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In an increasingly changing market environment, the long-term survival of companies depends on their ability to reduce latencies in adapting to new market conditions. One strategy to meet this challenge is the anchoring of data-driven decision making, which leads to an increasing use of advanced information technologies and, subsequently, to an increase in the amount of data stored. The complexity of processing these data spurred the demand for advanced statistical methods and functions called Business Analytics. Companies are, despite all promised benefits, overwhelmed with the implementation of Business Analytics as indicated by a failure rate of 65 to 80 %. This paper provides an empirically validated, multi-dimensional model that takes an integrative look at critical success factors for the implementation
of Business Analytics and based on which management recommendations can be generated. For this purpose, constructs of the model are conceptualized, before a structural equation model is developed. This model is then validated with data from 69 industrial partners in the food industry. It is shown amongst others, that the three success factors top management support, IT infrastructure and system quality are pivotal to increase the company performance.
The topics Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 increasingly lead to the fact that the customer is increasingly focused on manufacturing companies. He wants to know delivery date of the product, wants to make changes at short notice, get an individualized product and much more. Technologically, these requirements have already been met, but the structures within the company as well as the operational processes are not yet or only partially prepared to cope with the increasing complexity and dynamics of production. This leads to many deviations with which the production controller must deal, whether they are complex or trivial.
In order to counteract the increasing number and frequency of deviation situations which are currently encountered with complex manual interventions, it is necessary to systematically evaluate deviations and then to allocate them a dominant reaction strategy (manual, partially automated, automated) from which a suitable reaction measure can be derived. This relieves the production controller, since assistance systems partially eliminate deviations independently.
As a result, the production controller gets more time to deal with the cause of deviations so that a new occurrence of deviations can be avoided and the number of deviations can be reduced sustainably. The following paper provides a solution for the assessment of deviations. In addition, it includes differentiation logic to allocate one of the three different reaction strategies to the identified deviation.
Eine wesentliche Bedingung zur Optimierung der Wertschöpfungsprozesse ist die Transparenz über die leistungsbestimmenden Faktoren eines Unternehmens. Die Ermittlung dieser Faktoren stellt für viele Industriebetriebe eine Herausforderung dar. Im Rahmen der Veröffentlichung wird daher eine Vorgehensweise zur systematischen Identifikation von Einflussfaktoren der Unternehmenskennzahlen vorgestellt, welche die Grundlage zur Ableitung von individuellen Stellhebeln zur Steigerung der Unternehmensleistungsfähigkeit darstellt.
Auf Basis einer systematischen Literaturanalyse wurden insgesamt 11 Kennzahlen identifiziert, welche die Grundlage zur Beschreibung der operativen Leistungsfähigkeit von Unternehmen bilden. Die Kennzahlen wurden in die vier Leistungsdimensionen Effizienz, Qualität, Zeit und Flexibilität eingeteilt.
Systematization models for taylor-made sensor system applications and sensor data fit in production
(2015)
Industrial digitalization to realize smart factories is driven by an informatory base of high-resolution data provided by sensor systems on the shop-floor level. The challenge of technical availability of fitting measurement solutions nowadays turns in a struggle of finding the optimal solution for a specific task in an ever-growing sensor market. This paper analyzes and specifies necessary models to systematically derive and describe organizational, technical and informatory requirements for sensor system applications increasing the technological fit for faster integration and lower misinvestment rates.
Companies operate in an increasingly volatile environment where different developments like shorter product lifecycles, the demand for customized products and globalization increase the complexity and interconnectivity in supply chains. Current events like Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic or the blockade of the Suez canal have caused major disruptions in supply chains. This demonstrates that many companies are insufficiently prepared for disruptions. As disruptions in supply chains are expected to occur even more frequently in the future, the need for sufficient preparation increases. Increasing resilience provides one way of dealing with disruptions. Resilience can be understood as the ability of a system to cope with disruptions and to ensure the competitiveness of a company. In particular, it enables the preparation for unexpected disruptions. The level of resilience is thereby significantly influenced by actions initiated prior to a disruption. Although companies recognize the need to increase their resilience, it is not systematically implemented. One major challenge is the multidimensionality and complexity of the resilience construct. To systematically design resilience an understanding of the components of resilience is required. However, a common understanding of constituent parts of resilience is currently lacking. This paper, therefore, proposes a general framework for structuring resilience by decomposing the multidimensional concept into its individual components. The framework contributes to an understanding of the interrelationships between the individual components and identifies resilience principles as target directions for the design of resilience. It thus sets the basis for a qualitative assessment of resilience and enables the analysis of resilience-building measures in terms of their impact on resilience. Moreover, an approach for applying the framework to different contexts is presented and then used to detail the framework for the context of procurement.
