The saturation of markets due to globalization has caused a need for digital evolution of organizations to generate innovative manufacturing practices to assure sustained competitive capabilities. Even though technological capabilities have the impact to generate competitive capabilities strategic implementation is a must for optimal performance. The phenomenon of digital transformation and relating strategic efforts are subject to greatly varying viewpoints which has made it challenging for manufactures to engage with digital transformation. The purpose of the thesis is to decipher the phenomenon digital transformation and to further identify the vital aspects of approaching digital transformation strategies through analysing literature and manufacturing companies. In order to fulfil the purpose of this research project two research questions was formulated: • RQ 1: Which are the crucial aspects of digital transformation? • RQ 2: How should digital transformation strategies be approached? This thesis is a part of digital transformation coordination project which include four industrial partners. The case companies were therefore set before the initiation of this thesis with including work packages. A literature review was performed to generate an understanding of the different viewpoints and to provide the case companies with an academic insight. Empirical findings were established through the gathering of data through observations during project meetings and the through the use of questionnaires. An analysis was conducted by comparing the different datasets. Establishing a frame of reference were vital in understanding the scattered phenomenon of digital transformation. Through identifying the contents of Industry 4.0 subsequent digital transformation and related strategical efforts provided the thesis with a profound theoretical support. The empirical findings provided the thesis with an understanding of how four different manufacturing companies viewed digital transformation. The different state of digital transformations was identified with additions to stating the possibilities and challenges. The crucial aspects of digital transformation were found through analysing the different views and meanings of digital transformation, presenting technology, and organizationally driven digital transformation and finally the fundamental aspects of digital transformation. A sound approach for manufacturers to strategize digital transformation was found through analysing the key factors of digital transformation strategies and the current constraints of digital transformation strategies. Furthermore, a discussion of additional themes which does not apply to the research questions were found to be the cause of digital transformation disparity throughout the case companies and the communication of digital transformation. The crucial aspects of digital transformation are found to be the identification of internal and external company objects that require a holistic, organizational changing continuous process. Which furtherutilizes the potential of novel disruptive technologies to develop novel business practices to generate value and competitive competences. A sound approach towards digital transformation strategies is suggested to be through generating a current state understanding to recognize the appropriate activities that must be performed and understanding the financial aspects of said activities and formulating them in a practical holistic way to assure adequate organizational support. Furthermore, understanding and communicating each strategical phase is vital to assure that the organizational aspects can support the digital transformation.

Lean, with its origin in the Japanese automotive production and Toyota, is broadly seen as the most adopted manufacturing philosophy since several decades. One of the core values of Lean is Continuous Improvements (CI). CI is about the many small, simple and cheap improvements, which everyone is involved in, every day. As digitalization is making its way into the manufacturing environment, a hype around what is called Industry 4.0 (I4.0), also known as the fourth industrial revolution, has been created. In short, I4.0 refers to different technology-driven changes in an organization’s manufacturing systems. However, the true implications of those changes remain dimmed by the single-sided discussion of I4.0’s portrayed conceptual benefits. Moreover, despite the importance of CI for corporate success and the overall relevance of the I4.0 topic, no studies have been found to address their potential interaction. Thus, the purpose of this thesis has been to explore how the conditions for CI will be affected post I4.0 implementation. By focusing on the potential negative impacts on the overall rate of improvement, the purpose has also encompassed the identification of specific success factors to mitigate these negatives.   Due to the explorative nature of the research, a two-iteration Delphi survey containing open-ended questions has been chosen as a means of data collection; targeting experienced Lean and I4.0 personnel within the manufacturing industry. The first iteration survey encouraged participants to identify both positive and negative aspects of I4.0 impact on CI, while the second iteration survey encouraged participants to identify success factors. To make the concept of I4.0 more tangible, the technologies have been condensed into three I4.0 value drivers: Connectivity, Intelligence and Flexible automation. The data processing revealed that 64% of the answers provided for all value drivers were positive. This indicated an overall positive belief in the impacts of I4.0 on the conditions for CI both through enhanced problem-sensitivity, built by Lean values and principles, and through increased problem-solving capabilities. While the results reflected the current I4.0 hype, they also highlighted the difficulty in critically assessing the potential impact from technologies that are not yet widely implemented. Nevertheless, for each value driver the participants have also identified Challenges (18% of answers) and Risks (18% of answers) that can adversely affect CI. Based on the Challenges and Risks, a total of 74 success factors have been compiled and divided into four categories: Purpose, Involvement of people, Competence and Implementation strategy.   This research has contributed to the discussion about the Possibilities, Challenges and Risks of the I4.0 value drivers’ impact on the conditions for CI in the manufacturing environment. Furthermore, with emphasis on the identified Challenges and Risks, the authors have tried to cut through the noise of the ongoing I4.0 hype. As such, this research has introduced an alternative perspective that sets it apart from the overwhelmingly uncritical discussions surrounding I4.0. While the research’s theoretical contribution has been built by the insight into the I4.0’s potential impact on the conditions for CI, its practical contribution has been derived from the identified success factors; factors that can work as guiding principles for I4.0 adopters.

Dobyšarová, D. The impact of the industrial revolution "Industry 4.0" in connection to the corporate education of human resources. Master’s thesis. Brno: Mendel’s university in Brno, 2020. Industry 4.0, in other words the 4th Industrial revolution, where we currently are, is a very relevant topic, which begins to take on importance. The concept of the Industry 4.0 is set up in a way that so called „smart factories“, based on cybernetic-physical systems are being built. Those will gradually take over the manual and routine work performed by people so far. The master’s thesis is looking at the current situation and the competency of respondents. The thesis uses secondary survey data from the PIACC (Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies), used for the assessment of the above-mentioned matters. Based on this data, five factors were determined : attitude towards work, education within the working hours, computer literacy, work-life balance and self-education. These factors are compared between generations X and Y using a t-test for two independent selections. The test measures whether the results of one group (generation X) are significantly different from the results of the second group (generation Y).

This thesis deals with developing a configurator of furniture with introducing options of configuration. The concept of configuration is described and the analyse of available configurators of furniture on the internet is formulated. In theoretical part the requirements for modern furniture manufacturing and information flow in production is clarified. Requirements on CAD/CAM in furniture industry are summarized.

In the context of the paper, a research work is shown to implement a networked decentralized safety architecture that replaces the central architecture. Thus, the safety system fits better into the rest of the automation structure. On the one hand, this is done by a clearer hardware structure, as there is now one safety controller per decentralized unit, which, analogous to the distributed automation system, communicates with the other stations via an Ethernet-based bus system, thus greatly reducing the wiring and commissioning effort. On the other hand, the decentralized processing allows a local shutdown of the safety-relevant components and an escalation of the emergency shutdown to other areas, depending on the emergency stop situation. This means that in the event of a safety-critical situation, the shutdown is reduced to what is necessary from a safety point of view, which increases system availability.

Titel: Konkurrensfördelar inom industri 4.0: är hållbarhet hållbart? - En kvalitativ fallstudie  för att förstå om företags önskade värde och kunders upplevda värde sammanlänkar.  Författare: Oliver Andersson & Malte Hallgren  Handledare: Jean-Charles Languilaire  Bakgrund: Industri 4.0 innefattar automatiseringen av industrisektorn och hur maskiner, sensorer och IT-system ansluter samman. Centralt för industri 4.0 är en effektivisering genom smarta och uppkopplade system vilket är en förutsättning för att uppnå konkurrensfördelar samt tillväxt. I samband med att samhället blir mer medvetna och brydda i frågor om vilken påverkan människan har på vår planet, tillkommer både samhälleliga men också lagkrav på hållbarhetsanpassning. Trots att hållbarhet är ett koncept som växer sig starkare även bland företag och organisationer kvarstår en problematik gällande hur hållbarhet definieras samt hur det mäts. Tidigare forskning har separat studerat hållbarhet och industri 4.0, men det finns en kunskapslucka hur ämnena sammankopplas inom en svensk kontext. Utifrån bakgrunden vill författarna att denna studie ska bistå med förståelse om hållbarhet kan skapa konkurrensfördelar inom industri 4.0.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att söka förståelse om konkurrensfördelar kan skapas genom att integrera och implementera hållbarhet i en organisation inom industri 4.0.  Problemformulering: Skapar hållbarhetsarbete värde som kan bidra till konkurrensfördel inom industri 4.0?  Metodologi & Metod: Studien använder en kvalitativ forskningsmetod där sex semistrukturerade intervjuer samt en dokumentinsamling står för den empiriska insamlingen för forskningsobjektet. Studiens forskningsansats är induktiv och för att kunna samla in material för tolkning har ett företagsfall observerats, detta gör arbetet till en fallstudie. För att kunna söka förståelse för fallet är ontologin subjektiv och epistemologin hermeneutisk.  Slutsatser: Studiens slutsatser presenterar vilken förståelse som har skapats kring om hållbarhetsarbete kan skapa konkurrensfördelar inom industri 4.0. Komplicerade värdekedjor genomsyrar industri 4.0 vilket har skapat problematik bland företag som önskar spåra hela sitt klimatavtryck samtidigt som företag får allt mer krav från intressenter att produkter ska framställas så hållbart som möjligt. Ett värdeerbjudande som bidrar till mer hållbara processer än andra alternativ väntas få en större efterfrågan. Sammanlänkningen mellan önskat värde och upplevt värde anses vara bevisad, det vill säga att hållbarhetsinitiativ för en säljande part skapar ett högre värde hos köparen. Slutsatsen kan däremot enbart dras när båda parter har en önskan om hållbara processer och en likvärdig definition av begreppet.

