Graduiertenkolleg Anlaufmanagement

Development of a decision model for the creation of production ramp-up

The goal of the ramp-up management graduate college is to guard the ramp-up management against/over the systematic improvement of individual decisions. Junior staff scientists should be trained to experts, over the education character of the graduated college in regard of the behaviour of a concrete decision problem, the ramp-up management.

For industrial enterprises and especially for the automotive supplying industry the production ramp-up represents a crucial success factor, since according to the global assimilation of technical abilities and competences the product launch to the correct time and meanwhile low assignment of resources will be an important differentiation criteria for enterprises in the future. In the ramp-up phase the transition from the virtual, planned to the real world occurs. At this time the production system will holistically be tested for its capacity. Currently, this procedure can only be afforded by a high assignment of resources while the corresponding system shows the typical properties of an uncontrollable and complex system.

Against this background the objective of the Research Training Group “Ramp-Up Management” is to meet present theoretical deficits in handling the production ramp-up by means of a comprehensive explanation model. For this purpose the maxim “Reducing unessential complexity, mastering essential complexity” will underlie. The explanation model will provide a basis for the scientific education as well as a device for the orientation of enterprises in order to bridge between teaching, research and industrial practice. In the production ramp-up both the planning aspects of the virtual system and the operative controlling of the real system have to be taken into account. The integrated problem represents the interface between engineering and economics.

On the one hand technological systems and on the other hand humans´ attitude to the control of such complex systems will be considered. Thus an interdisciplinary handling of the topics logistic, business economics and production engineering is necessary. The individual questions concerning production ramp-up will be answered by the PhD students using different scientific approaches and perspectives of the different disciplines in order to discuss solution components of the topics interdisciplinary and concerning the interdependencies of adjoining areas as well as to develop a holistic method of resolution. The system-theoretical approach according to Ulrich will commonly underlie every approach. Further on the study program accompanying the research program will promote both the competences of the contents and the research methodical competences of the PhD students. The research training group will lay the foundation for the procurement of research methodology and research design. In particular it will be a reference process for the education of PhD students in Aachen.