Fields of Research
Table of contents
- Innovation management in the supply chain
- Supplier Risk Management
- Hyperautomation in Purchasing and Supply Management
- Procurement 4.0 - Digitalization of Supply Management
- Maintenance Management and Spare Parts Logistics
- Sustainable production planning for distributed manufacturing systems
- Influence of Additive Manufacturing on Supply Chains
- Reverse Logistics and Closed-Loop Supply Chains
- Supply Chain Governance
- Integrated factory planning
- Planning and scheduling approaches for distributed manufacturing as well as management of manufacturing networks
- The complexity of manufacturing systems
- Innovations in spare parts logistics with particular focus on the information supply
- Risk Modeling in the Supply Chain
- Logistics in the Context of Humanitarian Operations
Innovation management in the supply chain
Supplier innovations can be initiated by the customer or the supplier. It is examined how companies support suppliers to innovate, stimulate, channel, and rate. The focus of the study is the development of an evaluation methodology for decision-making on the implementation of a supplier innovation idea.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Supplier Risk Management
The increasing networking of supply chains and outsourcing of value-added activities to suppliers raise the vulnerability of supply chains against risks. A key risk driver is thereby seen on the procurement side, which smallest shaping unit displays supplier-customer relationships. To make a contribution to the effective management of supplier risks, the identification of risks posed by a supplier directly to the purchaser is the main focus of the research. Based on this, it is investigated how to reduce the significant risks in the context of supplier management by means of measures taken by the suppliers’ control.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Hyperautomation in Purchasing and Supply Management
The digital transformation of purchasing and supply management is paramount to business performance and competitiveness, particularly for manufacturing companies, especially in light of an increasingly complex market environment and disruptive events like the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, companies are investing significantly in implementing and integrating digital technologies to optimize, automate, and holistically orchestrate as many processes as possible. Such "hyperautomation" initiatives aim to improve operational efficiency and free up employee capacity. However, integrating digital technologies is challenging and requires appropriate tools and strategies, especially in the less standardized purchasing and supply management. The research objective is to investigate the impact, implementation, and interoperability of various hyperautomation technologies and concepts (e.g., robotic process automation, business process management, artificial intelligence, maturity models) in purchasing and supply management using a multi-layered approach to enable broader practical application and advance scientific research in this dynamic field.
Contact person: Christian Flechsig
Procurement 4.0 - Digitalization of Supply Management
Procurement is facing new challenges due to current trends and must reposition itself in the context of Industry 4.0. The increasing influence of the end customer markets leads to a growth of the product portfolio while at the same time goods must be available quickly and flexibly. In parallel, today's supply chains have grown to global networks, which are characterized by high complexity and long lead times. In this context, the demand for strategic purchasing for increased value contribution is also growing. As the digital interface between companies and suppliers, strategic procurement must promote the digital external networking of the company. Through the active exchange of know-how with other companies, purchasing plays a decisive role in the successful implementation of Industry 4.0 in the company. The aim of this research area is to investigate the effects of digitalization on procurement with a focus on blockchain-based technology and to analyze and develop new business models based on these current technological trends.
Contact person: Lorenz Trautmann
Maintenance Management and Spare Parts Logistics
Machinery breakdown and process downtime can lead to high economic losses in industrial companies and have fatal impacts on global supply chains. For this reason, the strategic aspect of maintenance is increasingly becoming the focus of companies, which are more and more often relying on a predictive maintenance strategy. In particular, developments in the field of artificial intelligence, Big Data, and novel manufacturing processes are creating both new opportunities and challenges within this particular field. The aim of the research is the logistic effects of current technologies on maintenance within the plant management as well as the impacts of new technologies like additive manufacturing of spare parts logistics.
Contact person: Marcel André Hoffmann
Sustainable production planning for distributed manufacturing systems
As a result of the ongoing globalization, the competitive pressure in the market and the demand for highly agile companies intensified. To meet the requirements, there is a tendency to produce goods in globally dispersed production facilities. At the same time, an individual company has to face growing pressure regarding the limitation of the negative impacts caused by climate change. An approach to meet both the economic and ecological demands is sustainable, distributed production scheduling. Sustainable production scheduling aims to integrate sustainable optimization criteria into traditional optimization problems without significantly reducing economic performance. Of particular interest is to show the potential of metaheuristics to reduce the total energy consumption and the amount of carbon emissions for companies with distributed manufacturing facilities. Therefore, the aim of this research area is first of all to analyze the problem properties for small problems with the help of optimizations models. With those insights, the aim is to develop heuristic algorithms that even solve complex scheduling problems with high solution quality.
