Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

Filters
Reset filters

Settings
Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
  • Publication
    Quantitative Evaluation of Assessment Items of the Technology Audit Method for Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs)
    ( 2023)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    ;
    Böhm, Julius Lukas
    Applied research and development (R&D) organisations strive to develop technological solutions that translate results from research and science into state-of-the-art products and services. As advanced technological capability is essential to their competitiveness, they need to be able to analyse and evaluate their technological capabilities. Hence, a tool or method is required that objectively and practically assesses the technological capability of Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) while meeting their unique requirements. The technology audit enables the assessment of the technological capability and thus the technological maturity of an RTO. It focuses on the analysis of the research activities in the R&D service areas of the RTO. This allows for a comprehensive understanding of the technologies used, the research competencies, the technologies developed, and the established technology partnerships of the RTO. In this context of the development of a suitable technology audit methodology, this paper aims to describe the process of validation of assessment items for evaluating the technological maturity of applied R&D organisations. After a brief overview of the technology audit method and the assessment dimensions and items, the focus is placed on the process of its validation. An expert survey using a questionnaire was created and used to evaluate the relevance of the 11 assessment items for the technology audit instrument in the three dimensions of Technology Base, Products & Services and Cooperation, as well as the respective aspects within each assessment item. This evaluation is intended to validate the selection of the items and to specify their respective importance to ultimately optimise the process of auditing applied R&D organisations.
  • Publication
    Conceptual Approach for a Digital Value Creation Chain Within the Timber Construction Industry - Potentials and Requirements
    ( 2023)
    Schramm, Nico
    ;
    Oertwig, Nicole
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    This paper addresses the megatrend of urbanization as well as the associated challenges of climate change and its relation to sustainable manufacturing. An enormous lever for improving the climate balance is offered by the consistent use of renewable building materials. In the Berlin/Brandenburg metropolitan region, wood as a building material in particular should play a central role in achieving the climate targets. To realize this, it is not only necessary to use the potential of wood as a raw material for storing carbon, but also to embed wood construction in regional value chains and integrated digital production systems in order to be able to optimally design innovative value creation fields, new regional products and efficient material cycles for increasing sustainability. In the context of this work, the information flows along the value chain are investigated and transferred into a digital model. Existing digital concepts such as the “Open BIM” approach (Building Information Modeling) have been incorporated and shape the entirety of the value chain module developed in this paper for serial prefabrication in multi-story timber construction. Material and information flows are analyzed, interfaces between the actors are identified, value-adding factors of timber system construction are systematically examined for their effects, and industrial prefabrication is aligned with a digital model.
  • Publication
    Technology Audit - Procedure for the assessment of the technological maturity of applied R&D organizations
    ( 2022)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    Applied research and development (R&D) organizations - or research and technology organizations (RTOs) in a broader sense - strive to develop technological solutions that translate results from research and science into state-of-the-art products and services. This can only be achieved if technological resources and competences are effectively and efficiently used to build up competitive advantages. Therefore, the assessment of the technological capability can provide applied R&D organizations with information on strengths and weaknesses in their specific technology areas, on the basis of which technology strategies can be derived to contribute to the development and training of substantial (core) competences, which in turn improve the quality of unique and differentiating products and services. The main objective of this paper is to describe the technology audit as a procedure for evaluating the technological maturity of applied research organizations. Hence, the focus will be put on the technological capabilities needed to execute the intended research activities on the way to becoming a reference in the respective technology area. In addition, the aim of the application of the procedure is to provide a detailed insight into the working methods of research institutions with focus on the R&D portfolio (e.g. complexity of R&D projects). Furthermore, the sustainable impact of R&D projects of the applied R&D organization (e.g. optimizations of customers processes) will be discussed, as well as the used & developed technologies and the necessary competences to generate innovative solutions for the Brazilian industry.
