Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    F5G OpenLab: Enabling Twin Transition through Ubiquitous Fiber Connectivity
    ( 2023)
    Balanici, Mihail
    ;
    Shariati, Mohammad Behnam
    ;
    Safari, Pooyan
    ;
    Chojecki, Paul
    ;
    Chemnitz, Philipp Axel Moritz
    ;
    Przewozny, David
    ;
    Fischer, Johannes
    ;
    Freund, Ronald
    The paper introduces a new open laboratory, the F5G OpenLab, which aims at fostering the advancement of fiber-based solutions for everything. F5G OpenLab intends to aid in creating a sustainable and eco-friendly ICT industry and accelerate the digital transformation through autonomous networking solutions that are secure and trustworthy. In particular, the purpose of the F5G OpenLab is to establish an ecosystem for the validation of optical networking solutions that facilitate twin transition, provide a vendor-neutral platform for the assessment of vertical use cases, and enable the development of fiber-based solutions. It provides a platform to verify and unify next-gen networking solutions, access to early hardware and software releases, and unique testing and measurement facilities. Finally, the F5G OpenLab supports the development of blueprints for a green and digital transformation, capitalizing on the benefits of fiber technology for all industry sectors. We present its architecture as well as key features and capabilities. Moreover, we report several proof-of-concept demonstrations focused on industry 4.0 vertical use-cases.
  • 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
    Maturity Assessment in Industry 4.0 - A Comparative Analysis of Brazilian and German Companies
    ( 2020)
    Moura, Luciano Raizer
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    The article presents a comparative analysis of maturity level in Industry 4.0, of Brazilian companies with German Industry, seeking to identify learning opportunities to increase competitiveness. It was used the maturity model in Industry 4.0 developed by VDMA (German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association), applied to German companies, serving as benchmark. The same model was applied to Brazilian companies, from the State of Espírito Santo, located in the most developed region of the country, but with lower industrial density, and which has great challenges to increase its participation in the national and international markets. A field research was carried out with 46 industries, which participated in workshops to understand the fundamentals and to evaluate the maturity level in Industry 4.0. The individual results were processed by the platform of VDMA, indicating the levels in six dimensions of the model and the general result on a scale of 0 to 5. The results of all companies were tabulated, allowing the comparison with the research carried out with German companies. The study showed that, on average, Brazilian companies have the same level of maturity of German companies in readiness for Industry 4.0, with grade 0.9 in a scale of 0 to 5. But, there are significant differences in compared dimensions. 5.6% of German companies are at the advanced level in Industry 4.0, especially the technology developers, while Brazilian companies studied are still at the most basic levels. Both Industries are skeptical about investments in Industry 4.0 and the level of evaluation on Strategy dimension is still low. The comparison of expectations and difficulties allowed identify essential points to support these companies to follow the way to Industry 4.0.
  • Publication
    Learning factory for digitization of enterprises
    ( 2020)
    Rieckmann, Jens Mathis
    ;
    Knothe, Thomas
    The fourth industrial revolution stands for higher flexibility and productivity of companies. This requires intelligent and interconnected production systems with a well-trained staff. This article describes how the necessary qualification processes can be performed. A high degree of individualized products requires more digitized information (e.g. via IoT, sensors, RFIDs) and a flexible form of work. Today's changes in enterprises are focusing on upgrading the technical equipment. Dealing with changing the mental setting of the staff, enabling employees for digitalization and learning to cooperate in a smoother way (social learning) play an important role. Sensitization regarding necessary changes, decentralized decision-making and cooperating are the main goals for a training. Nevertheless, company's employees also need new technical skills to prepare the enterprise for higher levels of digitization. Learning factories include a stepwise evaluation and transformation of a model factory by the participants themselves. Performing group work sessions, participants have to agree on the future organizational structures, regardless of their function or role as worker, manager or administrative employee. In the upper level of production system design, a high level of digitization is the aim and most of the information flow should be automatically handled. In order to give participants a feeling for introducing extended IT support and using standard interfaces, they have to overcome some technological gaps. An example of a training factory is presented, which is focusing on the transformation of these production systems with different production steps.
  • Publication
    Characteristics and Skills of Leadership in the Context of Industry 4.0
    ( 2020)
    Guzmán, Valeria E.
    ;
    Muschard, Bernd
    ;
    Gerolamo, Mateus
    ;
    Kohl, Holger
    ;
    Rozenfeld, Henrique
    Leadership is essential in organizations to successfully promote a culture of innovation. Consequently, leaders assume a crucial role in the paradigm shift towards Industry 4.0. This paper aims to present key leadership characteristics and skills in the context of Industry 4.0. It was based mainly on a literature review about leadership and Industry 4.0. This work results in 10 leadership characteristics found for industry 4.0 and their relationship with 4 leadership skills groups: cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, business skills, and strategic skills. The organizations might consider these skills as requirements for the leaders in the transition process towards Industry 4.0.