Manufacturing Innovation Management for SMEs considering ambidexterity with integration of virtual and remote Learning and Innovation Factories

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael Friedrich Zäh
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning ; Production Automation and Assembly Technology
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 534053673

Manufacturing companies operate in an increasingly volatile environment. In addition, unexpected events, such as COVID-19, accelerate technological change and impose new demands on manufacturing. Therefore, companies must prove their innovative ability to ensure competitiveness. Looking at the implementation, companies face the problem of ambidexterity management, which implies to improve running processes while developing major process innovations at the same time. Within the last ten to fifteen years, the manufacturing industry has focused on exploitation by implementing incremental innovation to improve quality, cost, and time. Now, there is a strong need for the ability to adopt process innovations quickly and explore new possibilities continuously. Especially, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) find it difficult to integrate and exploit radical innovations. At European level 53% of the added value is created by SMEs. Therefore, they form the backbone of the European economy and must be enabled to remain internationally competitive. To support the process of continuous learning and exploration in industrial manufacturing 4.0, Learning and Innovation Factories (LIF) have been introduced. In recent years, many academic institutions and companies have set up structural ambidexterity using so-called Innovation Laboratories to devise new ideas that can complement their products or processes. The proposal aims to increase the innovative capabilities of manufacturing SMEs by creating an organizational and processual framework for manufacturing innovation management (MIM) considering ambidexterity, with an effective integration of virtual and remote LIFs. In contrast to existing concepts, the approach should provide manufacturing companies with practical methods for establishing or strengthening ambidexterity in manufacturing. The framework aims at offering SMEs the advantage of organizationally shaping their innovation processes in manufacturing and gaining long-term competitiveness while at the same time ensuring operational stability. In addition, the integration of remote and virtual LIFs allows a timely form of innovation flexibility and can help to foster cooperation between product development and manufacturing. Remote LIFs enable access to the physical and virtual elements of the LIF via innovative interfaces, independent of location and time. Virtual and remotely accessible LIFs will furthermore enable the transfer of knowledge, provide a protected environment for experimentation, and empower employees in manufacturing innovation activities. Lastly, using virtual and remote capabilities, this project intends to counteract investment restraints of SMEs by enabling access to learning factories. The use of virtual and remote LIFs allows a continuation of innovation activities in the current post-COVID-19 era or similarly difficult situations. In addition, a major step towards sustainability can be taken by reducing the need for travel.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Italy
• Partner Organisation: Autonome Provinz Bozen - Südtirol
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr.-Ing. Erwin Rauch