The automotive industry is in a period of significant change with different emerging technologies trying to impact the industry. It is in a time where the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0, opens up opportunities for OEMs to improve their products and services with the help of transitioning towards Asset Performance Management (APM 4.0). This master thesis has identified various OEMs values with the help of the framework Value Mapping Tool to help the companies capitalize on these opportunities. The values were divided into the following subvalues; Value Captured, Value Missed, and Value Opportunities. OEMs have to adapt their existing business models with the help of business model innovation to improve the identification of values further and stay competitive or gain competitive advantages. Literature regarding the current state of the automotive industry and transitioning towards APM 4.0 has been combined with findings from six semi-structured interviews. The findings are based on interviews with employees with different positions from various automotive companies in Sweden. Furthermore, the findings and the literature have been compared to three benchmarking studies of similar research in Germany, China, and the USA to gain an overall view of the problem. The missed values are characterized by Complexity, Ambiguity, and Knowledge. Moreover, the values captured show that new business models are needed due to the market rapidly transforming but companies lacking knowledge on how to capture value. The complexity concerns the new complex technologies arriving as well as the high level of uncertainties rising with the introduction of APM 4.0. The ambiguities indicate the problems the automotive companies have with searching for information since they do not know what to expect. The knowledge refers to knowledge gained during the process of implementing APM 4.0 in order to identify valuable unexplored data. Nonetheless, the study also led to finding potential value opportunities despite the lack of knowledge and a high level of uncertainty. There are unexplored business models which can improve the manufacturing processes for the automotive companies. Project benchmarking has shown positive signs but still has not reached its full potential due to low amounts of tests. The study concludes that many clear obstacles hinder a successful implementation of APM 4.0 within the Swedish automotive industry. In order for the automotive companies to optimize the implementation, they have to capture value relevant to their business model. / Fordonsindustrin befinner sig i en period av tydliga ändringar då ny teknologi försöker göra sitt avtryck på industrin. Det är i en tid då den fjärde industriella revolutionen, Industry 4.0, öppnar upp möjligheter för OEM:s att förbättra deras produkter och tjänster med hjälp av skiftet mot ”Asset Performance Management (APM 4.0)”. Denna masters arbete har identifierat olika värden i OEM:s med hjälp av ramverket Value Mapping Tool för att stödja företag att ta vara på dessa möjligheter. Värdena blev uppdelade i följande delvärden; Värde Fångat, Värde Missat och Värde Möjligheter. OEM:s måste anpassa deras nuvarande affärsmodell med hjälp av affärsmodellsinnovation för att kunna förbättra identifieringen av värden ännu mer och för att förbli konkurrenskraftig eller tjäna konkurrensfördelar. Litteraturen angående det rådande läget av fordonsindustrin och skiftet mot APM 4.0 har kombinerats med resultatet från de sex semistrukturerade intervjuerna. Resultatet är baserade på intervjuer med anställda inom olika positioner från varierande fordonsföretag i Sverige. Vidare, har resultatet och litteraturen jämförts med tre riktmärknings studier av liknande forskning i Tyskland, Kina och USA för att kunna få en överblick av problemet. De missade värdena karaktäriseras av Komplexitet, Oklarhet och Kunskap. Vidare, visar de fångade värden att nya affärsmodeller krävs på grund av den snabbt ändrade marknaden i samband med den nya teknologin som kommer, men företag saknar kunskap av att veta hur de ska fånga denna värde. Komplexitet berör de nya komplexa teknologierna som kommer samt den höga nivå av osäkerhet som uppstår i samband med introduktionen av APM 4.0. Oklarhet syftar på de problem som fordonsföretag har med att hitta information eftersom de inte vet vad de ska förvänta sig. Kunskap hänvisar till kunskap erhållen under implementeringsprocessen av APM 4.0 för att identifiera värdefull outforskad data. Likväl, hittade studien också potentiella värde möjligheter trots bristen på kunskap och den höga nivån av osäkerhet. Det finns oupptäckta affärsmodeller som kan förbättra tillverkningsprocesserna för fordonsföretag. Riktmärkning projekten har visat positiva tecken men har fortfarande inte uppnått sin fulla potential på grund av det låga antalet tester. Studien drar slutsatsen att det finns många tydliga hinder för en lyckad implementering av APM 4.0 inom den svenska fordonsindustrin. För att dessa fordonsföretag ska optimera implementeringen måste de fånga värde som är relevant till deras affärsmodeller.

