Profitability

An approach to the creation of interoperability in dynamically changing supply chains is presented applying the example of transnational hazardous waste logistics. By an integral consideration of business models the integration and adaptation of the IT infrastructure is advanced.

Collaborative Business in the common sense addresses the tightly coupled, cooperative interworking between different companies on the business process layer. The capability of full-fledged, realtime collaboration is one of the fundaments for the virtual enterprise. Based upon a cooperation with the SAP AG a methodological framework for the collaborative, automated generation of business processes is being developed in the CoBPIA-project. The major goal can be described as the best possible adaption towards rapidly changing market situations, achieved by the processing of a market request and its automated transformation into a business process. The given approached is highly knowledge driven.

The adoption of the internet to support electronic business processes is currently done by a transformation of traditional processes. However, the direct transfer does not make use of the network capabilities and of the resulting possibility of direct communication between the business partners. Furthermore, actual systems do not support the dynamics and flexibility required by emerging business models. The article analyses actual interaction patterns and presents a technical concept based on Peer-to-Peer network architecture to support these new types of decentralized economic interactions.

With Standardised Processes on the Right Track to Customised Factories The approaches of factory planning that have been developed many years ago have to be adjusted to today’s challenges. Therefore the basic systematics of the Supply Chain Operations Reference- Model (SCOR-Model) are consulted and transferred to the processes of factory planning. The aim is to accelerate the planning process and to generate planning results in a higher quality while decreasing the planning effort. This will be achieved by use of a consistent process orientation which bases on standardised processes, field-tested methods, models and tools and on best-practice examples. This article explains the system and contents of the Process Model of Factory Planning and will give an impression of the first software-based prototype.

Within the scope of a research project together with the companies Alcatel SEL, Conti Temic, Knorr-Bremse, Rohde & Schwarz and Webasto, a methodical approach has shown that many development projects have significant deviation from the planned process. This leads to negative effects on each success parameter of the development task, especially on time schedule and profitability. The objective of an optimized project management is to detect weak signals when differing the scheduled path. This information will be transferred immediately to project management. A concept was elaborated and effec-tiveness was proven in case studies.

Due to the high costs of procuring new equipment and building new plants in the semiconductor industry, the increase in the productivity of the existing equipment and facilities becomes even more critical. Organizations today are looking to avoid any unnecessary investments into their equipment and facilities and maximizing the returns on their investments. The SEMI organization has released standard methods of measuring the performance of processes and systems with the analysis of OEE (Overall Equipment Efficiency) and RAM (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability). The introduction of Fab wide solutions, based on these methods, enables a continuous monitoring and improvement process of realizing potential savings and increasing the performance of these processes and sys-tems. The company AIS Automation has developed such a software solution and sells it as TFM (Total Fab Monitoring). This article describes the usage of the system where the application field is not limited only ...

Todays consumer markets demand more and more specialised products at low prices. The qualitative sale of their products, as well as development and maintenance, are expensive, complicated and error-prone. Consistent modularisation, combined with good component system management, can solve this trap of complexity. This process has to be supported by powerful tools. Accordingly these tools only take effect if modularisation is reality.