A New Framework for Designing and Developing Cost-Effective Logistic Chains for Long Items

In this thesis, a new framework has been proposed, designed and developed for creating efficient and cost effective logistics chains for long items within the building industry. The building industry handles many long items such as pipes, profiles and so on. The handling of these long items is quite complicated and difficult because they are bulky, unstable and heavy. So it is not cost effective and efficient to handle them manually. Existing planning frameworks ignore these special requirements of such goods and are not planned for handling these goods. That leads to that many additional manual handling steps are currently required to handle long items. Therefore, it is very important to develop a new framework for creating the efficient and cost-effective logistics chain for long items. To propose such a new framework, the expert interviews were conducted to gain the fully understanding about the customer requirements. The experts from all stages of the building industry supply chain were interviewed. The data collected from the expert interviews has been analysed and the meaningful findings about the customer requirements have been applied as the valuable inputs for the proposition of the new framework. To have fully knowledge about current practices, all existing planning frameworks have been analysed and evaluated using SWOT analysis. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the current planning frameworks have been comparatively analysed and evaluated. The findings from SWOT analysis have been used for proposing, designing and developing the new framework. The great efforts have been made during the implementation stage. The six different key parameters for a successful implementation have been identified. They are: • Improvement Process with Employees • Control of the Improvements • Gifts/Money for the Improvements and Additional Work • KAIZEN Workshops • Motivation of the Employees for Improvements • Presentation of the Results Among these six parameters, it has been found that KAIZEN workshops is a very effective way for creating an efficient and cost-effective logistics chain for long items. It is believed that the new framework can be theoretically used for the planning of logistics that handle long items and commercial goods. This framework can also be used to plan all kinds of in-house logistics processes from the incoming goods, storage, picking, delivery combination areas and through to the outgoing goods area. The achievements of this project are as follows (1) the new framework for creating efficient and cost-effective logistics chains for long items, (2) the data collection and the data evaluation at the preliminary planning, (3) the decision for one planning variant already at the end of the structure planning, (4) the analysis and evaluation of customer requirements, (5) the consideration and implementation of the customer requirements in the new framework, (6) the creation of figures and tables as planning guideline, (7) the research and further development of Minomi with regards to long items, (8) the research on the information flow, (9) the classification of the improvements and the improvement handling at the implementation, (10) the identification of key parameters for a successful implementation of the planning framework. This framework has been evaluated both theoretically and through a case study of a logistics system planning for handling long items and commercial goods. It has been found that the new framework is theoretically sound and practically valuable. It can be applied to creating the logistics system for long items, especially for building industry

Der praxisorientierte Weg zum schlanken Produktionssystem

Viele kleine und mittlere Unternehmen haben kein eigenes Produktionssystem, jedoch wird die Notwendigkeit mit steigender Unternehmensgröße unerlässlich. Im Vordergrund stehen Ziele wie eine flache Hierarchieebene und schlanke Prozessketten. Ein Produktionssystem stellt weiterhin sicher, dass die Reaktionsfähigkeit und die Flexibilität eines Unternehmens von der Unternehmensgröße unabhängig sind. Global haben sich Systeme von Taylor und Toyota durchgesetzt. Jedoch genügt es nicht, eines der Systeme zu duplizieren, vielmehr kann die Philosophie eines bestehenden Systems dazu beitragen, um ein eigenes Produktionssystem maßgeschneidert zu entwickeln. Das Buch beschreibt die Schaffung eines schlanken Unternehmens in vier Schritten anhand der Toyotaphilosophie. Um das Ziel zu erreichen, genügt es nicht nur einzelne Prozessketten zu verschlanken, vielmehr beginnt der Leangedanke bereits in der Unternehmensphilosophie. In ihr werden die Werte, die ein Unternehmen pflegt, dargestellt. Erst wenn die grundsätzlichen Werte eines Unternehmens klar definiert sind, können Prozesse organisiert und standardisiert werden. Ein Schlüsselelement bei der Entwicklung des schlanken Unternehmens ist das Prozessdesign. Funktionierende Prozesse sorgen für eine reibungslose Fertigung von Produkten. Zudem müssen Prozesse sich ständig den ändernden Ansprüchen anpassen können. In einem nächsten Schritt muss das Partnernetzwerk aufgebaut werden. Zu den Partnern zählen interne Mitarbeitende sowie externe Lieferanten und Kunden. Die Herausforderung hierbei besteht in der Schaffung eines gemeinsamen Teams, das die gleichen Ziele verfolgt. Zum Schluss werden Methoden zur Problemlösung aufgezeigt. Das strukturierte Erkennen und Behandeln von Problemen führt letztendlich zur Behebung der Problemursache