  • Publication
    Methodological procedure for the development of a qualitative and quantitative evaluation concept for project benefit assessment
    ( 2022)
    Hizal, Gamze Gül
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    The fourth industrial revolution not only brings great opportunities for the economy, but also poses major challenges for all stakeholders. Manufacturing companies in particular are affected by challenges such as a lack of innovative strength or the risk of being overtaken by innovative start-ups. However, the dynamic environment and the resulting complexity require faster and better decisions to remain competitive in the long term. Current business practices of established companies do not meet this challenge and risk losing control of their core business. Taking a purely technological approach to this subject harbors costly risks. Only the integration of the various individual technologies into a holistic digital strategy creates efficiency and new growth areas. To exploit the full potential of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) in the manufacturing industry, companies must therefore take a strategic view of the technological options and adapt their organizational structure and culture. The main objective of this paper is therefore to describe the procedure for developing a suitable evaluation concept for assessing the economic benefits of digitization projects. The evaluation concept to be developed is designed to be able to perform a multidimensional examination and evaluation of digitization projects in order to enable a quick and well-founded decision on the implementation as well as the prioritization of a specific project or several projects from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. The paper therefore describes a seven-step approach to developing a multidimensional matrix diagram that serves as the basic structure for such an evaluation concept. To develop a suitable evaluation concept, the research focus will be carefully examined and in-depth research on two overarching themes will be conducted, resulting in the definition of appropriate evaluation criteria: From a methodological point of view, existing assessment models are considered in general and the strengths and weaknesses of these models are discussed. From a practical perspective, the special requirements of digitization and Industry 4.0 will be addressed. To this end, expert interviews will be conducted and a total of 100 practical examples will be selected from an extensive database and analyzed in a criteria-oriented manner in order to derive assessment dimensions and assessment criteria from both a quantitative and qualitative perspective.
  • Publication
    Assessment Dimensions and Items for the Evaluation of the Technological Maturity of Applied R&D Organizations
    ( 2022)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    Applied research and development (R&D) organizations strive to develop technological solutions that translate results from research and science into state-of-the-art products and services. This can only be achieved when technological resources and competences are effectively and efficiently used to build up competitive advantages. Therefore, the assessment of the technological capability can provide applied R&D organizations with information on strengths and weaknesses in their specific technology areas, on the basis of which technology strategies can be derived to contribute to the development and training of substantial (core) competences, which in turn improve the quality of unique and differentiating products and services. In this context, the main aim of this paper is to describe crucial assessment dimensions and the respective items within those dimensions. Therefore, it must be focused on the technology basis of the applied R&D organization to identify important evaluation items. The technological base serves as input, as both technologies and competencies that are used for the execution of R&D activities need to be analyzed and evaluated. Additionally, the results of the R&D activities need to be focused as outputs. In this regard, technologies that result in products or technological services need to be considered. Lastly, assessment items in the field of cooperation must be taken into account as technological synergies through partnerships are important success factors for R&D organizations. In this context, partners who support the execution of R&D activities must be focused.
  • Publication
    A contribution to the interpretation of organizational resilience (Or) based on the analysis of key drivers and conceptual elements
    ( 2021)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    ;
    Hizal, Gamze Gül
    Organizations are increasingly confronted with unexpected events, which can occur within or outside the organization and relate to various dimensions or aspects. The significance and extent of its impact on the organization can be quite surprising (Duchek 2020). Despite the fact that academic interest in this subject area has grown steadily in recent years, its conceptualization is not yet fully developed. There is no consensus on the meaning of resilience and the elements it contains. This paper contributes to the understanding and need for organizational resilience (OR) and also reveals gaps in its conceptualization. Resilience is understood as the ability of an organization to repel, prepare for, consider, absorb, recover from and adapt ever more successfully to actual or potential adverse events. Those events are either catastrophes or processes of change with catastrophic outcome which can have human, technical or natural causes.(Thoma 2014) In order to survive in an uncertain environment and promote future success, organizations must be able to deal with all these manifestations of the unexpected and catapult themselves out of the crisis. They have to develop a capacity for resilience that enables them to react appropriately to unexpected events and to make capital from events that could potentially threaten the survival of an organization (Lengnick-Hall et al. 2011; Duchek 2020; Denyer 2017; Aguilar 1967). In literature and practice, there are various approaches to OR, which consist of phase models that also allow an assessment of an organization as resilience using a maturity model. From the examined methods in this paper it follows that the resilience capability is questioned only after occurrence of an adverse event and no "preparation phase" according to the Fraunhofer resilience cycle exists. This ex post approach endangers not only the competitive position, but also the existence of an organization.
