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This study investigates how value stream management enables operational alignment between business and software development. The present paper employs a single-case study design within a Swiss-based bank and its IT subsidiary. Qualitative data were collected, analyzed, and synthesized, offering comprehensive insights into an organization operating under the value stream paradigm. Expanding on operational alignment theory, this research introduces a revised model for the operational alignment of software value streams. The derived model includes three aggregated dimensions: Seek Value, Foster Transparency, and Enable Proximity. The findings suggest that software value streams require product-centric teams, featuring designated roles at the interface between business and development. Moreover, value streams and the product team strive for transparency to disclose the actions and decisions of driving companies’ value. This study provides insights into the complex landscape of software development to align the operational dynamics between business and IT to pave the way for success.

Due to growing concerns about the environmental impacts of livestock farming, there has been a shift in dietary habits with a growing demand for plant-based alternatives. Using the example of chicken and mozzarella as well as their plant-based counterparts, this study evaluates their raw material sourcing strategies from a holistic sustainability perspective. The results reveale different trade-offs within and between the three sustainability dimensions studied. However, the study can clearly show that from an environmental perspective, the plant-based alternatives are always more advantageous. From an economic and social perspective, the results were less clear.

In the era of twin transition companies face complex challenges. Economical resource usage and efficiency are particularly important in the manufacturing sector. Product-service systems are seen a promising solution that can meet the expectations regarding efficiency in a sustainable way. However, there is a huge potential regarding the evaluation of sustainable value creation. The paper focuses on the value creation process in product-service systems including offers with remanufactured products. Against this background, the goal of this paper is to describe how data driven industrial services can create sustainable value in the meaning of the triple bottom line. Based on previous work, a quantitative model for the assessment and optimization of this value creation is extended to include additional remanufacturing strategies. The value optimization model integrates the different perspectives of provider, custumer and society. The numerical evaluation of this model for a specific application case shows that economic and ecological value creation can be jointly achieved and optimized, and which service arrangements lead to this optimization.

Service Management und die zugehörigen Disziplinen IT-Service Management (ITSM) und Enterprise Service Management (ESM) haben in den letzten Jahren rasant an Stellenwert gewonnen. Jene Disziplinen gehen nahtlos mit der Digitalisierung von Unternehmen und Organisationen einher und bieten bei umfassender Umsetzung namhafte Vorteile wie erhöhte Effizienz, verbesserte Kollaboration, gesteigerte Produktivität oder bessere Reaktionsfähigkeit. Mit der vorliegenden Masterthesis wird spezifisch das Thema ESM in Schweizer Organisationen untersucht. Die Ergebnisse der Vorstudie zu dieser Arbeit zeigen, dass viele Organisationen aus verschiedenen Gründen mit der Adaption von ESM Mühe bekunden. Zum einen führt das unterschiedliche Verständnis von Begriffen zu Unsicherheit. Zum anderen fehlen klare Frameworks und Handlungsempfehlungen zum Thema. Um Organisationen einen klaren Einstiegspunkt in das Thema ESM zu bieten und die dargelegte Problemstellung aufzugreifen, werden der Masterthesis folgende Vorgehens-weisen und Ziele zugrunde gelegt: Um die Maturität von ESM in einer Organisation messbar zu machen, wird zunächst ein Referenzmodell für ESM-Maturität erarbeitet. Daneben werden Handlungsempfehlungen konstruiert, welche zur Erhöhung von ESM-Maturität beitragen sollen. Strukturell bietet das konstruierte ESM-Maturitätsmodell zwölf Komponenten, welche ihrerseits über je fünf Stufen verfügen. Insgesamt werden ausserdem 35 Handlungsempfehlungen abgegeben. Inhaltlich orientieren sich diese Artefakte an ITILv4, welches als das de-facto Standard-framework für ITSM gilt und weiterhin nicht aus dem Service Management wegzudenken ist. Zusätzlich werden weitere Frameworks, Methoden und Arbeitsweisen herbeigezogen. Im Speziellen werden auch agile Methoden auf deren Nutzen im Bereich ESM untersucht und in die Artefakte integriert. Methodisch folgt die Masterthesis dem Design Science Research Ansatz. Aus der Synthese der Literatur und der qualitativen Forschung im Rahmen von elf Interviews

Erworben im Rahmen der Schweizer Nationallizenzen (http://www.nationallizenzen.ch), Car mass production commonly involves a moving assembly line that mixes several car models. This requires plenty of material supplies at the line side, but available space is scarce. Thus, material is placed apart from ideal positions. Then, picking it up involves walking along the line. This time is non-productive and can encompass 10–15% of total production time. Thus, it is important to estimate and minimize it during production planning. However, the calculations are difficult because the conveyor continuously moves. Therefore, most literature bounds walking time by a constant, but this discards valuable potential. To better approximate it, we use a time-dependent V-shaped function. A comparison indicates that for a majority of instances, constant walking time estimates of 95% confidence are at least 51% higher. Then, we introduce a model to optimize material positions such that the model-mix walking time is minimized. This poses an NP-hard sequencing problem with a recursive and nonlinear objective function. Our key discovery is a lower bound on the objective of partial solutions, established by a Lagrangian relaxation that can be solved in quadratic time. Resulting branch and bound based algorithms allow to quickly and reliably optimize up to the largest real-world sized instances.