Pricing for Smart-Product-Service-Systems in Subscription Business Models for Production Industries
(2021)
In the production industry, subscription business models have the potential to create long-term relationships where a supplier provides a continuous value-oriented service to a customer based on digitalisation. Monetising this increase in value through pricing represents a central challenge for suppliers in subscription business. Unlike the current dominant transactional business, the focus of pricing is on the value-in-use of the customer (e.g. on the increase in output for the customer). In this regard, there is so far no pricing approach for practice that allows the linking of the performance data of the customer with the periodically charged price. However, in subscription businesses, such an approach is required to create win-win situations for the customer and supplier through continuous performance improvement. Therefore, this paper develops a novel process model for pricing of smart-product-service-systems in subscription business for production industries. This process can serve as basis for suppliers of subscriptions in the production industry to align pricing with the created value-in-use. In the long term, this allows companies to systematically develop their pricing to monetise the potential of digitalisation.
Industrial practice shows a strong trend towards digitalization. It is not only economic crises, such as those triggered by Covid-19, that are reinforcing this trend. It is also the entrepreneurial urge to fulfill customer wishes in the best possible way and to adapt to new requirements as quickly as possible. Due to the advancing digitalization, the role of business application systems in manufacturing companies is therefore becoming increasingly important. The data processed in IT-Systems represent a great potential, especially for the evaluation of change requests in production. Through efficient change management, companies can record and process changes quickly. However, the necessary data basis to decide on existing change requests is still hardly used. Existing IT-Systems for change management coordinate the processing of change requests, but do not relate to data of operational application systems such as Enterprise-Resource-Planning. Therefore, a conceptual approach is required for the evaluation of change requests. This approach is based on an objective recording system that enables the transformation from the change description to an evaluation space. The paper presents an approach for the systematic transfer of requirement characteristics into the world of operational IT-Systems.
Störungen und Änderungen des Produktionssystems führen zu Kosten und Aufwänden, bieten jedoch auch die Chance zur kontinuierlichen Verbesserung.
Um Änderungsanfragen zu erfassen, können etablierte Ansätze genutzt werden. Diese vernachlässigen jedoch die Anforderungen, denen sich ein Produktionssystem im Zeitalter der Digitalisierung ausgesetzt sieht. Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt einen Ansatz zur standardisierten Erfassung von Änderungsanfragen vor, welcher die Ausgangsbasis für die Bewertung von Änderungsanfragen in bestehenden IT-Systemen bietet.
With the development of publicly accessible broker systems within the last decade, the complexity of data-driven ecosystems is expected to become manageable for self-managed digitalisation. Having identified event-driven IT-architectures as a suitable solution for the architectural requirements of Industry 4.0, the producing industry is now offered a relevant alternative to prominent third-party ecosystems. Although the technical components are readily available, the realisation of an event-driven IT-architecture in production is often hindered by a lack of reference projects, and hence uncertainty about its success and risks. The research institute FIR and IT-expert synyx are thus developing an event-driven IT-architecture in the Center Smart Logistics' producing factory, which is designed to be a multi-agent testbed for members of the cluster. With the experience gained in industrial projects, a target IT-architecture was conceptualised that proposes a solution for a self-managed data-ecosystem based on open-source technologies. With the iterative integration of factory-relevant Industry 4.0 use cases, the target is continuously realised and validated. The paper presents the developed solution for a self-managed event-driven IT-architecture and presents the implications of the decisions made. Furthermore, the progress of two use cases, namely an IT-OT-integration and a smart product demonstrator for the research project BlueSAM, are presented to highlight the iterative technical implementability and merits, enabled by the architecture.
