Streng­the­ned resi­li­ence in manu­fac­tu­ring SMEs through agi­le, human-cen­te­red digi­tal sys­tems and sys­tems design (READI)

Indus­try 4.0 — Trans­for­ma­bi­li­ty of com­pa­nies in the value crea­ti­on of tomor­row

Ado­be Stock/Alex from the Rock

Adap­ta­bi­li­ty is the abili­ty of a com­pa­ny to per­cei­ve chan­ges that exceed an ori­gi­nal­ly plan­nable or fore­seeable ext­ent in good time and to con­trol them both tech­ni­cal­ly and orga­niza­tio­nal­ly. In order to deve­lop and expand adap­ta­bi­li­ty, it must be expli­cit­ly ancho­red in the cor­po­ra­te stra­tegy. The fun­ding gui­de­line "Indus­try 4.0 — Adap­ta­bi­li­ty of Com­pa­nies in the Value Crea­ti­on of Tomor­row (InWan­del)" focu­ses on the sus­tainable inter­ac­tion of peo­p­le, com­pa­ny orga­niza­ti­on and tech­no­lo­gy in order to explo­re new ways of crea­ting value in the future. Solu­ti­on approa­ches for suc­cessful­ly deal­ing with dyna­mic chal­lenges while making the best pos­si­ble use of Indus­trie 4.0 poten­ti­als and tools are to be rese­ar­ched and inves­ti­ga­ted. For the net­work­ed value crea­ti­on, cor­po­ra­te cul­tu­ral, orga­niza­tio­nal, eco­no­mic and eco­lo­gi­cal aspects are holi­sti­cal­ly con­side­red. An inte­gra­ti­ve view of the are­as of pro­duc­tion, ser­vice and work is a pre­re­qui­si­te for arri­ving at inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry, appli­ca­ti­on-ori­en­ted new solu­ti­ons.

Streng­the­ned adap­ta­bi­li­ty for SMEs through agi­le, human-cen­tric digi­tal sys­tems 

Eco­no­mic, social, tech­ni­cal and poli­ti­cal requi­re­ments pre­sent manu­fac­tu­ring SMEs in par­ti­cu­lar with the chall­enge of imple­men­ting sui­ta­ble stra­te­gies for con­stant chan­ge. This affects, among other things, busi­ness models, ser­vices, value chains as well as cus­to­mer rela­ti­onships and requi­res a view not only of tech­no­lo­gy, but also of orga­niza­ti­on and employees. In order for SMEs to adapt to chan­ge and proac­tively adapt cor­po­ra­te struc­tures and pro­ces­ses to chal­lenges and new situa­tions, their abili­ty to chan­ge and their resi­li­ence must be streng­the­ned. The READI pro­ject the­r­e­fo­re focu­ses on the appli­ca­ti­on-ori­en­ted pro­mo­ti­on of a sus­tainable, agi­le inter­play bet­ween peo­p­le, busi­ness orga­niza­ti­on and tech­no­lo­gy.

The READI rese­arch pro­ject pur­sues the goal of enab­ling com­pa­nies to iden­ti­fy, estab­lish, anchor and har­mo­ni­ze the struc­tures, pro­ces­ses and tech­ni­cal pre­re­qui­si­tes requi­red for sus­tainable and con­ti­nuous chan­ge capa­bi­li­ty within the frame­work of a mul­ti-stage chan­ge model inclu­ding a set of mea­su­res.

In the cour­se of the pro­ject, fin­dings from three sce­na­ri­os will be incor­po­ra­ted into the deve­lo­p­ment of an over­ar­ching trans­for­ma­ti­on model. First, an instru­ment is deve­lo­ped that can be used to deter­mi­ne the matu­ri­ty of com­pa­nies' digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on capa­bi­li­ty. The results of this appli­ca­ti­on form the metho­do­lo­gi­cal start­ing point of the model deve­lo­p­ment. The model is accom­pa­nied by an appli­ca­ti­on kit that illus­tra­tes the tes­ted tech­ni­cal and orga­niza­tio­nal mea­su­res, best prac­ti­ces and recom­men­ded actions for opti­mi­zing the trans­for­ma­ti­on capa­bi­li­ty of com­pa­nies. Here, the life­cy­cle pha­ses of deve­lo­p­ment, pro­duc­tion and ser­vice are con­side­red across the board and, in par­ti­cu­lar, agi­le pro­ces­ses of inter­di­sci­pli­na­ry, digi­tal col­la­bo­ra­ti­on in value net­works are also taken into account. As a result, an online plat­form with the trans­for­ma­ti­on model and the con­s­truc­tion kit is available to inte­res­ted com­pa­nies in an easy-to-use form as part of trans­fer mea­su­res.

The online plat­form deve­lo­ped in the pro­ject will be used to digi­tal­ly map the trans­for­ma­ti­on model and will show pro­ven mea­su­res that were used in trans­for­ma­ti­on events in a com­pre­hen­si­ble and ass­essa­ble way with the help of trans­for­ma­ti­on indi­ca­tors. Tar­ge­ted trans­fer mea­su­res will make the results available to other com­pa­nies and indus­tries as well as to the inte­res­ted public. In this way, SMEs have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to beco­me acquain­ted with pro­ce­du­res, mea­su­res and stra­te­gies lea­ding to struc­tures capa­ble of chan­ge, and to defi­ne them for them­sel­ves. As an asso­cia­ted pro­ject part­ner, Pfalz­me­tall e.V. will be invol­ved for sup­port in the trans­fer and fur­ther mul­ti­pli­ers will be included via the exis­ting net­works of the pro­ject part­ners.

Fun­ded by the BMBF as part of the fun­ding line "Indus­trie 4.0 — Wand­lungs­fä­hig­keit von Unter­neh­men in der Wert­schöp­fung von mor­gen (InWan­del)" within the pro­gram "Zukunft der Wert­schöp­fung — For­schung zu Pro­duk­ti­on, Dienst­leis­tung und Arbeit", accom­pa­nied by the pro­ject manage­ment orga­niza­ti­on Karls­ru­he.