This paper presents an illustrated model to explain digitalisation in industry in a holistic, non-technological way. It reflects the dimensions of the product lifecycle and the supply chain. More specifically, it discusses the interaction between customer, product, production, and suppliers along a product’s life and how digitalisation supports these interactions. Particular attention is given to the transition from type to its product instances. Especially in the case of complex products, mastering this transition plays a key role in understanding digitalisation requirements. Reclining the concept of type and instance, different element of the digital twin, as digital master and the different shadows, are classified. Developed initially to structure a course in an engineering master’s program, the model has evolved to be used in different courses and currently supports consulting and applied research projects to orchestrate digitalisation initiatives in the industry.

Process automation systems are used to control a process such as chemical, steel, oil refineries, petrochemical, paper, or pulp factories. Such systems consist of many individual stations, producing traffic of varying priorities and are spread over a large geographical area. In the presence of so many traffic sources, congestion is inevitable. IEEE Std 802.3cg defines 10BASE-T1L to directly address the distances involved in process automation systems while preemption provides a means to address congestion by giving high priority traffic.

Scheduling is classically centered around jobs with constant processing times. This allows for universal methods of a simple structure, like Smith’s rule, proven by job interchange arguments. Certain applications, however, entail variable processing times, depending on the job’s start time. Then, interchanging jobs implies changing start times for successive jobs, which escalates the computational complexity. To plan car assembly on a moving conveyor line, we are concerned with time-dependent processing time functions that are V-shaped and piecewise-linear. We present complexity results and draw relations to classic scheduling problems.

Value generation with digital twins along the phases of the product lifecycle affects different processes from a company's internal perspective. The present study investigated in which phases of the product lifecycle and processes swiss companies seek to generate what value contribution. The results of the survey of 103 companies show that only 47% of the companies surveyed are applying or planning to apply digital twins. The motivation primarily lies in increasing efficiency (79%) or in building competitive advantage (63%). These companies clearly recognize the potential of digital twins to create value in the Beginning-of-Life-phase (79%) and in the Middle-of-Life-phase (60%). In contrest, the use in the End-of-Life-phase (15%) is subordinate. The companies seek to generate value with digital twins by offering qualitatively better products and services in a shorter time or with higher availability. Cost savings seem secondary and overestimated by companies before they apply digital twins.

Die Schweizer Gemüsebranche steht vor verschiedenen Herausforderungen. Während sich innerhalb der Branche der Preiswettbewerb verschärft, nehmen gleichzeitig die Anforderungen an die eingesetzten Produktionsmittel und die Qualität der Produkte zu. Dazu kommt die Abhängigkeit von wenigen Detailhändlern sowie vermehrte Kritik an den Arbeitsbedingungen in der Produktion. Die vorliegende Arbeit analysiert in diesem Kontext eine spezifische Lieferkette: die des Schweizer Eisbergsalats. Sie geht dabei der Frage nach, wie die Lieferkette organisiert ist und wie sich die Beziehungen der Akteure untereinander gestalten. Ausserdem untersucht sie die Arbeitsbedingungen von Hilfskräften in der Produktion und der Verarbeitung. Als Methode wurde eine Mischung aus 11 Leitfadeninterviews und einer teilnehmenden Beobachtung gewählt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der bereits bestehende Preiswettbewerb innerhalb des geschützten Schweizer Gemüsemarktes seit dem Eintritt der Discounter Aldi und Lidl auf allen Ebenen der Lieferkette zugenommen hat. Der Preiswettbewerb und die Anforderungen an die Qualität des Produktes führen zu Zentralisierungs-, Spezialisierungs- und Verdrängungstendenzen in der Lieferkette: Die Detail- und Grosshändler zentralisierten ihre Einkaufsabteilungen, optimieren die gesamte Lieferkette, schalten teilweise den Zwischenhandel aus und geben einen Teil des Preisdruckes an die Verarbeiter und Produzenten weiter. Auf der anderen Seite setzen sich in der Produktion grosse, spezialisierte und mechanisierte Betriebe durch. Insbesondere zwischen diesen grossen Produzenten und den Händlern scheint die Abhängigkeit teilweise gegenseitig, die Macht also nicht nur auf Seiten der wenigen Detail- und Grosshändler. In Bezug auf die Arbeitsbedingungen der Hilfskräfte in der Produktion zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass die Wahrnehmung der Arbeitsbedingungen je nach Anstellungsdauer und Lebensumständen variiert. Die Arbeitsbedingungen in der Schweizer Landwirtschaft sind gesetzlich nur

