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New Book: Customer-Driven Supply Chains: From Glass Pipelines to Open Innovation Networks

Feb 4th, 2012 by

As a result of our EU-funded research project REMPLANT, we are proud to announce a new book that Prof. Frank Piller partly co-authored:

Customer-Driven Supply Chains
From Glass Pipelines to Open Innovation

by Lyons, A.C., Coronado Mondragon, A. E., Piller, F. and Poler, R

The Book reviews the concept of lean thinking and its relationship to other key initiatives associated with supply chain management. Detailed industrial case studies based on the authors’ experience illustrate the principles behind lean supply chains. Moreover, a series of diagrams are used to illustrate critical concepts and supply chain architectures. Special emphasis is placed on the importance of transferring lean principles from the organisational level to the supply chain level. The theory and principles behind lean supply chains are reviewed. Other concepts related to lean supply chains discussed in the book include: mass customisation, agility, information sharing and the bullwhip effect. A methodology used to measure the performance of supply chains is introduced; this methodology comprises the tools of decision timeline, data-flow diagramming, supply chain value stream mapping and a performance measurement scorecard.

Readers will gain a clear picture of the competitive implications of lean supply chains. Customer-Driven Supply Chains: From Glass Pipelines to Open Innovation Networks will be a valuable resource of material to students studying supply chain/operations management as well as researchers in this field. Industry practitioners will learn how to develop sound supply chain strategies that can have a positive impact in their organisation.

Lead author and driver behind the book has been Andrew Lyons from the University of Liverpool, a great research partner in the REMPLANET project. He has been a Lecturer in Operations Management at the University of Liverpool Management School since 2002. His research interests include: operations strategy, supply chain design and performance measurement, supply chain information structures, mass customisation and build-to-order strategies.

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Donation for participation in our chair`s experiment

Jan 10th, 2012 by

We are very happy to announce that our students that took part in Robin’s, Viktoria’s and my experiments in December, were able to earn a donation worth 230 EURO.  As promised, we donated the money to UNICEF today! We like to thank you all once again for participation and hope  to see you in our lab again soon!

Posted in Lehrstuhl, participate!, research | No Comments »

Merry Christmas and All the Best for 2012

Dec 24th, 2011 by

Merry Christmas and all the Best for 2012 from the entuire RWTH-TIM Team!

The official 2011 RWTH-TIM Holiday Card - Picture by Marcus Gerards

 

PLease note: The RWTH TIM Group is enjoying the Christmas holidays and New Year’s festivities until January 4, 2012. Before, our offices are only occupied by people finishing their AOM paper or working on their PhD thesis.

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What is the next big idea in mass customization? Submit your proposal to the $1 Million Zazzle Innovation Challenge

Dec 19th, 2011 by

Here is your perfect thing to do over the Christmas holidays:

Zazzle

Zazzle, a leading platform for quality custom products, is hosting their first “One Million-Dollar Innovation Challenge” to launch the development of the next, most innovative customization product or company.

This can be an idea for a new consumer product, but also one for an innovative service, health, business to business or whatever offering … Feel free to bring mass customization to a new level!

The contest had been announced during the MCPC 2011 conference dinner. It is hosted in association with MIT’s Smart Customization Group, UC Berkeley’s Center for Corporate Innovation, and our own RWTH TIM group!

The Million-Dollar Innovation Challenge and prize is open to any person or company with an idea for a customizable product. Applicants must create a one-minute video, describing their product and explaining why their innovative concept is special and will contribute to the growing movement of mass customization. Applicants will be judged on innovation and economic viability.

The winner will gain access to Zazzle’s world-class engineering team, which will support the winning project with software development, exclusive proprietary design tools and 3-D product visualization technologies. Additionally, Zazzle will fund the project with resources to develop a global product-marketing plan and launch the product to a worldwide audience of tens of millions of potential consumers. The winner will also receive mentorship from a veteran panel of potential investors and industry leaders, in addition to introductions to Zazzle’s many brands and partners.

Zazzle will announce five semi-finalists on February 24, 2012. Academic experts, industry executives and active investors will help refine the concepts and plans for final evaluation and judge the presentations.

For more information, including objectives, application, rules and prize details, visit www.Zazzle.com/challenge.

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MCPC Conference 2011: Bridging Mass Customization and Open Innovation

Dec 15th, 2011 by

The RWTH TIM delegation at the MCPC 2011 conference dinner

Several members of the TIM group have recently attended the biannual MCPC Conference, which took place in the inspiring city of San Francisco. MCPC is the largest and leading conference in the field of Personalization and Customization. However, the conference theme was extended by the closely linked topic of Open Innovation this year.

