Production Logistics in interconnected Value Systems

Increasing customer requirements demand intelligent logistics solutions

The development from a seller's to a buyer's market has led to a change in the importance of the customer in industry in recent decades. Manufacturing companies are increasingly active in international procurement and sales markets in order to exploit cost advantages and growth potential.

Customised and integrated logistics for production

Manufacturing companies are facing an increasingly demanding competitive environment with high requirements for quality, costs and delivery times. The design of production structures is of decisive importance for mastering these complex challenges. To this end, leading companies use the potential from cooperations, strengthen the integration of upstream and downstream processes into production and concentrate on their core competences through outsourcing. In addition, the adaptation and further development of excellent methods and concepts ensures continuous improvement.

Topics

Within the framework of the course, important logistical prerequisites and design options of the smart factory in the context of globally networked value chains are elaborated.

For this purpose, the functionality of modern factories is presented from a production logistics perspective. Essential design elements and distinguishing features of production systems are described. The entire production logistics spectrum is considered, including highly automated, sustainable and intelligent production sites. Important processes in this context are taught, which cover both internal processes, such as production planning and control, as well as procurement and sales market issues in the sense of a holistic view of logistics.

In order to design innovative production logistics systems, numerous technologies in the field of digitalisation and corresponding application possibilities for production logistics will be presented and their potentials and limitations discussed. To this end, development paths and best-practice examples will be shown. A special focus will also be placed on communicating success factors in the application of digital solutions as well as concepts for their identification, evaluation and implementation. To optimise processes and measure their success, methods of process improvement and performance measurement, such as Lean Management and Six Sigma, are introduced and their use in the smart factory is presented.

The lectures are accompanied by a practical semester assignment in which students identify and implement optimisation potential using a production logistics system. Guest lectures and excursions to production sites provide insights into operational practice, which serve to deepen the understanding of the course content.

Students of the course acquire competences for the analysis, evaluation and design of modern production systems in the context of logistics. The guiding principle of the course is the smart factory, for the realisation of which the students acquire comprehensive knowledge in the form of novel technologies, sustainable processes and internationally networked value chains, among other things. In addition, methodological competences for dealing with the challenges in today's and future production logistics systems are taught through practical application of the course content.

The contents of the Bachelor course Fundamentals of Logistics are required for this course.

For logistics master's students, the course Production Logistics is a compulsory elective module in the engineering field.

The detailed schedule can be found on the German Website of the Course.