  • Publication
    Development of a Conceptual Understanding of the term Technological Capability
    ( 2021)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    ;
    Hizal, Gamze Gül
    The term "technological capability" has been studied for almost 40 years. It is an important component of technology strategy that contributes to the success and strengthening of organizations competitiveness. There are numerous attempts to define the term in the literature, but it is always used in different contexts. Thus, the definition of technological capability varies depending on the researcher's perspective and objectives. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to develop an own definition and interpretation of the term technological capability. To this end, an extensive literature review will be conducted to examine the basic concepts and management areas of technological capability and to analyze the individual definitions of the term. The subsequent goal is to derive an understanding of what technological capability is in terms of research and technology organizations.
  • Publication
    Structured analysis of methodologies for the assessment of the technological capability of RTOs - Using a method engineering approach
    ( 2020)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    ;
    Tominaj, S.
    New state-of-the-art technologies in evolving markets enable organizations to lead the competition and gain advantages over their competitors. The constantly changing technological developments and market demands not only affect industrial companies but also Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs). As RTOs are situated between universities and organizations that pursue fundamental research on the one hand, and business entities on the other, they are strongly influenced by changing economical environments. Hence, to generate value for their customers, RTOs need to use state-of-the-art technologies in order to be able to provide high-quality products and services to their customers. In consequence, regular analysis and assessment of the technological capability of RTOs is an important strategy to ensure progress and success. In previous research work a generic process model for the structured analysis of methods used in the context of the technological capability of Research and Technology Organizations has been developed. Therefore, method engineering approaches have been used as a basis to create a holistic model that can be used as a structured approach for the analysis of methodologies. Building on this, this paper uses the approach to analyze different methodologies. The generic process model of method engineering will be applied to analyze existing methodologies for the assessment of technological capabilities of RTOs in a structured way. Therefore, a literature review is conducted to identify existing methodologies in the context of the technological capabilities of organizations with a special interest in RTOs. Furthermore, the identified methodologies are assessed using the method engineering approach. In a final step, limitations and further developments of methodologies for the assessment of technological capabilities are discussed.
  • Publication
    Analyzing the role of research and technology organizations (RTOs) in national innovation systems (NIS)
    ( 2020)
    Hecklau, Fabian
    ;
    Kidschun, Florian
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    ;
    Tominaj, S.
    This paper conducts an extensive literature review to derive the role and positioning of Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) in National Innovation Systems (NIS). Special attention is paid to the identification of main actors and the structure of a national innovation system in order to define the term ""applied research organizations"" and to analyse research and development, as they enable to describe the structure of innovation systems. The innovative performance of a country depends on the functionality of its national innovation systems, the active interaction of the involved actors and the technological maturity of the NIS (OECD 1997). NIS are defined as networks of institutions in the private and public sector that interact with each other to develop, modify and transform new technologies. They take over different activities and functions between basic research and market maturity. (Freeman 1995) In a NIS, different actors are active in promoting innovation. In general, a corporate sector generates the demand for innovation and a network of organizations consisting of universities, laboratories and political institutions acts as a supporting part. Together, they contribute to advancements in their fields. (Teubal 2002). Thus, the analysis of NIS represents a possible approach for the identification of actors, their field of actuation and especially of the role of RTOs. For these purposes, one of the best-known structuring approaches is the triple helix model of innovation, which focuses on the three main actors: science, industry and government. (Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff 1995; Ranga and Etzkowitz 2013) When analyzing the main actors of this system, it becomes clear that RTOs play a significant role for national innovation systems. RTOs are driving forces of digital transformation and economic growth as they increase innovation-related capabilities in industry and develop state-of-the-art technologies. As intermediaries between universities and private organizations, RTOs act as connecting organizations in the innovation system and pursue innovation for economy, society and governments.