The application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) with a large number of tiny, cost-efficient, battery-powered sensor nodes that are able to communicate directly with each other poses many challenges. Due to the large number of communicating objects and despite a used CSMA/CA MAC protocol, there may be many signal collisions. In addition, WSNs frequently operate under harsh conditions and nodes are often prone to failure, for example, due to a depleted battery or unreliable components. Thus, nodes or even large parts of the network can fail. These aspects lead to reliable data dissemination and data storage being a key issue. Therefore, these issues are addressed herein while keeping latency low, throughput high, and energy consumption reduced. Furthermore, simplicity as well as robustness to changes in conditions are essential here. In order to achieve these aims, a certain amount of redundancy has to be included. This can be realized, for example, by using network coding. Existing approaches, however, often only perform well under certain conditions or for a specific scenario, have to perform a time-consuming initialization, require complex calculations, or do not provide the possibility of early decoding. Therefore, we developed a network coding procedure called Broadcast Growth Codes (BCGC) for reliable data dissemination, which performs well under a broad range of diverse conditions. These can be a high probability of signal collisions, any degree of nodes' mobility, a large number of nodes, or occurring node failures, for example. BCGC do not require complex initialization and only use simple XOR operations for encoding and decoding. Furthermore, decoding can be started as soon as a first packet/codeword has been received. Evaluations by using an in-house implemented network simulator as well as a real-world testbed showed that BCGC enhance reliability and enable to retrieve data dependably despite an unreliable network. In terms of latency, throughput, and energy consumption, depending on the conditions and the procedure being compared, BCGC can achieve the same performance or even outperform existing procedures significantly while being robust to changes in conditions and allowing low complexity of the nodes as well as early decoding. / Der Einsatz von drahtlosen Sensornetzen (Wireless Sensor Networks, WSNs) mit einer Vielzahl hochintegrierter, kostengünstiger und batteriebetriebener Sensorknoten, die direkt miteinander kommunizieren können, birgt viele Herausforderungen. Aufgrund der großen Anzahl von kommunizierenden Objekten kann es trotz eines verwendeten CSMA/CA MAC Protokolls zu vielen Signalkollisionen kommen. Darüber hinaus arbeiten WSNs häufig unter rauen Bedingungen und die Knoten sind oft anfällig für Ausfälle, z.B. aufgrund aufgebrauchter Energiekapazität oder defekter Komponenten. Infolgedessen können einzelne Knoten oder auch große Teile des Netzes ausfallen. Diese Aspekte führen dazu, dass zuverlässige Datenverteilung und Datenhaltung von entscheidender Bedeutung sind und folglich im Rahmen dieser Arbeit adressiert werden. Gleichzeitig soll die Latenz niedrig, der Durchsatz hoch und der Energieverbrauch möglichst gering gehalten werden. Des Weiteren sind eine geringe Komplexität sowie Robustheit gegenüber veränderten Bedingungen wesentlich. Um diese Ziele zu erreichen, ist ein gewisses Maß an Redundanz nötig. Dies kann beispielsweise durch die Verwendung von Netzwerkkodierung realisiert werden. Bestehende Ansätze liefern jedoch oft nur unter bestimmten Bedingungen oder für ein spezifisches Szenario gute Performanz-Ergebnisse, müssen aufwändig initialisiert werden, benötigen komplexe Berechnungen oder bieten keine Möglichkeit für frühzeitige Dekodierung. Daher haben wir ein als Broadcast Growth Codes (BCGC) bezeichnetes Netzwerkkodierungsverfahren für zuverlässige Datenverteilung entwickelt, welches unter einem breiten Spektrum unterschiedlicher Bedingungen gute Ergebnisse erzielt. Zu diesen Bedingungen gehören zum Beispiel eine hohe Wahrscheinlichkeit von Signalkollisionen, ein beliebiger Grad an Knotenmobilität, eine große Knotenanzahl oder das Auftreten von Knotenausfällen. BCGC benötigen keine komplexe Initialisierung und verwenden nur einfache XOR-Operationen für Kodierung und Dekodierung. Darüber hinaus kann mit der Dekodierung bereits begonnen werden, sobald ein erstes Paket/Codewort empfangen wurde. Evaluationen mit einem eigens implementierten Netzwerksimulator sowie einem realen Testbed haben gezeigt, dass BCGC ermöglichen, Daten trotz eines unzuverlässigen Netzwerks zuverlässig zu erhalten. In Bezug auf Latenz, Durchsatz und Energieverbrauch können BCGC, je nach Bedingungen und verglichenem Verfahren, vergleichbare Ergebnisse wie bestehende Verfahren erzielen oder diese sogar deutlich übertreffen, während sie gleichzeitig robust gegenüber veränderten Bedingungen sind, eine geringe Komplexität der Knoten erlauben sowie eine frühzeitige Dekodierung ermöglichen.

