Autor: Christoph S. Zoller

The VIRAMM research project is developing and prototyping a VR-based training concept for the integration of collaborative robots (cobots) in assembly-oriented U-cells. Since the benefits of cobots depend heavily on process, layout, and role integration, VIRAMM addresses the previously lacking consistent scenario design for variant comparisons with Key Performance Indicator (KPI)-based evaluation.

The ongoing automation of production logistics through driverless transport systems (DTS) can significantly enhance the efficiency and quality of transport processes. Despite these advantages, many companies still choose manual tugger train systems for material supply. Semi-structured interviews with industry experts provide insight into the reasons behind these decisions, with particular emphasis factors that extend beyond purely economic assessment. The findings indicate that the lack of flexibility of driverless transport systems and the effort required for implementation effort are key reasons why manual transport solutions are often preferred in intralogistics.

Learning factories offer the possibility to plan, execute and analyze the knowledge imparted in theory on realistic industrial systems. This article analyzes the potential of developing and operating a learning factory in a virtual environment. For this purpose, institutions with learning factories are surveyed regarding the challenges and desires in the operation of learning factories and the mentioned aspects are discussed with regard to their representability in Virtual Reality. The result shows that Virtual Reality positively influences a large part of the aspects and has a high potential to solve current challenges in the establishment and operation of learning factories.

In the past few years importance of strategic management increased. Although enterprises invest into the development of strategies, many strategy processes fail in implementation. Today an important factor of influence is respected intuitively only: The level of detail of strategy. This article introduces an industry-proved tool, which determines the right level of detail for a successful strategy-implementation. Furthermore it allows a monitoring of strategy formulation and implementation-situation.

The necessity to gain detailed knowledge about existing business processes is increasing continuously along with the complexity of the supply networks. The centre of the approach is therefore the modelling of inter-company business processes. Starting from the current requirements of the industry, the article describes a modelling method, which satisfies these demands while considering the supply feasibility. The presented modelling method is specified in the context of inter-company process controlling. Keywords: