Sonja Buxbaum-Conradi

Hamburg Model of Knowledge Management

Knowledge management within manufacturing networks allows an efficient integration of distributed business processes in order to realise a common value creation. There are enormous potentials to accelerate the common innovation development or to cut costs through the harmonisation of cross-company value chains. Although the science and industrial community is aware of this, the potentials arising from a collaborative use of knowledge in networks have not been entirely exploited yet. The Hamburg Model offers a general guideline for developing a systematic management of knowledge within value creation networks, which is supplemented by a context-dependent, dynamic qualitative model that takes the relevant impact factors of a specific case of application into account.

Facing the conflict of transparency and non-disclosure of knowledge within value creation networks

Collaboration of autonomous and specialized actors in value networks makes special demands on the joint use of knowledge resources. On the one hand, the actors wants to protect their competitive knowledge during the cooperation within the network. On the other hand, the distribution of knowledge must be ensured within the network in develop potentials for value co- creation. Based on a description model for an interconnected and open value creation this article discusses the conflict of objectives between the protection of knowledge and the availability of knowledge within a value creation network. Furthermore, a concept for inter-organizational cooperation is introduced which fosters the depth of cooperation and interaction between the actors within the network establishing save spaces for knowledge exchange and a common development of knowledge.

Tesla Motors, Inc.: Pioneer towards a new strategic approach in the automobile industry along the open source movement?

In many industries, we observe a paradigm shift from traditional value creation towards co-creation and open production approaches. The boundaries of companies dissolve and many more players (suppliers, customers, community members, etc.) are integrated into the value creation process. This also implies the share of knowledge to set industry-wide standards and to advance new technologies. Tesla Motors, Inc. recently announced that it would give away all their patents to anyone who in good faith wants to use them. They say their aim was to foster the advancement of electric vehicles to compete with conventional vehicles and give the zero-emission mobility a push. Nevertheless, what about the traditional automobile industry with its big players where even the slightest growth in market share is crucial and the intellectual property (IP) of a company is kept secret like the Holy Grail as it ensures competitive advantages? Based on a Tesla case study our research focusses on product-, company-, market- and industry-specific factors that might enable even small players to start an industry-wide revolution by applying strategic aspects of openness in their business model.

OpenLabs -- Open Source Microfactories Enhancing the FabLab Idea

Increasing social and economic imbalances as well as restricted access to production means and participation in value creation processes ask for new approaches to overcome the asymmetric distribution of knowledge and information between producers and consumers as well as between industrialized and developing countries. Technical progress in production technology, the advancement and spread of information and communication technologies (ICT) as well as the spill-over of the highly efficient and innovative open source principles to the world of physical products represent a new set of tools and concepts to address this challenge. Correspondingly, we can observe (new) modes of value creation that put into question traditional economic strategies and assumptions by stressing collaboration instead of competition and knowledge sharing instead of black box engineering. The FabLab movement (fabrication laboratory) is one emerging and promising approach for decentralized, participative, locally grounded and globally interconnected value creation. This paper presents findings from a study on the latest development, effects and success of FabLabs focusing especially on its potential for development cooperation. Based on findings from the survey and the premises of the FabLab idea, we finally present the multidisciplinary OpenLabs concept.

Lokale Einbettung und globale Kollaborationsprozesse offener Produktionswerkstätten: Ein Einblick in die deutsche und arabische Maker-Community

Offene Werkstatten (FabLabs) ermoglichen als Teil einer soziotechnischen Bewegung, die mehr Beteiligung der Burger an Technologie- und Produktentwicklung anstrebt, einen einfachen Zugang zu technologischem Wissen und Produktionsmitteln und bergen somit das Potential, Innovationen, Grundungsinitiativen und regionale Entwicklung zu stimulieren. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht, unter welchen Bedingungen sich diese Potentiale entfalten konnen und nimmt in diesem Zusammenhang die Kombination aus lokaler sozioinstitutioneller und soziookonomischer Einbettung der physischen Orte sowie der Einbettung in eine Infrastruktur, welche die Grundlage fur virtuelle Kollaboration und Wissenstransfer auf globaler Ebene schafft, in den Blick. Erste Ergebnisse verweisen auf eine deutliche Diskrepanz zwischen der Vision der Bewegung und der empirischen Realitat der Labs.

Conceptualizing Hybrid Human-Machine Systems and Interaction

The synthetic hybridization between humans and machines has reached a new level in recent decades being a result of the increasing convergence of technologies and advances in different scientific fields. Human-machine interfaces are becoming not only multi-modal, but also shift within the physiology of the human, thereby also shifting the boundaries between the human and the machine and posing new opportunities and challenges for systems design and integration that demand for more holistic perspectives. After an overview of the evolution of machines and human-tool interaction this article conceptualizes human-machine systems as task-centered distributed physio-cognitive systems based on theoretical thoughts on perception, form, types of interaction and related interaction loops.

The Strategy of Openness in industrial production

Flexibility and adaptability of production systems are still some of the most discussed characteristics of production systems within the traditional manufacturing industry. Because of increasing complexity and dynamics within the corporate environment, some approaches to optimize these traditional characteristics are no longer sufficient to achieve competitive advantages. The ongoing paradigm shift from traditional industrial production to a system of value co-creation forces manufacturers to redefine their role and position within a more open value creation process. Companies have to add principles of openness to previous strategic success factors. In future, the competitiveness of a company will rather be determined by the ability to cooperate with different actors in heterogeneous global networks. Moreover, we have to be aware that the traditional factory as the central production facility will be dissolving more and more. A new strategic approach for those companies might be what we call the Strategy of Openness.

OpenLabs - Collaborative Industrialization with Distributed and Open Source Microfactories

Technical progress in production technology, the advancement of ICTs as well as increasing social and economic imbalances and ever-scarce resources ask for new means of value creation. . With the spill over of the highly efficient and innovative open source principles to the world of physical goods and products new modes of value creation appear that put traditional economic strategies and assumptions into question by stressing collaboration instead of competition, knowledge sharing engineering and fostering the empowerment of the people to participate and get engaged.The here presented multidisciplinary OpenLabs concept takes into account these new patterns of value creation based on open source principles and is a suitable approach to increase the overall empowerment and participation in local communities in developing, but also in developed countries.