sweeney and Sterman 2000). SF tasks assess people’s understanding of the interplay between stocks and flows. We investigate SF failure of domain experts and novices in different knowledge domains. In particular, we compare performance on the original study’s Bathtub task with the square wave pattern (Booth Sweeney and Sterman 2000) with two alternative cover stories from the engineering and business domains on different groups of business and engineering students from different semesters. Further, we show that, while engineering students perform better than business students, with progressing in higher education, students seem to lose the capability of dealing with simple SF tasks from domains other than their field. We thus find hints on déformation professionelle in higher education.
Fundamentale Veränderungen der heutigen Arbeitswelt stellen Menschen, Systeme, Prozesse und ganze Organisationen vor erhebliche Herausforderungen. Der Faktor Mensch leistet in allen Bereichen dieses Wirkgefüges einen essentiellen Beitrag zum Wettbewerbsvorteil vieler produzierender Unternehmen am Standort Deutschland. Der Wandel von Automatisierung zu selbststeuernden Unternehmen geht dabei nicht spurlos an dem wandlungsfähigsten Glied dieses Gefüges, dem Menschen, vorüber. Belastungsarten verändern sich, singuläre Bewältigungsstrategien genügen nicht mehr, um einen optimalen Beanspruchungszustand jedes einzelnen Individuums zu erreichen und gleichzeitig das höchstmögliche Potenzial zu schöpfen. Das Belastungs- und Beanspruchungscockpit bildet einen Lösungsansatz zur systematischen und durchgängigen Bewertung von Belastungszuständen und der individuellen Beanspruchung von Beschäftigten an Montagearbeitsplätzen. Es liefert in Echtzeit Informationen zum Belastungs- und Beanspruchungszustand des Mitarbeiters und kann mit Ergonomiebewertungsverfahren verknüpft werden. Der Aspekt der Multidimensionalität umfasst die Bewertung verschiedener Indikatoren unter Betrachtung ihrer Wirkzusammenhänge.
Job advertisements are important means of communicating role expectations for management accountants to the labor market. They provide information about which roles of management accountants are sought by companies or which roles are expected. However, which roles are communicated in job advertisements is unknown so far. Using a large sample of 889 job ads and a text-mining approach, we show an apparent mix of different role types with a strong focus on a rather classic role: the watchdog role. However, individuals with business partner characteristics are more often sought for leadership positions or in family businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The results challenge the current role discussion for management accountants as business partners in practice and some academic fields.
As "the most international company on earth", DHL Express promised to deliver packages between almost any pair of countries within a defined time-frame. To fulfill this promise, the company had introduced a set of global business and technology standards. While standardization had many advantages (improving service for multinational customers, faster response to changes in import/export regulations, sharing of best practices etc.), it created impediments to local innovation and responsiveness in DHL Express' network of 220 countries/territories. Reconciling standardization-innovation tradeoffs is a critical management issue for global companies in the digital economy.
This case describes one large, successful company's approach to the tradeoff of standardization versus innovation.
In 2013, Royal Philips was two years into a daunting transformation. Following declining financial performance, CEO Frans van Houten aimed to turn the Dutch icon into a "high-performing Company" by 2017. This case study examines the challenges of the business-driven IT transformation at Royal Philips, a diversified technology company. The case discusses three crucial issues. First, the case reflects on Philips’ aim at creating value from combining locally relevant products and services while also leveraging its global scale and scope. Rewarded and unrewarded business complexity is analyzed. Second, the case identifies the need to design and align multiple elements of an enterprise (organizational, cultural, technical) to balance local responsiveness with global scale. Third, the case explains the role of IT (as an asset instead of a liability) in Philips’ transformation and discusses the new IT landscape with its digital platforms, and the new practices to create effective business-IT partnerships.
Because of saturated markets and of the low profit margins in the sales of cars, car manufacturers focus more and more on profitable product related services. This paper deals with the question how to classify product related services in the automotive industry and which characteristic product related services are offered to the end-users (consumers) in a standardized format. Two research studies on the provided product related services in 2010 und 2017 by 15 car manufacturers and 20 exemplary automotive brands in Germany revealed that the application degree by the OEM (original equipment manufacturers) in these years increased considerably. While in 2010, the average range of services only amounted to 33%, the value in the automotive industry increased until 2017 to 57%.
Classification model of supply chain events regarding their transferability to blockchain technology
(2021)
The blockchain technology represents a decentralized database that stores information securely in immutable data blocks. Regarding supply chain management, these characteristics offer potentials in increasing supply chain transparency, visibility, automation, and efficiency. In this context, first token-based mapping approaches exist to transfer certain supply chain events to the blockchain, such as the creation or assembly of parts as well as their transfer of ownership. However, the decentralized and immutable structure of blockchain technology also creates challenges. In particular, the scalability, storage capacity, and the special requirements for storage formats make it currently impossible to map all supply chain events unrestrictedly on the blockchain. As a first step, this paper identifies important supply chain events for different use cases combining blockchain technology and supply chain management. Secondly, the supply chain events are classified in terms of their expected technical properties and their relevance for the respective use case. Finally, the identified supply chain events are evaluated regarding their transferability to blockchain technology and a classification model is introduced.
Indoor localization systems are becoming more and more important with the digitalization of the industrial sector. Sensor data such as the current position of machines, transport vehicles, goods or tools represent an essential component of cyber physical production systems (CCPS). However, due to the high costs of these sensors, they are not widespread and are used mainly in special scenarios. However, especially optical indoor positioning systems (OIPS) based on cameras have certain advantages due to their technological specifications. In this paper, the application scenarios and requirements as well as their characteristics are presented and a classification approach of OIPS is introduced.
So-called cloud-based management information systems are a fairly new phenomenon in management accounting in recent years. Quite a few companies (and especially their business managers and management accountants) do not always work via the cloud, but with hybrid solutions or on-premise solutions of ERP software such as SAP or Oracle, but often still with "manual" solutions such as Microsoft Excel.
Shorter product life cycles and emerging technologies are changing the circumstances under which the design of assembly and logistics systems has to be carried out. Engineers are in charge of adapting the production in accordance with the underlying product at a higher pace, oversee a more complex system and find the ideal solution for a functional work system design as well as social interactions between humans and machines in cyber-physical systems. Such collaborative work systems consider the individual capabilities and potentials of humans and machines to combine them in a manner that assists the operator during his daily work routine. To be able to design such work systems, specific competences such as the ability of integrated process and product planning as well as systems and interface competence are required. Learning factories train students as well as professionals to gain such qualifications by providing a close-to-reality learning environment based on a didactical concept which covers all relevant methods for ergonomic work system design and a state-of-the-art infrastructure. Group-based, activity oriented scenarios enable the participants to put the learnings into their everyday work life. Thereby, learning factories have an indirect impact on the transfer of proven best practices to the industry.
Competing logics in evaluating employee performance : building compromises through conventions
(2015)
Current research argues that competing institutional logistics1 can co-exist enduringly and investigates how organizations cope with such institutional complexity (Greenwood et al. 2011). Thereby, the role of practices for handling competing logics has been overlooked and it is currently only to limited extent understood how organizations establish compromises between competing logics. Therefore, we investigated the recent performance appraisal reform of a German public sector organization that occurred in 2008 (see also Kozica, Brandl 2015). BAND (the pseudonym for our organization) has been using performance appraisals for several decades, and performance appraisals have already become entrenched instruments (Zeitz, Mittal, McAulay 1999) for handling staff promotion decisions. While BAND accepted the accountability logic of the performance appraisal, the professional logic (which is based on trust and comradeship as a high value of being professional in our organization) is accepted too and BAND has established a fine-grained compromise between the different logics. During the recent reform of the performance appraisal system, however, this compromise has broken up and challenged organizational members to (re-)arrange a compromise. By using French convention school of thinking (Boltanski, Thévenot 2006) we address how BAND copes with conflicting logics by forming compromises in organizational practices. Thereby, we show that the concept of convention is particularly promising for understanding of how organizations deal with institutional complexity. More broadly, our argument contributes to the elaboration of an organizational theory for the institutional logics discussion that explains how organizational and individual actions are interlinked.
