Refine
Document Type
- Journal article (25) (remove)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (25)
Institute
- ESB Business School (25)
Publisher
- Elsevier (9)
- Hanser (6)
- De Gruyter (5)
- Inderscience Enterprises (1)
- LIT Verlag (1)
- MDPI (1)
- SAIIE (1)
- Taylor & Francis (1)
Digitalization changes the manufacturing dramatically. In regard of employees’ demands, global trends and the technological vision of future factories, automotive manufacturing faces a huge number of diverse challenges. Currently, research focuses on technological aspects of future factories in terms of digitalization. New ways of work and new organizational models for future factories have not been described yet. There are assumptions on how to develop the organization of work in a future factory but up to now, literature shows deficits in scientifically substantiated answers in this research area. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to present an approach on a work organization design for automotive Industry 4.0 manufacturing. Future requirements were analyzed and deducted to criteria that determine future agile organization design. These criteria were then transformed into functional mechanisms, which define the approach for shopfloor organization design
Global trade is plagued by slow and inefficient manual processes associated with physical documents. Firms are constantly looking for new ways to improve transparency and increase the resilience of their supply chains. This can be solved by the digitalisation of supply chains and the automation of document- and information-sharing processes. Blockchain is touted as a solution to these issues due to its unique combination of features, such as immutability, decentralisation and transparency. A lack of business cases that quantify the costs and benefits causes uncertainty regarding the truth of these claims. This paper explores how the costs and benefits of a blockchain-based solution for digitalising and automating documentation flows in cross-border supply chains compare to a conventional centralised relational database solution. The research described in this paper uses primary data collected through semi-structured interviews with industry experts, as well as secondary data from literature. Two models based on existing services were developed and the costs and benefits compared and then analysed using the Architecture Trade-off Analysis Method (ATAM) and the Analytic Network Process (ANP). Findings from the analysis show that a consortium blockchain solution like TradeLens is the favourable solution for digitalising and automating information flows in cross-border supply chains.
Zukünftige Montagearbeitsplätze müssen veränderten Herausforderungen, wie z. B. der zunehmenden Anzahl von Mensch Roboter-Kollaborationen, gerecht werden. Die Virtual Reality (VR)-Technik bietet im Rahmen der Arbeitsplatzgestaltung neue Möglichkeiten, diesen veränderten Planungsherausforderungen gerecht zu werden. Die Ausarbeitung stellt eine Methode zur Bewertung des sinnvollen Einsatzes der VR-Technik für einen spezifischen Arbeitsplatz vor. Außerdem wird aufgezeigt, wie die VR-Technik in den Prozess der Arbeitsplatzgestaltung integriert werden kann.
Supply chains have evolved into dynamic, interconnected supply networks, which increases the complexity of achieving end-to-end traceability of object flows and their experienced events. With its capability of ensuring a secure, transparent, and immutable environment without relying on a trusted third party, the emerging blockchain technology shows strong potential to enable end-to-end traceability in such complex multitiered supply networks. This paper aims to overcome the limitations of existing blockchain-based traceability architectures regarding their object-related event mapping ability, which involves mapping the creation and deletion of objects, their aggregation and disaggregation, transformation, and transaction, in one holistic architecture. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel ‘blueprint-based’ token concept, which allows clients to group tokens into different types, where tokens of the same type are non-fungible. Furthermore, blueprints can include minting conditions, which, for example, are necessary when mapping assembly processes. In addition, the token concept contains logic for reflecting all conducted object-related events in an integrated token history. Finally, for validation purposes, this article implements the architecture’s components in code and proves its applicability based on the Ethereum blockchain. As a result, the proposed blockchain-based traceability architecture covers all object-related supply chain events and proves its general-purpose end-to-end traceability capabilities of object flows.
Mobile assistance systems (MAS) promise to overcome personnel shortages in operating theatres worldwide. A literature review inspired by the PRISMA 2020 method determines the state of the art of MAS, and identifies a lack of application areas for MAS in the operating theatre. Interviews with subject-matter experts aim to investigate application areas for MAS. The results show that most operational tasks refer to material management and patient management. MAS, with their potential to reduce the time needed for material and patient management, and the physical and mental strain of patient management, have great potential in the operating theatre.