The almost boundless possibilities of realizing saving potentials and innovations drive manufacturing companies to implement Business Analytics as part of the digitalization roadmap. The increasing research within the field of algorithm design and the wide range of user-friendly tools simplify generating first insights from data also for non-professionals. However, small and medium sized companies struggle implementing Business Analytics company-wide due to the lack of competencies. Especially the customization of a multitude of analytic methods in order to match a superordinate, business-relevant question is not done easily. This paper enables researchers as well as practitioners to close the gap between business relevant questions and algorithms. From a practical point of view, this paper helps shortening the search time for a suitable algorithm. Out of a research perspective, it aims to help positioning new algorithms within a structured framework in order to enhance the communication of algorithms’ capabilities.
Companies in the manufacturing sector are confronted with an increasingly dynamic environment. Thus, corporate processes and, consequently, the supporting IT landscape must change. This need is not yet fully met in the development of information systems. While best-of-breed approaches are available, monolithic systems that no longer meet the manufacturing industry's requirements are still prevalent in practical use. A modular structure of IT landscapes could combine the advantages of individual and standard information systems and meet the need for adaptability. At present, however, there is no established standard for the modular design of IT landscapes in the field of manufacturing companies' information systems. This paper presents different ways of the modular design of IT landscapes and information systems and analyzes their objects of modularization. For this purpose, a systematic literature research is carried out in the subject area of software and modularization. Starting from the V-model as a reference model, a framework for different levels of modularization was developed by identifying that most scientific approaches carry out modularization at the data structure-based and source code-based levels. Only a few sources address the consideration of modularization at the level of the software environment-based and software function-based level. In particular, no domain-specific application of these levels of modularization, e.g., for manufacturing, was identified. (Literature base: https://epub.fir.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2704)
Due to shorter product life cycles and the increasing internationalization of competition, companies are confronted with increasing complexity in supply chain management. Event-based systems are used to reduce this complexity and to support employees' decisions. Such event-based systems include tracking & tracing systems on the one hand and supply chain event management on the other. Tracking & tracing systems only have the functions of monitoring and reporting deviations, whereas supply chain event management systems also function as simulation, control, and measurement. The central element connecting these systems is the event. It forms the information basis for mapping and matching the process sequences in the event-based systems. The events received from the supply chain partner form the basis for all downstream steps and must, therefore, contain the correct data. Since the data quality is insufficient in numerous use cases and incorrect data in supply chain event management is not considered in the literature, this paper deals with the description and typification of incorrect event data. Based on a systematic literature review, typical sources of errors in the acquisition and transmission of event data are discussed. The results are then applied to event data so that a typification of incorrect event types is possible. The results help to significantly improve event-based systems for use in practice by preventing incorrect reactions through the detection of incorrect event data.
Based on the increasingly complex value creation networks, more and more event-based systems are being used for decision support. One example of a category of event-based systems is supply chain event management. The aim is to enable the best possible reaction to critical exceptional events based on event data. The central element is the event, which represents the information basis for mapping and matching the process flows in the event-based systems. However, since the data quality is insufficient in numerous application cases and the identification of incorrect data in supply chain event management is considered in the literature, this paper deals with the theoretical derivation of the necessary data attributes for the identification of incorrect event data. In particular, the types of errors that require complex identification strategies are considered. Accordingly, the relevant existing error types of event data are specified in subtypes in this paper. Subsequently, the necessary information requirements and information available regarding identification are considered using a GAP analysis. Based on this gap, the necessary data attributes can then be derived. Finally, an approach is presented that enables the generation of the complete data set. This serves as a basis for the recognition and filtering out of erroneous events in contrast to standard and exception events.
Organizations, of all sizes, in every domain and in all geographies, are facing growing challenges to comprehend the scope of social media based technologies for their internal process use and for their networks. To assist the CIO’s and executives, FIR has developed a tool based framework to evaluate the impact of social web based collaborative technologies to support knowledge intensive processes. The FSI framework extends organizational spectrum to three categories of Formal, Semi-formal and Informal. The FSI tool places the emphasis on both business process and IT level.
