Inter- & Intradepartmental Knowledge Management Barriers when Offering Single Unit Solutions

The Business-to-Business market is increasingly characterized by customers asking for solutions fitting their infrastructure and functional requirements in a short timeframe. The high frequency of such single unit solutions together with the unpredictable and often very specific customer requests impose a challenge onto the supplier’s knowledge management. This paper analyses current corresponding knowledge management barriers, which hamper the production process, in particular, because of misunderstandings between sales and engineering departments. The aggregation of the results of a literature review and an empirical study identifies three measures for overcoming these barriers in order to establish a global culture of knowledge sharing

Managing complexity through integrative tactical planning in engineer-to-order environments: insights from four case studies

Fulfilling customer orders in engineer-to-order (ETO) settings entails customization and, thus, greater complexity: detail and uncertainty. Tactical planning aims at demand–supply (DS) balancing by ensuring cross-functional integration (CFI), which incorporates coordination as one dimension. This study uses a case study approach to identify the key coordination mechanisms applied in the customer order fulfilment processes (COFPs) to mitigate the negative impact of complexity on DS balancing in four ETO-oriented settings. Within-case analyses identify the applied mechanisms, and a cross-case analysis elaborates on how they influence the detail and uncertainty in decision-making and problem-solving activities. Findings suggest a positive effect of formalized activity sequences, balanced team compositions, effective task designs and supportive information systems (ISs); and a positive (but contingent) effect of the other mechanisms. Future research may address other CFI dimensions (collaboration), statistically test the findings, or qualitatively deepen the understanding of the forms and impacts of individual mechanisms

Mass customisation procedures in engine assembly

The implementation of mass customisation into a manufacturing environment is by no means an easy task to achieve. This thesis will attempt to investigate the areas within a manufacturing company that require change in order to be integrated into a mass customised environment. The hypothesis behind the research is that all aspects of mass customisation in manufacturing can be brought together in a framework for the implementation of new products into a mass customised organisation. Two major case study investigations were undertaken at a diesel engine manufacturing company, Cummins Engines, at their Darlington Engine Plant to observe current practices for new product introduction and identify opportunities for improvement through tailoring the procedures towards a mass customised environment. An objective of the research was to understand the inter-relationships between processes and departmental structures. Recommendations for possible improvements in processes, procedures and practices in mass customisation framework are included, with a particular focus on new product introduction. The work carried out within the thesis will look at what inputs are required within a new product introduction programme in order to get the desired outputs. The typical inputs will include the relationships between different departments within an organisation and what is required in order to introduce a mass customised produc

Mass Production Processes

It is always hard to set manufacturing systems to produce large quantities of standardized parts. Controlling these mass production lines needs deep knowledge, hard experience, and the required related tools as well. The use of modern methods and techniques to produce a large quantity of products within productive manufacturing processes provides improvements in manufacturing costs and product quality. In order to serve these purposes, this book aims to reflect on the advanced manufacturing systems of different alloys in production with related components and automation technologies. Additionally, it focuses on mass production processes designed according to Industry 4.0 considering different kinds of quality and improvement works in mass production systems for high productive and sustainable manufacturing. This book may be interesting to researchers, industrial employees, or any other partners who work for better quality manufacturing at any stage of the mass production processes

Modular product development for mass customization

fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Theorien und Konzepte zu Agilität in Organisationen