While Mass Customization and Open Innovation are based on different theoretical backgrounds, both approaches deal with the integration of external actors into business processes in order to create innovative goods and services for satisfying customers´ individual needs. Therefore, bridging the topics of Mass Customization and Open Innovation offers the opportunity to benefit from an exchange by learning from each other and getting in touch with other ways of thinking in related fields.

The conference started on Thursday evening with an inspiring pre-event at TechShop´s new branch in downtown San Francisco. At the following two days, the application-focused business seminar took place at the conference location. During the seminar, more than 40 keynote speeches, plenary presentations, and round tables on both topics have provided a lot of interesting insight, thereby building the basis for further discussions. The first part of the MCPC 2011 was concluded by the conference dinner and the exciting launch of the Zazzle Open Innovation Challenge.

On Friday and Saturday, the academic part of the conference was carried out. Three keynote sessions and almost 150 paper presentations offered many opportunities for learning and debating about Mass Customization, Open Innovation and the links between both schools of thought.

We all greatly enjoyed this year’s MCPC: once again the conference was a great platform for getting in touch with like-minded experts from research and practice. We are looking forward to the next MCPC in 2013!

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Local Open Innovation with the 2nd edition of Quebec Seeks Solution – Call for Problems Published

Dec 13th, 2011 by

QEMS_site_webFollowing up on the great success of the first “Québec Seeks Solutions” conference in late 2010 I am glad to announce the Call for Problems for the next event, taking place on May 15 – 16, 2012 in Québec City, Canada.

Just like last year, you are invited to submit an actual problems that you could not solve so far. In the true spirit of Open Innovation, we will use the productive atmosphere of the conference to discuss and co-create (the beginning) of a solution for the most interesting problems amongst all participants.

Submitt your problems until January 13th, 2012!

Problems can be submitted within one of three different categories:

  • Innovation Problems: These problems are usually upstream of innovation, but have a significant impact on an organization’s innovation capacity. Such problems are economic, organizational, social, or political in nature.
  • Industrial Problems: Industrial problems with a strong technical component will be submitted by companies facing innovation problems in new technology development or in product design or improvement.
  • Large Scale Problems (with multiple components): At least one large scale problem will be the focus of a group intelligence activity that will involve all participants and will have the potential to advance understanding of the problem. This problem will be submitted by an international organization facing a number of complex innovation issues.

The conference shall become a place where concrete problems of small, medium, and large companies will be discussed to deepen the understanding of the issue and to seek potential solutions. At the same time, this will become a laboratory for experimenting with and implementing open innovation. Participants shall be able to use the intelligence of experts in various fields to find solutions to specific problems.

New in 2012: The main event will be preceded by a seminar on May 14 PM. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about open innovation in the company of the leading experts in the field. Also, a special workshop will be held on May 16 PM around the “seeks solutions” model and how you can use it in your local context. Further details coming soon!

For additional information, visit the Quèbec Seeks Solutions Website and follow us on Twitter (@quebecsolutions)

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Neues aus dem EMBA der RWTH Aachen

Dec 12th, 2011 by

Die MBA-Plattform “International Graduate Forum (IGF)” hat den Executive MBA der RWTH Aachen auf Platz Eins des kommenden Rankings (12/2012) platziert. Besonders positiv wurde das Programm in den Hauptkriterien “Innovation” und “Value for Money” bewertet.

Interessierten Bewerbern für die nächste Iteration des MBA Programms bietet sich noch bis zum 31. Januar 2012 die Möglichkeit von einem Frühbucher-Rabatt in Höhe von 10% auf die Studiengebühren zu profitieren.

Ausführliche Informationen hierzu bietet der aktuelle EMBA-Newsletter sowie die  nächste Informationsveranstaltung am 07. Februar 2012 um 17.00 Uhr im WZL der RWTH Aachen.

 

Posted in Lehrstuhl, teaching | No Comments »

Gastvorträge Wintersemester 2011/12

Nov 15th, 2011 by

Sehr geehrte Studierende,

wir freuen uns, Ihnen auch in diesem Semester wieder über einige spannende Gastvorträge von Referenten aus der Praxis, Einblicke in die Realität des Innovationsmanagement bieten zu können.
Wir freuen uns über Ihr Interesse und laden Sie herzlich zu folgenden Vorträgen ein:

 

29.11.: Herr Alexander Schmid, Chief Innovation Officer, IBM  “Innovationsmanagement bei IBM”

06.12.: Herr Peter Pape, Technology & Ideation Manager, 3M  “Innovationsmanagement bei 3M”
13.12.: Herr Dr. Thomas Prasch, Director Innovation Management, Qiagen  “Strategisches Innovationsmanagement bei Qiagen”

Die Vorträge sind jeweils integriert in die Vorlesung TIM II, welche um 15:00 Uhr beginnt und im Fo3 stattfindet.

