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Department of Management Sciences

Practical projects in winter semester 20/21

The following practical projects were offered in the winter semester 20/21:

 

 

 

Modelling of departmental processes (H-BRS, Department of Management Sciences) and creation of a process map (Prof. Dr. Gadatasch, Valentina Tsingeni, BSc, Stefan Freitag, occupational pedagogue)

1. Initial situation

The Department 01 of Management Sciences at H-BRS wants to make organisational processes within the degree programmes more transparent. A process map should be modelled to show the complexity of processes in a transparent and clear manner. The process map should illustrate particularly relevant processes and how they depend on sub-processes and thus share knowledge that was previously dependent on individuals. This overview should make processes, roles and their responsibilities clear and easy to find, thus avoiding delays and extra work. This permits a structured view of important events, deadlines, applications and preparatory measures. Collecting the current process states and analysing them permits the department's requirements to be integrated into the process map model. The modelling of processes is supported by a selected application. The practical project aims for direct collaboration between the department and the participants.

2. Objectives

Project goals include:

1. Survey selected processes in the Department of Management Sciences, followed by modelling and present relationships between sub-processes on a process map

2. Analyse processes and integrate results into the project map

3. Evaluate and present results using required process modelling methods

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Social Business (Prof. Dr. Meier, Rüdiger Meyer, sociologist)

Learning outcomes

Just like for-profit businesses use foundations and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for social aims, more and more non-profit NGOs are becoming social businesses. This is a growing trend; for example, the NGO Caritas employs 650,000 people in its various social businesses, making it Germany's largest employer by far.

Students get to know the concept of social business in relation to corporate social responsibility and NGOs as part of a stakeholder-oriented management.

They look at case studies to learn about aims and types of social businesses in various industries and understand the socio-economic benefit as well as typical critical success factors.

Contents and structure

- Management based on shareholder value and stakeholder value

- History of the idea of non-profit and corporate social responsibility

- Social business approach in Germany (as well as EU/USA)

- Industries, types, forms of social business (with case studies)

- Stakeholder analysis in social business

- Working and managing social businesses

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Cloud Lab (Prof. Dr. Gadatsch, Thomas Neifer, MSc)

Motivation

Topics like digitisation, smart data and artificial intelligence are changing the requirements that graduates need to fulfil. Cloud computing is another up-and-coming topic.

It's not just changing how companies work, but how IT is managed. Changed product policies by big software providers like Microsoft turn future investments into standard software from procurement decisions into issues of strategic business process outsourcing and the related outsourcing of data.  

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform services (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and related management tools permit providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft or RedHat to offer various modern business  solutions (app development, data warehousing, et cetera). They also facilitate the work of data scientists. In addition to complex analysis and forecasting models, they produce real-time data visualisation and evaluation, which is why innovative businesses and concepts like smart cities rely on these solutions.

To give our students an edge in the job market, H-BRS offers a practical project allowing them to hone their project management skills in a professional, dedicated team and collect important insights into the emerging fields of cloud computing and data science at our state-of-the-art Cloud Lab.

Objective

Students work in a state-of-the-art Cloud Lab on semester-based projects for external clients from the IT industry. These projects may be the result of specific client projects or internal issues.

The Cloud Lab is equipped with dedicated IT workstations and access to professional cloud services (including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and RedHat technology).

The contact person for the practical project is Thomas Neifer, research associate at Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.

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Further development of the LEGO factory simulation / LEAN method training (Martin Kemnitz, economist)

Objective

Due to the Covid19 situation, we unfortunately need to change the practical project "Further development of the LEGO factory simulation" in the 2020/2021 winter semester to a LEAN methods training with presentations. This learning format includes technical and methodological work on selected LEAN methods and preparing online presentations to discuss their practical application.

