The compatibility of lean and innovation - The coevolution of lean management and innovations in the automotive industry

In the automotive industry, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) face the challenge of being innovative and lean at the same time. This ambidexterity influences their research and development strategy as well as their production system strategy. Considering that until today no consistent definition exists of innovation within the literature, a multidimensional approach is used in this work, which focuses on three main objectives to analyse the compatibility of lean and innovation. Within the theoretical background, innovations are characterised based on their origin (generated or adapted innovation), type (process, product or organisational innovation), and intensity (incremental or radical innovation). Embedding this characterisation into the lifecycle theories of industries, technologies, and products displays the resulting complexity and leads to the drawing of connections between state decisions (laws and regulations) and society (megatrends), thereby creating a holistic theoretical framework in which OEMs have to align their production system strategy. The first objective of this work is to create a deeper understanding of the ambidexterity of the patent structure within the automotive industry focusing on OEMs and their production systems. The coevolution of lean und innovation is analysed in a long-term view using a statistical patent analysis. Until today, the question of whether companies should set their priorities in explorative or exploitative inventions to generate innovations has not been clarified explicitly. Therefore, a model combining ambidexterity (exploitation and exploration) with leagility (lean and agile) is defined and tested to obtain an enhanced understanding that the combination of being agile and being lean plays a key role within a lean production system and has a main influence on innovation. The second objective is to propose how a production system can successfully cope with external/adapted (incremental and radical innovation) innovation using lean principles. A model focusing on the target orientation of new concepts, methods, and technologies is defined and tested to obtain an enhanced understanding that lean must be integrated into the selection and evaluation process of innovations projects within the production system to ensure target orientation and make it possible to cope with innovation successfully. The third objective is to demonstrate how lean principles can be successfully integrated into innovation projects using augmented reality (AR) in assembly training. Modern workplaces equipped with large screens provide new employees with 2D and 3D information about the current task. Workers receive additional visual or haptic information through pick-to-light systems to prevent picking mistakes or smart tools, such as a screwdriver with torque and rotation angle monitoring. Over the last years, a various range of AR systems have been proposed. This shows that assembly training with head-mounted displays using AR and taking lean principles into consideration are as good as being trained by a trainer, which provides an enhanced understanding that lean principles must be integrated in process and product innovation projects to achieve the optimal output and ensure smooth implementation in the production system.In der Automobilindustrie stehen Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) vor der Herausforderung, gleichzeitig innovativ und schlank zu sein. Diese Ambidextrie beeinflusst ihre Forschungs- und Entwicklungsstrategie sowie ihre Produktionssystemstrategie. In Anbetracht dessen, dass bis heute keine einheitliche Definition von Innovation in der Literatur existiert, wird in dieser Arbeit ein mehrdimensionaler Ansatz verwendet, der sich auf drei Hauptziele konzentriert, um die Vereinbarkeit von Lean und Innovation zu analysieren. Innerhalb des theoretischen Hintergrunds werden Innovationen anhand ihrer Herkunft (generierte oder adaptierte Innovation), ihres Typs (Prozess-, Produkt- oder Organisationsinnovation) und ihrer Intensität (inkrementelle oder radikale Innovation) charakterisiert. Die Einbettung dieser Charakterisierung in die Lebenszyklustheorien von Industrien, Technologien und Produkten zeigt die daraus resultierende Komplexität und führt dazu, Zusammenhänge zwischen staatlichen Entscheidungen (Gesetze und Vorschriften) und Gesellschaft (Megatrends) zu ziehen und damit einen ganzheitlichen theoretischen Rahmen zu schaffen, in dem sich OEMs bewegen müssen ihre Produktionssystemstrategie ausrichten. Das erste Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein tieferes Verständnis für die Beidhändigkeit der Patentstruktur innerhalb der Automobilindustrie zu schaffen, wobei der Fokus auf OEMs und ihren Produktionssystemen liegt. Die Koevolution von Lean und Innovation wird in einer langfristigen Betrachtung anhand einer statistischen Patentanalyse analysiert. Bis heute ist die Frage, ob Unternehmen ihre Prioritäten auf explorative oder auf ausbeuterische Erfindungen setzen sollten, um Innovationen zu generieren, nicht explizit geklärt. Daher wird ein Modell definiert und getestet, das Ambidextrie (Exploitation und Exploration) mit Leagilität (Lean und Agilität) kombiniert, um ein besseres Verständnis dafür zu erlangen, dass die Kombination aus Agilität und Lean-Sein eine Schlüsselrolle innerhalb eines Lean-Produktionssystems spielt und einen Haupteinfluss hat auf Innovationen. Das zweite Ziel besteht darin, vorzuschlagen, wie ein Produktionssystem externe/angepasste (inkrementelle und radikale Innovation) Innovationen unter Verwendung von Lean-Prinzipien erfolgreich bewältigen kann. Um ein erweitertes Verständnis dafür zu erlangen, dass Lean in den Auswahl- und Bewertungsprozess von Innovationsprojekten innerhalb des Produktionssystems integriert werden muss, um die Zielorientierung sicherzustellen und zu ermöglichen, wird ein Modell zur Zielorientierung neuer Konzepte, Methoden und Technologien definiert und erprobt Innovation erfolgreich zu bewältigen. Das dritte Ziel ist es aufzuzeigen, wie Lean-Prinzipien erfolgreich in Innovationsprojekte integriert werden können, indem Augmented Reality (AR) in der Montageschulung eingesetzt wird. Moderne Arbeitsplätze mit großen Bildschirmen versorgen neue Mitarbeiter mit 2D- und 3D-Informationen über die aktuelle Aufgabe. Werker erhalten zusätzliche visuelle oder haptische Informationen durch Pick-to-Light-Systeme zur Vermeidung von Kommissionierfehlern oder smarte Tools, wie z. B. einen Schraubendreher mit Drehmoment und Drehwinkelüberwachung. In den letzten Jahren wurde eine Vielzahl von AR-Systemen vorgeschlagen. Dies zeigt, dass Montageschulungen mit Head-Mounted Displays unter Verwendung von AR und der Berücksichtigung von Lean-Prinzipien so gut sind wie die Schulung durch einen Trainer, der ein verbessertes Verständnis dafür vermittelt, dass Lean-Prinzipien in Prozess- und Produktinnovationsprojekte integriert werden müssen, um den optimalen Output zu erzielen und sorgen für eine reibungslose Implementierung im Produktivsystem