Automobilantriebe im Wandel

Der Automobilantrieb ist eng mit dem globalen wirtschaftlichen Erfolg und dessen Wachstum verbunden. Nie zuvor konnten größere Distanzen von so vielen Individuen und Gütern in so kurzer Zeit zurückgelegt werden. Aufgrund der aktuellen wirtschaftlichen und ökologischen Lage sind die Automobilbauer gefordert Antriebe zu entwickeln, die möglichst geringe Emissionen mit einem maximalen Wirkungsgrad und dennoch großen Reichweiten ermöglichen. Dabei verfügt der Automobilmarkt über eine große Vielfalt und aufgrund der zunehmenden Anforderungen und regional abhängigen Randbedingungen (Gesetze, Emissionsanforderungen, etc.), sowie den Interessenkonflikten bei den Herstellern, über eine hohe Komplexität. Auch der zukünftige Endverbraucher hat Anforderungen an sein Fahrzeug. Wie groß ist die Reichweite eines Elektrofahrzeugs? Wie kann diese bei Bedarf gesteigert werden? Sind diese Antriebe wirklich effizient? Um diese Fragen beantworten zu können, muss der aktuelle Stand der Technik näher beleuchtet werden, so dass die teilweise geringen Unterschiede, gerade bei Hybridsystemen, nachvollzogen werden können und um die individuellen Vorteile greifbarer zu machen. Letztendlich wird klar, dass sich der Antrieb verändern wird und trotz, oder gerade wegen der zunehmenden Elektrifizierung und Hybridisierung, wird dennoch der Verbrennungsmotor die dominante Antriebsquelle über einen längeren Zeitraum bleiben

Semi-Automated Location Planning for Urban Bike-Sharing Systems

Bike-sharing has developed into an established part of many urban transportation systems. However, new bikesharing systems (BSS) are still built and existing ones are extended. Particularly for large BSS, location planning is complex since factors determining potential usage are manifold. We propose a semi-automatic approach for creating or extending real-world sized BSS during general planning. Our approach optimizes locations such that the number of trips is maximized for a given budget respecting construction as well as operation costs. The approach consists of four steps: (1) collecting and preprocessing required data, (2) estimating a demand model, (3) calculating optimized locations considering estimated redistribution costs, and (4) presenting the solution to the planner in a visualization and planning front end. The full approach was implemented and evaluated positively with BSS and planning experts

Entwicklung technikdidaktischer Kompetenzfacetten im Verlauf schulpraktischer Studien

Der Anspruch einer stärkeren berufspraktischen Orientierung und Aufwertung von schulpraktischen Lerngelegenheiten im Rahmen der Lehrer/-innenausbildung resultierte im rein quantitativen Ausbau des zeitlichen Umfangs sowie qualitativ in neuen Ansätzen der investierten Lernbegleitung seitens der Hochschulen (vgl. Gröschner & Seidel 2012). Bislang fehlt es jedoch an geeigneten Testinstrumenten sowie empirischer Evidenz, ob Praxisphasen die gewünschten Förderwirkungen bei angehenden Lehrpersonen auch einlösen.In einem ersten Schritt widmet sich daher der vorliegende Beitrag einer Instrumentenprüfung mittels einer im Längsschnitt angelegten Untersuchung dieser Forschungsaufgabe: Inwieweit ist das umfassend validierte und auf Unterrichtsvignetten basierende Testinstrument PCK-T in der Lage, die allgemein unterstellte Entwicklung fachdidaktischer Kompetenzfacetten im Verlauf schulpraktischen Studien von Studierenden im allgemein bildenden Fach Technik[1] erfassen zu können?[1] Es wird lediglich die Erfassung zentraler technikdidaktischer Kompetenzfacetten von angehenden Lehrkräften des allgemein bildend ausgerichteten Technikunterrichts beansprucht. Für angehende Lehrkräfte gewerblich-technischer berufsbildender Schulen wäre das Instrument in der hier vorliegenden Ausgestaltungin der Verwendung ungeeignet

Prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. Validation and ranking of established staging-systems in a large western HCC-cohort.

HCC is diagnosed in approximately half a million people per year, worldwide. Staging is a more complex issue than in most other cancer entities and, mainly due to unique geographic characteristics of the disease, no universally accepted staging system exists to date. Focusing on survival rates we analyzed demographic, etiological, clinical, laboratory and tumor characteristics of HCC-patients in our institution and applied the common staging systems. Furthermore we aimed at identifying the most suitable of the current staging systems for predicting survival. Overall, 405 patients with HCC were identified from an electronic medical record database. The following seven staging systems were applied and ranked according to their ability to predict survival by using the Akaike information criterion (AIC) and the concordance-index (c-index): BCLC, CLIP, GETCH, JIS, Okuda, TNM and Child-Pugh. Separately, every single variable of each staging system was tested for prognostic meaning in uni- and multivariate analysis. Alcoholic cirrhosis (44.4%) was the leading etiological factor followed by viral hepatitis C (18.8%). Median survival was 18.1 months (95%-CI: 15.2-22.2). Ascites, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase, AFP, number of tumor nodes and the BCLC tumor extension remained independent prognostic factors in multivariate analysis. Overall, all of the tested staging systems showed a reasonable discriminatory ability. CLIP (closely followed by JIS) was the top-ranked score in terms of prognostic capability with the best values of the AIC and c-index (AIC 2286, c-index 0.71), surpassing other established staging systems like BCLC (AIC 2343, c-index 0.66). The unidimensional scores TNM (AIC 2342, c-index 0.64) and Child-Pugh (AIC 2369, c-index 0.63) performed in an inferior fashion. Compared with six other staging systems, the CLIP-score was identified as the most suitable staging system for predicting prognosis in a large German cohort of predominantly non-surgical HCC-patients