Content / issues (project tasks)

Selected lean methods include:

1. Basics of added value and waste

2. HOSHIN KANRI

3. Shop floor management system

4. Value stream analysis / design

5. KAIZEN, TPM and 5S

6. KANBAN, supermarket principle and milk run

7. Selected quality methods and techniques

8. Qualification matrix, and many more

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Digitisation in a consumer economy (Prof. Dr. Boden, Lena Cassens, MSc, Paul Bossauer, MSc)

Digitisation offers companies new opportunities to design holistic experiences and personalise offers for consumers. Artificial intelligence enables providers to offer comprehensive value in various consumer fields. However, the analysis falls short, because many aspects of consumption are often ignored. This practical project focuses on mental models among consumers relating to digital artefacts.                                             

Based on current research, potentials of consumer-centred digitisation will be identified and investigated with the help of empirical surveys. Issues we explore include:

  • How do consumers perceive artificial intelligence in the consumer economy? What do consumers understand by artificial intelligence?
  • How do consumers think so-called evaluation scores are calculated? What aspects are considered fair by consumers?
  • How do digital artefacts support certain everyday practices and what influence does increasing digitisation have on consumption?

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Projects on social entrepreneurship (Prof. Dr. Zacharias)

The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Christoph Zacharias.
The project teams will consist of 2 students.
Learning from failure - why do start-ups fail so early?
Looking at Fuckup Nights, we evaluate interviews and look for the reasons of fast failure. And how we can learn from them.
The practical project will produce a toolbox for learning from failure.

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Digitisation of customer relationships (Jens P. Klasen)

Objective

For our practical project we look at digital transformation in customer relationship management (CRM), offering our participants a healthy mix of theory and practice. As a renowned regional Microsoft partner, we show which possibilities cloud technologies currently offer to align a company's marketing, sales and customer service and how to best organize daily work around them. In addition to the theoretical parts in the practical project, we use the latest cloud apps from Microsoft (Dynamics 365 and Office 365) to demonstrate agile methods in practice.
    
The practical project has a different professional focus every semester; this semester will deal with building a project management system.

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Logistics/quality management in production (Prof. Dr. Tank)

The waste recycling plant in Bonn is a municipal company offering thermal recycling of municipal waste from Bonn and the region as well as settlement-related commercial waste. In other words, it burns 250,000 tonnes of waste each year. The combustion energy is used to generate steam for environmentally friendly generation of electricity and district heating. Unfortunately, as in any combustion process, there are also emissions (including carbon dioxide), which are largely filtered out in a complex process. In view of the increasing discussion about a waste-free society, public sensitivity to consumption and waste disposal is growing.

Goals

Many people from Bonn and the region do not know a) how complex the waste industry is set up and b) how the situation in Bonn specifically is regulated. Many people still believe that the waste problem is solved in their garbage can. Other citizens have many
 prejudices. Claims include that thermal recycling harms the environment and is not a good solution. Some voices predict a near waste-free future and see no more justification for thermal recycling. The aim of the project is to look at societal change regarding waste and consumption and the prediction of a waste-free future.

The practical project will use a sounding board to work on challenges.

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Obstkäppchen (Joel Görgens, Christopher Kossack, (Prof. Dr. Seeger))

1. Initial situation

Obstkäppchen is a non-profit organisation that aims to support elderly and lonely people
by preparing and delivering healthy food packages once a month and sending people to spend time with them. To ensure that this action is not limited to a small target group, we aim to win (sports) clubs as cooperation partners who
see the value for their social responsibility efforts and
the chance to develop their members' social skills. We work with the 1300-member-strong club TUS Oberpleis
to develop a concept for expanding the Obstkäppchen project to
a large number of partners.

2. Objectives

Project goals include:

1. Develop a cooperation concept between Obstkäppchen gGmbH and
potential clubs using the example of TUS 05 Oberpleis. This includes clarification of the strategic, financial, legal and fiscal framework conditions.
2. Develop a logistics concept for the purchase, storage, packaging and distribution of the fruit bags and for sponsor acquisition.

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