CHANGE

Characteristic of sustainable reorganization of logistics processes (ZIP-ETH)

Researchers:

Financed by:

Center of integrated Production Systems (ZIP) at the ETH Zurich

Partners:

Institute of Work Psychology ETH Zurich, CIM Center Aargau HTL Brugg-Windisch, several small- and mid-sized enterprises

Motivation:

The increasing globalization of markets and improved availability of information, as well as the general economic situation of supply and supply, have led to a rapid change in achievable customer needs. Customers expect short delivery time, optimal service, high quality and low price, all at the same time. The organizational adaptation of new logistics processes to a changed environment is related to high costs and efforts. This is a challenge, especially for
small and mid-sized enterprises, because personnel and financial resources are very limited. These companies tend to optimize their business processes according to technical criteria and do not adapt them to changing market needs and employees' abilities. The need for concepts and methodologies for a holistic and sustainable reorganization of logistics processes is quite obvious.

The objectives of the project are:

Development of guidelines for a sustainable reorganization of logistic processes
Deduction of requirements for a concept of proceeding and a supporting methodology for this (dynamic) organizational change process
Examination of the interaction between organization and technology (esp. information technology). It should be clarified what organizational options are enabled by modern IT-solutions
Evaluation of organizational options enabled by IT by holistic quality criteria according to the MTO-approach (German for ''human - technology - organization'')

The following activities have already been completed:

The project was completed successfully in spring 1999 with the publication of the project results. Due to the unexpected success of the book on the readers market, the 2nd edition could be published during the year 2000.