Das Schweizer Produktmanagement erachtet Zeitmangel heute als grosse Herausforderung. Gleichzeitig wird erwartet, dass kürzer werdende Innovations- und Produktlebenszyklen und die fortschreitende Digitalisierung diesen Mangel verschärfen und die Funktion des Produktmanagements an Komplexität gewinnen wird. Um die Effizienz in Managementfunktionen zu erhöhen, hat die Forschung die Erfolgsrelevanz von Methoden in Entwicklungs- und Projektportfolioprozessen untersucht und einen positiven Einfluss nachweisen können. Eine Untersuchung der Wirkungsweise von Methoden im Kontext von Produktmanagement blieb jedoch bis heute eine Forschungslücke. Um diese Lücke zu schliessen, wird einerseits die Wirkung des Methodeneinsatzes auf den Erfolg des Produktportfolios überprüft, andererseits die Einflüsse individueller Methoden darauf analysiert. Letzteres hat das Ziel dem Produktmanagement in der Praxis aufzuzeigen, welche Methoden die höchste Erfolgsrelevanz aufweisen und somit einen höheren Ressourceneinsatz ihrerseits rechtfertigen. Hergeleitet aus einer Literaturrecherche wird in einem ersten Schritt eine Konzeptualisierung der Funktion des Produktmanagements vorgenommen und diese in den Kontext von New Product Development (NPD), Projektportfoliomanagement (PPM) und Fuzzy Front End (FFE) eingegliedert. Die Messung des Methodeneinsatzes erfolgt schliesslich anhand einer quantitativen Online-Befragung im Umfeld der produzierenden Industrie in der Schweiz. Auf Basis einer Regressionsanalyse wird gezeigt, dass der Methodeneinsatz im Produktmanagement einen signifikanten Einfluss sowohl auf die Funktionsübergreifende Zusammenarbeit als auch den Erfolg von Produktportfolios hat. Es kann weiter dargelegt werden, dass die Erfahrung der Produktmanager keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf diese Variablen ausübt. Abschliessend wird aus den Ergebnissen der Korrelationsanalyse ersichtlich, dass die Methoden Conjoint-Analyse, Quality Function Deployment, Szenarioentwicklung & -analyse, Portfoli

The megatrends of digitalization and globalization have shaped the retail industry during the last decades significantly. However, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019 has severely affected the global economy as interconnected value chains have been disrupted, and digitalization has become a sudden necessity due to lockdowns and travel bans. The aim of this master’s thesis was to identify the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on global upstream value chains as well digitization efforts in the European non-food retail industry. In addition, this thesis examined the potential future development of the retail value chains along the dimensions of globalization and digitalization within 10 years. The novelty of the pandemic made it a largely unresearched phenomenon. A comprehensive literature review has been conducted to provide a broad understanding of the subject. This review encompassed the retail industry, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the megatrends of digitalization and globalization. In addition, the digital business transformation matrix, Porter’s value chain, and a digital maturity model were introduced as frameworks for subsequent primary data collection. Subsequently, empirical research has been conducted through nine qualitative interviews with decision-makers from the European retail industry to answer the research questions. The thesis identified a fluctuation in demand, promotion of sustainability, disturbance of information flow in procurement, supply shortage, interruption of logistics flows, and saturation of distribution as impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on upstream value chain activities. Moreover, globalization depends largely on product category level criteria, and Covid-19 has led to further globalization of value chains. The pandemic’s impact on digitalization encompassed an acceleration of digitalization, shift of customer expectations towards digitalization, improved digital connectivity, moderate investments in digital infrastructure, hig

