Now showing 1 - 10 of 81
  • Publication
    Sustainable engineering master module - insights from three cohorts of European engineering team
    ( 2020)
    Gladysz, B.
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    Urgo, M.
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    Stock, T.
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    Haskins, C.
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    Sieckmann, F.
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    Jarzebowska, E.
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    Kohl, H.
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    Strandhagen, J.O.
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    Tollio, T.
    Mobility and transnational migration are current social developments among the population of the European Union. These developments in both society-at-large and companies, linked to the challenges of sustainability, lead to new requirements for working in the European Union. Teaching and learning in higher education needs to adapt to these requirements. As a result, new and innovative teaching and learning practices in higher education should provide competencies for transnational teamwork in the curriculum of tomorrow's engineers in order to ensure their competitiveness in the job market. A transnational project-oriented teaching and learning framework, which provides the future key competencies for young engineers was implemented in the course European Engineering Team (EET). Engineering students from four countries participated in a new project-based course that focused on the development of innovative and sustainable products and opportunities. The goal of this paper is to present results and lessons learnt from three cohorts of EET.
  • Publication
    Building up a national network of applied R&D institutes in an emerging innovation system
    ( 2020)
    Kohl, H.
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    Will, M.
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    Prim, M.F.
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    Pavim, A.X.
    Paper aims: This paper aims at answering the research question "How to successfully build up and strategically manage a new network of applied R&D in Brazil?" Originality: The paper is based on a unique experience of a strategic partnership, transferring the experiences of managing the largest network of applied research in Europe to the Brazilian National Innovation System (NIS). Research method: The research described in this paper follows an action research approach, using a participative process of rapid prototyping, pilot tests and continuous revision and adaptation. Main findings: The paper presents a comprehensive and consistent set of management models, procedures and tools for the planning, implementation and evaluation of applied R&D institutes. Implications for theory and practice: The paper's findings contribute to the empirical research on methodologies to manage knowledge-based networks and innovation actors at the interface between research and industry.
  • Publication
    Agent-based simulation for production planning and control in consideration of disruption events
    ( 2019)
    Bui, M.D.
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    Nguyen, Q.H.
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    Kohl, H.
    An agent-based simulation (ABS) as a computer supported decision-making tool is presented for planning and evaluating job shop production. The presented approach focuses on short-term production planning and control. It allows planners to design and modify their models by describing all activities of workers and machines regarding operations related to the manufacturing process and tasks aided in the production. The simulated model was used for analyzing different operation modes and control strategies dealing with disruption events including machine breakdown, worker absence, and product defect. This provides an easy-to-implement simulation result through a description of coordinated actions and interactions of system resources. A case study for a remanufacturing job-shop shows effects of disruption events and reaction plans on the system performances.
  • Publication
    European standardization of innovation management: The sufficiency of the CEN/TS 16555 in the 6th generation of innovation management
    ( 2019)
    Cap, J.-P.
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    Hinzmann, F.
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    Kohl, H.
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    Orth, R.
    Although being an innovator is an important role to play for significant growth and profitability of firms to gain competitive advantages, companies struggle to find and implement an efficient and effective innovation management system and innovation process for new product development (Salomo et al. 2007). The emerge of innovations is rarely incidentally, therefore, require a systematic approach. To enhance the innovation system, companies are constrained to develop and implement the necessary framework for all innovation activity. Contrary to regular management objectives, innovation management can constrain new barriers and unknown challenges and requires therefore a different approach compared to routine functions (Granig und Perusch 2012). The CEN/TS 16555 has the objective to prescribe technical requirements to be fulfilled for the development and implementation of a sustainable innovation management system into an organisation. The centre of this innovation management model is the innovation process which starts with an idea and ends with innovation results. As organisational aspects, such as innovation supportive leadership, strategy, factors and techniques are key elements of this model, the innovation process get enriched by assessment, improvement and planning of the process itself (Technical Specification 16555-1). This paper investigates the current European standardization activity regarding the implementation of innovation management approaches to tackle the abovementioned challenge of the implementation of innovation management in reference to the in DIN Spec CEN/TS 16555 introduced in 2016 by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN). This paper will analyse the CEN/TS 16555 for its sufficiency regarding the bigger picture of innovation management by linking it to main literature and best practices. For the comparison of the specification and the innovation management requirements and purposes, this paper will specifically focus on the innovation management framework in the 6 generation of innovation management.
  • Publication
    Requirements for a methodology for the analysis and assessment of technological capability in research and technology organizations
    ( 2019)
    Hecklau, F.
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    Kidschun, F.
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    Kohl, H.
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    Tominaj, S.