Public transport causes in rural areas high costs per passenger and kilometer as the frequency of scheduled busses is low and therefore, many people avoid using public transport. With the trend of moving from urban regions to countryside individual traffic will further increase. To tackle issues of emissions, mobility for young and elderly people and provide economically meaningful public transport a new concept was elaborated in Germany. This consists of (partly) autonomous shuttle busses which are remote controlled. For implementation rural districts of Germany have worked together and set up a three-phase plan consisting of a project with public funding, a highly frequent used pilot region and industrial partners with the commitment and possibilities for necessary investments. The concept promises economical value with respect to installation, service and maintaining costs, it leads to lower barriers for public transport of young and elderly people and ultimately reduces emissions and congestions.
The blockchain technology represents a decentralized database that stores information securely in immutable data blocks. Regarding supply chain management, these characteristics offer potentials in increasing supply chain transparency, visibility, automation, and efficiency. In this context, first token-based mapping approaches exist to transfer certain manufacturing processes to the blockchain, such as the creation or assembly of parts as well as their transfer of ownership. However, the decentralized and immutable structure of blockchain technology also creates challenges when applying these token-based approaches to dynamic manufacturing processes. As a first step, this paper investigates existing mapping approaches and exemplifies weaknesses regarding their suitability for products with changeable configurations. Secondly, a concept is proposed to overcome these weaknesses by introducing logically coupled tokens embedded into a flexible smart contract structure. Finally, a concept for a token-based architecture is introduced to map manufacturing processes of products with changeable configurations.
Stellenausschreibungen sind ein wichtiges Mittel, um Rollen von Controllern auf dem Arbeitsmarkt zu kommunizieren. Stellenanzeigen öffnen ein Fenster zu dem, was Firmen als Rollen für ihre Controller wahrnehmen. Welche Rollen Stellenanzeigen kommunizieren, ist bisher nicht bekannt. Unter Verwendung einer großen Stichprobe von 889 Stellenanzeigen und eines Text-Mining-Ansatzes zeigen wir, dass es offenbar eine Mischung verschiedener Rollentypen mit einem starken Fokus auf einen eher klassischen Rollentyp gibt, die Watchdog-Rolle. Personen mit Business-Partner-Eigenschaften werden dagegen häufiger für Führungspositionen oder in Familienunternehmen und kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen (KMU) gesucht. Die Ergebnisse stellen die derzeitige Rollen-diskussion für Controller als Business Partner in der Praxis und in einigen Bereichen der Wissenschaft in Frage.
The automotive industry faces three major challenges – shortage of fossil fuels, politics of global warming and rising competition from new markets. In order to remain competitive companies have to develop more efficient and alternative fuel vehicles that meet the individual requirements of the customers. Functional Integration combined with new Technologies and materials are the key to stable success in this industry. The sustaining upward trend to system innovations within the last ten years confirms this. The development of complex products like automobiles claim skills of various disciplines e.g. engineering, chemistry. Furthermore, these skills are spread all over the supply chain. Hence the only way to stay successful in the automotive industry is cooperation and collaborative innovation. Interdisciplinary and interorganizational development has high demands on cooperation models especially in the automotive industry. In this case study cooperation models are analyzed and evaluated according to their applicability to interdisciplinary, interorganizational development projects in the automotive industry. Following, the research campus ARENA2036 is analyzed. ARENA2036 is an interdisciplinary, interorganizational development project housing automobile manufacturers, suppliers, research establishments and university institutes. Finally, based on interviews with the partners and the precede analyses of cooperation models, suggestions for implementation are given to ARENA2036.
At Reutlingen University in Germany students from different countries and disciplines can learn business English within the framework of a theatre production. In the "Business English Theatre" they work in an international project team staging a play with a business focus and thus improve both their language, social and professional skills.
Die Automobilindustrie steht insbesondere im Forschungs- und Entwicklungsbereich vor großen Herausforderungen. Es zeichnet sich eine deutliche Entwicklung hin zu Systeminnovationen ab, um den gestiegenen Anforderungen des Marktes gerecht zu werden. Voraussetzung hierfür ist die Kooperation von Unternehmen innerhalb der Wertschöpfungskette. In dieser Arbeit werden zunächst auf theoretischer Basis geeignete Kooperationsmodelle ausgewählt, die in einem zweiten Schritt anhand einer Nutzwertanalyse bewertet werden. Die Basis für die Bewertung bilden theoretische Überlegungen, die anhand von Experteninterviews validiert werden. Die Analyse zeigt, dass der Forschungscampus als auch das Branchencluster die beste Eignung aufweist. Abschließend werden die Erkenntnisse an einem Praxisobjekt angewandt.
Production planning and control are characterized by unplanned events or so-called turbulences. Turbulences can be external, originating outside the company (e.g., delayed delivery by a supplier), or internal, originating within the company (e.g., failures of production and intralogistics resources). Turbulences can have far reaching consequences for companies and their customers, such as delivery delays due to process delays. For target-optimized handling of turbulences in production, forecasting methods incorporating process data in combination with the use of existing flexibility corridors of flexible production systems offer great potential. Probabilistic, data-driven forecasting methods allow determining the corresponding probabilities of potential turbulences. However, a parallel application of different forecasting methods is required to identify an appropriate one for the specific application. This requires a large database, which often is unavailable and, therefore, must be created first. A simulation-based approach to generate synthetic data is used and validated to create the necessary database of input parameters for the prediction of internal turbulences. To this end, a minimal system for conducting simulation experiments on turbulence scenarios was developed and implemented. A multi-method simulation of the minimal system synthetically generates the required process data, using agent-based modeling for the autonomously controlled system elements and event-based modeling for the stochastic turbulence events. Based on this generated synthetic data and the variation of the input parameters in the forecast, a comparative study of data-driven probabilistic forecasting methods was conducted using a data analytics tool. Forecasting methods of different types (including regression, Bayesian models, nonlinear models, decision trees, ensemble, deep learning) were analyzed in terms of prediction quality, standard deviation, and computation time. This resulted in the identification ofappropriate forecasting methods, and required input parameters for the considered turbulences.
Production systems are becoming increasingly complex, which means that the main task of industrial maintenance, ensuring the technical availability of a production system, is also becoming increasingly difficult. The previous focus of maintenance efforts on individual machines must give way to a holistic view encompassing the whole production system. Against this background, the technical availability of a production system must be redefined. The aim of this publication is to present different definition approaches of production systems’ availability and to demonstrate the effects of random machine failures on the key figures considering the complexity of the production system using a discrete event simulation.
Forecasting intermittent and lumpy demand is challenging. Demand occurs only sporadically and, when it does, it can vary considerably. Forecast errors are costly, resulting in obsolescent stock or unmet demand. Methods from statistics, machine learning and deep learning have been used to predict such demand patterns. Traditional accuracy metrics are often employed to evaluate the forecasts, however these come with major drawbacks such as not taking horizontal and vertical shifts over the forecasting horizon into account, or indeed stock-keeping or opportunity costs. This results in a disadvantageous selection of methods in the context of intermittent and lumpy demand forecasts. In our study, we compare methods from statistics, machine learning and deep learning by applying a novel metric called Stock-keeping-oriented Prediction Error Costs (SPEC), which overcomes the drawbacks associated with traditional metrics. Taking the SPEC metric into account, the Croston algorithm achieves the best result, just ahead of a Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network.
