Production, Operations and Supply Chain Management
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Moving places in cars impacts human activity daily. Therefore, living in a world without cars is inconceivable. While demand for cars exists, supply experiences shortcomings. Customers receive their vehicles with only one key or must deal with long delivery times. There is a correlation between the car industry, supply shortfalls and the current state of the world regarding COVID-19. The objectives of this research are examining how the semiconductor chip shortage affected sales and production of German car manufacturers and what strategic conclusions can be drawn for the future. To reach the objectives a quantitative theory analysis of existing literature was applied. The chosen car manufacturers are Audi AG, BMW AG, and Mercedes-Benz Group AG.
The results show that all objects to the research topic experienced a decline in production and sales. Further, that the semiconductor shortage, mainly anticipated by the pandemic, revealed the fragility of supply networks of the automotive industry. Different strategic attempts may cure supply chain management issues as such; however, it depends on the evaluation of the automotive industry whether this crisis carries a sustainable effect with its presence or not.
Die Hochschule Furtwangen University sieht für das 7. Semester des Studiengangs International Engineering anlässlich des Abschlusses des Bachelor of Science eine Anfertigung einer wissenschaftlichen Arbeit durch den Studenten vor. Dabei soll der Student mit dem Erlernten aus der Technik und der Wirtschaft während der gesamten Studienphase in einer Thematik mögliche Problemstellungen und relevante Lösungsansätze erkennen und ausarbeiten. Know-how-Transfer ist in der heutigen Welt ein wesentlicher Bestandteil für jedes Unternehmen auf internationaler Ebene. Kooperationen mit ausländischen Partnern, aber auch firmeninterne Expansionen ins Ausland sind der Schlüssel zur Unternehmensstabilisierung. Dabei gelten als Voraussetzung für eine erfolgreiche Transferrealisierung die sprachlichen Kenntnisse und kulturelles Verständnis des jeweiligen Landes. Student Yang Yu hat sich dieser Thematik in seiner Abschlussarbeit "Pad Clip - Know-how-Transfer im Rahmen eines Produktverlagerungsprozesses am Beispiel der Baumann GmbH" gewidmet. Dabei konnte er den kompletten Projektverlauf in einem deutschen Unternehmen, von der Materialbeschaffung bis hin zum Transferprozess nach China begleiten. Die dabei entstandene Problematik wurde analysiert und optimiert. Die herausgearbeiteten Optimierungsvorschläge können zukünftig für deutsche Berufstätige in China als Leitfaden zur Orientierung dienen.
New product development is essential for a company to grow and sustain itself. Usability testing is a crucial part of the new product development process, and it helps reduce product uncertainty and market failure. There are many methods available and they vary depending on the product development phase. This thesis focuses on methods used in the deployment phase, which is the final stage before mass production. The methods used differ subjecting to different customers.
A number of studies have suggested that marketing and sales should vary when the nature of customer differs. However, only a few studies focus on how the nature of customer influences new product testing. This research compares the involvement of B2B and B2C customers during the product innovation testing phase.
The comparison has been subcategorised into four smaller hypotheses. First, the methodologies used, such as virtual prototype testing, field testing, lab usability testing, and more, are discussed whether companies use them differently according to customers' nature. Second, the process of identifying and recruiting testers is examined. Third, testers' qualification is analysed, whether participants are ordinary users or professionals or companies prefer a mixture of both. Last, the sample size, which is simply the amount of testers who participated in the usability test.
The automotive industry is undergoing substantial structural changes. New forms of powertrains and players are emerging. Manufacturers, due to internal as well as external drivers, are building their cars on platforms. By making use of modular design approaches, they hope to satisfy customer needs best and stay competitive. When designing global platforms, local variations are to be avoided. The presented paper offers an approach to rank components of an electric vehicle according to their likeliness of a local design adaption. To verify the results of the value chain- based analysis, the variant indicator analysis, interviews were carried out. The analysis shows that the battery is most likely subject to design changes. Also, variant drivers in the value chain bear the highest potential for local redesigns.