World Class Operation Exploration – Honeywell H.O.S and V.P.D

This project focuses on strategy, world class operation theory, investigate world class operation practice in Business represented by V.P.D and H.O.S and explore how it help the firm excal in present competitive context and continue the thrust in long run

World Class Operation Exploration – Honeywell H.O.S and V.P.D

This project focuses on strategy, world class operation theory, investigate world class operation practice in Business represented by V.P.D and H.O.S and explore how it help the firm excal in present competitive context and continue the thrust in long run

An Investigation on Benefit-Cost Analysis of Greenhouse Structures in Antalya

Significant population increase across the world, loss of cultivable land and increasing demand for food put pressure on agriculture. To meet the demand, greenhouses are built, which are, light structures with transparent cladding material in order to provide controlled microclimatic environment proper for plant production. Conceptually, greenhouses are similar with manufacturing buildings where a controlled environment for manufacturing and production have been provided and proper spaces for standardized production processes have been enabled. Parallel with the trends in the world, particularly in southern regions, greenhouse structures have been increasingly constructed and operated in Turkey. A significant number of greenhouses are located at Antalya. The satellite images demonstrated that for over last three decades, there has been a continuous invasion of greenhouses on all cultivable land. There are various researches and attempts for the improvement of greenhouse design and for increasing food production by decreasing required energy consumption. However, the majority of greenhouses in Turkey are very rudimentary structures where capital required for investment is low, but maintenance requirements are high when compared with new generation greenhouse structures. In this research paper, life-long capital requirements for construction and operation of greenhouse buildings in Antalya has been investigated by using benefit-cost analysis study

Knowledge Capturing in Design Briefing Process for Requirement Elicitation and Validation

Knowledge capturing and reusing are major processes of knowledge management that deal with the elicitation of valuable knowledge via some techniques and methods for use in actual and further studies, projects, services, or products. The construction industry, as well, adopts and uses some of these concepts to improve various construction processes and stages. From pre-design to building delivery knowledge management principles and briefing frameworks have been implemented across project stakeholders: client, design teams, construction teams, consultants, and facility management teams. At pre-design and design stages, understanding the client’s needs and users’ knowledge are crucial for identifying and articulating the expected requirements and objectives. Due to underperforming results and missed goals and objectives, many projects finish with highly dissatisfied clients and loss of contracts for some organizations. Knowledge capturing has beneficial effects via its principles and methods on requirement elicitation and validation at the briefing stage between user, client and designer. This paper presents the importance and usage of knowledge capturing and reusing in briefing process at pre-design and design stages especially the involvement of client and user, and explores the techniques and technologies that are usable in briefing process for requirement elicitation

Sustainability in design: now! Challenges and opportunities for design research, education and practice in the XXI century

Copyright @ 2010 Greenleaf PublicationsLeNS project funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropeAid, European Commission

Sustainable business model innovation: Process, challenges and implementation

The capability to rapidly and successfully move into new business models is an important source of sustainable competitive advantage and a key leverage to improve the sustainability performance of organisations. However, research suggests that many business model innovations fail. Despite the importance of the topic, the reasons for failure are relatively unexplored, and there is no comprehensive description of the sustainable business model innovation process in the literature. This research addresses this gap by sequentially employing four research methods. First, a literature review is conducted to synthesise a conceptual model as a framework for an empirical investigation. This investigation used two focus groups with ten participants, interviews with 61 senior managers of 24 organisations, and active participatory research, in which the researcher joined the teams of two different business model innovation projects for several months. The research provides the most comprehensive literature review on the definition and process of sustainable business model innovation to date. It identifies five different process steps of sustainable business model innovation as well as a comprehensive list of key activities and challenges associated with each step of the process. It also discusses how the resulting process framework could be translated into a management tool and outlines some insights on the organisational setup of the process and success factors. These findings can serve as hypotheses to guide further research on sustainable business model innovation and adjacent phenomena. It also provides direction for practitioners engaged in sustainable business model innovation in similar context as the ones investigated. As a result, the research can help organisations to structure their activities better, anticipate key challenges, and build up sustainable business model innovation capabilities