In der Praxis und der Forschung wird der Prozessautomatisierungstechnologie Robotic Process Automation (RPA) immer mehr Beachtung geschenkt, da mit dieser Technologie sehr schnell, einfach und kostengünstig einzelne Aufgaben und teilweise sogar ganze Prozesse automatisiert werden können. Um für RPA geeignete Aufgaben und Prozesse identifizieren zu können, wurden in der Praxis und der Forschung bereits verschiedene Vorgehen entwickelt und angewendet. Zu diesen Vorgehen gehört auch das neuentwickelte Tedious Work Vorgehensmodell (TWM), welches in einem Bottom-Up-Ansatz mittels einer Umfrage möglichst viele mühsame und langweilige Aufgaben identifiziert und bezüglich Umsetzung mit RPA bewertet. In dieser Masterarbeit wird untersucht, wie gut sich das TWM in der aktuellen Version für die Identifizierung von RPA-Automatisierungspotentialen bei drei Supportabteilungen der Firma Zühlke Engineering AG eignet und welche Verbesserungen am Modell zukünftig noch vorgenommen werden müssen. Um die Forschungsfrage zu beantworten, wurde das Vorgehensmodell in einem ersten Schritt kritisch geprüft und hinterfragt, um erste Verbesserungsvorschläge zu identifizieren. Danach wurde das Tedious Work Vorgehensmodell bei der Firma Zühlke für die drei Supportabteilungen «Finance & Controlling», «Human Resources» und «Project Support Office» in Form einer Fallstudie angewendet. Bei der Durchführung wurden Automatisierungspotentiale mittels einer Online-Umfrage bei den teilnehmenden Mitarbeitenden erhoben, anschliessend gemässe der Tedious Work Skala bewertet und danach mit technischen Kriterien deren Umsetzbarkeit beurteilt. Abschliessend wurden verschiedene Business Case Varianten erstellt. Nach der Durchführung wurden die Ergebnisse den teilnehmenden Mitarbeitenden präsentiert und von ihnen Verbesserungsvorschläge zum Vorgehen eingeholt. Zum Schluss wurden alle Verbesserungsvorschläge konsolidiert und die Anwendbarkeit und Nützlichkeit des Vorgehensmodells beurteilt. Aus der Anwendung des

Recent occurrences such as the Covid-19 outbreak, the Russo-Ukrainian war, and others have disrupted global supply chains in an unprecedented manner. Consequently, a worldwide supply chain crisis originated, which affected businesses and consumers alike. While end-users were not able to acquire the desired products, companies incurred massive financial losses due to the supply disruptions. Based on this complication, this bachelor’s thesis analyzes and assesses the driving academic theories about supply chain resilience together with first-hand results obtained from semi-structured interviews with supply chain specialists. In particular, this paper sheds light on the factors that necessitate supply chain resilience. Moreover, insights about the most recent resilience-enhancing antecedents are provided, and a possible connection between supply chain resilience and the customer value proposition is examined. The literature review reveals five essential supply chain resilience antecedents, namely, flexibility, redundancy, agility, collaboration, and culture. Furthermore, the secondary research demonstrates that there is a literature gap in identifying the circumstances that demand resilience and a possible incorporation of resilience in the customer value proposition. Thus, while companies had to adapt quickly to the new status quo, research is still lagging behind the current disruptive events. Methods of analysis include comparing the results of extensive semi-structured interviews with the guiding theories of the respective concepts. The collected information demonstrates that theory and practice are mostly consistent, hence validating both. The thesis illustrates that the awareness of vulnerable supply chains increased drastically in the aftermath of the pandemic. Thus, the pandemic prompted a widespread effort to develop a balanced supply chain resilience securing strategically essential items and efficiently sourcing minor products. The findings also reveal that

Die Digitalisierung ist ein wichtiger Wandlungstreiber in der Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Die Veränderungen durch die neuen technischen Möglichkeiten wirken sich auf die Erwartungen und Anforderungen seitens der Mitarbeitenden wie auch der Bevölkerung an die öffentliche Verwaltung aus. Auch gesetzliche Rahmenbedingungen ändern sich stetig und zwingen die öffentliche Verwaltung teilweise in kurzer Frist zu entsprechenden Anpassungen. Um den Ansprüchen gerecht zu werden, benötigt es einen Service Public mit digitalen Angeboten wie auch effiziente und flexible Geschäftsprozesse. Die Prozessautomatisierungstechnologie Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bietet der öffentlichen Verwaltung Chancen diese Aufgaben zu erfüllen. Aus diesem Grund ist das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit, herauszufinden, was Gründe für und gegen den Einsatz von RPA in der öffentlichen Verwaltung sind wie auch mögliche Unter schiede zur Privatwirtschaft im Zusammenhang mit RPA. Weiter soll auch die Höhe des Interessens der Expertengruppe an einem Erfahrungsaustausch im Bereich der Prozessautomatisierung und / oder RPA innerhalb der öffentlichen Verwaltung erhoben werden. Für die Zielerreichung wird ein qualitativer Forschungsansatz gewählt. Mit Hilfe der Literaturrecherche werden für die Gründe für und gegen den Einsatz von RPA wie auch für den Erfahrungsaustausch erste Kategorien definiert. Danach wird die Expertengruppe basierend auf einem halbstrukturierten Interviewleitfaden befragt. Die Expertengruppe setzt sich aus Fachpersonen aus der öffentlichen Verwaltung und von Lieferanten bzw. Beratungsunternehmen im Bereich der Automatisierung zusammen. In einem weiteren Schritt werden die Aussagen kategorisiert und ausgewertet. Abschliessend erfolgt die Diskussion der Ergebnisse wie auch die Gegenüberstellung zur Literatur, um neue Erkenntnisse ableiten zu können. Die Literaturrecherche hat gezeigt, dass die öffentliche Verwaltung einem zunehmenden Handlungsdruck ausgesetzt ist. Sie muss flexibel auf Än

