Program on Thursday April 3, 2008

All plenary lectures will be simultaneously translated into English. Unless otherwise indicated, the listed forums will be held in German.

Forum 1: Companies reorienting themselves – success trough systematic service development

Not only at an economic level do new services conceal potential for growth and new jobs. At operational level too they create the conditions necessary for companies to assume a sustainable position with regard to their competitors. This makes ever more acute the question of how services can be systematically advanced such that high-quality products emerge. Yet how can the advancement of services be systematically moved forward? In this respect service engineering has in recent times been accorded an important impulse function. New instruments and methods, however, are not enough: Creative forces in companies and corresponding framework conditions also have to be put in place to allow these powers to develop, leading to new ideas and products. The items on the agenda of this forum explore the question of how nowadays already companies are succeeding in getting human resources, organization, and new instruments to interact successfully. Examples of such companies provide impulses and reveal ways of how the systematic advancement of services can strengthen companies and open up new areas of business.

Host:
Prof. Birgit Ester, Head of itb – Institut für Technik der Betriebsführung im Deutschen Handwerksinstitut e. V., Karlsruhe

Items on the agenda:
Using the Systematic Advancement of Services to Produce High-Quality Products
Dr. Christian van Husen/Thomas Meiren, Fraunhofer-Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Stuttgart

The Implementation of a Service Organization – the Sustainable Expansion of Corporate Structures for the Realization of Holistic Services
Torsten Grundmann, Managing Director and Head of Customer Service and Service, HEIM & HAUS Gruppe, Duisburg; Sarah Hatfield, Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT), Aachen

First among Equals
Jürgen Kull, owner, Kull Schmiede+Design GmbH, Bruchsal

Service Engineering at PricewaterhouseCoopers
Dr. Diane Robers, Head of Advisory Business Development, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG, Frankfurt/Main

Forum 2: Product and service development as a whole – practice-oriented solutions for hybrid products

In reality the classic division between physical products and services is in many operational areas a thing of the past. The boundaries between products and (product-related) services are becoming increasingly blurred in favour of solutions to problems that are individually tailormade in each case for clients. Frequently, however, these services are developed separately and simply included in companies’ traditional value added processes. As yet, holistic planning and design as an integrated combination of products and services in the form of hybrid products is the exception to the rule. How do those companies proceed that already enjoy success with hybrid products or plan to supply them in the future? What form do the internal processes have to take and how are companies integrated in value added networks such that they are able to provide all-embracing solutions from a single source? Alongside various approaches and management procedures, this forum will also present tools for developing hybrid products that reveal how companies position themselves in hybrid value added chains.

Host:
Prof. Gertrud Schmitz, Chair of Service Management and Retailing, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg campus

Items on the agenda:
Managing Production-Oriented Services
Dr. Eckard Heidling, Institut für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung e. V. (ISF), Munich

Dialog-Oriented Communication as the Basis for Hybrid Value Added: Significance and Implementation
Stephanie Modlich, Chair of Service Management and Retailing, University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg campus

Service Engineering as a Path to Hybrid Products
Corporate representative; Gerhard Gudergan, FIR Research Institute for Operations Management at the RWTH Aachen University

From Service to Hybrid Value Added
Dr. Werner Brettreich-Teichmann, Fichtner IT Consulting AG, Stuttgart

Systematic Design for Hybrid Value Added
Dr. Jan Marco Leimeister, Chair in Information Systems, Technical University Munich

Forum 3: Hidden champions – service providers as innovation drivers

Become the market leader – but how? There are hidden champions in all sizes and classes of company. It is not, therefore, a question of capital strength or the number of employees, and is even less evident from the share price. This forum aims to illustrate how companies became market leaders, and how they can remain so. Is it special products, unique innovation, an adequate niche market or aspects that if anything impact unnoticed, making companies hidden champions?

