Work of the Karlsruhe Service Research Institute (KSRI) focuses on services. This Institute established in 2008 by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and IBM Deutschland conducts research relevant to practice, provides students with insights into companies, and analyzes services from various perspectives. Now, Robert Bosch GmbH has become a cooperation partner of the Institute. The research group “Value Stream Services” is aimed at enhancing the efficiency of value streams by logistics services.
With Bosch as a cooperation partner, KSRI plans to advance research and education in the area of “Value Stream Services”. “Value streams are all flows of materials and information as well as all activities required to manufacture or offer products or services. The value stream extends from suppliers to one or several levels of a company to the customer,” explains Dr. Helmut Wlcek. So far, he has been responsible for the Logistics Office of Robert Bosch GmbH. In the future, he will head the research group “Value Stream Services” at KSRI. Activities will concentrate on how logistics services extending far beyond classical transport and storage services may enhance the efficiency of value streams. Research will be of interdisciplinary character and cover aspects of logistics, fabrication technology, IT, and management. The cooperation is planned to further strengthen the vicinity to practice of research and education at KSRI. The cooperation agreement has been concluded for a duration of three years.
Five Years KSRI – At a Glance
Work at KSRI focuses on complex service networks. Scientists study coordination, supply, and innovation in these networks as well as optimization and the description of services. It is focused on services in the IT sector, in the energy branch, in the health care sector, in the mobility sector, in the supply chain sector, and on industrial services. A current example is the “Inspire” project: Here, the scientists measure, evaluate, and improve the productivity and quality of medical services and care of stroke patients. Cooperation partners are the neurological hospital of Bad Neustadt, the Bavarian Red Cross, and the Research Center for Information Technology (FZI), Karlsruhe. The research group “Service Innovation and Management” headed by Professor Hansjörg Fromm covers the topics of “Industrial Services” and “Service Analytics”.
KSRI will celebrate its 5th anniversary with a ceremony on June 21, 2013, 16.30 hrs, at the Tulla-Hörsaal on KIT Campus South (building 11.40, Englerstraße 11). Among others, Professor Hansjörg Fromm will speak about “Service Research in Motion: Analytics, Networks, Innovation” and give an outlook on future research at KSRI.
Program of the ceremony on the occasion of the 5th anniversary of KSRI:
www.ksri.kit.edu/5JahreKSRI
Further information on KSRI (p. 14) and the “Inspire” project (pp. 25ff) in LookKIT 1-2013:
http://www.pkm.kit.edu/downloads/lookKIT_2013_1.pdf
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