Contact person: Martin Schönheit
Influence of Additive Manufacturing on Supply Chains
Additive manufacturing has been around for almost four decades and is currently one of the companies' most interesting disruptive technologies. The importance of additive manufacturing in the context of industrial production is increasing due to the further development of additive manufacturing processes and machines and the more extensive selection of starting materials that can be used. In the meantime, prototypes and increasingly components with the character of an end product are being additively manufactured. The possibility of manufacturing components from digital files regardless of location, even in on-demand production, has an impact on the holistic supply chain and on the internal logistical processes of a production company. Furthermore, due to on-demand and point-of-use production, additive manufacturing can help mitigate supply chain disruptions and thus increase supply chain resilience. This research area aims to identify the changes in internal logistical processes compared to traditional manufacturing processes, examine the increase in supply chain resilience, and create recommendations for implementing additive manufacturing processes. The focus is mainly on the automotive industry and the medical industry.
Contact person: Alexander Bade
Reverse Logistics and Closed-Loop Supply Chains
Stricter environmental regulations and decreasing raw material resources increase the importance of reverse supply chains (RL). In addition, the growing online business and society's increasing ecological awareness means that the sustainable design of closed-loop supply chains assumes even greater attention. Difficulties have arisen so far in the implementation of RL. Furthermore, already established models are only oriented toward economic targets. Thus, environmentally oriented variables are rarely considered. The research project aims to identify approaches to overcoming obstacles in introducing an RL strategy. Moreover, optimization models are to be set up that include ecological aspects and performance-related criteria to create added value in the future for companies, the environment, and customers.
Contact person: Darleen Dolch
Supply Chain Governance
Due to the global networking of companies, not only the complexity but also the coordination effort to steer organizational networks is increasing. The scientific literature describing governance concepts has so far been limited mainly to dyadic business relationships. Increasingly, however, governance instruments, which serve to coordinate supply chains and networks, are also being investigated. Next to formal instruments, such as contracts, also informal governance instruments are explored. Informal instruments, which are for instance based on trust, are becoming more popular since they enable the coordination of organizational networks beyond contractual boundaries. We explore in this field of research the influence of different contextual governance concepts and models on the network outcomes.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Integrated factory planning
The high economic importance of the manufacturing industry and the considerable cost responsibility of the factory configuration requires efficient and integrated planning of operational and transportation equipment. Within the research area, Integrated factory planning is examined, how usual successive planning steps can be combined in order to reduce the complexity-related need of interdependent partial planning results. Using modern methods of Operations Research, the quality of planning as well as restructuring projects shall be optimized.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Planning and scheduling approaches for distributed manufacturing as well as management of manufacturing networks
Today's complex market conditions demand a high degree of flexibility and dynamism from manufacturing companies, which can be achieved through efficient planning processes. These challenges are increasingly being addressed in global competition by diversifying and distributing production activities across multiple factory locations.
However, scientific planning and control approaches for the manufacturing industry are historically limited to individual manufacturing sites and are often unable to provide efficient support for multi-site manufacturing networks. Therefore, the aim of this research area is the analytical examination of the current developments in manufacturing networks, also regarding new concepts such as virtual manufacturing networks, as well as the optimization of relevant problems in manufacturing networks in the industry, for example in the local semiconductor industry.
Contact person: Herr Prof. Dr. Lasch
The complexity of manufacturing systems
Complex manufacturing systems consist of a variety of subsystems that are connected by a seemingly endless number of relations. The aim of this research area is the development of methods for practice-oriented measurement of manufacturing complexity and the simulation-based analysis of the system complexity’s impact on manufacturing performance. In the course of our studies, innovative algorithms are applied, which were developed in collaboration with industry partners.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Innovations in spare parts logistics with particular focus on the information supply
In spare parts logistics, information gaps can lead to serious consequences, especially if downtimes have to be avoided, the customer’s satisfaction is at stake or the planning of working processes is necessary. The great importance of functioning spare parts logistics promotes the steady emergence of diverse trends and innovations. The investment in requisite conditions, e.g. corresponding IT and developments, as well as the increase in the complexity cause costs in an uncertain amount. Thus, a trade-off arises between innovation pressure and risks of unwise investments. The aim of the research is the treatment of this trade-off by analyzing the determining factors of spare parts logistics decisions in various business contexts.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Risk Modeling in the Supply Chain
Current economic trends like globalization, outsourcing as well as an intensified focus on efficiency and lean management practices lead to a higher exposure of supply chains to various external and internal risks. Supply chain risks receive particular attention since they have the potential to impede the flow of material and even jeopardize the existence of supply chain members (Top 5 Supply Chain Disruptions 2014). This research area analyzes supply chain risks, their propagation, and interdependencies in order to systematically optimize supply chains by considering effective mitigation strategies.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch
Logistics in the Context of Humanitarian Operations
In the presence of huge challenges caused by natural and man-made disasters, logistics play an increasingly crucial part in humanitarian operations. Whereas in the commercial sector, logistics have developed rapidly, enabling to operate in a globalized world, in the humanitarian context, improvements have been absent for a long time. This picture is changing for a few years, as the importance of logistics in humanitarian operations has been recognized. The starting point of the research should be a holistic consideration of the different humanitarian tasks. On this occasion, the logistical relevant information over all phases of disaster management will be focused.
Contact person: Prof. Dr. Lasch