Design

Every day there are cyber attacks in the industrial sector − only the most spectacular incidents make the headlines. Like the attack on the automotive supplier Continental last summer or on the commercial vehicle supplier SAF-Holland in March this year. The financial damage caused by such attacks and the loss of trust among customers and employees are enormous. As protection against cyber attacks, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) now recommends that companies use a browser with so-called virtualised instances for the first time. This is because most attacks enter company networks via the internet. Such a browser can systematically keep attackers out of the network and is therefore a particularly effective protection.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can make a major contribution to the future viability of our economy and society—whether by improving existing processes or new products and services that promise greater efficiency, more robust structures and more climate protection. At present, however, SMEs in particular are still reluctant to use AI systems. The frequently cited reason is that data protection hurdles appear to be too high. This article discusses the opportunities of data-based value creation. The central question is how AI applications in industry can generate economic added value from data while maintaining data protection and security.

Digital Trust is an important prerequisite to conduct business in the digital age. However, digital trust has to be earned and cannot be taken for granted. This article discusses different aspects of digital trust and proposes a management-oriented approach to improve an organization’s trustworthiness as well as its systematic trust in others.

Digitalisation stands for efficiency and process optimisation. It is therefore all the more surprising that even larger medium-sized companies often do not yet have a digital solution for their contract management - the foundation of all economic activity. Instead, long email chains, inconsistent documents and unclear responsibilities dominate the processes from drafting to signing a contract.

eProcurement systems enable employees to handle the purchase of C-parts and indirect requirements independently with a minimum of work. This article explains how this can free up space for the strategically decisive procurement of A and B parts. The basic idea is to outsource the operative procurement activity to those who have the demand - so-called demand carriers. Decisive for the success of this approach is the right mix of individual freedom and sufficient control. Here, eProcurement solutions offer various levers that the purchasing department can configure according to the respective company situation. (Only in German)

The aviation industry faces significant challenges in reducing the environmental impact of global air traffic. This results in the goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Innovations and new technologies must be implemented along the entire value chain to achieve this goal. In this context, investments and decisions have to be evaluated based on their potential to reduce environmental impacts. One method for operationalizing these issues is the life cycle assessment framework. This paper presents an analytical decision model for the potential assessment of LCA at aircraft manufacturers. The basis of the model is the derivation of criteria for the assessment and the identification of use cases along the value creation process. Based on the decision model, first concrete application scenarios are identified. (Only in German)

The number of successful cyber attacks on industrial manufacturing is constantly increasing due to the growth of digitalization and networking. IT security certifications are an effective means against these attacks and at the same time create confidence in and comparability of IT security about production and IT products. This article compares certification standards such as ISO/IEC 15408 - Common Criteria (CC) and specific standards for mobile communications (including NESAS CCS-GI), of GSM Association (GSMA) and 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), for testing depth and efficiency. (Only in German)

The concepts of public and private play a special role in connection with the digitalized society and thus with the ethical requirements that such a society places on cybersecurity. This is because the digitalization of society is shifting the boundaries between what can be described as public and private. Consequently, the relationship between freedom and surveillance is being put to the test. It is a question of (cyber-)ethics how far privacy should be restricted in favor of surveillance and security. (Only in German)

The increasing industrialization of the construction industry enables the implementation of a standardized process performance management, which can be used to analyze and control operational processes on construction sites [1]. This requires appropriate process data. The subject of this paper is the presentation of a structured procedure for process data collection based on Bluetooth Low Energy. The experiences gained in the course of field studies are used to derive opportunities and challenges and thus provide practical information on the use of BLE for process data collection. (Only in German)