Der relative Vorteil von Heim- gegenüber Auswärtsteams im Sport - der sogenannte Heimvorteil - ist in mehreren Studien belegt (z.B. Nevill et al., 2002; Jamieson, 2010). Als theoretisch dem Heimvorteil zugrundeliegende Faktoren gelten u.a. folgende: die Zuschauer (durch ihre motivierende Wirkung auf Spieler oder beeinflussende Wirkung auf Schiedsrichter), Reisefaktoren (z.B. die Entfernung bzw. Dauer der Reise und die damit einhergehende Erschöpfung der Spieler) und die Vertrautheit der Heimmannschaft mit der Umgebung (z.B. die Vertrautheit mit dem Stadion und dem Spieluntergrund) (Courneya & Carron, 1992; Nevill et al., 2002). Durch die während der COVID-19-Pandemie stattfindenden Spiele ohne Zuschauer (Geisterspiele) lässt sich erstmals durch ein natürliches Experiment der Einfluss von Zuschauern auf den Heimvorteil betrachten. Ein Überblick über die Studien, die den Heimvorteil in verschiedenen Fußballligen während der pandemiebedingten Geisterspiele untersuchen, findet sich in Leitner et al. (2022).
The world is becoming increasingly digital. People have become used to learning and interacting with the world around them through technology, accelerated even further by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is especially relevant to the generation currently entering education systems and the workforce. Considering digital aids and methods of learning are important for future learning. The increasing online learning needs open the case for integrating digital learning aspects such as serious gaming within education and training systems. Learning factories fall amongst the education and training systems that can benefit from integration with digital learning extensions. Digital capabilities such as digital twins and models further enable the exploration of integrating digital serious games as an extension of learning factories. Since learning factories are meant for a range of different learning, training, and research purposes, such serious games need to be adaptable across stakeholder perspectives to maximize the value gained from the time and cost invested into such design and development. Research into the development of adaptive serious games for multiple stakeholder perspectives must first determine whether such development can be developed that reaches the objectives set for different included stakeholder perspectives. The purpose of this research is to investigate this at the hand of the practical development of a digital adaptive serious game for stakeholder perspectives.
The digital economy poses existential threats to — and game-changing opportunities for — companies that were successful in the pre-digital economy. What will distinguish those companies that successfully transform from those that become historical footnotes? This is the question a group of six researchers and consultants from Boston Consulting Group set out to examine. The team conducted in-depth interviews with senior executives at twenty-seven companies in different industries to explore the strategies and organizational initiatives they relied on to seize the opportunities associated with new, readily accessible digital technologies. This paper summarizes findings from this research and offers recommendations to business leaders responsible for digital business success.
The global demand for individualized products leading to decreasing production batch sizes requires innovative approaches how to organize production and logistics systems in a dynamic manner. Current material flow systems mainly rely on predefined system structures and processes, which result in a huge increase of complexity and effort for system and process changes to realize an optimized production and material provision of individualized products. Autonomous production and logistics entities in combination with intelligent products or logistic load carriers following the vision of the “Internet of Things” offer a promising solution for mastering this complexity based on autonomous, decentralized and target size-optimized decision making and structure formation without the need for predefined processes and central decision-making bodies. Customer orders are going to prioritize themselves and communicate directly with the required production and logistics resources. Bins containing the required materials are going to communicate with the conveyors or workers of the respective intralogistics system organizing and controlling the material flow to the autonomously selected workstation. A current research project is the development of a collaborative tugger train combing the potential of automation and human-robot collaboration in intralogistics. This tugger train is going to be integrated into a self organized intralogistics scenario involving individualized customer orders (low to high batch sizes). To classify the application of self-organization within intralogistics systems, a criteria catalogue has been developed. The application of this criteria catalogue will be demonstrated on the example of a self-organization scenario involving the collaborative tugger train and an intelligent bin system.
Especially, if the potential of technical and organizational measures for ergonomic workplace design is limited, exoskeletons can be considered as innovative ergonomic aids to reduce the physical workload of workers. Recent scientific findings from ergonomic analyses with and without exoskeletons are indicating that strain reduction can be achieved, particularly at workplaces with lifting, holding, and carrying processes. Currently, a work system design method is under development incorporating criteria and characteristics for the design of work systems in which a human worker is supported by an exoskeleton. Based on the properties of common passive and active exoskeletons, factors influencing the human on which an exoskeleton can have a positive or negative effect (e.g. additional weight) were derived. The method will be validated by the conceptualization and setup of several work system demonstrators at Werk150, the factory of ESB Business School on campus of Reutlingen University, to prove the positive ergonomic effect on humans and the supporting process to choose the suitable exoskeleton. The developed method and demonstrators enable the user to experience the positive ergonomic effects of exoskeletal support in lifting, holding and carrying processes in logistics and production. The new work system design method will contribute to the fact that employees can pursue their professional activity longer without substantial injuries or can be used more flexibly at different work stations. Also new work concepts, strategies and scenarios are opened up to reduce the risk of occupational accidents and to promote the compatibility of work for employees. A training module is being developed and evaluated with participants from industry and master students to build up competence.
Circular economy aims to support reuse and extends the product life cycles through repair, remanufacturing, upgrades and retrofits, as well as closing material cycles through recycling. To successfully manage the necessary transformation processes to circular economy, manufacturing enterprises rely on the competency of their employees. The definition of competency requirements for circular economy-oriented production networks will contribute to the operationalization of circular economy. The International Association of Learning Factories (IALF) statesin its mission the development of learning systems addressing these challenges for training of students and further education of industry employees. To identify the required competencies for circular economy, the major changes of the product life cycle phases have been investigated based on the state of the science and compared to the socio-technical infrastructure and thematic fields of the learning factories considered in this paper. To operationalize the circular economy approach in the product design and production phase in learning factories, an approach for a cross learning factory network (so called "Cross Learning Factory Product Production System (CLFPPS)") has been developed. The proposed CLFPPS represents a network on the design dimensions of learning factories. This approach contributes to the promotion of circular economy in learning factories as it makes use of and combines the focus areas of different learning factories. This enables the CLFPPS to offer a holistic view on the product life cycle in production networks.
Process risks are omnipresent in the corporate world and repeatedly present organizations with the challenge of how to deal with these risks. Efforts in trying to analyze and prevent these risks are costly and require many resources, which do not always bring the desired added value. The goal of this work is to determine how a benefit-oriented resource allocation can be made for risk-oriented process management. For this purpose, the following research question is posed: "How can systematic prioritization decisions regarding risk-oriented process management be made?” To answer it, an evaluation procedure is developed which assesses processes based on their characteristics regarding potential risk disposition as well as entrepreneurial relevance. For this purpose, requirements for such a procedure are first collected and used to define selection criteria for it. After the detailed analysis of known selection and evaluation procedures, one of them is selected and used for further development. Next steps include the definition of relevant criteria for the evaluation of the processes by examining process characteristics regarding their suitability for process evaluation. The focus here lies on characteristics that provide indications of the risk disposition and business relevance of processes. The result of this approach is a scoring model with a criteria catalog consisting of 15 criteria according to which a process is evaluated. The evaluation result is presented both numerically and in a matrix. This enables the comparison of several processes and a derived prioritization of those for a more in-depth risk analysis. The application of this approach will ensure a benefit-oriented allocation of resources in the management of process risks and increased process reliability.
