production

Planning, design and continuous improvement of today’s complex corporate structures and technical systems require a sophisticated level of extensive know-ledge of technology, processes and IT. To apply planning and simulation tools effectively and efficiently engineers and plant operators have to rise to the challenge to use their knowledge in a goal-oriented way and to expand it within creative processes. Consequently, knowledge is more than ever a key productivity factor and an important component of corporate capital. Against this background, the article discusses possibilities for systematization and standardization in simulation studies and especially approaches to increase productivity in simulation studies by supplying assistance functions as well as systematic evaluation methodologies.

Handling complexity is one of the key topics of producing enterprises worldwide. It can be noted that enterprises are indeed able to coop with the complexity of single processes due to a function-oriented organisation, yet the same organisational paradigm leads to local objective systems that in many cases are contrary to the global goals of the enterprise. The same problem is reflected and supported by the enterprise’s IT systems. Thus, in this paper we present an approach to convert the inflexible function oriented operations into comprehensive processes by introducing special IT systems, so-called logistic assistance systems. To illustrate the approach we introduce the problem of integrated order sequencing and transport planning in the automotive industry and present a prototypical solution.

Lot sizing is a substantial factor of economic production. There are various lot sizing approaches considering the same cost factors in different ways. Their results are usually quite similar. A common weakness of all lot sizing approaches is the limited consideration of relevant cost factors. The costs which are neglected usually rise with increasing lot sizes. This leads to illusory exact results because too large lots are calculated generally. This paper compares functions and results of different lot sizing approaches and discusses neglected cost factors.

In production logistics of the machine and tool manufacturig industry RFID-systems are implemented more and more. Enterprises expect an improvement of efficiency in tracing containers and material provision. Implementation of RFID often fails because the processes should be adopted as they are and limits of the technology are not known sufficiently. This article shows the limits of RFID in tracing containers in production and introduces an approach of implementing RFID-supported processes.

petition demand new strategies in the management of an increasing complexity. Modularization of complex systems is such a strategy, practical for products and processes. However, the planning of modular structures takes place at an early stage of product development and is associated with many risks. Because of this, changes in products and processes are inevitable. Therefore, the design of an alterable module structure and effective management of module changes is the focus of the following article.

Although the relocation trend has slightly decreased during the last five years, nowadays more companies plan to shift abroad in the near future. In particular small- and medium-sized companies plan the relocation of parts of their value chain. The disadvantage of the German location can only be compensated by a combination of cost optimization and an increase of productivity. A systematic procedure and the application of sophisticated evaluation tools support the company in its process of decision making. Considering the type of business, guidelines for competitive value chain management can be developed.

Currently the realisation of the Digital Factory as the strategic goal for the next five years has been identified by many manufacturing enterprises. To achieve an integrated system planning and operation, the work is aimed at a comprehensive computer-based modelling of all design characteristics, structures and processes of a factory. This article scrutinises the technique-centred process for the realisation of the Digital Factory, which is currently favoured due to pragmatic reasons, and presents - based on the models in the Digital Factory - a comprehensive integration concept. To ensure the users’ acceptance, a user-oriented process considering enterprise-organisational requirements is preferred.

Modern factories are heavily influenced by product technologies, processes, IT tools and by the behaviour of the markets. Therefore these factories have to change accordingly using new tools and technologies. As such, Augmented Reality (AR) is a new and promising technology to support different tasks within the factories. The large economic potential of the AR technology is verified through different applications and justifies the efforts for further hardware and software development.