SFB 768:  Managing Cycles in Innovation Processes - Integrated Development of Product Service Systems Based on Technical Products

• Subject Area: Mechanical and Industrial Engineering ; Mechanical and Industrial Engineering ; Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2008 to 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 33237764

The Collaborative Research Centre consists of 14 subprojects at three faculties engaging problems, which emerge during the innovation process. Focus of the research is the implementation and use of elements of complex solutions, nowadays typically consisting of a combination of product- and service-components, so-called product-service-systems. The components are subject to development-, manufacturing- and life cycles of varying length, which are provided by different functional divisions. Availability and maturity of technologies, changes of competences, financial cycles at capital markets or of investments and write-offs as well as changes of customer demands represent external influences on the company. In contrast, the associated business processes underlie different cycles in research and development, manufacturing, logistics, finance, service and recycling, which are mutually affecting each other as well.
Those cyclic interdependencies intensify the pressure in terms of quality and schedule, causing shortened testing phases, frequent releases of new models, and thus hardly calculable risks. As a result, deficits in innovation processes become apparent, such as frequent changes, lack of planning utilities, insufficient objectives, lack of transparency, inadequate cross-disciplinary collaboration and unsettled allocation of competences. The majority of these deficits results from insufficient knowledge of the influencing cycles and the lack of control concerning the properties of these cycles.
Against the background of this set of problems, aim of the Collaborative Research Centre is the understanding and design of innovation processes concerning the specific characteristics and interdependencies of cycles in innovation processes. With the understanding of cycles, innovation processes are to be designed with regards to the content of cycles, in terms of costs and quality and, above all, concerning their temporal interaction. To reach these goals, scientists from the faculties of computer sciences, engineering and economics and sociology are collaborating closely. The perspective of cycles is thereby the novel point of view on innovation processes to align and synchronise company-external and -internal changes.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres

Completed projects

• A01 - Cycle-Oriented Modeling of Innovation Processes (Project Head Trinczek, Rainer )
• A02 - Structure-based modeling and evaluation of discipline-spanning development and design relations (Project Head Maurer, Maik )
• A03 - Shaping the dynamic of sociotechnical systems using the example of user innovation communities (Project Head Lohmann, Boris )
• A04 - Collaborative Requirements Engineering for PSS (Project Head Krcmar, Helmut )
• A05 - Tasks and competence requirements in innovation processes and their cycles: Integrating innovation and human resource management models and approaches (Project Head Trinczek, Rainer )
• A06 - Assistance system to support the cycle management in the development and use phase of PSS innovation processes through self-maintenance of mechatronic modules (Project Heads Bender, Klaus ;  Vogel-Heuser, Birgit )
• A07 - Shaping the dynamic of interconnected cycles - optimal control using fuzzy based models (Project Head Lohmann, Boris )
• A08 - Managing cycles in teams and networks: Diagnose, intervention and evaluation (Project Heads Brodbeck, Felix ;  Kugler, Katharina )
• A10 - Supporting innovation of PSS through model-based assessment of PSS use phase information (Project Head Omer, Mayada )
• A11 - Institutional reflexivity in sociotechnical networks: Participatory analysis and design of cyclic innovation practice in PSS (Project Heads Maasen, Sabine ;  Passoth, Jan-Hendrik )
• B01 - Systemic change management for the handling of cycles in development processes (Project Head Lindemann, Udo )
• B02 - Defining and exploring formal PSS solution spaces (Project Head Shea, Kristina )
• B03 - Dynamic production technology planning (Project Head Reinhart, Gunther )
• B04 - Model-based prediction and assessment of change impacts in manufacturing systems (Project Head Reinhart, Gunther )
• B05 - Systemic change management: designing change cycles in manufacturing (Project Heads Reinhart, Gunther ;  Zäh, Michael Friedrich )
• C01 - Integration of external stakeholders into the cycle-oriented design of PSS-based business models (Project Heads Krcmar, Helmut ;  Leimeister, Jan Marco )
• C02 - Lifecycle-oriented decision making approach for planning product service systems (PSS) (Project Head Mörtl, Markus )
• C03 - Shaping interactions between users and producers across the lifecycle of product-service systems: Co-Evolution of user and producer capacities for Open Innovation (Project Heads Raasch, Christina ;  von Wangenheim, Florian ;  Zaggl, Michael )
• C05 - Managing User Innovation Communities with agent-based modeling (Project Heads Raasch, Christina ;  von Wangenheim, Florian ;  Zaggl, Michael )
• D01 - Support for shaping PSS innovation processes through diagnosis and resolution of inconsistencies between models from different domains (Project Heads Krcmar, Helmut ;  Lindemann, Udo ;  Reinhart, Gunther ;  Vogel-Heuser, Birgit )
• D02 - Action goal oriented interactive visualization of model dependencies to reduce complexity in the cycle-oriented transdisciplinary design of PSS innovation processes (Project Head Pantförder, Dorothea )
• MGK - Integrated Research Training Group (Project Head Vogel-Heuser, Birgit )
• T01 - Methodology for the planning of cycle-oriented module- and platform strategies (Project Head Maurer, Maik )
• T02 - Zyklenorientierte Bewertung und Planung von Technologieketten und Betriebsmitteln für Montageprozesse (Project Head Reinhart, Gunther )
• T03 - Model-based cycle-oriented decision making support in early phases of PSS innovation processes under specific consideration of the technical disciplines (Project Head Vogel-Heuser, Birgit )
• T07 - Guideline for a Manufacturing Change Management (Project Head Reinhart, Gunther )
• Z - Central tasks of the Collaborative Research Centre (Project Heads Lindemann, Udo ;  Vogel-Heuser, Birgit )

• Applicant Institution: Technische Universität München (TUM)
• Participating University: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
• Spokespersons: Professor Dr.-Ing. Udo Lindemann, until 10/2013; Professorin Dr.-Ing. Birgit Vogel-Heuser, since 11/2013