KAMiiSo

Abstract

Modern products are often developed at different locations by different engineering domains. This increases the communication and coordination effort significantly. Modern digital tools provide promising opportunities to support the necessary exchange of information by targeted communication and application of methods. For example, product solutions can be used at various locations and manipulated in real time. At the same time, the new tools of communication and interaction create new requirements of personal competences for product developers. The challenges and potentials outlined are the basis for an interdisciplinary research approach between engineering science and industrial psychology.

Research Questions and Motivation

Products are mostly developed and manufactured across different locations. Development teams must thus be able to develop and validate innovative solutions together across industrial location boundaries. Product developers and product development teams are often specialized knowledge owners. They have to develop, evaluate and validate complex information on time. The communication effort as well as the coordination effort increase significantly due to the cross-location and interdisciplinary cooperation. Modern digital tools provide promising opportunities to support the necessary exchange of information by targeted communication and application of methods. For example, product solutions can be used at various locations and manipulated in real time. At the same time, the new tools of communication and interaction create new requirements of personal competences for product developers. The challenges and potentials outlined are the basis for an interdisciplinary research approach between engineering science and industrial psychology. In order to establish the development of digital tools and new approaches to work, the conflict between qualifications and competences of developers, methods and development tools as well as process organisation will be addressed.

Approach and Project Objective

The goal of the KAMiiSo project is the development and evaluation of digital tools for communication, method application and competence development in medium-sized companies in the field of mechanical engineering. For the targeted digitization of the working environment, an analysis of the actual situation of the cross-location development work is executed. Three digital working scenarios for cooperative product development are being tested in practice. Here, the requirements for working organization and development methods are taken into account.

• Working scenario virtual commissioning:
  The scenario demonstrates internal cooperation between developers from different disciplines (e.g. software, electronics, mechanical engineering) and organizational units (e.g. development, sales, service). The cooperative product development is to be supported by a simulation platform in which the interaction of the subsystems, developed by the individual developers (sub solutions from mechanics, electronics, software), can be validated.
• Working scenario local distributed development and innovation management:
  This scenario shows the internal cooperation of locations with different technical competencies (e.g. different manufacturing technologies, different products and services) and different cultural backgrounds of the employees. The goal of using digital tools is to support the transfer of knowledge and information between locations by simplifying informal and formal communication. In addition, the provision of information is to be facilitated. Furthermore, the targeted use of development methods within the framework of distributed teamwork is to be supported.
• Working scenario coordination of adapted designs in the local distributed product development
  This working scenario describes the increased need for communication in the local distributed product development. The scenario focuses on the development of tools for task coordination between team members from various locations. The engineering science approach focuses on methods for the coordination and tracking of changes. From the point of view of industrial psychology, the focus is on the targeted initiation and implementation of communication processes with special consideration of personal boundary conditions and cultural differences.

On the one hand, the described working scenarios are supported by software tools for competence development and reflection of communication and team processes. On the other hand, digital tools are provided for the selection and application of development methods and types of communication. For the implementation in industrial companies, engineers are trained who support the implementation and application of the tools in reference projects. Then, the individual software tools are applied in reference projects at the associated industrial companies. After that, generic introduction and usage strategies for digital working scenarios in small and medium-sized enterprises are derived.

Research Results

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