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In recent years, the potential of B2B cloud manufacturing has developed steadily. Through the use of digital platforms, companies can expand their business models and open up new business areas, which is of decisive economic importance, especially during a pandemic. The potentials of production platforms were examined in a company study to derive recommendations for actions for companies. The study shows that the interest for a platform participation on the supply side is higher than on the demand side.

German industrial companies are suffering from an increasing shortage of skilled workers. In order to secure Germany’s existing competitive advantages, suitable solutions have to be carried out to counter this shortage. Technologies in the context of “Industry 4.0” offer promising solutions. Using this technologies, significant productivity improvements as well as higher resource utilization rates can be achieved. However, the main challenge is to identify the right technical solutions for the specific business challenges. In the following, a systematic approach is presented to face these challenges.

The SARS-CoV-2-crisis has brought many companies into existential distress. The sudden loss of suppliers and customers as well as short-term changes in regulations and relevant information sources pose challenges for companies. The linking and visualization of information from the corporate environment with internal capabilities remain an unsolved problem. This article shows how a situation picture can help companies to act in a goal-oriented manner.

The corona pandemic was an eye opener. Practically overnight, it has demonstrated how digitalization can transform almost every area of daily life. It has accelerated structural change towards a data economy. A data economy works according to its own rules. They differ fundamentally from the principles of a goods economy. Therefore, the new data economy requires a new data economics.

Due to COVID-19 the production lines of the German automotive manufacturers were stopped for an average of 30 days. Even allegations of exhaust manipulation, the required structural change in the direction of electro mobility as well as stricter CO2 regulations are representatives for risks that impact automotive value chains. In order to encounter such risks in an entrepreneurial manner, cooperative, integrative and analytical skills are required, which are brought together in a mature risk management model. While automotive manufacturers and suppliers are in the scientific and public focus of such risks less attention is paid to the risk management of directly affected contract logistics service providers in this industry. In this article a risk management model for contract logistics service providers in the automotive sector is developed that leads to elaborated risk mitigation strategies. A differentiation of risks should take place on three levels by not only company-internal ...

The underlying article measures the search intensity of employers and job seekers as well as the placement intensity of employment agencies. For this purpose, we use daily data of online activities on the job exchange platform of the German Federal Employment Agency and its internal placement software. The investigation focuses on search and placement during the Corona crisis 2020. According to the results, the search and placement activities were severely reduced in the first lockdown. The following recovery was rather sluggish. The most critical effects of the Corona crisis on the labour market may be due to a lack of new hires.

In the recent past one cannot find any logistics concept which has been so intensively discussed in the media scene: logistics of COVID-19 vaccine in Germany. Main features: the logistics concept was obviously developed undercover, in collaboration of politics, army and some few private logistics service providers. It was only partly presented to the public and established with a short ramp-up. Only the fact that broader parts of the population are affected with these features of vaccines and their logistics should be reason enough to check critically procedures as well as the concept by itself. The biggest attention hast to be focused on the question concerning proportionality.

The level of networking and complexity in intelligent manufacturing is constantly increasing. As a result, the demands on employees are growing, especially due to changing work tasks. In addition, the existing lack of skilled workers leads to bottlenecks. The use of remote technologies opens up new opportunities for collaboration, especially in maintenance. Considering the challenges of industrial maintenance, to what extent can remote technologies be used to efficiently meet these demands? This article provides an overview of the remote technologies currently used and discussed in practice and research. In addition, it shows which prerequisites must be created for an effective application of the technologies.

Traceability systems are used in large companies to trace and track products. Although these systems aid to avoid quality and cost risks, they are only used hesitantly in SMEs. This is partly due to a lack of market transparency. Consequently, a methodology is needed that enables SMEs to capture their requirements using reference products and processes and to map them to available software solutions. This paper deals with a methodology that simplifies the selection process and focuses on the approach regarding the creating reference products and processes.

Internal and external communication is a key success factor for Industrial Data Science (IDS) projects. In particular, complex issues must be prepared and presented comprehensively. Visualization contributes to a uniform and deep understanding of data, processes, models, and results by all parties involved. This article shows the practical benefits of different visualisations for communication and documentation in the respective phases of IDS projects.