Management

In the context of Industry 4.0 the change and digitalisation of technical information move more closely in the focus of research. During the whole life cycle of a product, relevant information arises, that has to be stored appropriately. Future industrial applications require adaptive information management, e.g., individual and appropriate delivery of data, connection of information, target-oriented search or visualisation of information. The focus of this contribution is on challenges of the digitalization of technical documentations with respect to Industry 4.0 paradigms. The handling of the technical documentation over the complete lifecycle of a product is discussed.

The developed Readiness Model supports enterprises to determine the current state in relation to Industry 4.0 as well as the target state. Based on strategy improvement measures are derived to succeed in attaining the target Industry 4.0 state. Enterprises profit by individualized understanding of Industry 4.0 and specific project proposals. The dissemination of Industry 4.0 is supported through this Readiness Model. In addition a benchmark data base is filled to enable comparisons of enterprises and to observe the historical development of the industry 4.0 readiness of several industries.

The increase of complexity in the field of production due to “Industrie 4.0” causes also a rapid increase of the complexity of tasks on the shopfloor level. Thus, efficient methods for the systematic identification of the competence deficits of the employees as well as new forms of knowledge management for an adequate administration of knowledge have to be established.

What do new technologies and the increasing cyber threat hold in store for business and production in 2016? How should organizations be preparing themselves? What should IT security leaders be doing as a priority in the coming year? These are the questions of leading security analysts and consultants at TÜV Rheinland to tackle. The year 2016 will see an increasing number of attacks and the emergence of new targets. The complexity and sophistication of attacks, initiated by increasingly capable and technically well-equipped cyber criminals, will continue to rise. Industrial Control System Security (ICS) and Incident Response is more important than ever.

With targeted measures, in-house staff can make a valuable contribution to sales. First, we need a new self-image in the affected departments, as well as the provision of key competences. Following the right track, technology companies can make a leap forward in customer orientation and more sales.

The challenge for the offshore wind industry is the transition form a “pioneer industry” to a mass-volume industry. Especially if the ambitious goal of the federal government to install offshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 6.5 gigawatts by 2020 in North and Baltic Sea is considered. For a reliable and economical generation of electricity, a development of the offshore wind turbines for the entire product life cycle is needed as well as the optimization of processes. At present a lot of data is recorded in the individual life cycle phases which contains valuable information for the optimization and further development of offshore wind turbines. Within this paper an approach for the merging information along the life cycle of offshore wind turbines aiming at product improvement will be presented.

In many organizations process-oriented management systems suffer missing acceptance by employees, quick to return a verdict: no practical benefit, merely for audit trail bureaucracy, or only suited for experts on the system. This weakness can be resolved successfully by combining process-oriented quality and know-ledge management in an innovative way, enriched by principles from social media. By including useful applications and providing a consistent integration of production systems like ERP or CRM, the management system will become a valuable process portal. With the help of this portal the user can reliably navigate through the various IT solutions implemented in the organisation.

The view on quality as a critical competitive factor has been established not only in Western countries but is on the rise in emerging markets, too. In the complex of products and rising customer expectations, many companies try to reduce costs and increase the market opportunities for their products by applying broad-based quality initiatives. Normatively distinct quality management offers only few instructions for these approaches, which is constraining the success of the initiatives. Within the framework of an international study on quality management in manufacturing companies, critical success factors and best practices have been identified on the way to the sustainable establishment of effective quality management. On basis of a developed maturity assessment tool, companies are given the ability to identify the status of their own quality management in comparison to best practice.

Demographic trends have direct impact on production and logistics. They affect adversely both the work in the production hall and the company’s profit. To cope with these threats investment in the lower rank of management is necessary. The following article lines out how companies train their technicians and shift managers for the challenges of demographic change, which are in detail staff growing older, decreasing qualifications of new employees and higher staff turnover.

Suggestions, techniques, strategies and ideas for optimizing time management are dime a dozen. But not all of these general methods can really change the long-term and structured way of utilizing time. One fails mostly because the method is not implemented consistently or the technique cannot be transferred to the daily routine. In order to change in the long run, prior knowledge and customization to the individual requirements are essential. This is shown by new findings of scientific research. The bottom line is that there are some really helpful techniques when it comes to time management but that the problem mostly is not starting new strategies but maintaining them.