Manufacturing companies are confronted with external (e.g. short-term change of product configuration by the customer) and internal (e.g. production process deviations) turbulences which are affecting the performance of production. Predefined, centrally controlled logistics processes are limiting the possibilities of production to initiate countermeasures to react in an optimized way to these turbulences. The autonomous control of intralogistics offers a great potential to cope with these turbulences by using the respective flexibility corridors of production systems and applying intelligent logistic objects with decentralized decision and process execution capabilities to maintain a target-optimized production. A method for AI-based storage-location- and material-handling-optimization to achieve performance-optimized intralogistics system through continuous monitoring of performance-relevant parameters and influencing factors by using AI (e.g. for pattern recognition) has been developed. To provide the basis to investigate and demonstrate the potentials of autonomously controlled intralogistics in connection with turbulences of production and in combination with AI, an intelligent warehouse involving an indoor localization system, smart bins, manual, semi-automated/collaborative and autonomous transport systems has been developed and implemented at Werk150, the factory on campus of ESB Business School (Reutlingen University). This scenario, which has been integrated into graduate training modules, allows the analysis and demonstration of different measures of intralogistics to cope with turbulences in production involving amongst others storage and material provision processes. The target fulfilment of the applied intralogistics measures to master arising turbulences is assessed based on the overall performance of production considering lead times and adherence to delivery dates. By applying artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms the intelligent logistical objects (smart bin, transport systems, etc.) as well as the entire logistics system should be enabled to improve their decision and process execution capabilities to master short-term turbulences in the production system autonomously.
Development of an IoT-based inventory management solution and training module using smart bins
(2023)
Flexibility, transparency and changeability of warehouse environments are playing an increasingly important role to achieve a cost-efficient production of small batch sizes. This results in increasing requirements for warehouses in terms of flexibility, scalability, reconfigurability and transparency of material and information flows to deal with large number of different components and variable material and information flows due to small batch sizes. Therefore, an IoT-based inventory management solution and training module has been developed, implemented and validated at Werk150 – the Factory on campus of the ESB Business School. Key elements of the developed solution are smart bins using weight mats to track the bin’s content and additional sensors and buttons which are connected to an IoT – Hub to collect data of material consumption and manual handling operations. The use of weight mats for the smart bins offers the possibility to measure the container content independent of the specific component geometry and thus for a variety of components based on the specific component weights. The developed solution enables focusing on key for success elements of the system to provide synchronization of the flow of materials and information resulting an increase of flexibility and significantly higher transparency of the material flow. AIbased algorithms are applied to analyse the gathered data and to initiate process optimizations by providing the logistics decision makers a profound and transparent basis for decision making. In order to provide students and industry visitors of the learning factory with the necessary competences and to support the transfer into practice, a training module on IoT-based inventory management was developed and implemented.
Digitalization increases the pressure for companies to innovate. While current research on digital transformation mostly focuses on technological and management aspects, less attention has been paid to organizational culture and its influence on digital innovations. The purpose of this paper is to identify the characteristics of organizational culture that foster digital innovations. Based on a systematic literature review on three scholarly databases, we initially found 778 articles that were then narrowed down to a total number of 23 relevant articles through a methodical approach. After analyzing these articles, we determine nine characteristics of organizational culture that foster digital innovations: corporate entrepreneurship, digital awareness and necessity of innovations, digital skills and resources, ecosystem orientation, employee participation, agility and organizational structures, error culture and risk-taking, internal knowledge sharing and collaboration, customer and market orientation as well as open-mindedness and willingness to learn.
Prior to the introduction of AI-based forecast models in the procurement department of an industrial retail company, we assessed the digital skills of the procurement employees and surveyed their attitudes toward a new digital technology. The aim of the survey was to ascertain important contextual factors which are likely to influence the acceptance and the successful use of the new forecast tool. What we find is that the digital skills of the employees show an intermediate level and that their attitudes toward key aspects of new digital technologies are largely positive. Thus, the conditions for high acceptance and the successful use of the models are good, as evidenced by the high intention of the procurement staff to use the models. In line with previous research, we find that the perceived usefulness of a new technology and the perceived ease of use are significant drivers of the willingness to use the new forecast tool.
By 2019, Germany-based Kärcher, “the world’s leading provider of cleaning technology,” had turned its professional cleaning devices into IoT products. The data generated by these IoT-connected cleaning devices formed a key ingredient in the company’s ongoing strategic shift in its B2B business: Kärcher was transforming from a seller of cleaning devices to a provider of consulting services in order to help professional cleaning companies improve their cleaning processes. Based on interviews with seven IT- and non-IT executives, the case illustrates how the company learned to generate value from IoT products. And it demonstrates how a family-owned company transformed its organization in order to be able to more effectively develop and provide IoT products, while adding roles, developing technology platforms, and changing organizational structures and ways of working.
In 2017, Philips' goal was to use innovation to improve the lives of three billion people a year by 2025. To achieve that, the company was shifting from selling medical products in a transactional manner to providing integrated healthcare solutions based on digital health technology. Based on our interviews with 23 executives at Philips, the case examines the two directions of the transformation required by this shift: externally, Philips worked on transforming how healthcare was conducted. Healthcare professionals would have to change the way they worked and reimbursement schemes needed to change to incentivize payers, providers, and patients in vastly different ways. Internally, Philips needed to redesign how its employees worked. The company componentized its business, introduced digital platforms, and co-created integrated solutions with the various stakeholders of the healthcare industry. In other words: Philips was transforming itself in order the reinvent healthcare in the digital age.
Digitization will require companies to fundamentally reengineer their sales processes. Adapting the concept of value selling to the digital age will enable them to deliver superior value to their customers. Specifically, social selling will provide them with an answer to the ever-increasing complexity of customer journeys. This article, based on a survey among 235 German companies, assesses the status quo and outlines opportunities. Moreover, it introduces a novel approach for developing well-grounded social selling metrics.
Recent digital technologies like the Internet of Things and Augmented Reality have brought IT into companies’ core products. What were previously purely physical products are becoming hybrid or digitized. Despite receiving a lot of recent attention, digitized products have only seen a slow uptake in businesses so far. In this paper, we study the challenges that keep companies from realizing the desired impacts of digitized products and the practices they employ to address these challenges. To do so, we looked at companies from a set of industries that are highly affected by digital transformation, but at the same time hesitant to move to a more digitized world: the creative industries. Based on a literature review and twelve interviews in creative industries, we developed a conceptual model that can serve as a basis for formulating testable hypotheses for further research in this area.
In 2016, German car manufacturer the Audi Group (AUDI AG) was working on an expanding array of digital innovations. The goals of these innovations varied, and included strengthening customer- and employee-facing processes, digitally enhancing existing products, and developing new, potentially disruptive business models. Audi’s IT unit was critical to each of these efforts. Based on personal interviews with 11 IT- and non-IT executives at Audi, this case examines the different ways in which digitization can help to enhance and transform an organization’s processes, products, and business models. The case also highlights the challenges that arise as large companies “digitize.”
Reacting to ever-changing business environments, in the last decade complex systems of systems accomplished giant leaps forward leading to great technological flexibility. However, this dimension of flexibility is often limited by the rigidity of super-ordinated planning systems. Especially when hybrid teams of automated and human resources are in place, the dynamic assignment of tasks taking into account ergonomics remains a challenge. After exposing a gap in the state of the art on the topic, this paper presents an approach to include ergonomics in dynamic resource allocation models. Combining and complementing existing approaches, the presented method monitors the actual ergonomic burden of the resources during a shift and it provides a linear optimization model to steer the resource allocation process.
Early exposure makes the entrepreneur: how economics education in school influences entrepreneurship
(2022)
Many countries that seek to boost their economy share the goal of promoting entrepreneurship. Whereas there is ample research on the predictors of entrepreneurship during adulthood, we know little about how pre-adulthood experience influences entrepreneurship later in life. Using a natural experiment, this paper examines whether introducing economics classes in school enhances entrepreneurial behavior in adulthood. Our difference-in-differences approach exploits curricula reforms across German states that introduced compulsory economics education classes in secondary schools. Using information on school and labor market careers for more than 10,000 individuals from 1984 to 2019, we find that the reform increases students’ entrepreneurial activities by three percentage points. Examining gender differences, we find that economics classes equally benefit female and male students. Our results advance our understanding of how pre-adulthood experiences shape individuals’ entrepreneurial behavior.