Host:
Dr. Werner Wobbe, Directorate General Research, EU Commission, Brussels

Items on the agenda:
Innovation Management – Best Practice Examples taken from the Service Innovations Barometre 2007
Prof. Ronald Gleich, Executive Director, Strascheg Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, European Business School, International University Schloss Reichartshausen, Oestrich-Winkel

Performing Great Deeds in the Background
Marcus Puffer, Business Development, Star Alliance Services GmbH, Frankfurt/Main

Complete Solutions for Adhesive Bonds – Success in a Niche Market
Hanno Pünjer, Managing Director, Bühnen GmbH & Co. KG, Bremen

Growth by Establishing a Global Network in the Field of Medical Technology
Werner Schölly, Vice President Production, Schölly Fiberoptic GmbH, Denzlingen

Forum 4: Services – a science in itself (simultaneous translation into English)

As in a European and international context, service provision in Germany is becoming increasingly important. Given the standing of services in the economy, we know very little about services and the way they operate. That is an incentive to explore the question of how research into service provision should advance. The complexity of service provision encourages an interdisciplinary, multi-disciplinary alignment. At the same time at internationally speaking there are different approaches: These range from loose cooperation between different disciplines – such as engineering and industrial engineering, business studies and increasingly technical disciplines and clusters geared to problems, to an independent service science. In this forum different development paths as well as the pros and cons of the different approaches in their importance in practice will be sounded out and discussed.

Host:
Prof. Christof Weinhardt, Department of Economics and Business Engineering, Chair of Information Management and Systems, University of Karlsruhe

Items on the agenda:
Service Science at the Service of ServiceRresearch – International Observations
Walter Ganz, Director, Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Stuttgart

Service Research – Practical Requirements of Research and Teaching
Dr. Gerhard Satzger, Director Service Research, IBM Germany, Stuttgart

Experiences and Procedures in Selected Countries
Finland – Sweden – Ireland

Services Science and Research: Statement from an Academic Point of View
Prof. Martin Benkenstein, Institute for Marketing & Service Research, University of Rostock

Forum 5: Linking service providers and technology – discovering innovation paths

Services are increasingly dominating our economy and are of enormous importance for value added, growth, and employment. Where innovation is concerned, however, as a rule one thinks primarily of technological innovation. In this context – at least in the way they are perceived – services appear to play hardly any role at all or are at best made possible or improved by advances in technology. Based on project results and entries submitted to the next Generation Competition this forum demonstrates that services have long since become the driver of technological developments.

Host:
Prof. Dieter Spath, Head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO), Stuttgart

Items on the agenda:
Selected Entries of the Einners of the 4th Next
Generation Competition “Services as the Driver of technological Innovation”

Support for Technical Customer Services through Hybrid Products in Mechanical and Plant Engineering – an Integrative Approach for After-Sales
Corporate representatives, to be named; Philipp Walter, German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, University of Kaiserslautern; Nadine Blinn, Chair of Commercial Information Technology, University of Hamburg

IT Services in Infrastructure Projects Start Product Family
Jochen Schafft, Managing Director, Real Thoughts – Gesellschaft für Softwareentwicklung mbH, Karlsruhe

Innovative Products and Services within Bareerfree Tourism
Dr. Mario Koch, Verband Naturpark Thüringer Wald, Ilmenau

Forum 6: Professionalization and qualification – the future of the service provider sector

Current studies reveal that qualifications, job satisfaction, and employee motivation impact directly on the success of a company. This is particularly so in the case of the service sector, which is labor-intensive and involves close cooperation and communication with clients. The capacity for innovation and economic success depend on how successful we are in training skilled staff for the growing service economy. This applies to the academic sector just as much as for commercial training and further training.

A lack of respect for and the apparently low requirements for service activities could lead to obstacles in the development of high-quality services. In comparison with manufacturing industry it emerges that in young, developing areas in the service sector there is an almost total lack of a middle qualification level corresponding to that of the skilled industrial worker. However, the lack of this middle level means a lack of skilled staff that can transform developments in the service sector into marketable services that are of use to a broad base. The forum presents successful methods of professionalization and qualification.

Host:
Dr. Knut Diekmann, Departmental Head, Basic Affairs, Further Education Policy, Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), Berlin; Hans Gabriel, Berlin

Items on the agenda:
Service as an Art – from “Problem Solution Provider” to “Service Artist”
Prof. Michael Brater, Chair of Education Research, Vocational and Cultural Education, Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, Alfter

Dual Vocational Training in the Service Society
Dr. Alexandra Uhly, Department of socio-scientific and economic Fundamentals of Vocational Training, Federal Institute of Vocational Training (BIBB), Bonn

Qualification as a Prerequisite for Professional Work
Agostino Cisco, Head of Human Resources Development, Accor Hotellerie Deutschland GmbH, München

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