SME

Knowledge management can be an important competitive advantage for many companies. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often have limited access to capital. The challenge in contract logistics is to identify an appropriate knowledge management approach. In particular, the process of proposal preparation is characterized by a high complexity and intensity of specific knowledge. This article presents a knowledge management approach for the tender preparation process of SME in contract logistics.

The handling of customer-individual requirements, product variants and a worldwide market requires the professionalization of knowledge-intense processes. Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SME) often have excellent individual competencies, but lack a systematic management of the associated knowledge. IT-solutions for Knowledge Management in SMEs provide limited functionalities and are thus rarely used. Therefore, a need exists for the business process oriented approach for Knowledge Management in SMEs, featured in this article. Implemented in a portal for information management, it supports optimization of knowledge-intense processes.

The purpose of this paper is to show how corporate strategy can be aligned with the production system of an enterprise to derive an operations strategy. Consequently, the operations strategy is employed to define prospective needs of agility. The research methodology builds upon action research that is realized in a long-term approach with two joint manufacturing companies. Both can be classified as small and medium sized enterprises (SME). The preliminary findings underline the importance of a holistic view towards agility emphasizing organization and people as major drivers of agility. These drivers are addressed by means of a playful intervention with LEGO-bricks.

Today’s new products and services must be marketed in cycles which are rapidly becoming shorter and shorter. The pricing pressure and the progressing trend toward individualisation of products pose a tremendous challenge for major sectors of the industry. In the future, therefore, the implementation of digital methods will be necessary to a much greater extent than in the past, not only in product development, but also in process, production, and factory planning. For ensuring their own survival in a globalised world, small and medium-sized enterprises will also be faced with the inescapable necessity of introducing the digital factory. In this context, 3D-CAD factory planning can be regarded as a basic prerequisite for successful implementation of the digital factory. However, this prerequisite has not yet been satisfied in many companies. In the present publication, an overall method for implementing computer-aided 3D-CAD factory planning in conformance with the requirements is ...

This paper describes an approach for knowledge based product configuration through the integration of experience and knowledge from the product use phase. The goal of this approach is to enable a faster and software-controlled harmonization of the different customer’s and the manufacturer’s point of view during the pre contract phase. Therefore a case-based reasoning method was developed to be integrated in a rule based product configuration system.

Technology-Roadmapping (TR) is mainly used by large companies for strategic technology planning. As the method was developed in this context, no specific method exists for technology planning in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME). To use the method in SME, the method has to be adapted to their specific needs and resources. In this paper a TR method adopted for the use in SME is presented. To develop the method, the requirements of SME on TR were identified. Existing TR methods were scanned and a value benefit analysis was carried out. The identified TR method most suitable for SME was optimized with elements from other TR methods.

The article describes an integrated approach for the introduction and continuous management of e-business scenarios and applications in SME. This model enriches existing and publicly available consulting approaches with phases for optimizing business processes, the implementation and introduction of e-business applications and a continous process improvement.