Smart Operations Management

The research group deals with all aspects of production processes and their interaction, covering optimization of production planning and control, business analytics for data-based decision support and integration of new technologies in the areas of Industrial Internet of Things, cyber-physical production systems, and mixed reality.

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Smart Production

The entirety of production processes and their interaction is researched in the Smart Production field. The field of activity ranges from the analysis and optimisation of production planning and control (selection and parameterisation of planning methods) and capacity planning (personnel deployment and qualifications) to production controlling (key figures and logistical positioning) and the simulation and optimisation of production (focus on production planning). The influence of planning on energy consumption in production systems is also addressed here as a new topic area.

Business Analytics

Knowing the past, understanding the present, and shaping the future. This is how the field of business and prescriptive analytics can be described. The focus is on using data from networked production systems, plants, and products to reveal operational correlations and enable informed decisions. Analyses are used to detect quality deviations, identify causes, and highlight potential for optimization. Forecasting methods are used to predict future developments and provide targeted support for control processes. In this way, business analytics makes a key contribution to the scientifically sound and practical advancement of modern production and management systems.

Extended reality and intelligent assistance systeme

In the field of extended reality and intelligent assistance systems, the focus is on innovative technologies and their benefits for optimising production processes. At the centre of the research work are assistance systems that relieve the physical and cognitive burden on humans and optimise the interaction between humans and machines. Using virtual reality training, complex work scenarios can be experienced realistically and interactively and flexibly adapted to the learning situation. Mixed reality enables the visualisation of relevant data in the user's field of vision. In conjunction with the field of collaborative robotics, this creates working environments that open up new opportunities for modernising production and making it more flexible.

Josef Ressel Centre for Data-Driven Business Model Innovation (DDBMI)

The changes brought about by smart production also enable a transformation in the creation of words. New revenue models, such as usage-based payment or additional services (predictive maintenance), are made possible by digitalisation. The Josef Ressel Centre for DDBMI develops data-driven approaches (in particular concepts, process models, methods and tools) for business model innovation and makes these available to partner companies. Key topics will include recognising the necessity of business model innovation for established production companies, ensuring a focus on sustainability and the targeted and efficient use of data to design business models and guarantee the innovation process. The newly developed approaches will be applied and implemented by the partner companies in pilot projects.