The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the impact of Intelligent Automation on individuals, organizations and economy and how organizations can adapt. Within the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the use of new technologies is on the rise and rapidly developing and the world is becoming more and more digital.
Organizations in financial services like banks and insurance companies are reevaluating their processes, however, automation has not been applied yet and their back office processes still contain a huge amount of paper and many repetitive tasks, which make the processes inefficient. In processes like this, there is a huge potential for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence, which allow organizations to automate end-to-end processes with humans only handling exceptions and doing small configurations. The results are higher quality and speed at lower cost.
Despite the fact that the implementation of Intelligent Automation can be done fast and simple, companies have to involve the right people, analyze which processes are actually automatable and follow necessary steps in the implementation process in order to successfully implement Intelligent Automation.
Advantest Company ("the company") is the world’s leading manufacturer of automatic test and measurement equipment used in the design and manufacturing of semiconductors. Because of the complexity of technologies and the supply chain of the semiconductor business segment, the company depends on both internal and external suppliers to manage some aspects of the supply chain of its main product, the System on Chip (“SoC”) test system. As a result, it is of ongoing interest to the company to have tools to continually strive for increased quality, reliability, capacity, and speed. Above all, these tools must enhance the relationships with the suppliers, and ensure the profitability and the company's position in the future.
The goal of this thesis is to understand the supply chain procedure at Advantest Company’s current state from the data-driven perspective by using the process mining technique. This technique is an emerging discipline, providing a comprehensive set of tools to provide fact-based insights and support process improvement. This new discipline is built on process model-driven approaches and data mining.
In this thesis, we discuss opportunities for process mining with an approach to analyse the process and how it can help the company enhance the procedure. This approach, which consists of data extraction from both third-party and internal software solutions, provides better visibility and faster disruptive event notification of the supply chain at the company.
In today's fast-paced business environment, customers expect more than just high-quality products or services. They also demand excellent customer support that is both efficient and personalized. With the growth of businesses and the increasing complexity of products and services, providing efficient customer support has become a critical component of any successful business strategy to fulfill customers and user’s expectations. The present study investigates the need for a technical support helpdesk solution within the business unit Industrial Hydraulics of Bosch Rexroth, a global leader in drive and control technology. The primary objective of this thesis is to assess the current state of the support processes, identify areas of weakness, and leverage these insights to optimize and enhance them. The focus will be on finding a way to enhance transparency of customer data.
Based on the theory to process optimization, a current state analysis was conducted, and expert interviews were carried out to identify weaknesses and potential solutions for improving customer support. The research question "How can the Industrial Hydraulics Services of Bosch Rexroth deliver more effective and efficient customer support?" is addressed through the findings that a central platform is necessary to handle customer inquiries more efficiently, given the diverse communication channels and varying modes of operation within the business unit. The use of the existing SAP CRM ticketing system Robin is suggested as an efficient solution path, which should be optimized for future use based on the identified optimization approaches. The results underscore the importance of a unified approach to working, which is vital for the success of the business unit, resulting in increased efficiency, quality, collaboration, scalability, and customer orientation.
Implementierung eines international gültigen Managementsystems mit Fokus auf Prozessreifegradmodelle
(2023)
In den letzten Jahren hat die steigende Zahl von Cyberangriffen auf Fahrzeuge gezeigt, wie wichtig es ist, Sicherheitslösungen im Automobilbereich zu implementieren. Die in den Fahrzeugen enthaltene Software muss aktualisiert werden, um neue Funktionen zu ermöglichen oder Fehler zu beheben. Um das Risiko zu verringern, dass ein Fahrzeug oder seine Komponenten angegriffen und kompromittiert werden, wurden zwei neue Regularien für die Cybersicherheit veröffentlicht: UNECE WP.291 R155 und R156. Im März 2021 veröffentlichte die Wirtschaftskommission der Vereinten Nationen für Europa die Verordnungen, die in einigen Ländern ab Juli 2022 verbindlich ist, um die Cybersicherheit von Fahrzeugen zu homologieren.