The paper was awarded the best paper award, Data-driven value creation is a key topic in industrial services. However, designing such services in an optimal way represents a multidimensional and complex task. In this paper, we present a design methodology based on a simultaneous maxi-mization of value creation for both the provider and the customer, allowing the identification of optimal service configurations. We apply this methodology to a use case of a manufacturer delivering services for its machines in the context of a pay-per-use business model. The approach is based on modeling the value creation separately for both provider and customer, as a function of data-driven services which may be offered in different phases of the lifecycle. The model allows finding Pareto-optimal service configurations which provide value creation optimized simultaneously for both the provider and the customer. These optimal configurations are not easy to find with simpler methods because of non-linear effects in value creation along the lifecycle.

In the contention of the current industrial landscape, an increasing number of manufacturing firms are experimenting with the transition from product-centric offerings to service-based value concepts and product-service bundles as high-value integrated customer solutions to increase their revenues and build sustainable competitive advantages; a phenomenon known as the “servitization” of manufacturing. Nowadays, consistently with the Industry 4.0 paradigm, these companies have therefore started a process of integrating their traditional value offerings with digital services. This recent strategy is known as “Digital Servitization” and consists of developing new services and/or improving existing ones through digital technologies. However, this transformation is challenging, and companies often struggle to achieve their expectations. Thus, this study aims to shed light on the current state of Digital Servitization strategies in the manufacturing sector based on a survey addressed to the top and middle management. The results obtained by the analysis of the data collected from the survey show an increasing trend towards the adoption of digital technologies for enabling innovation and differentiation in service delivery processes.

Kaizen, pioneered by Japanese automaker Toyota after World War II, is more than a method for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. It is a management philosophy that aims to advance a company through continuous improvements by all employees. Especially in Switzerland, small and medium-sized enterprises expand into the European Union comparatively early in their life cycle due to the limited domestic market. Efficiency increases and innovations are crucial to keep up with the competitive prices of the European competitors. In addition, companies with solid growth often experience a proliferation of processes and lose agility, making the introduction of kaizen beneficial. As a result, this thesis aims to determine the success factors and prerequisites for implementing Toyota-based kaizen in small and medium-sized companies. First, a systematic literature review was conducted to identify the barriers and success factors for the kaizen implementation. The research is based on peer-reviewed databases and reports from renowned consulting firms. Subsequently, the New St. Gallen Management Model was applied to examine the prerequisites systematically. The success factors were discussed in five semi-structured interviews with a professor, a consultant, and managers from different positions in Swiss kaizen companies to obtain additional insights and best practice examples. From the results, the author has designed a model to guide Swiss managers in implementing Toyota-based kaizen in small and medium-sized enterprises. According to the literature, many Western companies fail to implement kaizen in their organization. While Japanese companies realized 30 to 40 percent cost reductions, many foreign companies managed only 10 to 15 percent. Although it is a great challenge, many authors agree that kaizen can be transferred internationally. However, organizations must adapt kaizen to the national characteristics while insisting on the basic principles. At its core, a kaizen co

Supply chain network disruptions have become an increasingly relevant topic in literature and industry. Just recently the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the need for greater resilience in global supply chain networks. We present a quantitative social network analysis (SNA) approach to selectively fortify nodes in complex supply chain networks targeting ripple-effect mitigation and enhancing supply chain network resilience (SCNR). Our model can be used to analyze supply chain resilience and derive strategies to mitigate disruptions, specifically using betweenness centrality for fortification. The model can be applied by supply chain managers to existing supply chain networks regardless of the underlying network type.

This book provides an overview of the common concepts and building blocks of patent management. It addresses executives in the areas of innovation, R & D, patent and intellectual property management as well as academics and students. The authors give valuable information on the characteristics of patent and intellectual property management, based on the collaboration with companies and organizations from Europe, China, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, India, Canada and the US.

