With the aim of meeting new technological and social requirements, nearly all companies are facing the so-called digital transformation. A starting point to respond to the changing demands is to improve the company’s ability to operate flexibly and, thus, increase its agility. Thereby, with this paper, we contribute to the ongoing discussion on changing corporate organizational structures. We used a three-stage study design to provide insights on the question of whether agility is a prerequisite or a consequence of the digital transformation. In addition to a literature analysis, we present the results of focus group interviews with managers of selected enterprises.

New Work: Auf dem Weg zur neuen Arbeitswelt

Organizations in Transformation: Agility as Consequence or Prerequisite of Digitization?

In times of digital transformation and permanent change, the analysis and further development of the bus iness models are essential to be successful in the future. The 9x9 of future bus iness models offer companies a framework for trans forming their business model based on digitally shaped changes. The foundation of this approach is the value proposition, which is differentiated for new lifestyles in the future. It takes into account various trend influences, which affects all building blocks of a business model. These include the customers, the partners, and the network, but also the resources, the channels, the finances as well as the skills and activities of the company. In general, a bus iness model must be viewed holistically in the future if it should be s uccessful in the long term. More than ever, the influence of digital, technological and megatrends is critical to success. In summary, the following ques tions are answered: • Fundamentals of future business models: Which building blocks are considered in the digital trans formation? • Influence of trends: What is driving digital and soc ial trans formation? • The 9x9 of future trans formation: How do technological and social influences affect bus iness models?

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The 9×9 of Future Business Models

Due to infrequent change in posture, static sitting leads to muscular tension and even possible degeneration of the intervertebral discs and is therefore one of the main causes of serious physical complaints of the back. This sitting behavior can be observed particularly at seated workplaces such as office work or vehicle guidance in transport or long-distance traffic. Previous ergonomic seating systems have manually or actuator-operated adjustment mechanisms and in some cases a movable seat mechanism. Postural support is adjusted once and remains unchanged in different sitting positions. This leads to a lack of – or incorrect support of – body posture and thus to rapid fatigue of the muscles and intervertebral discs. A new approach for ergonomic seating systems is the introduction of haptic feedback through automatic and prospective actuator deformation within the seat surface dependent on the user’s individual sitting position and behavior. Haptic feedback is provided by a composite of a sensor that determines the distribution of compressive force and an actuator based on a shape memory alloy. If several units are used in different zones of the seating furniture, the sitting position can be determined and evaluated in real time and the seat can react intelligently. If the user exceeds the permissible retention time within a position, change of sitting position is stimulated by a load-based actuation of the actuators. The discomfort, barely perceptible to the user, leads to dynamic sitting and thus actively helps to reduce muscular tension and maintain performance over a longer period of time. This paper is a draft modular technology concept for the promotion of dynamic body posture in any seating system.

Intelligent Seating System with Haptic Feedback for Active Health Support

Currently, greater attention is paid to the nature of work and workplaces within the digitized industry due to the increasing complexity of work tasks. The operators are under additional stress due to the range of high dynamic processes and due to the integration of robots and autonomous operating machines. There have been few studies on how Human Factors influence the design of workplaces for Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). Furthermore, a comprehensive, systematic and human-centered design solution for industrial workplaces particularly considering Human Factor needs within HRC is widely uncertain and a specific application with reference to production workplaces is missing.The research findings demonstrated in this paper aim to fill in the gap of designing industrial workplaces for assisting human-robot teams through a human-centered design approach in order to reduce workers’ strain during their interactions with robots and/or machines. Furthermore, the concept of an Assisting-Industrial-Workplace-System (AIWS) has been developed as a flexible hybrid cell for HRC to be integrated into a Self-Adapting-Production-Planning-System (SAPPS), which aims to enable industrial production processes to be adaptable to the constantly changing requirements of volatile markets.

New Work: Auf dem Weg zur neuen Arbeitswelt

Citations

Organizations in Transformation: Agility as Consequence or Prerequisite of Digitization?

The 9×9 of Future Business Models

Intelligent Seating System with Haptic Feedback for Active Health Support

Design of an Assisting Workplace Cell for Human-Robot Collaboration

Rethinking Intercultural Competence

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