Small Medium Enterprises

"Design is increasingly recognized as a key strategic asset and a source of added value for companies. The United States has launched a national design policy initiative to monitor and understand the role of design on the national and global economy, and the European Union is overseeing a series of public consultations on how the EU can further support design-led innovation, with the aim of integrating design into innovation policies. In the UK, the Design Council has performed a series of studies on design’s role as a strategic instrument to maximize performance and trigger innovative processes, even during periods of crisis.

Clearly, the value that design generates is not confined to the end result of the design process. The need to focus on continuous innovation and advancing tomorrow’s products and services often finds the right answers through the production of intermediate components of the design process.

Advanced design is a practice that imagines future perspectives by envisioning future products and processes. It mainly deals with extensive projects – extended in time, space, uncertainty and complexity. This disciplinary branch of design mostly acts during the front end of innovation and looks for solutions in complex innovation processes using tools and practices that belong to the design discipline (Celi, 2010 p. 33).
This paper will discuss the different ways in which advanced design supports the development of instruments and practices aimed at supporting and managing value creation. It will explore the contributions designers offer through components of the design process and illustrate these contributions with case studies.
This is the accepted version of the paper. For the final version go to https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1948-7177.2011.00024.x/abstract

Malaysian Small Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have always been the largest provider to the economic development of the country. However, limited studies have been conducted within the field of drop-shipping supply chain. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to provide insights into Malaysian Small-Medium Enterprises’ characteristics which influenced the adoption of drop-shipping supply chain into their management. Data were collected through questionnaires from several business sectors of SME located in all over Malaysia. The findings specify that there was a highly positive correlation between the variables: 1. organizational structure, 2. organization strategy, and 3. firm’s strategy towards the adoption of drop-shipping supply chain. The significant findings of this study showed that characteristics of SMEs highly contributed to the adoption level of drop-shipping. Hence, the outcomes of this study support the proposed framework and confirm that they indeed contribute to the adoption of drop-shipping supply chain by the SME.

Die Produktion in kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen (KMU) findet oft im Rahmen von Kleinserien oder sogar Einzelfertigung statt. Um diese KMU durch Roboter-basierte Automatisierung zu unterstützen, bedarf es eines Umdenkens in der Ausgestaltung der Bedienkonzepte. In diesen Anwendungsszenarien gewinnt die effiziente Programmierung und Adaption enorm an Stellenwert. Zudem muss das benötigte Vorwissen im Umgang mit Robotern soweit reduziert werden, dass Facharbeiter ohne großen Ausbildungsaufwand Robotersysteme selbst bedienen können. In diesem Beitrag stellen wir einen wissensbasierten Ansatz vor, der die genannten Herausforderungen behandelt.