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to elaborate a new concept for value creation by decision support services in industrial service ecosystems using a digital twin. The aim is to design and integrate an architecture of digital twins that is derived from the actors’ needs and that leverages the potential of the synergies in the ecosystem. Design/Methodology/Approach: The conceptual framework presented in this paper is elaborated based on a multiple case study with ten cases (West et al., 2020). Based on a modelling of the ecosystem and the actors’ decision jobs, technical modelling approaches are developed and integrated to an ecosystem perspective. Findings: In a service ecosystem comprising several enterprises and a multitude of actors, decision making is based on the interlinkage of the digital twins of the equipment and the processes. In order to foster the full potential of the digital twins in an ecosystem, they are integrated in a hierarchical concept using ontology approaches. Originality/Value: The findings of this study integrate the modelling approaches for digital twins and extends these to a new modelling approach on the level of service ecosystems. This provides a practical blueprint to companies for developing digital twin based services in their own operations and beyond in their ecosystem.

This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Resilient Manufacturing., The application of digital twins provides value creation within the fields of operations and service management; existing research around decision-making and value co-creation is limited at this point. Prior studies have provided insights into the benefits of digital twins that combined both data and simulation approaches; however, there remains a managerial gap. The purpose of this paper is to explore this research gap using input from a multiple case study research design from both manufacturing environments and non-manufacturing environments. The authors use ten cases to explore how digital twins support value co-creation through decision-making. The authors were all involved in the development of the ten cases. Individual biases were removed by using the literature to provide the assessment dimensions and allowing a convergence of the results. Drawing on the lessons from the ten cases, this study empirically identified eight managerial issues that need to be considered when developing digital twins to support multi-stakeholder decision-making that leads to value co-creation. The application of digital twins in value co-creation and decision-making is a topic that has developed from practice and is an area where a research gap exists between theory and practice. A cross-case analysis was developed based on the literature and the ten cases (eight industrial and two pilot-scale cases) providing the empirical findings. The findings describe how firms can design, develop, and commercialize digital-twin-enabled value propositions and will initiate future research.

​© 2021 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works., Service customization is a central issue in socio- technical service ecosystems, enabled and fueled by new data- driven approaches, and with the goal of increasing value creation for the customer, and value capture for the provider. In this paper, we address the question of how to design service customization within the provider-customer interaction. We propose a novel quantitative approach for modeling the relation between cus- tomization level at the various steps of the customer journey on the one hand, and its effect on the value created for customer and provider on the other hand. Combining this model with approaches from multi-objective optimization, optimum levels of customization from both the customer and the provider perspective can be determined. Thus, the proposed model allows the identification of service designs which are optimized in terms of their value creation and value capture.

The paper at hand takes the widely used Lotka-Volterra model from biology and transfers it to the supply chain context. The model is used to analyse whether supply chain partners can benefit from symbiotic mutualism. Results show that in certain situations, both mutualism partners disappear from the marketplace, while in other situations, one of the partners survives while the other dies. The model furthermore shows that symbiotic mutualism exists in which both supply chain partners can benefit from the collaboration and a stable coexistence can be reached.

Purpose: This paper describes a novel quantitative model for the design of the service interactions in the life cycle of customers using smart connected products – typically in industrial environments, i.e., in Industry 4.0 context – with the goal of optimizing mutual service value creation for both the customer and the provider. Design/Methodology/approach: The presented novel methodology is based on a quantitative system modelling of the mutual value creation both for the customer and the provider as a function of the provider’s effort to leverage the data of smart connected products, by focusing on the customer’s perceived value, on the one hand, and the provider’s value, on the other hand. The impact on value creation is modelled independently for the customer and the provider, respectively, within their specific value framework. For optimizing value creation, a multi-objective optimization approach is applied. Findings: The quantitative model considering the provider’s and customer’s benefits and efforts reflects that utilizing data resources of smart connected products impacts the mutual value creation in different ways: first, it impacts the customer’s value in context. Second, it impacts the value created for the provider by influencing the customer relationship with effects on, e.g., customer lifetime value, acquisition, retention, or new service development, and by influencing the costs for service provisioning. The model captures both sides of the value creation as a result of the design choices. Based on this, approaches from multi-objective optimization are used for optimizing the value created both for the customer and the provider, leading to a subset of Pareto-optimal designs. The application of the quantitative model to typical actor to actor interactions shows that they are mostly not Pareto-optimal and thus have improvement potential for increasing total value creation. Research limitations/implications: This conceptual model can (and should) be f

