Production and Operations Management

Research Profile

With the rising potential of digitization, the boundaries between industrial products and services are disappearing: classic products are entering the service sector (e.g. car-sharing), while traditional services are being replaced by products (e.g. 3D printers for spare parts delivery).

At the same time, products and services are no longer just a result of the production process. Rather, they become a part of the whole production system and, in turn, generate data that provides the baseline for process, product, and service innovations (e.g. predictive maintenance policies).

Correspondingly, companies are required to fundamentally rethink their value creation processes. The Chair for Production and Operations Management is working on four focus areas to develop solutions and successfully shape this change. 

Research Focus

Student in a workshop at the Technical University of Berlin © Philipp Arnoldt

Energy-flexible production

An energy-flexible factory enables companies to react to fluctuations in electricity prices and use them economically.

Humanoid robots NAO and Pepper © TU Berlin

Industry 4.0

Batch site 1 describes the production of customised products (one-offs) by companies that belong to series or mass production. Behind this is the increasingly strong desire of customers to be able to design products individually.

© NASA

Value creation networks

As a result of increasing competition, independent companies are acting together in complex value networks to create competitive advantages.