DINAMIK – Digital sustainability monitoring in production using company-specific performance indicator systems

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Michael Friedrich Zäh
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 561067322

Expectations towards companies to act sustainably are increasing. In particular, increasing legal regulations, norms, and customer requirements create an ever-growing need to prove sustainability to third parties. To support this trend, a growing number of key performance indicators have been developed and will continue to be created. The challenge is to select suitable indicators depending on the company and the area to be evaluated. Particularly in the area of production, there is disagreement and a lack of overview as to which indicators are relevant for assessing sustainability and how they can be measured efficiently and effectively. This is where the DINAMIK project aims to offer support. The project includes developing a system of key performance indicators (KPIs) for the digital recording of production-related KPIs, which also represents the associated allocation rules and interdependencies between the respective indicators from the shop floor to the production network. This is intended to create a high level of transparency regarding the current state of production in terms of sustainability, necessary measures, and their effectiveness. To ensure the company-specific configuration of the KPI system, a method will be developed that enables the individual selection of the KPIs. Furthermore, a procedure for the creation of a process data model will be established, which ensures the data-side prerequisite for continuous, digital monitoring of the sustainability performance of companies. Building on this, the use of data analytics tools will be facilitated in order to achieve comprehensive monitoring of sustainability. For the successful realization of this project, a three-year term with 1.5 full-time positions for scientific staff and a proportionate contingency for the employment of scientific assistants is requested. The results of DINAMIK will enable manufacturing companies to make fact-based decisions for their contribution to meeting the overall societal challenges for sustainable living and acting.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants