Business Models

The quality endeavors of an organization, like other enterprise activities, must be oriented towards the economic principles. This approach give way to many organization to question the extent to which the quality management contributes for the overall business success and to pin point the areas where particularly a high value can be created in order to attain the maximum possible economic benefits out of QM-Systems. Without including the answer of this question in the decision making process, the resources can not be allocated optimally for the quality purpose. The following illustration depicts how the quality-based activities generate the value to enhance the performance and a variety of indicators reflects how they indirectly add value to an organization and hence contribute to its economic success.

There are many commercial software applications to support business processes. More and more companies, however, rely on open source alternatives, because there is now a wide range of sophisticated applications for classical business functions. But how good is the royalty-free alternative, for whom is it appropriate and what to look for? The following article provides a glimpse into the world of open source and introduces some tools and applications.

Standard software should be chosen based on the value created through it’s introduction within the firm. Business process improvements that are achieved after the software has been introduced create value for the company. Due to the vast amount of software companies and their products it is recommend to follow a structured approach when selecting standard software, assuring that a high degree of functional coverage and profitability surging through the introduction of the software are present. This approach is briefly introduced in this article.

The Autonomous Logistic Engineering Methodology (ALEM), which is developed within the Collaborative Research Center 637, provides several tools for creating models of autonomously controlled logistic systems. To evaluate such models, the ALEM framework is extended to include a simulation component. As the ALEM Models cannot run directly within simulation software, they are transformed using principles of the Model Driven Architecture. To enable the transformation several open source tools can be applied. This article evaluates a selection of such tools with the aim of integrating them into ALEM.

Due to increased market turbulence, firms not only are faced with the decision to use open source software, but also consider releasing their proprietary software under an open source license. Beside the appropriateness as an open source product this raises the question of how to profit from giving something away which then is available for free. This article contributes to this discussion by addressing possible open source business models with regard to the type of software.

Grid and cloud computing open up new possibilities for small and medium sized companies. On the basis of two use cases from the fields of deep drawing and casting process simulations we show different ways to utilize grid and cloud technology to enable the companies to offer new services and to employ new business models.

Dynamics and complexity of today`s production systems bring established approaches for production planning and control to their limits. Accordingly, developing new concepts and methods is a key point for research in this area. The combination of a decentralized control structure and innovative methods from the field of artificial intelligence seems promising here. Open source tools have proven their applicability to implement those methods. They are disposable and can be flexibly adapted to many problems. This contribution introduces an approach for the decentralized control of a shop floor. Here, artificial neuronal networks are used as adaptive control instruments. The simulation of these networks is performed with the open source tool Stuttgart Neural Network Simulator (SNNS) and its successor Java Neural Network Simulator (JNNS).

More and more companies use open source software for planning and control of their business processes. The article describes advantages and disadvantages of open source ERP solutions. Additional tables show technical aspects of today’s open source ERP solutions.

In the last few years industrial companies remark that industrial services offer an interesting opportunity for companies to improve their company performance. To exploit this opportunity these companies have to clearly distinguish themselves from their competitors. Against this background the question what are the decisive factors of success for industrial services have to be explored. In an empirical study we got evidence that the success factors depending on different kind of services. Furthermore the following article discusses reasons for the interesting empirical results achieved.

In the tire replacement business, customers increasingly recognize and use e-Commerce as a sales and distribution channel. A survey of the ETH Zurich indicates that up to now tire producers hardly operate online platforms - even though the future growth potential of online distribution is substantial. The tire producers should react quickly and with a thought-through approach to the challenges of online trading in order to take advantage of this distribution channel. An intensive cooperation with local tire assemblers is decisive for making the online distribution channel work, because customers still require a professional tire fitting.