futureTEX project PROFUND: Cross-organizational production of individual technical textiles – but how?

 

The demand for individualized products continues to increase, but their manufacturing and distribution challenges traditional organization, cooperation and IT solutions – in particular when the products are fabricated in a textile network. As part of the project PROFUND, RWTH Aachen’s Technology and Innovation Management Group in collaboration with a consortium of academic institutions (HHL, TUC, STFI) and German textile enterprises focus on developing solutions.

The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) and is part of the initiative futureTEX that belongs to the funding program Zwanzig20. The aim of the project PROFUND (Process-oriented configuration of value creation in textile networks for mass customization in SME) is to create an appropriate network structure for the development of customized technical textiles in a cross-company network.

This network structure aims at enabling small and medium-sized enterprises to make optimal use of their resources in networks for mass customization along the textile value chain. With the organization of the product development phase across company boundaries, the configuration of value creation can be organized in a completely new way and thus have a significant impact on the business model. By exchanging and processing information on customer requirements, preliminary products and manufacturing processes in the form of development data and by means of configuration tools, development orders can be processed faster and more cost efficiently. Besides, customer requirements in the B2B segment are highly diverse and complex. The question of how these needs can be addressed efficiently in the value co-creation process has remained unanswered in research and practice. Suitable configuration tools to support the individualization process will also be designed and implemented. Apart from that, big data and analytical methods support the customer data management that is especially promising in conjunction with long-term partnerships in the industrial sector.

More information: http://www.stfi.de/forschungsvorhaben.html

Contact at the Technology and Innovation Management Group: Stephan Hankammer