A rising level of industrialization and advances in Industry 4.0 have resulted in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) gaining immense significance in today’s industrial automation systems. IIoT promises to achieve improved productivity, reliability, and revenues by connecting time-constrained embedded systems to “the Internet”. New opportunities bring with them challenges, and in particular for industrial networks, massively interconnected IIoT devices communicating in real-time,  require synchronized operation of devices for the ordering of information collected throughout a  network. Thus,   a   time or clock synchronization service that aligns the devices’ clocks in the network to ensure accurate timestamping and orderly event executions, has gained great importance. Achieving adequate clock synchronization in the industrial domain is challenging due to heterogeneous communication networks and exposure to harsh environmental conditions bringing interference to the communication networks. The investigative study based on existing literature and the envisioned architecture of the future industrial automation system unveils that the key requirements for future industrial networks are to have a cost-effective, accurate, scalable, secured, easy to deploy and maintain clock synchronization solution. Today’s industrial automation systems employ clock synchronization solutions from a wide plethora of hardware and software based solutions. The most economical, highly scalable, maintainable software-based clock synchronization means are best candidates for the identified future requirements as their lack in accuracy compared to hardware solutions could be compensated by predictive software strategies.  Thus, the thesis’s overall goal is to enhance the accuracy of software-based clock synchronization in heterogeneous industrial networks using predictable software strategies. The first step towards developing an accurate clock synchronization for heterogeneous industrial networks with real-time requirements is to investigate communication parameters affecting time synchronization accuracy. Towards this goal, we investigated actual industrial network data for packet delay profiles and their impact on clock synchronization performance.  We further analyzed wired and wireless local area networks to identify key network parameters for clock synchronization and proposed an enhanced clock synchronization algorithm CoSiNeT for field IoT devices in industrial networks. CoSiNeT matches well with state-of-the-practice SNTP and state-of-the-art method SPoT in good network conditions in terms of accuracy and precision;  however,  it outperforms them in scenarios with degrading network conditions.

Uppsatsen belyser det lärande som medarbetare upplever till följd av digitaliseringens snabba framfart. Tidigare forskning visar på att medarbetare besitter en kritisk roll vid implementering av teknisk utrustning, till följd av detta krävs det att medarbetare inom tillverkningsindustrin ständigt utvecklar nya kompetenser. I denna uppsats kommer därför medarbetares upplevelser av det lärande som sker till följd av digitaliseringen att undersökas. Uppsatsen riktar sig mot medarbetare inom tillverkningsindustrin. För att få fram ett resultat kommer både bivariat analys samt bivariat regressionsanalys genomföras. Resultatet av analyserna visar att det finns ett svagt samband mellan medarbetare inom tillverkningsindustrins uppskattade lärande till följd av digitaliseringen. Uppsatsens resultat tyder på att digitalisering på arbetsplatsen ökar medarbetares upplevda lärande.