The nascent technology of smart dust—miniaturized sensor networks—promises high value to advance industrial product-service-systems. While previous studies have identified smart dust as source for product and service innovation, the pathways from an initial offering to smart dust-enhanced product-service-systems have received scant attention. The present work in the scope of a Swiss National Science Foundation project on the economic potentials of this technology aims to conceptualize and apply strategies for smart dust-enhanced product-service-systems. This conceptual research resulted in the three pathways (1) product-driven strategy, (2) service-driven strategy and (3) holistic strategy which could be successfully mapped to the use case “Monitoring of structures“. In closing, this emerging technology helps to make industrial product-service-systems more customer- and user-oriented as called by recent voices. To science, we introduce smart dust in the field of product-service-systems and offer a first systemization of pathways, thus contribute to the product-service-systems engineering knowledge base. To practice, we provide useful approaches to be applied at a strategy level to push the servitization in manufacturing forward.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how the application of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and experiments can advance theory development in the field of servitization by generating better causal explanations. Design/methodology/approach FsQCA and experiments are established research methods that are suited for developing causal explanations but are rarely utilized by servitization scholars. To support their application, we explain how fsQCA and experiments represent distinct ways of developing causal explanations, provide guidelines for their practical application and highlight potential application areas for a future research agenda in the servitization domain. Findings FsQCA enables specification of cause–effects relationships that result in equifinal paths to an intended outcome. Experiments have the highest explanatory power and enable the drawing of direct causal conclusions through reliance on an interventionist logic. Together, these methods provide complementary ways of developing and testing theory when the research objective is to understand the causal pathways that lead to observed outcomes. Practical implications Applications of fsQCA help to explain to managers why there are numerous causal routes to attaining an intended outcome from servitization. Experiments support managerial decision-making by providing definitive “yes/no” answers to key managerial questions that address clearly specified cause–effect relationships. Originality/value The main contribution of this study is to help advance theory development in servitization by encouraging greater methodological plurality in a field that relies primarily on the qualitative case study methodology.

IISE Transactions (Journal) Best Paper : Scheduling and Logistics, Placing material containers at moving assembly lines is an intriguing problem because each container position influences worker paths. This optimization is relevant in practice as worker walking time accounts for about 10–15% of total work time. Nonetheless, we find few computational approaches in the literature. We address this gap and model walking time to containers, then optimize their placement. Our findings suggest this reduces walking time of intuitive solutions by an average of 20%, with considerable estimated savings. To investigate the subject, we formulate a quintessential optimization model for basic sequential container placement along the line side. However, even this core problem turns out as strongly NP-complete. Nonetheless, it possesses several polynomial cases that allow to construct a lower bound on the walking time. Moreover, we discover exact and heuristic dominance conditions between partial placements. This facilitates an exact and a truncated branch-and-bound solution algorithm. In extensive tests, they consistently deliver superior performance compared to several mixed integer programming and metaheuristic approaches. To aid practitioners in quickly recognizing instances with high optimization potential even before performing a full optimization, we provide a criterion to estimate it with just few measurements.

Firmenstrukturen mit ihren vernetzten Geschäfts-, Produktions- und Logistikprozessen werden zunehmend komplexer und dynamischer. Insbesondere sind die Wechselwirkungen zwischen den eingebundenen Einheiten schwierig nachzuvollziehen, wenn sich Systemparameter wie die Nachfrage der Kunden, die Verlässlichkeit der Lieferanten und der eigenen Abteilungen unvorhersehbar ändern – z.B. in Zeiten der Pandemie. Data Science und Simulation erhöhen die Transparenz in den gegenseitigen Abhängigkeiten und helfen, Entscheidungen quantitativ abzustützen. Erste Erfahrungen mit diesen Methoden können in den Weiterbildungskursen zur Spezialisierung «Simulation of Complex Processes» des neuen CAS in Digital Life Sciences gewonnen werden.

Die ProzessManagementAkademie (PMA) ist ein schweizerischer Dachverband von Fachpersonen, die sich für die Weiterentwicklung und lmplementierung des Prozessmanagements engagieren. Gemeinsam mit der Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz hat sie ein Tool entwickelt, um den Reifegrad des Prozessmanagements zu ermitteln.

Se estima que el café llegó a Colombia a través de la Antillas y los andes venezolanos alrededor de la mitad del siglo xix. Durante los siguientes 100 años continuó su expansión hacia las regiones montañosas del territorio colombiano; hoy día, el café se cultiva en 22 de los 32 departamentos, corresponde al primer producto agrícola de exportación para Colombia y fuente de ingreso para más de 560.000 familias que dependen directamente de la producción, procesamiento primario y venta de café en el mercado nacional. Casi todo el café que se produce en Colombia es de la especie Arábica y tradicionalmente se han cultivado las variedades Típica, Borbón, Caturra, Colombia, Castillo y Cenicafé 1, las tres últimas desarrolladas por investigadores colombianos que buscan poner a disposición de los productores variedades tolerantes a la roya, así como mejorar el rendimiento y facilitar las labores de recolección debido al porte bajo del arbusto y aumentar la densidad de siembra permitiendo mayor disposición de árboles por unidad de área. El café de Colombia es reconocido en el mundo por ser suave, el cual se caracteriza a por tener un primer procesamiento artesanal en fami-empresas rurales, en las que el fruto similar a una cereza es recolectado manualmente, despulpado, fermentado, lavado para retirar el mucílago y posteriormente secado. La conjugación de las labores en cultivo con las condiciones agroambientales convenientes, la calidad de las semillas que se cultivan y el adecuado procesamiento poscosecha en campo aportan a la obtención de cafés con atributos destacables y con alta valoración sensorial por expertos, por lo que en las últimas dos décadas la producción y comercialización de cafés especiales viene despertando el interés de los productores locales quienes han encontrado la posibilidad de obtener mejores precios por el café que producen. En ese sentido, a pesar de que el negocio del café cuenta con más de dos siglos de historia, podría pensarse que este ya se encu

