Software supported approach for production configuration

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Matthias Schmidt
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 574604472

Production configuration is a critical success factor for companies with increasingly complex supply chains. The logistical performance of companies, which can be measured, for example, with the logistical targets of adherence to delivery dates and delivery times, is strongly influenced by the diverse factors of impact in recent years. Disruptions in the supply of materials due to pandemics or geopolitical conflicts, but also due to a shortage of resources, pose new challenges for industry time and again. Since in many companies the tasks of production planning and control (PPC) are carried out on the basis of past values, disruptive events have a particularly high influence here. In order to overcome the entrepreneurial challenges, the aim of this project is to categorically rework already existing framework models in the area of PPC. With the application partner Kennametal, already known and new weak points in the production configuration (from the strategic target definition to the operative order processing) are to be determined after an actual process recording. Company-specific characteristics such as the product portfolio, the order processing strategy and the characteristics of the production environment form the basis for a mature production configuration. Based on the findings of the previous DFG research project "Systematic investigation of the effect of production planning and production control procedures on logistical target variables", a procedure for systematic and holistic production configuration for operations is to be developed with the application partner. The collected research results and findings will be made available in a web-based software prototype, which will be validated with three other companies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants (Transfer Project)
• Application Partner: Kennametal Produktions GmbH & Co.KG