Als Reaktion auf diese Entwicklung gilt es für die Automobil- sowie für die Nutzfahrzeughersteller zu handeln. Aus diesem Grund führt der Nutzfahrzeughersteller MAN Truck & Bus ein Managementsystem unter Verwendung eines sog. Reifegradmodells ein. Die vorliegende Arbeit fokussiert sich auf die Verwendung von Reifegradmodellen. Als Teilbereich der strategischen Planung für das Projektmanagement bieten Reifegradmodelle ein Mittel zur Identifizierung der wichtigsten Schritte, der zu erledigenden Aufgaben und der Abfolge von Ereignissen, die erforderlich sind, um sinnvolle und messbare Ergebnisse zu erzielen. Grundsätzlich besteht der Zweck des Reifegradmodells darin, einen Rahmen für die Verbesserung des Geschäftsergebnisses einer Organisation zu schaffen, indem die Stärken und Schwächen des Projektmanagements der Organisation bewertet werden, Vergleiche mit ähnlichen Organisationen ermöglicht werden und ein Maß für die Korrelation zwischen dem Projektmanagementniveau einer Organisation und der tatsächlichen Projektleistung geschaffen wird.
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt eine Übersicht über die Gründe, Chancen, Risiken und den potentiellen Mehrwert des Mehrkanalvertriebs in der 3D Druck- und Scanindustrie. Dabei wurden die aktuellen Vertriebsstrategien einiger Hersteller analysiert. Durch ein Experteninterview wurde ein theoretisches Modell des Mehrkanalvertriebs für Shining3D entwickelt und untersucht. Mit Hilfe einer SWOT-Analyse wurden die aktuellen Schwächen ermittelt und der Mehrwert des Mehrkanalvertriebs, im Vergleich zum aktuellen Vertriebssystem, genau beschrieben. Die Ergebnisse der theoretischen Untersuchung zeigen, dass der Mehrkanalvertrieb die Schwächen in einem Vertrieb minimieren oder eliminieren kann. Durch das Dazugewinnen des direkten Vertriebs kann der Hersteller näher am Markt agieren und sich besser um zukünftige Innovationen und deren Einführung kümmern. Der Mehrkanalvertrieb verbessert durch das Erreichen neuer Kanäle nicht nur die Wirtschaftlichkeit, sondern bietet auch ein Risikoausgleich durch Bildung eines Absatzkanalportfolios. Sollte ein Kanal schwächeln, so kann er durch die anderen aufgefangen werden. Abschließend werden mögliche Konfliktfelder analysiert und Lösungsansätze für deren Beseitigung beschreiben.
Optimization of an omni-channel strategy in fashion retail – the case of Hunkemöller International
(2018)
In fashion retail, omni-channel management has become an important strategy to offer the customer a seamless shopping experience across various channels. Customers want to shop from anywhere and at any time. Therefore, retailers integrate their operations among all channels and manage them simultaneously. The customer´s interaction with the brand along various touchpoints is thereby an important factor, since the number of touchpoints along a customer´s journey is increasing. This work analyzes a fashion retailer that is already executing an omni-channel strategy, to find challenges that the company is facing and thus an approach for optimization. This is done for the example of Hunkemöller International B.V., a Dutch lingerie retailer, which is dedicated to consistently improve its omni-channel strategy.
The following work examines current literature of omni-channel management in fashion retail and sets up a framework of success factors. These are compared to the current state of the company´s omni-channel strategy through qualitative research in form of an expert interview. This research is followed by more inter-views, which give insights to the challenges that stores are facing while execut-ing omni-channel activities. In addition, the work focuses on the purchasing phase of a customer´s journey and builds a framework to investigate customer touchpoints in the respective phase. Quantitative research is carried out through an in-store customer survey that gives insights on challenges from customer´s side and on customer´s attitude towards omni-channel. Thereby a customer touchpoint analysis is conducted. The conclusion presents recommendations for Hunkemöller on how to face the challenges and optimize the current omni-channel strategy. Limitations of the research and points for future research are discussed in the end.