Der Begriff Agilität bezeichnet innerhalb der Organisationslehre seit etwa 20 Jahren eine Form der flexiblen, schlanken, kundenorientierten Organisationsgestaltung und verbindet sich, um jeweils neu entwickelte Technologien erweitert, mit dem Charakter einer jungen, modernen Organisationsform. Verstärkt wird dieser Eindruck durch die Tatsache, dass vor dem Jahre 1991, als das Iacocca Institute entscheidend zur Verknüpfung des Begriffes Agilität mit der Organisationslehre und zur Verbreitung der mit der Agilität verbundenen Methoden beitrug, der Agilitätsbegriff innerhalb der Organisationsforschung kaum auftauchte. Erst seit den frühen 1990er Jahren sind zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen zu diesem Thema erschienen, eine anhaltende Tendenz, wie die Publikationen des aktuellen Jahres belegen. Für den Ursprung des Begriffes Agilität wird in den meisten Aufsätzen dementsprechend das Jahr 1991 angesetzt, nur einige wenige Quellen nennen ältere Aufsätze und noch seltener taucht der Hinweis auf, das der Agilitätsbegriff im Umfeld der Sozialwissenschaften bereits seit den 1950er Jahren bekannt ist, interessanterweise durch das Werk eines Wirtschaftstheoretikers. Die Herkunft des Begriffes Agilität im organisationalen Umfeld auszuleuchten und sich an die vielfältigen Darstellungen dieses Konzeptes anzunähern, ist das Anliegen der vorliegenden Arbeit. Das Agilitätsmodell in der seit den 1990er Jahren entwickelten Prägung ist eine Sammlung von Elementen verschiedener organisationstheoretischer Ansätze und enthält eine Vielzahl organisationaler Konzepte, die zudem fortlaufend erweitert und verändert wurden. Es würde den Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit sprengen, die Theorien und Konzepte aufzulisten, die dem Agilitätsbegriff eine grundsätzliche Prägung verliehen. Es werden jedoch einige Organisationstheorien und Konzepte, deren Elemente sich als Kennzeichen der Agilität wiederfinden, aufgezeigt, um darzustellen, dass agiles Denken existierte, bevor der Begriff „Agilität“ geprägt wurde. Die Agilität ist kein Konzept, das aus der Praxis heraus entstanden ist und anschließend zum Forschungsgegenstand der Wirtschaftswissenschaften wurde, vielmehr handelt es sich um einen Entwurf, der originär als theoretischer Lösungsansatz zur Behebung einer wirtschaftlichen Stagnation entwickelt wurde. Inwieweit dieser theoretische Ansatz in der Praxis tatsächlich auch Verbreitung finden konnte, ist eine interessante Fragestellung, die zum Thema mehrerer Forschungsarbeiten gewählt wurde. Die vorliegende Arbeit wird diesen Bereich jedoch nicht näher beleuchten. Vielmehr steht eine Sammlung und Strukturierung verschiedener in der Literatur vorhandener Auffassungen und Auslegungen des Agilitätsbegriffs im Mittelpunkt

Service-Oriented Process Models in Telecommunication Business

The thesis concentrates on to evaluate challenges in the business process management and the need for Service-oriented process models in telecommunication business to alleviate the integration work efforts and to reduce total costs of ownership. The business aspect concentrates on operations and business support systems which are tailored for communication service providers. Business processes should be designed in conformance with TeleManagement Forum's integrated business architecture framework. The thesis rationalizes the need to transform organizations and their way of working from vertical silos to horizontal layers and to understand transformational efforts which are needed to adopt a new strategy. Furthermore, the thesis introduces service characterizations and goes deeper into technical requirements that a service compliant middleware system needs to support. At the end of the thesis Nokia Siemens Networks proprietary approach – Process Automation Enabling Suite is introduced, and finally the thesis performs two case studies. The first one is Nokia Siemens Networks proprietary survey which highlights the importance of customer experience management and the second one is an overall research study whose results have been derived from other public surveys covering application integration efforts

Warehouse design: a systematic literature review

Abstract: This study proposes improving the understanding of the main aspects involved in the design of warehouses by the construction of a framework that reveals the state-of-art.  The initial research bibliography generated a framework, which was structured in three dimensions: inputs; design and implementation; and outputs. The validation of framework was accomplished through a systematic review of the literature, covering 68 articles published in the period 1999- 2015. This study covered the main aspects highlighted in the academic literature that influence the design of warehouses. Additionally, an overview of the publications based on a theoretical/empirical and a quantitative/qualitative approach was pointed out. This paper aims to contribute to both industry and academic. On the one hand, the framework aggregates value for professionals by permitting the rapid identification of variables, which must be considered in warehouse design. On the other hand, by systematizing the warehouse design area, researchers are able to identify gaps that may generate future studies.

Advances on Mechanics, Design Engineering and Manufacturing III

This open access book gathers contributions presented at the International Joint Conference on Mechanics, Design Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing (JCM 2020), held as a web conference on June 2–4, 2020. It reports on cutting-edge topics in product design and manufacturing, such as industrial methods for integrated product and process design; innovative design; and computer-aided design. Further topics covered include virtual simulation and reverse engineering; additive manufacturing; product manufacturing; engineering methods in medicine and education; representation techniques; and nautical, aeronautics and aerospace design and modeling. The book is organized into four main parts, reflecting the focus and primary themes of the conference. The contributions presented here not only provide researchers, engineers and experts in a range of industrial engineering subfields with extensive information to support their daily work; they are also intended to stimulate new research directions, advanced applications of the methods discussed and future interdisciplinary collaborations