Examining Collaboration in Interdisciplinary Product Development Focusing on Dependencies

Product development in manufacturing industry is characterized by intense collaboration need of various stakeholders. Increasing integration of disciplines in modern products makes it more and more a challenge to arrange collaboration efficiently and effectively. Process and product characteristics as well as the architecture of information systems used in product development have to be considered. This paper introduces a methodology for the design of collaboration situations based on principles of system analysis. First, a collaboration situation is defined and modelled regarding constituent elements in the domains process, product and system. Second, a description model for dependencies in these domains is developed. Morphological analysis was applied to derive features and characteristics of the model. Third, an improvement approach to optimize a given collaboration situation is depicted. The improvement approach comprises a sensitivity model, which explicates causal relations between the dependency features. The methodology is applied to a case study from manufacturing industry

Concept And Exemplary Application Of Industrialized Re-Assembly To An Automotive Use Case In The Context Of Circular Economy

To reach set climate goals recent paradigms of production need to be reconsidered. Within the automotive industry, approaches like electric mobility focus on the use phase. However, the production of an electric car is resource and energy intensive, which diminishes the ecological advantage of electrification in the use phase. Established approaches aiming for the production phase often involve saving energy or resources, which is in a single-digit range when it comes to the reduction of emissions. In contrast to that, applying the concept of Circular Economy can reduce the ecological impact of products over their lifetime significantly. This paper introduces Re-Assembly as a plannable concept to extend the lifetime of products while reducing emissions and increasing the margins for the OEM. By combining the concept of Re-Assembly with other R-strategies, this paper aims to demonstrate the ecological and economic potential of circular business models, especially in the automotive sector. This is done by introducing the results of a use case and deriving specific enablers for the concept. The resulting enablers can be understood as fields of action for establishing Re-Assembly in practice

Concept of a Data-Driven Business Model for Circular Production Equipment

New legislation and the social movement around circular economy issues are currently forcing manufacturing companies to reassess the sustainability of their production and value chain. The circular economy is becoming an important economic concept, challenging manufacturing companies to develop approaches for realising resource-efficient production and usage of products. One potential area for sustainable production lies in the production equipment used for example in automotive production, such as robots, grippers and fixtures. However, new business models are needed to realise sustainable and recyclable production equipment, as existing ones do not take this into account. This paper presents an approach that deals with business model innovation and a digital platform ecosystem for circular production equipment. First, established business models are analysed for their transferability to automotive production. In particular, the use of subscriptions for production equipment is focused on and evaluated. The assessment is based on interviews with experts from equipment manufacturers and is quantified by them. The result is a presentation of the potential of the developed business model and a corresponding "as-a-service" concept for implementation using a digital platform

Design Elements Of Corporate Functions In The Trade-Off Between Efficient Goal Achievement And Prevention Of Disturbance Impacts

In the context of sustainable management, organizational resilience is gaining importance. Manufacturing companies are increasingly exposed to external disturbances. At the same time, corporate functions today are usually geared towards efficient execution. A positioning in this trade-off between efficient achievement of goals and the prevention of impacts of disturbances is necessary. Crisis-resistant product development is of particular importance, as innovative products offer a promising opportunity to create competitive advantages and thus secure the company's existence or even enable a company to increase its market share in the event of a crisis. Based on a literature review and its structured consolidation, this paper presents design elements of product development for positioning in this trade-off. The overall dimensions of the design elements are strategy, organization, resources, product, as well as project management. The approach is transferable to other corporate functions

From Complexity To Clarity In Sustainable Factory Planning: A Conceptual Approach For Data-driven Integration Of Green Factory KPIs In Manufacturing Site Selection

The selection of manufacturing facility locations entails high costs and long-term consequences. This necessitates an objective approach to mitigate uncertainties associated with subjective decision-making. Our paper builds upon previous research on data-driven location selection and conceptually extends it to integrate sustainability potential evaluation. By combining Green Factory Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the authors aim to facilitate and standardize long-term decision-making in sustainable factory planning. After outlining the requirements, current state of the art, and limitations of location selection, we emphasize the need for integrating region-specific Green Factory KPIs with new data sources for site selection. Therefore, we propose a methodology involving a review of scientific literature and other sources to identify data sources for site selection, establishing research criteria for determining data suitability. The results include suitable subsets for location selection and future steps such as criteria application and target data determination. This paper contributes to paving the way for implementing sustainability-driven location selection strategies in factory planning. In conclusion, we outline a roadmap for further development and suggest two areas for future research: data collection and integration, as well as developing and validating a location selection app

Similarity-based Product Configuration

In times of increasing market fragmentation, the ability to offer customized products at competitive prices is a crucial success factor for companies in mechanical engineering. Therefore, considering the benefits and expenses of product variants during the configuration process is a significant challenge. However, there is currently no systematic approach that would result in a product configuration that is similar to both, the internal standard variants and the customer requirements. This paper introduces a methodology facing this challenge. The methodology allows companies to determine the “optimal configuration” of a product based on similarities between a new product variant and existing variants