The FSI framework and approach are validated in conjunction with industrial and research clients as test cases. Initial finding, reflected in this article, show a dire mismatch between the process exploitable potential level and organizational ICT profile. At the end, a set of recommendations are included for the organizational management to consider for organizational transformation.
Die Dezentralität ist einer der bedeutsamsten Aspekte der Blockchain-Technologie. Dennoch gibt es große Unterschiede in der Dezentralität verschiedener Blockchain-Applikationen. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, eine strukturelle und funktionelle Durchdringung des Aspekts der Dezentralität zu erreichen und Eigenschaften zu finden, die es ermöglichen verschiedene Blockchain-Applikationen in ihrer Dezentralität zu differenzieren. Der vorliegende Beitrag legt dar, dass die Datenverteilung und die Zugangsberechtigungen (Lese- und Schreibzugang) entscheidende Eigenschaften für die Dezentralität der Blockchain Applikationen sind. Diese Eigenschaften werden mithilfe eine morphologische Analyse untersucht und es wird ein detaillierter Überblick über die verschiedenen Ausprägungen der genannten Eigenschaften und der Auswirkungen auf die Dezentralität gegeben.
Blockchain as Middleware+
(2019)
In supporting decision making of manufacturing companies, the added value of cross-domain data exchange for aggregating information is well established in enterprise organization research and is represented, for example, in the reference model “Internet of Production” (IoP). Currently, there is little research regarding the role of Blockchain technology in such a reference model and how specifically the IoP needs to be expanded to address cross-company data exchange. This paper presents a proposal for such an extension to outline the use of Blockchain technology and to elaborate the open research demands for implementation. In particular, desk research and the development of concrete use cases for cross-company data exchange between business application systems were carried out. The results are, on the one hand, extending the IoP by a third dimension, which corresponds to the supply chain, and, on the other hand clarification of the role Blockchain technology can take in this context.
This paper won the John Burbidge Best Paper Award (see Attachment 2).
This paper contributes to an assessment framework for valuing data as an asset. Particularly industrial manufacturers developing and delivering Smart Product Service Systems (Smart PSS) are comprehensively depended on the business value derived by processing data. However, there is a lack in a framework for capturing and comparing the Smart PSS data value with the purpose of increasing the accountability of data initiatives. Therefore a qualitative data value assessment approach was developed and specified on Smart PSS, based on an industrial case study research. [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-57997-5_39]
Manufacturing companies are constantly increasing their efforts in the subscription business, also known as product-as-a-service business, offering usage and outcome based solutions (value-in-use) instead of transactional services and products (value-in-exchange). Customers are becoming contractual subscribers of the solution in return for recurring, performance-related payments. To address arising, inevitable challenges like (1) reducing customer churn, (2) increasing usage intensity and outcome quality, (3) ensuring the adoption of product and software releases as well as (4) fostering customer loyalty, leading manufacturing companies are setting up a new organizational, customer-facing unit, called Customer Success Management (CSM). This unit has its origins in the software-as-a-service business, operating next to established entities like sales, key account management and customer service. Since there are currently no holistic models for an end-to-end description of CSM-tasks in the manufacturing industry, this paper contributes to a taskoriented reference model, using a grounded theory approach, examining both manufacturing and software companies. Containing a reference framework with 8 main tasks, 17 basic tasks and 76 elementary tasks, the reference model supports manufacturing companies in adapting and customizing a company-specific CSM concept.
Competitive differentiation in the manufacturing sector is no longer based on product and service innovations alone but on the ability to monetize the usage phase of products and services. To this end, manufacturers are increasingly looking at so-called subscription business models as a way of supplementing the traditional sale of products and services. Since supplier success in the subscription business is directly dependent on customer success, the setup and expansion of a so-called Customer Success Management (CSM) is required. While CSM has already been established in the software industry for several years, companies in the manufacturing sector are often still in the conceptual phase of a CSM, parallel to the setup and expansion of their subscription business. Therefore, this paper aims to support the set-up of a CSM by providing a reference data model, based on case study research, that can be used to support the organizational or daily CSM tasks and to serve as a blueprint for conceptualizing CSM-specific IT systems.