Training

In the manufacturing industry, the digital factory plays a decisive role for modern engineering. By linking all information and data from the various stages of factory planning, an efficient and holistic planning and continuous improvement of products, processes and resources is possible. The use of changed processes and new tools needs other and advanced competencies respectively as well as a continuous learning of involved employees. IT-based and stronger parallelized planning processes require also a change in organization and working culture. This article analyzes how the qualification of employees looks on the face of the digital factory utilizing the management of knowledge and learning.

In the past the dynamics of the markets in interaction with an increasing globalization led to the fact that industries concentrated more and more on their core competences. By the reduction of the companies vertical integration value-added processes were outsourced in the same measure as supporting activities. In order to be able to meet the so developing complexity, production and logistics networks were formed to enhance the co-operation between the enterprises in a long-term and stable form. In these networks beside products and semi-finished materials also knowledge and information are produced and transferred. The protection and division of knowledge, experience and behaviours are of a special relevance if e.g. a participant leaves the network. In such a case the question arises whether and how the knowledge of the separating participant can be particularly retained for the network and a possible advancing producer, in order to not disturb the efficiency of the network. For the ...

The paper describes a model conceived at the IMI for the management of product and process knowledge in complex multi-project environments. Coming from project and product-related approaches of project, program and portfolio management, an integrated model based on a universal product structure was developed which aims at supporting the transfer of product and process knowledge over enterprise hierarchies and thus to shorten the development time during the development process.

The research project “Open Innovation in Life Sciences” (project duration May 2008-April 2011) aims at the development and implementation of new innovation strategies and concepts for SMEs in the life sciences segment. In particular inside-out and outside-in processes in joint innovation projects beyond firm boundaries are analyzed. The life sciences segment is known as being highly research intense and interdisciplinary. As a result of the growing complexity of innovation processes, the development of cooperative, i.e. open innovation strategies for SMEs has become more important. SMEs can gain the capability to tap crucial innovation potentials by bundling distributed complementary knowledge. The article describes the development of a method which might help to evaluate opportunities and risks of different innovation concepts. This may serve as basis for decision-making regarding the implementation of a predefined innovation process. Project outcomes are expected to be an ...

Product innovations are mainly based on a future-oriented alignment of technology push and market pull. The alignment of both aspects with regard to conformity to the corporate strategy is carried out in the context of the strategic product and technology planning, which is the initial point within the product design process. The integral element of this paper is a data base-system which allows performing the tasks of strategic product and technology planning. In particular, information about technologies, product ideas and market segments are represented and related with each other. Typical applications are the design of morphologic boxes an innovation roadmaps.

Additional to the consideration of technological and organisational aspects as well personnel adjustments have to be considered in time during the introduction of new manufacturing technologies. Reasons for a systematic personnel development are technological changes, e.g. the introduction of new products and manufacturing processes or a modified manufacturing programme. Especially the number and the qualification of the employees who are affected by these changes have to be adjusted to the new requirements. The method of the personnel-oriented technology calendar which is presented in this article provides a systematic and targeted personnel development planning. The approach is demonstrated by means of an application example.

Chinese industrial companies have evolved into serious competitors for German companies. The success of companies such as Lenovo, Haier, Huawei or CIMC is a clear proof of their competitiveness. What is interesting is that they do not follow the traditional Western management principles. The competitive behaviour of Chinese companies differs from Western companies similar to the Japanese with their revolutionary management concepts such as Lean Management, Total Quality Management or Kaizen. The lack of knowledge on Chinese competitive behaviour often leads Western managers to making the wrong decisions in terms of sustaining or extending their market position as opposed to Chinese competitors. This article gives a detailed description of the competitive behaviour of Chinese companies and offers a guideline for managers on how to deal with emerging Chinese challengers.

The realization of cognitive technical systems deals with the implementation of a knowledge representational level inside technical systems. Hence, cognitive functions and processes (planning, learning etc.) can be used. Especially, the realization of learning (in contrast to adaptation) is the key for novel applications. In application, fields dealing with the guidance of complex systems which can not partially or completely be performed by human operators depending on the system itself, promise a new quality of automation.

The shortening of both time to market und product life cycle in combination with an increase of cost pressure, demand a fast and flexible product development process. The idea of simultaneous engineering is to gain time by treating product, process and resources in parallel and thus discovering discrepancies faster and adjusting the necessary factors. In order to establish an efficient knowledge management a wiki platform, here acting as a social software, is introduced. It serves as a centre of navigation within the process chain and supports the communication between the subprojects. Content can be edited by any member of the research project and may be discussed and changed by others. Its fast and free implementation qualifies the wiki tool and offers a secure and easy to handle platform.

In a production network, teams or companies exchange information and products to create value. The competitive advantage of the team / company relies on that of the network. This paper addresses knowledge management in a production network especially the promotion of knowledge sharing and transfer. This is a substantial issue when, for example, a company comes to leave the network voluntarily or disappears because of natural or man-made catastrophes. In this case, the question remains whether the substituting company can acquire the tacit knowledge needed to fulfil its mission. Consequently, the operation of the network is also an acute issue. The paper proposes a methodology based on organisational and interorganisational learning and develops a learning laboratory that facilitates knowledge sharing and transfer. This lab supports, (a) knowledge sharing through the mental map’s knowledge elicitation of every company’s leader, and (b) knowledge transfer via dedicated learning-based ...