Wir freuen uns auf Ihr zahlreiches Kommen!

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Job Opening / Stellenangebot: Wissenschafliche/r Mitarbeiter/in Innovationsmanagement

Nov 8th, 2011 by

Die RWTH ist mit ca. 30.000 Studierenden und ca. 10.000 Beschäftigten eine der größten und renommiertesten Technischen Universitäten Europas. Lehre und Forschung sind international, innovativ, industrienah und fachübergreifend ausgerichtet.

Unser Lehrstuhl für Technologie- und Innovationsmanagement (RWTH-TIM) ist ein zentrales Institut an der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften. Ein junges, interdisziplinäres und sehr engagiertes Team forscht und lehrt hier im Bereich Innovationsmanagement. Ausgewählte Forschungsfragen sind die Modellierung von Innovationsprozessen, das Management disruptiver Innovationen, die organisationalen Voraussetzungen von Innovationsfähigkeit, Mass Customization sowie der Einbezug externer Akteure in den Innovationsprozess (Open Innovation).

Ihr Profil:  Wir erwarten einen Studienabschluss (Master oder vergleichbar) mit Prädikatsexamen im Wirtschaftsingenieurwesen, in den Wirtschaftswissenschaften oder einem verwandten Fach wie Soziologie, Psychologie oder Informatik mit Nebenfach WiWi. Neben Vorkenntnissen im Innovationsmanagement sind vertiefte Kenntnisse von Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung sehr erwünscht.

Desweiteren werden sehr gute Deutsch- und Englisch-Kenntnisse in Wort (diskussions- und präsentationsfähig) und Schrift (Publikationen) erwartet.

Ihre Aufgaben:  Die Stelle ermöglicht die Mitarbeit und Teilprojektleitung in zwei spannenden und anspruchsvollen Forschungsvorhaben im Umfeld Customer Co-Creation, Co-Design Toolkits und nutzerfokussierter Open Innovation. Die Vorhaben bieten viele Ansatzpunkte, Dissertation und Projektarbeit zu verbinden.

Diese Stelle beinhaltet auch die Option, Erfahrungen in der Lehre für verschiedene Zielgruppen zu sammeln. bietet eine ausgezeichnete Vorbereitung sowohl für eine Karriere in der Praxis als auch in der Wissenschaft. Der Lehrstuhl unterstützt aktiv eine Zusammenarbeit mit internationalen Forschern im Rahmen von gemeinsamen Projekten, dem Besuch internationaler Konferenzen und durch Forschungsaufenthalte an ausländischen Universitäten.

Weitere Informationen zur Bewerbung finden Sie hier.

Bewerbungsschluss ist der 30. November 2011

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European Commission is Funding Research on Mass Customized / Personalized Food – Call for SMEs to particiapte

Oct 16th, 2011 by

While the European Commission since many years has supported research on mass customization, they now have issued a specialized call on personalisation and customisation of food.

In their call “KBBE.2012.2.3-04: Personalised approaches to food production and distribution” they ask for proposals to research this issue in a consortium of SMEs and Research Institutes.

The aim is to further develop processing, packaging and distribution aspects of convenient, personalised food products attractive to the consumer. Personalisation can take many forms, and might refer to individual health or lifestyle aspects and/or address personal preferences regarding quality, portion size or cost, convenience, packaging, taste or pleasure, or it might concern specific target groups.

Interestingly, they clearly say that they WANT MORE THAN known approaches like nutrigenomics, genotyping and phenotyping; specific nutrients or dietary advice, but demand a real prototype of a customizable food product:

“The conceptual models should be applied to developing prototype foods for a limited segment of the market, preferably in a demonstration unit.”

I hope the people at the EU are aware that a lot of this is happening already in the European Community, driven by great entrepreneurs like Chocri, MyMuesli, Allmytea, and many others!

If anyone thinking of participating in the call and submitting a proposal still needs a partner in form of a great research group with much knowledge on customization, let me know :-)

More info on this in the meta call, Call: FP7-KBBE-2012-6.

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