Fraunhofer-Institut für Angewandte Informationstechnik FIT

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  • Publication
    Modeling IT Availability Risks in Smart Factories. A Stochastic Petri Nets Approach
    ( 2020)
    Miehle, Daniel
    ;
    Häckel, Björn
    ;
    Pfosser, Stefan
    ;
    Übelhör, Jochen
    In the course of the ongoing digitalization of production, industrial production infrastructures have become increasingly intertwined with information and communication technology. There-by, physical production processes depend more and more on the flawless functioning of information networks. Threats, such as attacks and errors, can compromise the components of in-formation networks, and due to the increasing interconnection, can even cause entire smart factories to fail. However, increasing complexity and lack of transparency of information networks in smart factories complicate the detection and analysis of such threats. Following a De-sign Science Research approach, this study aims to develop a methodology to depict and to model information networks in smart factories to enable the identification and analysis of IT availability risks. Based on a modular stochastic Petri net approach, we provide an artifact that enables the simulation and analysis of threats in smart factory information networks. To demonstrate the applicability and feasibility of our approach, we investigate different threat scenarios regarding their impacts on the operational capability of a close-to-reality information network setting. Further, to complement the evaluation from a practical perspective, we integrated the insights from two expert interviews with two global leading companies in the automation and packaging industry. The results indicate that the developed artifact offers a promising approach to better analyze and understand IT availability risks in smart factory information networks.
  • Publication
    Framing microgrid design from a business and information systems engineering perspective
    ( 2019)
    Sachs, Thomas
    ;
    Gründler, Anna
    ;
    Rusic, Milos
    ;
    Fridgen, Gilbert
    Microgrids are decentralized distribution networks that integrate distributed energy resources and balance energy generation and loads locally. The introduction of microgrids can help overcome the challenges of global energy systems. Despite this potential, the information systems domain has seen limited research on microgrids. This paper synthesizes research on elements of microgrids for electric energy. Interviewed experts maintain that technological microgrid solutions have been solidly developed; nevertheless, the lack of economic and business consideration is stalling their deployment. The authors argue that business and information systems engineering research can provide integrated perspectives that connect technology and markets. Consequently, the authors derive a framework from an extensive interdisciplinary literature review that structures the academic state of the art on microgrid design and could guide associated information systems research. The framework comprises four layers: energy technology and infrastructure, information and communication infrastructure, application systems, and governance. The authors evaluate the framework in interviews with 15 experts from industry and three from academia. Their feedback allows to iteratively refine the framework and point out research directions on microgrids in business and information systems engineering.
  • Publication
    Do not forget about smart towns. How to bring customized digital innovation to rural areas
    ( 2018)
    Hosseini, Sabiölla
    ;
    Frank, Leonhard
    ;
    Fridgen, Gilbert
    ;
    Heger, Sebastian
    To date, research on smart cities has primarily focused on urban congested areas. As this paper points out, it is becoming ever more important to look at intermediate and thinly populated regions like towns and rural areas as arenas for digital innovation. By following a multi-phase research process, the authors examine towns' highly individual needs in an exploratory way, derive key aspects from recent literature that can serve to mitigate or solve their problems, and present an open innovation process by way of integrating local context factors, local stakeholders, and suitable information and communication technology solutions. The objective is to develop a first digital innovation approach in a field that has so far been scarcely considered. The authors conduct a case study, which demonstrates the applicability and effectiveness of their innovation approach in a small town in southern Germany and derive first important lessons learned. Thereby, the concept of an innovation ecosystem reveals a promising solution to face the challenges of the investigated town.
  • Publication
    How to exploit the digitalization potential of business processes
    ( 2018)
    Denner, Marie-Sophie
    ;
    Püschel, Louis
    ;
    Röglinger, Maximilian
    Process improvement is the most value-adding activity in the BPM lifecycle. Despite ma-ture knowledge, many approaches have been criticized to lack guidance on how to put process improvement into practice. Given the variety of emerging digital technologies, organizations not only face the process improvement black box, but also high uncertainty regarding digital technologies. We thus propose a method that supports organizations in exploiting the digitalization potential of their processes. To do so, we adopted action de-sign research (ADR) and situational method engineering (SME). We conducted two de-sign cycles involving practitioners (i.e., managers and BPM experts) and end-users (i.e., process owners and participants). In the first cycle, we evaluated our methods alpha version by inter viewing practitioners from five organizations. In the second cycle, we evaluated the beta version via real-world case studies. In this paper, we include detailed results of one case study, which we conducted at a semiconductor manufacturer.
  • Publication
    Digitalization: Opportunity and challenge for the business and information systems engineering community
    ( 2017)
    Legner, Christine
    ;
    Eymann, Torsten
    ;
    Hess, Thomas
    ;
    Matt, Christian
    ;
    Böhmann, Tilo
    ;
    Drews, Paul
    ;
    Mädche, Alexander
    ;
    Urbach, Nils
    ;
    Ahlemann, Frederik