Der Einsatz von Data Science in der Produktion ermöglicht eine neue Art der Optimierung von Prozessen und Systemen. Die Bedeutung der datengetriebenen Produktionsoptimierung wächst zunehmend im produzierenden Gewerbe. Im Gegensatz zu konventionellen Ansätzen, wie z. B. die des Lean Managements, basiert dieser anhaltende Trend auf der steigenden Verfügbarkeit von Daten im Zuge der digitalen Transformation. Vor allem kleine und mittlere Unternehmen stehen vor der Herausforderung abzuwägen, welche Maßnahmen hierfür ergriffen werden sollten und welche Nutzenpotenziale sich daraus ergeben. Diese Arbeit stellt einen strukturierten Leitfaden zur Vorgehensweise bei Datenanalyseprojekten bezogen auf einen spezifischen Anwendungsfall im Kontext einer frühen Fehlerdetektion und -prävention dar.
In the context of Industry 4.0, intralogistics faces an increasingly complex and dynamic environment driven by a high level of product customisation and complex manufacturing processes. One approach to deal with these changing conditions is the decentralised and intelligent connectivity of intralogistics systems. However, wireless connectivity presents a major challenge in the industry due to strict requirements such as safety and real-time data transmission. In this context, the fifth generation of mobile communications (5G) is a promising technology to meet the requirements of safety-critical applications. Particularly, since 5G offers the possibility of establishing private 5G networks, also referred to as standalone non-public networks. Through their isolation from public networks, private 5G networks provide exclusive coverage for private organisations offering them high intrinsic network control and data security. However, 5G is still under development and is being gradually introduced in a continuous release process. This process lacks transparency regarding the performance of 5G in individual releases, complicating the successful adoption of 5G as an industrial communication. Additionally, the evaluation of 5G against the specified target performance is insufficient due to the impact of the environment and external interfering factors on 5G in the industrial environment. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a technical decision-support framework that takes a holistic approach to evaluate the practicality of 5G for intralogistics use cases by considering two fundamental stages. The first of these analyses technical parameters and characteristics of the use case to evaluate the theoretical feasibility of 5G. The second stage investigates the application's environment, which substantially impacts the practicality of 5G, for instance, the influence of surrounding materials. Finally, a case study validates the proposed framework by means of an autonomous mobile robot. As a result, the validation proves the proposed framework's applicability and shows the practicality of the autonomous mobile robot, when integrating it into a private 5G network testbed.
Der Digitale Zwilling ist ein Technologie-Trendthema mit großen Potenzialen in einer Vielzahl von Anwendungsbereichen – insbesondere für produzierende Unternehmen. Eine Studie des Reutlinger Zentrums Industrie 4.0 beschäftigt sich mit heutigen und zukünftigen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten von Digitalen Zwillingen und gibt Impulse für eine schrittweise Implementierung im Unternehmen.
The purpose of this paper sought to develop a collaborative framework that provides wine bottling facilities, wine cellars and their direct supply chain partner guidelines to facilitate a collaborative partnership – aiming to aid responsive decision making and improve reliability. The framework was developed using a triangulation approach, consisting of an in-depth literature review, 14 semi-structured interviews with industry experts and a theoretical case study. The developed framework was presented to wine bottling facilities and their supply chain stakeholders. Indication are that the proposed wine industry collaborative framework should enhance supply chain collaboration and will contribute towards the guidance and facilitation in developing collaboration platforms to align supply chain operations, while improving bottling responsiveness and meeting demand requirements.
What does the factory of tomorrow have to offer for companies? This question and its aspects are the focus of many actual articles and publications. According to Gartner digital twins, one of 2017 strategic technology trends will play a big role for the future of manufacturing. At the moment digital twins are gaining more importance for the industrial application. If companies want to be competitive in the future they have to implement the digital twin in the factories of today. Therefore this paper provides a basic overview of the concept of the smart factory and its requirements. In addition, digital twins are identified as a necessary concept for the evolution of the factory of today.