In its 100+ years of company history, IBM reinvented itself multiple times. In the last 20 years, IBM had shifted from individual products to integrated solutions and moved to become a globally integrated enterprise with standardized processes. In 2014, the expanding adoption of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) technologies generated excitement in the industry. IBM believed these technologies presented a huge growth opportunity. Simultaneously, management viewed SMAC technologies as disruptive forces demanding transformative changes to how IBM worked. And introducing new ways of working to 400,000 employees in 175 countries was a daunting task.
Based on personal interviews with 17 IBM business and IT executives, the case illustrates organizational challenges of introducing current technologies that even providers of these technologies face – in other words, when they “eat their own cooking.” It demonstrates the difficulties large companies face when implementing technologies that students use daily and take for granted.
Efficiency in supply chain risk management (SCRM) is a major topic in industries with serial production and a complex supply chain due to limited management and financial resources. A high number of possible risk situations and intertwined processes create a more challenging environment for resource allocation. Managers cannot perform SCRM in all possible supply chain areas and hence have to decide where available resources should be utilised for highest possible risk reduction. This makes it important to quickly and systematically evaluate input and output relationships among risk mitigation actions to determine which actions are deployed first for efficient risk level reduction. This paper introduces a new SCRM method based on the failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) in order to perform an efficiency-oriented risk action prioritisation. By considering the cost-benefit evaluation of identified risk mitigation actions for each assessed risk and by determining the implementation effort for risk mitigation actions, also considered as the cost for realising a specific risk action the method allows finding those risk and risk mitigation actions, which are most efficient for risk reduction and should be implemented first in the process of risk steering.
Die zunehmende Technologie- und Produktkomplexität führen dazu, dass sich immer mehr Unternehmen für ihre F&E mit externen Organisationen vernetzen. So entstehen interorganisationale F&E-Projekte, welche temporäre Organisationen darstellen. Forschungsfragen zu diesen Projekten sind u.a. hinsichtlich der Praktiken und Verhaltensregeln offen. Über ein kulturbewusstes Projektmanagement können kooperations- und innovationsförderliche Praktiken und Verhaltensregeln aufgebaut werden, die für diese F&E-Projekte essenziell sind. So ist die Forschungsfrage dieses Beitrags, wie ein projektkulturbewusstes Management interorganisationaler F&E-Projekte erfolgen kann. Dafür wird auf Basis der theoretischen Grundlagen zum F&E-Projektmanagement, zu menschlichen Handlungssystemen und Ebenen der Zusammenarbeit, zu Kultur und Verhalten ein projektkulturbewusstes Management-Modell entwickelt. Das Modell umfasst zwei Teile. Im ersten Teil wird der Bereich aufgezeigt, in welchem sich die Projektkultur entwickelt. Im zweiten Teil wird aufgezeigt, wie die Faktoren für ein wahrscheinlich kooperatives und innovatives Verhalten innerhalb dieses Bereiches gestaltet werden sollten.
Es wird gezeigt, wie bei Fernspeisung die Vorhersage der Erwärmung mit entsprechender Modellierung verbessert werden kann und wie der Einfluss von Material und Form des Kabelkanals die Erwärmung und das das Temperaturprofil des Bündels beeinflusst. Es wird auch vorgestellt, dass die erhöhte Erwärmung von Metallkabelkanälen auf die geringere Emissivität zurückzuführen ist und wie das verbessert werden kann.
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM) communication plays an increasingly important role in modern business. The underlying concept of word-of-mouth (WoM) communication is well researched and has proved highly significant in respect of its impact on customers purchase behavior. However, due to the advent of digital technologies, decision-making among customers is progressively shifting to the online world. Consequently, eWoM has received a lot of attention from the academic community. As multiple research papers focus on specific facets of eWoM, there is a need to integrate current research results systematically. Thus, this paper presents a scientific literature analysis in order to determine the current state-of-the-art in the field of eWoM. Five main research areas were analyzed, supporting the need for further eWoM studies and providing a structured overview of existing results.
It has been recognized that to increase the competetitiveness of international higher education institutions in the global education market, their international graduates' employability must be enhanced. The present paper investigates, from the employers' perspective, the possibilities of international graduates with domestic degrees in Russia and Germany to find jobs in the Russian and German labor market. It uses qualitative open-ended interviews at 12 companies in St. Petersburg, Russia and Germany, which are engaged with International Business activities. The investigation concentrates on the employment opportunities and barriers of international graduates from an individual, organizational and an institutional perspective.
The research highlighted the main differences and similarities in the perception of the HR managers in both countries. In the German labor market, companies have a high demand for international graduates, especially those operating internationally, highly demand international graduates, emphasizing the existence of international trainee programs and the need to reflect the diversity of their business in the diversity of their staff. In contrast, Russian companies showed a positive predisposition for international graduates but no demand. Domestic firms focus their efforts on expatriate programs and/or highly-qualified specialists rather than trainee programs to hire internationals. On the other hand, insitutional barriers exist, as well as a lack of support with regards to regulations and requirements for entering both Russian and German markets. The national language requirement was stressed as the major barrier towards hiring internationals in both countries. The investigation from an organizational point of view revealed that interviewers showed a positive predisposition towards international graduates in both countries, focusing on the graduate's skill set rather than their nationality. This research explores the opportunities and barriers and discusses the implications for students and universities.
According to a recent survey the great majority of players in logistics are planning to adopt one or more robotic solutions until 2019. Technical solutions for automation of processes in logistics are often available as a market-ready product, but the lack of standardization and skepticism towards long term investments are often the reasons why these solutions are not implemented on a large scale. This paper is set to bridge the gap between the world of technologies and the one of applications in order to help investors, robot producers and system integrators to decide on which branch of logistics to set their focus. The three main branches Courier Express Parcel (CEP), contract logistics and production logistics are briefly defined and distinguished through their characteristic factors and parameters. Then a method based on the analysis of three parameters (operative costs, required performance and flexibility) in the three branches is set to identify the most convenient branch of logistics for investing in new technologies, namely the one in which the risk of investment is lower, the return is higher and faster. The conclusion of the method shows that higher labor costs, strict regulations and higher standardization make the production logistics the most suitable branch for investments in emerging automation solutions.
Evaluation of human-robot order picking systems considering the evolution of object detection
(2022)
The automation of intralogistic processes is a major trend, but order picking, one of the core and most cost-intensive tasks in this field, remains mostly manual due to the flexibility required during picking. Reacting to its hard physical and ergonomic strain, the automation of this process is however highly relevant. Robotic picking system would enable the automation of this process from a technical point of view, but the necessity for the system to evolve in time, due to dynamics of logistic environments, faces operations with new challenges that are hardly treated in literature. This unknown scares potential investors, hindering the application of technically feasible solutions. In this paper, a model for the evaluation of the additional cost of training of automated systems during operations is presented, that also considers the savings enabled by the system after its evolution. The proposed approach, that considers different parameters such as capacity, ergonomics and cost, is validated with a case study and discussed.
Increasing flexibility, greater transparency and faster adaptability play a key role in the development of future intralogistics. Ever-changing environmental conditions require easy extensibility and modifiability of existing bin systems. This research project explores approaches to transfer the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm to intralogistics. This allows a synchronization of the material and information flow. The bin is enabled by the implementation of adequate hardware and software components to capture, store, process and forward data to selected system subscribers. Monitoring the processes in the intralogistics by means of the smart bin system ensures the implementation of appropriate actions in case of defined deviations. By using explorative expert interviews with representatives from the automotive and pharmaceutical industries, seven practical application scenarios were defined. On this basis, the requirements of smart bin systems were examined. For each individual case of application, a system model was created in order to obtain an overview of the system components and thus reveal similarities and differences. Based on the similarities of the system models, a general requirement profile was derived. After the hardware components of the bin system had been determined, a utility analysis was carried out to find the adequate IoT software. The utility analysis was conducted with a focus on data acquisition and data transfer, data storage, data analysis, data presentation as well as authorization management and data security. The results show that there is great interest in easily expandable and modifiable bin systems, as in all cases, the necessary information flow in the existing bin system has to be improved by means of new IoT hardware and software components.
