Thorsten Schoormann

Towards a Taxonomy of Constraints in Demand-Side-Management-Methods for a Residential Context

To address current challenges in the management of energy grids, Demand-Side-Management (DSM) is one possibility. In this field various approaches exist but consider often different constraints regarding appliances. This paper aims at identifying these constraints through a triangulation: we conducted two literature reviews and several expert interviews simultaneously to derive a taxonomy of (DSM) load constraints. This taxonomy grows during the research process and contains at the end five constraints, a short description, examples of appliances for each constraint and a mathematical representation. This taxonomy can be used for future research, e.g. for designing, evaluating or benchmarking DSM-Methods.

Business Process Management in German Institutions of Higher Education: The Case of Jade University of Applied Science.

(a) Situation faced: Faced with challenges like heterogeneous processes across three campuses, a campus management system that was not up to date, and loss of knowledge because of demographic changes and undocumented, inconsistent processes, Jade University of Applied Science implemented a campus-management system developed by HIS. This system includes an integrated reference model for processes that are related to campus management. The university wanted to use common standards and needed a guide based on best practices. Implementing business process management (BPM) provides an opportunity to document, standardize, and centralize processes across their campus locations. (b) Action taken: Implementation of the campus management system and reference processes was structured in steps that can be described using a BPM lifecycle model: (I) initialization, (II) process identification, (III) process discovery, (IV) process analysis, (V) process redesign, (VI) process implementation, and (VII) process monitoring. Each of these steps is directly related to using the HISinOne reference model to obtain recommendations based on best practices. (c) Results achieved: Both expected and unexpected results were obtained from implementing the campus management system: (I) the standardization of processes across three campus locations was improved by (II) adopting best practices, and internal workshops to standardize processes (III) strengthened Jade University’s overall team spirit. In general, (IV) individual barriers to using process models and process documentation were reduced, and a BPM-supportive culture was developed such that some departments have begun to document other processes and to consider the implementation of a broader BPM department. (d) Lessons learned: Five primary lessons were learned during the project: (I) orienting to existing solutions like process reference models supports the initialization of new projects, and (II) standardization limits the involved stakeholders’ creativity. In addition, (III) guidelines for consistently documenting the implementation’s progress are important to easily provide relevant information to all stakeholders at all times, (IV) integrating relevant stakeholders into the process enables the standards across different locations to be determined, and (V) limited project resources must be taken into account in order to plan suitable and feasible actions.

Carsharing Geschäftsmodelle – Entwicklung eines bausteinbasierten Modellierungsansatzes

Die Bedeutung von Carsharing nimmt uber die letzten Jahre weiter zu, wodurch Angebote und Nutzerzahlen stetig steigen. Im Jahr 2014/2015 existierten bereits rund 150 Anbieter mit uber 1.000.000 Kunden in Deutschland. Eine grose Anzahl an Angeboten bringt allerdings auch eine grose Vielfalt in den Angeboten mit sich, sodass zahlreiche Unterschiede in den Konzepten des Carsharings bestehen (z. B. Art des Sharings, Mietgebuhren oder Dienstleistungsangebote). Die Vielfalt der Konzepte stellt die Gestaltung und Darstellung der Geschaftsmodelle vor verschiedene Herausforderungen wie z. B. die Vergleichbarkeit. Im Rahmen dieses Beitrages wird daher zunachst die Domane (literaturbasiert und empirisch) konzeptualisiert, um auf Basis identifizierter Merkmale und entsprechender Auspragungen einen domanenspezifischen und bausteinbasierten Modellierungsansatz fur Carsharing zu entwickeln, der zur Vereinheitlichung und Vergleichbarkeit beitragen soll. Die insgesamt 16 entwickelten Bausteine setzen sich jeweils aus mehreren Auspragungen zusammen und wurden in drei verschiedenen Rahmenwerke fur die Modellierung von Geschaftsmodellen angewendet.

Towards a Typology of Approaches for Sustainability-Oriented Business Model Evaluation

While numerous studies related to business models are dealing with understanding and representing businesses, limited research focus on the evaluation aspect. However, due to the highly dynamic environment, changing availability of resources and booming digitalization, the evaluation of such models and alternatives is an essential task. Analysing, evaluating and innovating businesses is a multidimensional issue, which poses challenges that need to be facilitated. Thus, in this study, we aim to explore approaches and criteria for sustainability-oriented business model evaluation. Based on an extensive literature review, we obtained 50 articles and determined more than 40 different evaluation methods.

Developing a Multiple-Objective Demand Response Algorithm for the Residential Context

Energy grids are facing various challenges, such as new appliances and volatile generation. As grid reliability and cost benefits are endangered, managing appliances becomes increasingly important. Demand Response (DR) is one possibility to contribute to this task by shifting and managing electrical loads. DR can address multiple objectives. However, current research lacks of algorithms addressing these objectives sufficiently. Thus, we aim to develop a DR algorithm that considers multiple DR objectives. For evaluation, we implemented the algorithm and formulated demonstration cases for a simulation. The evaluated algorithm contributes for example to users and energy providers by realizing various benefits.