Head kinematics in patients with neck pain compared to asymptomatic controls : a systematic review

Background: Neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders encountered by healthcare providers. A precise assessment of functional deficits, including sensorimotor control impairment, is regarded necessary for tailored exercise programmes. Sensorimotor control can be measured by kinematic characteristics, such as velocity, acceleration, smoothness, and temporal measures, or by assessing movement accuracy. This systematic review aims to identify movement tasks and distinct outcome variables used to measure kinematics and movement accuracy in patients with neck pain and present their results in comparison to asymptomatic controls. Methods: Electronic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, PEDro, Cochrane Library and CINAHL databases from inception to August 2020. Risk of bias of included studies was assessed. Movement tasks and specific outcome parameters used were collated. The level of evidence for potential group differences in each outcome variable between patients with neck pain and controls was evaluated. Results: Twenty-seven studies examining head kinematics and movement accuracy during head-aiming, functional and unconstrained movement tasks of the head were included. Average Risk of Bias of included studies was moderate. In total, 23 different outcome variables were assessed. A strong level of evidence for an increased movement time and for an increased number of errors during head aiming tasks was found. Moderate evidence was found in traumatic neck pain for a decreased mean velocity, peak acceleration, and reaction time, and for point deviation and time on target during head aiming tasks. Moderate evidence was found for decreased acceleration during unconstrained movements, too. Results on the remaining movement task and outcome variables showed only limited, very limited or even conflicting level of evidence for patients with neck pain to differ from controls. Conclusions: Sensorimotor control in NP in the way of kinematic and movement accuracy characteristics of head motion was examined in head aiming, functional or unconstrained movement tasks. The results from this review indicate that for some characteristics that describe sensorimotor control, patients with NP differ from healthy controls. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020139083

Matching Lung Volume Data Sets – A Novel Approach

There is a significant demand in matching CT datasets of the lung. The increasing number of CT slices per examination due to the higher resolution of modern CT scanners and the need for quantification of the progress of disease and healing processes in follow-up studies. A volunteer’s lung was scanned by the means of multidetector CT in two different states of ventilation. The necessary lung structures for the matching procedure like lung surface and branching points were segmented. A thin-plate spline method was used to calculate the matched lung volume. The preliminary results show an average error of 2 voxel, i.e. 2mm. The calculation of the transformation matrix takes about one second on a conventional PC, which is considerably faster than other methods described in literature. The method described may be apt to be introduced in radiological practice when it comes to compare high resolution CT scans in follow-up studies quantitatively

Hindfoot and Foot Arch Reconstruction by Atypical Subtalar Arthrodesis and Achilles Tendon Lengthening for a Severe Comminuted Calcaneal Fracture: A Case Report

Open calcaneus fractures are rare but severe injuries. Highenergy trauma often causes significant soft tissue and bone damage, posing extraordinary challenges for treatment.3 The rates of complications associated with treatment are high, including malunion, nonunion, and fracture-related infections.5 These complications are associated with an amputation rate of the lower limb of 8%.2 Even if amputation is avoided and treatment and complication management are successful, the patient’s quality of life is compromised, similar to those suffering from bone infections in the long bones. Apart from compromised soft tissue, bone defects present the main obstacle to successful treatment. Anatomical bone reconstruction becomes difficult, if not impossible, in cases of severe compound fractures. Open fractures necessitate thorough surgical debridement to prevent infection, which may result in significant bone defects requiring bone reconstruction.3,4 Given the immense challenges of surgical treatment following high-energy injuries, where bone transplantation and extensive osteosynthesis offer limited promise, we present a case illustrating an atypical subtalar arthrodesis and hindfoot reconstruction in a patient with a Gustilo type IIIa° comminuted calcaneus fracture

If Practice Makes Perfect, Where do we Stand?

Practitioners have played an important role in the information system (IS) field’s development since its beginnings. In the 1970s, IS researchers’ integration with practitioners was high with Society for Information Management members receiving copies of the MIS Quarterly, practitioners funding the ICIS Doctoral Consortium, and submissions receiving at least one practitioner review. Today, however, the integration between practitioners and researchers appears more distant. Given that almost 50 years have passed since the field’s development, we believe that we need to reflect on the past, present, and future relationship between IS research and IS practice. Has the distance between academics and practitioners become too great? Is our relevance too low to expect practitioners to join AIS and attend our conferences? How might we increase the integration? At a panel at ICIS 2018, several panelists provided position statements about those issues