Improving current supply chains by using distributed ledger technology (DLT) has been a highly researched topic during the last years. Currently, there are numerous articles elaborating on how such technologies can theoretically improve supply chains. However, case studies of such concepts and their economic value are scarce. In order to bridge this gap, we collaborated with a regional label company to clarify how a distributed ledger technology would benefit their ecosystem. This work answers the question of how such a prototype would look and whether it adds value. By following design science research practices, we design two artifacts based on requirements gathered in 14 interviews and discuss the artifacts’ elements within an evaluation panel. Our findings show that a distributed ledger application for the regional label ecosystem should have an open and decentralized architecture giving all participants full access to the shared data while still providing security and privacy for sensitive data. Additionally, data capturing should be simple. However, such an application does not add sufficient economic value and is currently of no practical interest in the regional label ecosystem as the expenditure likely exceeds the benefit.

Smart dust is an autonomous sensing, computing, and communication system that can be packed into a cubic-millimeter mote to form the basis of integrated, massively distributed sensor networks. The purpose of this manuscript is to identify potential applications of smart dust in product lifecycle management with a focus on the industrial economic sector. Resting upon empirical data from the European DACH region, we describe six applications: (1) Advancement of requirements engineering, (2) Improvement of manufacturing processes, (3) Enhancement of logistics monitoring, (4) Optimization of operations, (5) Ameliorated maintenance and repair processes, and (6) Augmented retirement planning. Bearing the exploratory, qualitative approach and early-stage character of applications in mind, we can reason that smart dust offers great potentials to both product lifecycle management and research on it.

Den Shareholder-Value-Ansatz als Vorwand, legitimieren zahlreiche Unternehmen die kurzfristige Gewinnmaximierung als oberstes Unternehmensziel sowohl strukturell als auch ethisch. Die daraus entstehenden negativen Folgen auf die Gesellschaft und Umwelt werden ausgeblendet. Mittel- und langfristig müssen sich die Unternehmen aber für ihre Handlungen verantworten und für entstandene Schäden aufkommen. Damit ein Unternehmen langfristig überleben kann, ist es essenziell, dass es sich nebst der ökonomischen auch der sozialen und ökologischen Verantwortung bewusst ist und gegenüber anderen Stakeholdern als fairer Geschäftspartner auftritt. Das Ziel dieser Forschungsarbeit ist es herauszufinden, wie die Fairness innerhalb einer Wertschöpfungskette definiert und gemessen werden kann. Die hierfür erarbeiteten Grundlagen werden angewendet, um die Fairness in der Käsebranche zu messen. Die Käsebranche eignet sich für die Untersuchung dahingehend besonders, da sie von Branchenorganisation geprägt und trotz Marktliberalisierung zu der Jahrtausendwende noch immer stark vom schweizerischen Staat beeinflusst wird. Es wird folgende Forschungsfrage gestellt: «Können sich Unternehmen in der Käsebranche mit einer auf Fairness begründeten Wertschöpfungskette nachhaltig auf dem Markt behaupten?». Um diese Frage zu beantworten, ist zuerst ein Modell zur Messung der Fairness erarbeitet worden. Dieses Modell beinhaltet die ökonomische, ökologische und soziale Verantwortung von Unternehmen, die Gerechtigkeit als Grundlage der Fairness und die distributiven sowie prozeduralen Fairnessprinzipien. Mittels Interviews von Vertretern verschiedener Verarbeitungsstufen werden die verschiedenen Ansichten und Bedürfnisse der Akteure innerhalb der Wertschöpfungskette offengelegt. Die Auswertung der Fairness in der Käsebranche ergibt einen Wert von insgesamt 64 Punkten, wobei das Maximum von 100 Punkten das Ideal darstellt, welches aber in der Praxis kaum jemals erreicht werden dürfte. Durch die Zusamme