Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the transformation of logistics processes to meet requirements of Industrie 4.0.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors follow the principles of action design research to conduct a single-case study investigating four logistics processes at a leading German car manufacturer. For the development of artifacts, the authors used Method Engineering.

Findings

The case study reveals a set of Industrie 4.0 process design principles, providing guidelines for the design and management of Industrie 4.0 compliant processes. In the second step, the authors use these process design principles for the development of a first version of a method for Industrie 4.0 process transformation.

Research limitations/implications

In the light of limited scientific knowledge about Industrie 4.0 process transformation, the paper uses a single-case study design. This is adequate considering the research goal at hand and the richness of empirical insight the authors had access to. However, a single-case design is limited regarding generalizability and demand for future qualitative and quantitative research.

Practical implications

The Industrie 4.0 process design principles support practitioners in the design and management of Industrie 4.0 compliant processes. In addition, the method developed by the authors supports enterprises in the transformation of their current processes toward Industrie 4.0.

Originality/value

The paper describes the first attempt – as far as the authors are aware – to derive guidelines for the design and management of Industrie 4.0 processes from the analysis of a real-world industrial setting. Likewise, the method for Industrie 4.0 process transformation presented in this paper is presumed to be the first such method developed in full accordance with the principles of Method Engineering.

中文翻译：

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工业4.0流程转型：汽车物流案例研究的结果

目的

本文的目的是探索满足工业4.0要求的物流流程的转变。

设计/方法/方法

作者遵循行动设计研究的原则，对一家领先的德国汽车制造商进行了一项个案研究，研究了四个物流流程。对于工件的开发，作者使用了方法工程学。

发现

该案例研究揭示了一组Industrie 4.0流程设计原则，为符合Industrie 4.0流程的设计和管理提供了指导。在第二步中，作者使用这些过程设计原理来开发用于工业4.0过程转换的方法的第一版。

研究局限/意义

鉴于有关Industrie 4.0过程转换的科学知识有限，本文使用了单案例研究设计。考虑到当前的研究目标以及作者所获得的丰富的经验见识，这足够了。但是，单例设计在可概括性和对未来定性和定量研究的需求方面受到限制。

实际影响

Industrie 4.0流程设计原则为从业人员提供了与Industrie 4.0兼容的流程的设计和管理支持。此外，作者开发的方法支持企业将其当前的流程向工业4.0过渡。

创意/价值

本文描述了作者所做的首次尝试，即从对现实世界中的工业环境的分析中得出Industrie 4.0流程的设计和管理指南。同样，假定本文中提出的用于工业4.0过程转换的方法是完全按照方法工程学原理开发的第一个此类方法。