    The advancing globalization and simultaneous liberalization of the markets not only have a tremendous influence on companies in the manufacturing industry but also lead to new challenges for the research sector. Especially Research and Technology Organizations (RTOs) as bridges of basic research and the industry favor technological change on the one hand and increase the competitiveness of the industry through innovative solutions on the other. (Arnold, Clark, Jávorka 2010, pp. 9-10; Breznik 2015, pp. 24-25). The resulting high need for technological innovation pushes RTOs to intensify competition for technology leadership to sustain market competitiveness. In this regard, RTOs must be able to develop technological solutions that translate results from research and development activities into state-of-the-art products and services. This can only be achieved when technological resources and competences are efficiently and effectively used to build up competitive advantages. (Kröll 2007, p. 11; Figueiredo 2014, p. 83; Zehnder 1997, p. 20) Therefore, the technological capability of RTOs needs to be defined and analyzed. In this context, the paper aims to contribute to the development of a suitable methodology for systematically analyzing and evaluating the technological capability of RTOs using a standardized approach. Hence, a profound understanding of technological capability of RTOs is to be developed, which will enable the derivation of requirements to be met by an analysis and evaluation methodology which needs to be developed based on the identified requirements of this paper in the future. Subsequently, various methods and approaches for assessing the technological capability will be discussed and evaluated with respect to the specific requirements of RTOs. The outlook is to outline the further procedure for the development of a suitable methodology for the analysis and evaluation of technological performance.
  • Publication
    Review of methodologies for the assessment of the technological capability of RTOS
    ( 2019)
    Hecklau, F.
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    Kidschun, F.
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    Tominaj, S.
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    Kohl, H.
  • Publication
    Application example: Assessment of the technological maturity of Brazilian innovation institutes
    ( 2019)
    Hecklau, F.
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    Kidschun, F.
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    Will, M.
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    Kohl, H.
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    Prim, M.F.
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    Pavim, A.X.
    ;
    Oliveira, J.E.
    The advancing globalisation and simultaneous liberalisation of the markets not only have a tremendous influence on companies in the manufacturing industry, but also lead to new challenges for the research sector. Especially Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs) as bridges of basic research and the industry favour technological change on the one hand and increase the competitiveness of the industry through innovative solutions on the other. (Arnold, Clark, Jávorka 2010; Breznik 2015). The resulting high need for technological innovation pushes RTOs to intensify competition for technology leadership in order to sustain market competiveness. In this regard, RTOs must be able 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. (Kröll 2007; Figueiredo 2014; Zehnder 1997) Therefore, the assessment of technological maturity can provide RTOs with information on strengths and weaknesses in their specific technology areas (Kelessidis 2000), on the basis of which technology strategies can be derived to contribute to the development and training of substantial (core) competences (Klappert, Schuh, Aghassi 2011), which in turn improve the quality of unique and differentiating products and services (EARTO 2005). In this context, the aim of this paper is to give an application example of a technological maturity assessment of a Brazilian institutes of innovation within the framework of a technology audit. The organization SENAI (National Service of Industrial Training), which is mainly responsible for vocational training and education with more than 1.000 units spread all over Brazil, started to create a network of 26 applied research units (the SENAI Innovation Institutes - ISIs) in 2012. After the first years of operation and ramping-up these institutes, the headquarter of SENAI and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, under the leadership of the Fraunhofer IPK, jointly started in 2017 to evaluate the technological maturity of the SENAI Innovation Institutes. Within this paper, the methodology as well as the results of selected technology audits that were executed in different ISIs in 2019 will be described.
  • Publication
    Multi level network management - A method for managing inter-organizational innovation networks
    ( 2019)
    Cap, J.-P.
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    Blaich, E.
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    Kohl, H.
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    Raesfeld, A. von
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    Harms, R.
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    Will, M.
    Collaboration in inter-organizational networks is a major driver of innovation. Nevertheless, methods that practitioners can rely upon for managing innovation networks are still scarce. This research fills this gap by providing an approach that increases innovation output by intensifying collaboration in networks. An action research methodology with two cycles of action was adopted. The first cycle develops a method of network assessment designed to evaluate a network's collaboration potential. The second cycle iteratively builds on the first cycle and extends the method by a managerial approach to network management on an individual level.
  • Publication
    Integration of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient production into a pharmaceutical Lean Learning Factory
    ( 2019)
    Petrusch, N.
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    Sieckmann, F.
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    Menn, J.P.
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    Kohl, H.
    In the context of the implementation of Lean Production Systems, companies have become significantly more aware of the need for employee qualification and motivation. Due to the high share of practice, Learning Factories have proven to be an effective approach to respond to this circumstance. While the focus of Learning Factories has so far mainly been on discrete manufacturing, applications in the pharmaceutical industry are still comparatively rare. Based on this, a Learning Factory, that takes into account the special requirements and needs of the pharmaceutical industry, was developed and implemented in collaboration with a German pharmaceutical company. So far, Lean culture and tools have been trained on formulation and packaging processes. However, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) production, which is characterized by a higher level of automation as well as chemical and process engineering procedures, was initially not displayed, as no sufficient demand was assumed. Due to the increasing need for a holistic consideration of the whole value chain, the API production is moving into the focus of Lean improvements. In this context, many established tools need to be adapted. From feedback of over 120 conducted trainings and a series of interviews, it became clear, that for employees from API production, it is difficult to transfer the necessary knowledge to their work environment, leading to resistance in implementing Lean tools. In order to counter this problem, the Learning Factory was expanded by an additional API learning module. This increased the willingness of employees to participate in the trainings and to implement the contents.
  • Publication
    Ganzheitliche Produktionssysteme in der Pharmaindustrie
    ( 2018)
    Sieckmann, F.
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    Helm, R.
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    Kohl, H.
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    Wissel, S.