Socio-Technical Framework in Industry: Societal Impacts
Technology is expected to bring disruptive innovation. But what exactly are the implications of that? This module will cover the larger societal implications of this kind of innovation. It will tackle questions like: How will society change? How can a society profit from this and what are the possible risks and dangers? In particular – students will learn what engineers can do to promote the first and prevent the latter.

An Interdisciplinary Perspective of Innovation
Adapting a company to Industrie 4.0 is challenging on a technical level. However, it also poses organizational challenges. New professions are included in the company, power relations change, and new skills are required. Work and tasks become even more heterogeneous and interdisciplinary than before. Students will learn how to analyse and manage interdisciplinary and organizational settings. They will be provided with different tools, which allow them to handle organizational aspects of Industrie 4.0.

An Inter-Organisational Perspective of Innovation
A large part of a company’s environment consists of other companies. These inter-organizational relations a company has change significantly once Industrie 4.0 technologies and practices are introduced. In this module, students will learn how to analyse the inter-organizational network among companies, how it may change with Industrie 4.0 and how to manage these changes.

Multidisciplinary modelling – How to ease design and operation of innovations, Work 4.0 – Human in the Loop, Agents to support design of innovations, Agents to achieve flexible self-adaptive products and production systems, Case Studies & Successful Demonstrators: Applying Enabling Technologies, Smart Data Enabled Learning during Operation

Engineering concepts of Industrie 4.0, human machine interaction systems and intervention of smart data approaches will be discussed in these modules. These subjects will equip students with the skills to judge and evaluate what an Industrie 4.0 system is, its components, capabilities and the necessity of the underlying models and technologies like agents and data analytics. After the module, students will be able to identify beneficial use cases for their companies and the necessary prerequisites. Students will also learn to model the knowledge of an Industrie 4.0 system as a prerequisite for increased reliability and overall equipment effectiveness.

Human-centered Innovation & Design Thinking
In today’s hypercompetitive markets, companies that fulfill customer needs in the fastest and best way are successful. Therefore, companies need to focus on human-centered innovation. Design Thinking is one framework that helps organizations to develop new ideas that are relevant for their customers. In this module, students will gain an understanding why focusing on customers’ needs is crucial and what implications that has for innovation processes. Students will get to know Design Thinking as a framework and will apply different Design Thinking methods in a hands-on way in small teams. For example, students will try out methods for gaining user insights and developing low-resolution prototypes.

Business Model Innovation
This module is advancing on existing knowledge about Digital Transformation and Business Model Innovation. It builds upon technological and societal trends as well as on the principles of Digital Transformation as a source of Business Model Innovation. We will discuss how firms transform their organization and business model as well as challenges and implications of Digitalization initiatives. Second, this course will introduce the students to advanced tools for Business Model Development. The e³-value modelling method is introduced as a tool to evaluate the economic sustainability of a business model by analysing the value streams between actors of a business ecosystem. Furthermore, the concept of Business Model Patterns is introduced as a creative technique to ideate further innovative Business Model alternatives.