In times of climate change and growing urbanization, the way food is produced and consumed also changes. Meanwhile, digitization is transforming farming practices, which also applies to the domestic growing of crops. More and more so-called smart home farms (SHF) are finding their way into private households. This paper conceptualizes the unique nature of enabled smart services and their underlying technology. Following an inductive interpretive approach, this study explores the antecedents of smart home farming practices. Our sample consists of eleven actual smart home farmers. We found six constructs to be of salient importance: expected outcomes related to harvesting, positive feelings, and sustainability; a combination of one's affinity for green and novel technologies; and the smartness and visibility of the enabled services. In the outlook, we present some preliminary thoughts for testing our qualitative findings.
The paper focuses on a recently introduced paradigm for the logistic process of picking, with respect to the man-to-goods and goods-to-man concept: the robot to-goods. First the task and system architecture of the fast deployable autonomous commissioning system are described, then the economic efficiency of the system is analysed in a real business case scenario using a simplified method, which is explained and discussed. The clearly positive net present value of the investment and the short payback period obtained in the business case prove how the robot-to-goods paradigm for the commissioning process, implemented through the automation of the forklift platform, is economically attractive for small and medium size enterprises.
The fifth mobile communications generation (5G) can lead to a substantial change in companies enabling the full capability of wireless industrial communication. 5G with its key features of providing Enhanced Mobile Broadband, Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication, and Massive Machine Type Communication will support the implementation of Industry 4.0 applications. In particular, the possibility to set-up Non-Public Networks provides the opportunity of 5G communication in factories and ensures sole access to the 5G infrastructure offering new opportunities for companies to implement innovative mobile applications. Currently there exist various concepts, ideas, and projects for 5G applications in an industrial environment. However, the global rollout of 5G systems is a continuous process based on various stages defined by the global initiative 3rd Generation Partnership Project that develops and specifies the 5G telecommunication standard. Accordingly, some services are currently still far from their final performance capability or not yet implemented. Additionally, research lacks in clarifying the general suitability of 5G regarding frequently mentioned 5G use cases. This paper aims to identify relevant 5G use cases for intralogistics and evaluates their technical requirements regarding their practical feasibility throughout the upcoming 5G specifications.
Latest advancements in new technologies have made it possible to fully automate the in-plant material flow of small load carriers between the warehouse and the production or assembly line. However, none of methods available in literature fully addresses the planning and dimensioning problem of a logistic system based on these new autonomous technologies. This paper is set to present a method to estimate the fleet size of the new logistic system. After an overview on the state of the art, the method based on combinatorics and probability theory will be explained. A short discussion and suggestions for forthcoming research will conclude the paper.
Framework for integrating intelligent product structures into a flexible manufacturing system
(2023)
Increasing individualisation of products with a high variety and shorter product lifecycles result in smaller lot sizes, increasing order numbers, and rising data and information processing for manufacturing companies. To cope with these trends, integrated management of the products and manufacturing information is necessary through a “product-driven” manufacturing system. Intelligent products that are integrated as an active element within the controlling and planning of the manufacturing process can represent flexibility advantages for the system. However, there are still challenges regarding system integration and evaluation of product intel-ligence structures. In light of these trends, this paper proposes a conceptual frame-work for defining, analysing, and evaluating intelligent products using the example of an assembly system. This paper begins with a classification of the existing problems in the assembly and a definition of the intelligence level. In contrast to previous approaches, the analysis of products is expanded to five dimensions. Based on this, a structured evaluation method for a use case is presented. The structure of solving the assembly problem is provided by the use case-specific ontology model. Results are presented in terms of an assignment of different application areas, linking the problem with the target intelligence class and, depending on the intelligence class of the product, suggesting requirements for implementation. The conceptual frame-work is evaluated by utilising a case study in a learning factory. Here, the model-mix assembly is controlled actively by the workpiece carrier in terms of transferring the variant-specific work instructions to the operator and the collaborative robot (cobot) at the workstations. The resulting system thus enables better exploitation of the poten-tials through less frequent errors and shorter search times. Such an implementation has demonstrated that the intelligent workpiece carrier represents an additional part for realising a cyber-physical production system (CPPS).
Started as a mono-line focused purely on savings, in late 2012 ING Direct Spain was becoming a full-service bank. To this end, the bank had substantially increased its product- and channel-portfolio. ING Direct Spain originally provided "simple", "good value for money" products in an "easy to deal with" way at low cost supported by a direct model. But with the growth in its product portfolio during the previous decade and the ambitious goal of becoming a full-service bank, an increase in complexity seemed inevitable. Like many businesses in the global, digital economy, ING Direct Spain found it needed to decide which complexity created value for its customers and which one not. It also learned that IT can contribute to complexity and/or help manage complexity.
This case offers a close look at challenges of growing a company by increasing product complexity to provide comprehensive yet simple services.
Im Februar 2011 wurden die Autoren von der Metropolitan School Frankfurt eingeladen, in einer vierstündigen Unterrichtseinheit die Grundlagen von systemischem Denken und System Dynamics einer vierten Klasse mit Kindern im Alter von 9 und 10 Jahren zu vermitteln. Inhaltlicher Themenschwerpunkt sollten Ökosysteme sein, die im Curriculum eine mehrwöchige Fokuslehreinheit bilden. Als Ergebnis eines Austauschs mit dem Klassenlehrer wurde der Fokus auf zwei Handlungsstränge gelegt: Räuber-Beute-Systeme sind für Viertklässler inhaltlich interessant und fügen sich passsend in die Unterrichtseinheit der Jahrgangstufe ein. Als weiteres, komplexeres Themengebiet wurd der Klimawandel gewählt. Beide Themen haben den gewünschten inhaltlichen Bezug zum Schwerpunkt "Ökosysteme".
Gamification, the use of game elements for non-gaming purposes, may just make a huge impact on education, a contribution the world in general and South Africa in particular, desperately needs. In today’s fast-paced work environment, there is not only a severe skills shortage, but also a great need for graduates with practical knowledge - students that are not purely “book smart”. Didactic teaching habits have created an education realm in which reciting facts is more often than not what gets students to pass. Learning factories are physical, operational factories that serve as exemplary and realistic hands-on learning environments and provide an important step towards more industry-prepared graduates. Top universities around the world are establishing such environments and are showing superb results. This paper explores the potential benefit of applying gamification in such a setting to enhance the learning environment even further, and provide opportunities for training otherwise difficult to teach topics, such as shop floor management.
In a recently developed study programme at Reutlingen University, which focuses on practical orientations, an innovative product with solid company references is to be defined and realised by student teams. On the basis of this product, all subjects of the business engineering study programme “Sustainable Production and Business” are taught. By focusing on three main paths of future skills that have been developed by NextSkills to analyse upcoming social changes, global challenges and fields of work that are innovation-driven and agile, the new study programme aims to create responsible leaders who will shape global businesses respectfully. Thereby, different TRIZ tools help to support students in developing their own products with a focus on sustainability and pay off on the future skills enhancement. Further, students get to know TRIZ tools in an unbiased way, unburdened by too much theory, and are thus continuously supported in the progressing product development process that accompanies their studies. Hence, students perceive TRIZ on the one hand as a method to develop sustainable products and, on the other hand, to find sustainable solutions for everyday problems. The knowledge and positive experiences gained in this way should then arouse curiosity for the TRIZ class at the end of the study programme. The students can graduate with a TRIZ Level 1 certificate. Thereby, as many students as possible are introduced to the TRIZ methods, and the TRIZ tool is spread widely.