Effects of Mass Customization on Sustainability: A Literature-Based Analysis

Sustainability has become increasingly important to business research and practice. Approaches, which support fundamental changes in behavior to act economic, ecological, and social, are required. A popular concept that contributes to these challenges is mass customization (MC). MC—defined as a competitive strategy—allows for producing goods and services for individual needs of customers. In doing so, it, for example, helps toward an increased product-customer relation, efficient production, and a high degree of personalized goods, which may have positive effects on the society and the environment (e.g., by reducing waste). In order to get an overview of which effects of MC toward sustainability are discussed, our study aims to synthesize prior literature. Therefore, we conduct an extensive literature review in different search engines to ensure a broad view on this topic. As a result, 33 articles that met our research purpose are obtained. These articles are coded by three researchers independently and—a total of 157 codes—are consolidated afterward to determine effects of MC on sustainability. Our classification indicates that mostly social (∼87%) and economic issues are addressed (∼84%), while ecological aspects are underrepresented.

Managing the Procurement Process in Service Portals

Because of technological changes (e. g., Web 2.0 and the Internet of Things), service portals like MyHammer, Blauarbeit, and Amazon Home Services become increasingly important for research and practice. To increase the efficiency of service offers, new procurement methods that link service providers and service consumers are necessary. This article uses a scheduling approach that has been applied primary in the context of energy management: Demand-Side Management (DSM). Generally, DSM methods can be used to shift energy demand to favorable timeslots (e. g., lower-cost timeslots or those that help the energy supplier) to achieve goals like a flattened load profile, minimized costs, and grid reliability. In doing so, we argue that the basic concept of DSM is transferable to enable automatic matching of service offers and demands in a service portal. To explore potential benefits and drawbacks, we analyze service portals, including their functionalities and information needs, and compare them with the approaches offered by DSM. Then a mathematical model of an existing DSM approach is used to model the requirements of service portals. As a result, we conclude that DSM strategies can be useful in automating the procurement procedure in service portals, which facilitates more efficient and effective service offers and executions.

Effects of Constraints in Residential Demand-Side-Management Algorithms—A Simulation-Based Study

Due to various challenges such as climatic changes or implementation of renewable energy generation, improvements in regulating energy grids are required. Demand-Side-Management (DSM) contributes to this progress by managing, shifting and controlling loads. However, many DSM algorithms make assumptions regarding load characteristics which do not consider real world conditions. Prior studies find a total of five constraints but so far no investigation shows the effects of these constraints on DSM algorithms. Hence, this research analyses the effects of several constraints of DSM algorithms by conducting a simulation. As a result, we can conclude that the constraints have an effect on the results. For example, the savings dropped about 7% when considering multiple constraints. The handling and the outcomes depend on several factors and might vary. As a logical conclusion, we postulate that these constraints should be considered in DSM algorithms.

Semi-automatic Development of Modelling Techniques with Computational Linguistics Methods – A Procedure Model and Its Application

In recent years, the number of domain-specific modelling techniques increased. Method engineering already provides text-based and semantic approaches which aim to unify constructs and allocate terminologies. As existing procedures are usually carried out manually, challenges arise such as reproducibility and standardization as well as ensuring quality. Hence, this paper aims to investigate how methods from the Computational Linguistics can be applied to automatically develop domain-specific modelling techniques in order to face these challenges. As a main result, we present a procedure model that was developed and applied in four iterations, recommend tools, methods and resources as well as reflect typical issues.

Cooperation Experience-Modellierungsmethode

Zur Gestaltung und Modellierung der Zusammenarbeit im Rahmen von hybriden Wertschopfungsnetzwerken wurde die CXP-Modellierungsmethode entwickelt, die im zweiten Teil dieses Buches vorgestellt wird. Die CXP-Modellierungsmethode offeriert den an der hybriden Wertschopfung Beteiligten Sprachkonzepte, mit denen die Zusammenarbeit detailliert beschrieben werden kann. Neben der Vorstellung der CXP-Modellierungsmethode enthalt dieser Teil auch eine Zusammenfassung zentraler Grundlagen der Informationsmodellierung, auf die im weiteren Verlauf des Buches zuruckgegriffen wird. Zudem erfolgt eine vergleichende Gegenuberstellung ausgewahlter, bestehender Modellierungstechniken zur Visualisierung einzelner Aspekte von Unternehmenskooperationen und Wertschopfungsnetzwerken, die im Rahmen der Entwicklung der CXP-Modellierungsmethode aufgegriffen und zusammengefuhrt wurden. Mit der CXP-Modellierungsmethode wird den Leserinnen und Lesern ein Werkzeug an die Hand gegeben, das die ausfuhrliche Spezifikation bestehender oder geplanter Kooperationen ermoglicht. Sie gliedert sich in drei Ebenen mit von oben nach unten zunehmendem Detaillierungsgrad. Auf der obersten Ebene erlaubt der Ordnungsrahmen sowohl die Bestimmung der wesentlichen wertschopfenden Aktivitaten innerhalb des Netzwerkes als auch der zentralen Beteiligten und verschafft gleichermasen Orientierung und Lenkung. Auf der darunterliegenden Ebene der Kooperationsszenarien werden die Informationsflusse zwischen den Kooperationspartnern beschrieben und somit der zielgerichtete Austausch von Informationsobjekten akzentuiert. Die dritte und unterste Ebene adressiert Prozessdetail- sowie Informationsobjektdetailmodelle zur eingehenden Planung der Aufgaben und Aktivitaten innerhalb des Wertschopfungsnetzwerkes und der zwischen den Kooperationspartnern ausgetauschten Informationsobjekte.