The imparting of knowledge and skills in STEM education, especially under the influence of the Covid-19 pandemic, is increasingly taking place online and through digital formats. The partially asynchronous instruction eliminates, on the one hand, the social relation in the learning process and, on the other hand, the direct experience with physical objects. Here, the digital learning systems provide learning tools and controls to support the learning process on a general basis. Existing methods for simulating physical objects (digital twins) are also used to a minimal extent. The following approach presents a learning system framework that enables individualized learning, including all dimensions (social, physical). Implementing a concept that uses a personalized assistance system to orchestrate the individual learning steps enables efficient and effective learning. Applying the learning system framework exemplifies the STEM education at Reutlingen University in the logistics learning factory Werk150.
Rising consumption due to a growing world population and increasing prosperity, combined with a linear economic system have led to a sharp increase in garbage collection, general pollution of the environment and the threat of resource scarcity. At the same time, the perception of environmental protection becomes more sensitive as the consequences of neglecting sustainable business and eco-efficiency become more visible. The Circular Economy (CE) could reduce waste production and is able to decouple economic growth from resource consumption, but most of the products currently in use are not designed for the reuse-forms of the CE. In addition, the decision-making process of the End of-Usage (EoU) products regarding the following steps has further weaknesses in terms of economic attractiveness for the participants, which leads to low return rates and thus the disposal is often the only alternative.
This paper proposes a model of the decision-making process, which uses machine learning. For this purpose, a Machine Learning (ML) classification is created, by applying the waterfall model. An artificial neural network (ANN) uses information about the model, use phase and the obvious symptoms of the product to predict the condition of individual components. The resulting information can be used in a downstream economic and ecological evaluation to assess the possible next steps. To test this process comprehensive training data is simulated to train the ANN. The decentralized implementation, cost savings and the possibility of an incentive system for the return of an end-of-usage product could lead to increased return rates. Since electronic devices in particular are attractive for the CE, laptops are the reference object of this work. However, the obtained findings are easily applicable to other electronic devices.
Increasingly volatile market conditions and manufacturing environments combined with a rising demand for highly personalized products, the emergence of new technologies like cyber-physical systems and additive manufacturing as well as an increasing cross-linking of different entities (Industrie 4.0) will result in fundamental changes of future work and logistics systems. The place of production, the logistical network and the respective production system will underlie the requirements of constant changes and therefore sources and sinks of logistical networks have to obey the versatility of (cyber-physical) production systems. To cope with the arising complexity to control and monitor changeable production and logistics systems, decentralized control systems are the mean of choice since centralized systems are pushed to their limits in this regard. This paradigm shift will affect the overall concept under which production and logistics is planned, managed and controlled and how companies interact and collaborate within the emerging value chains by using dynamic methods to generate and execute the created network and to allocate available resources to fulfill the demand for customized products. In this field of research learning factories, like the ESB Logistics Learning Factory at ESB Business School (Reutlingen University), provide a great potential as a risk free test bed to develop new methods and technical solutions, to investigate new technologies regarding their practical use and to transfer the latest state of knowledge and specific competences into the training of students and professionals. Keeping with these guiding principles ESB Business School is transferring its existing production system into a cyber-physical production system to investigate innovative solutions for the design of human-machine collaboration and technical assistance systems as wells as to develop decentralized control methods for intralogistics systems following the requirements of changeable work systems including the respective design of dynamic inbound and outbound logistic networks.
The market for indoor positioning systems for a variety of applications has grown strongly in recent years. A wide range of systems is available, varying considerably in terms of accuracy, price and technology used. The suitability of the systems is highly dependent on the intended application. This paper presents a concept to use a single low-cost PTZ camera in combination with fiducial markers for indoor position and orientation determination. The intended use case is to capture a plant layout consisting of position, orientation and unique identity of individual facilities. Important factors to consider for the selection of a camera have been identified and the transformation of the marker pose in camera coordinates into a selectable plant coordinate system is described. The concept is illustrated by an exemplary practical implementation and its results.
Industry 4.0 predicts that industrial processes, technological infrastructure and all corresponding Business processes, with the help of information and communication technology (ICT), will advance to integrated, ad-hoc interconnected and decentralized Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) with real-time capabilities of selfoptimization and adaptability. Considering this change, the human being will remain in a dominant role, because it is not expected that the human factor with its characteristics and capabilities will be substituted entirely by autonomously acting technology in the foreseeable future. The mechanical intelligence, for instance, is limited to the selection of predefined options, while human creativity, flexibility, the ability to learn and to improve are required to design and configure systems, processes and products. Humans have the expertise and experience to analyze, assess and solve - even in exceptional situations. However, the amount of purely manual tasks for shop floor workers will decrease. Their role will change from a manually executing to a proactive preconceiving worker with increased responsibility. Due to the growing degree of digitalization and interconnectedness, also the tasks and responsibilities for planning and design personnel will continuously expand and become more complex. The work in versatile ad-hoc networks with advanced ICT-Tools and assistance systems will lead to increased requirements regarding the knowledge, capability and capacity of the respective employees. The on-going pervasion of IT and emergence of systems with unprecedented complexity specifically require significantly improved capabilities in analysis, abstraction, problem solving and decision making from future labour. Accordingly, the industry is asking for graduates that are educated interdisciplinary and practice-oriented. Some universities already meet these expectations, using learning factories for realistic, action-oriented classes and trainings. Lecturers are confronted with the challenge to identify future job profiles and correlated qualification requirements, especially regarding the conceptualization and implementation of CPPS, and to adapt and enhance their education concepts and methods adequately and consequently. For the new, virtual world of manufacturing a proper understanding of engineering as well as Computer sciences is essential. Industry 4.0 implies this interdisciplinary split. Integrated competencies for product and process planning and design, methodological competencies for systematical idea and innovation management as well as a holistic system and Interface competence will be crucial to achieve interconnection of physical and digital processes and machines. The Vienna University of Technology and the ESB Reutlingen committed to integrate key aspects of Industry 4.0 into their respective learning factories successively. Thus, the students will act as the coordinators of the CPPS and thereby remain in the center of all learning and implementation activities.
The German automotive industry succeeds by technological leadership. Several circumstances like politics of global warming or increased global competition force the whole industry to break new ground for new kinds of collaborative research and development. ARENA2036 represents such a new cooperation form that hosts diverse scientific and industrial partners in one campus in order to research innovative production and light-weight construction topics. The diversity of the partners in ARENA2036 challenges the new product development process (NPDP). In this case study the individual processes of the partners are analysed and a NPDP system is developed. The analysis bases on interviews covering all partners. The NPDP system supports the needs of the interdisciplinary and cross-company partners. It is characterized by a layered structure in order to preserve flexibility for research topics combined with institutionalized parts to manage interfaces. The final NPDP system is evaluated by the partners.
Because of a high product and technology complexity, companies involve external partners in their research and development (R&D) processes. Interorganizational projects result, which represent temporary organizations. In these projects heterogenous organizations work closely together. Since project work is always teamwork, these projects face due to their characteristic’s major challenges on an organizational, relational, and content-related collaboration level. Thus, this paper raises the following research question: “How can a project team be supported on an organizational, relational, and content-related level in an interorganizational new product development setting?” To answer this research question, an explorative expert study was set up with two digital workshops using the interactive presentation tool Mentimeter. The results show that a cooperative innovation culture could support project teams on an organizational and relational level in the future in minimizing predominant problems. Moreover, it supports project teams for example in a functional communication. Furthermore, 18 values of a cooperative innovation culture result which are for example openness and transparency, risk and failure tolerance or respect. On a content-related level the results show that an adaptable tool which promotes creativity and collaboration method as well as content-related input support could be beneficial for problem-solving in an interorganizational new product development setting in the future. Because the tool can guide product developers through the process with suitable creativity and collaboration methods, can give content-related input and can enable interactive interchange on a table-top. Future research could mainly focus on the connection of the cooperative innovation culture and the tool since these potentially influence each other.
This paper takes a holistic view on an IP-traceability process in interorganizational R&D projects, as a particular Open innovation mode, aiming at showing different technologies which can be used in the front and backend of a traceability process and discussing these technologies in terms of their suitability for data from creativity processes in these projects. To achieve this goal a two-stage literature review on different technologies in the context of traceability was conducted. Then, criteria were derived from the characteristics of data from creativity processes and of interorganizational R&D projects, with which the resulting technologies were discussed. At the end, recommendations regarding suitable technologies for tracing individual creativity artifacts in interorganizational R&D projects were given.
Executive education in IS is under the scrutiny of many institution for the potential to bring in financial revenues. However teaching executives can be a very challenging task because of the previous experiences, variation in their previous education, and multiplicity of motivations for pursuing a continuous education. The panel aims at sharing successful experiences and highlighting challenges of dealing with executive audiences. The panel will present the results of a large survey among executive students and identify the three most significant elements emerged from the survey: the importance of theory that is actionable, the importance of varied pedagogical tools and practices, and the importance of relevance beyond practical tools. Based on a survey that will be distributed to the audience at the beginning of the panel, the audience will be actively engaged in sharing their experiences on the three topics aiming at capitalize and sum up the collective knowledge of the room.
Die Wahl einer Klinik ist typischerweise dem stellvertretenden Kaufverhalten zuzuordnen – Kunden suchen vertrauenswürdige, persönliche Quellen zur Unterstützung der Entscheidung. Weiterempfehlungsverhalten kann durch Anreize unterstützt werden – grundlegende Voraussetzung für ehrliche Weiterempfehlung ist jedoch Kundenzufriedenheit. Kundenzufriedenheit entsteht durch den Abgleich zwischen erwarteter und empfundener Leistung – das erwartete Leistungsniveau wird häufig durch Unternehmen anderer Branchen determiniert. Individuen sind nicht in der Lage, die Bestandteile einer Erfahrung isoliert zu bewerten, sondern vermengen sie (Halo-Effekt) - Inkonsistenzen führen zu einer Abwertung der Gesamterfahrung. Darum ist im ersten Schritt die Identifikation der Gesamterfahrung (Kundenreise) erforderlich – diese beginnt vor und endet nach der unmittelbaren Interaktion des Kunden mit dem Unternehmen / der Klinik. Im zweiten Schritt sind die Zufriedenheitstreiber und die Interdependenzen zwischen den Einzelerfahrungen zu ermitteln um dann die Optimierung der Kundenreise zu planen und umzusetzen.
The use of digital, IT-based components in physical products is becoming increasingly relevant in practice. Surprisingly, the strategic impact of these "digitized products" has not received a lot of attention in IS research so far. Extant papers on the topic rely on ambiguous terminology (e.g., "smart products", "cyber-physical systems", "digital product-service systems") and underlying concepts differ widely. Based on an extensive literature review, this article provides an overview of the different terms and identifies five conceptual elements that form the building blocks of digitized products in research: "hybridity" (i.e., the combination of digital and physical components), connectivity, smartness, digitized product-service bundles (servitization of digitized products), and digitized product ecosystems. The implication for practitioners is that each element comes with different managerial challenges that companies need to address when incorporating the respective element in their products. The research implication is that each conceptual element is supported by different theoretical streams.
The dawn of the 21st Century has witnessed a tremendous increase in trade pacts among nations, resulting in renewed hopes for sustainable enterprise development in emerging economies worldwide. Ghana and other sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries have signed onto several North-South and South-South free trade agreements with the hope of strengthening their presence in the international trade arena, and to promote economic growth in SSA. For over two decades, however, very little has changed, and many have dashed their high hopes as enterprises continue to struggle in SSA. Not even the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) could renew the hopes of sceptics. Several studies opined that enterprises in SSA could improve their domestic and international competitiveness by establishing mutually beneficial partnerships with their counterparts from the Global North and South. This study delved into the issues that affect North-South and South-South business collaborations and recommends key success factors that could help promote mutually beneficial cross-border business partnerships. The research includes both literature and empirical information on the key success factors of business partnerships between African enterprises as well as between African enterprises and firms from the Global North. We approached the study qualitatively using a phenomenological research design. Research participants included important stakeholders in Africa and Europe's international trade and sustainable enterprise development ecosystem. The study identified several challenges with the current business collaborations and recommended new ways of making such partnerships more beneficial.
System- und Schnittstellenbeherrschung, Ideen- und Innovationsmanagement sowie die virtuell integrierte Produkt- und Prozessplanung sind zu entwickelnde Kompetenzen, die der veränderten Rolle des Menschen in der Industrie 4.0 Rechnung tragen. Dezidiert adressiert werden können diese in zukunftsweisend ausgerüsteten Lernfabriken.
Die Automobilindustrie sieht sich seit Jahren rasant verändernden Markt-, Umwelt- und Wettbewerbsbedingungen ausgesetzt. Der Entwicklungsprozess in der Automobilindustrie wird dadurch zunehmend komplexer. Die Einbeziehung neuer Partner aus anderen Industriebereichen und der Wissenschaft stellt hierbei ein großes Innovationspotential dar, insbesondere Systeminnovationen können hierdurch gefördert werden. Die Herausforderungen solch interdisziplinärer, interorganisationaler Entwicklungsprojekte können nur im geeigneten Umfeld gemeistert werden. In der Literatur als auch in der Industrie lassen sich zahlreiche Kooperationsmodelle identifizieren. Die Eignung dieser Modelle für die interdisziplinäre, interorganisationale Entwicklung in der Automobilindustrie wird anhand geeigneter Kriterien bewertet. Abschließend werden die Ergebnisse der Analyse empirisch überprüft und für den praktischen Fall der ARENA2036 angewendet.
Powered by e-commerce and vital in the manufacturing industry, intralogistics became an increasingly important and labour-intensive process. In highly standardized automation-friendly environments, such as the automotive sector, most of efficiently automatable intralogistics tasks have already been automated. Due to aging population in EU and ergonomic regulations, the urge to automate intralogistics tasks became consistent also where product and process standardization is lower. That is the case of the production line or cell material supply process, where an increasing number of product variants and individually customized products combined with the necessary ability of reacting to changes in market conditions led to smaller and more frequent replenishment to the points of use in the production plant and to the chaotic addition of production cells in shop floor layout. This led in turn to inevitable traffic growth with unforeseeable related delays and increased level of safety threats and accidents. In this paper, we use the structured approach of the Quality Interaction Function Deployment to analyse the process of supply of assembly lines, seeking the most efficient combination of automation and manual labour, satisfying all stakeholders´ requirements. Results are presented and discussed.
Learning factories on demand
(2021)
Learning Factories are research and learning environments that demonstrate new concepts and technologies for the industry in a practical environment. The interaction between physical and virtual components is a central aspect. The mediation and presentation usually occur directly in the learning factory and are thus limited in time and concerning the user group. A learning factory- on-demand- can be provided by dividing and virtualizing the individual components via containers and microservices. This enables both local operation and operation hybrid cloud or cloud systems. Physical components can be mapped either through standardized interfaces or suitable emulators. Using the example of the Learning Factory at Reutlingen University (Werk150), it will be shown how different use cases can be made available utilizing software-based orchestration, thus promoting broader and more independent teaching.