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Grundlagen der Systemtheorie zur Anwendung transdisziplinärer Verfahren der Technikfolgenabschätzung
(2020)
The technological progress is highly responsible for how people live their everyday life. Technical innovations provide new opportunities to re-design all areas of life and because of that the society has to adjust to these changes permanently. These days, due to the fact that there is a changeover from analog into digital processes, this circumstance is highly relevant. However, it is not always clear whether a technological innovation just entails chances or involves risks, too. The research field of technology assessment pursues the goal to examine the influence of technological innovations on the society. For this purpose, unpredictable consequences of a technology need to be anticipated in advance to provide the opportunity of earlier reactions. The core of this thesis a discussion about a project based approach of technology assessment. Additionally, it is being investigated whether and how systems theory approaches can be used to improve predictions in the research area of technology assessment. Therefore, the question of how reliable forecasts are in this kind of context will be answered. Moreover, there is an investigation if an added-value can be created through performing system thinking. As a methodical approach a literature review has been performed. Furthermore, experts were questioned in an interview and by e-mail to gain an insight in the practical work of technology assessment. Based on the elaborated project structure, for each part of the project was examined if significant results can be maintained through the sophisticated use of principles of the systems theory. The analysis of this paper has shown that the results of a technology assessment may have more reliable forecast value in comparison to an investigation without proper consideration of system thinking. Especially, the understanding of a system during the phase of conception of a project can be crucial for the positive outcome for the results of technology assessment. This master thesis represents the theoretical point of view regarding topics technology assessment and systems theory. An application test for the validation of the results in the practical work of technology assessment is recommended.
The maintenance strategy “predictive maintenance”, which is characterized by predicting the failure behavior of technical units based on modern sensor technology, plays a key role in smart factories against the background of an industry 4.0. This paper contains an evaluation of the current state of research on this strategy and gives an overview of the areas of application to date. With the aid of a qualitative video analysis, the implementation in the industries and company divisions involved and the type of goods monitored are examined. The analyzed video clips were uploaded to YouTube for example for marketing purposes by various companies with different perspectives on predictive maintenance. The video analysis was realized by applying a previously defined coding plan to the video material. The results show a predominant application in the manufacturing industry, in which predictive maintenance is used to monitor plants and machines. In addition, the strategy is also mainly applied to means of transport used for freight and passenger transport in various infrastructures. As a result of the video analysis, the currently high need for explanation of predictive maintenance becomes visible. By looking at these explanations, one also learns something about the special features that distinguish it from other maintenance strategies.
Railway safety is a topic which gains the public attention only if major railway accidents happen. This is because railway is considered as a safe mode of travel by the public. However, to ensure the safety of the railway system railway companies as well as universities conduct a broad spectrum of research. An overview of this research has not yet been provided in the scholarly literature. Therefore, this thesis follows two objectives. First an overview and ranking of railway safety research universities should be provided. Second, based on these universities, it should be identified which are the most relevant and influential research topics. The ranking is based on the research method “literature review” which forms the methodical basis for this thesis. To evaluate the universities based on a measurable and objective criterion, the number of citations of the researchers from each university is gathered. As a result, the University of Leuven for the civil engineering, Milan Politechnico for mechanical enginering and the University of Loughborough for electrical engineering are identified as the leading university in their field of railway safety research. The top universities for each discipline are distributed all over Europe, North America and Asia. However, a clear focus on the US and British universities is observed. For identification of the most relevant and influential topics the keywords from the publications which are considered in the ranking procedure are analyzed. Focus areas among these keywords are revealed by calculating the count of each keyword. High-speed trains as well as maintenance are recognized as the highly relevant topics in both civil and mechanical engineering. Furthermore, the topic of railway dynamics for mechanical engineering and noise and vibration for civil engineering are identified as the leading topics in the respective discipline. Achieving both research goals required exploratory approaches. Therefore, this thesis leaves open space for future research to deepen the individual topics which are approached in each section. A validation of the results through experts interviews as well as a deepening of the analysis through increasing the number of analyzed universities as well as applying statistical methods is recommended.
Accidents annually cause high economic damages for concerned persons, companies and the state. To determine the exact costs of a damage is a challenge. Scientific studies differ from each other because of different models of calculation. Due to the fact of a low number of accidents concerning rail transport there are not many studies about how to calculate the costs an accident causes. The aim of this thesis is to give an overview about methods when dealing with these costs and to point out occurring difficulties. Generally, costs of accident can be divided in two categories. One category deals with personal injuries whereas the other focuses on material damages. Personal injuries contain material and immaterial damages. This leads to difficulties in calculation. The main aspect when dealing with personal damages is the loss of manpower, the costs of medical supply and the costs of the recovery of the legal situation. Currently there is no model of how to calculate personal damages concerning rail transport in Germany. The “Bundesamt für Straßenverkehr” developed an extensive model for calculations of costs of accident concerning traffic. It turned out that the death of people has costs round about 1.1 million euro. Severely and slightly injured people cause damages about 106,000 euro and 5,000 euro. This thesis declares that the model is important regarding different aspects of rail transport and that it is based on statistically collected key performance indicators. Furthermore, some approaches, which analyse the value of life, are mentioned. There are large derivations between them. To make a calculation of material damage the current value of the object must be respected. When dealing with the limitation of material damages the focus is on damages concerning infrastructure. In addition, railway infrastructure can be mentioned. With the help of the “Kostenkennwertekatalog” of Deutsche Bahn AG acquisitions costs for certain components of infrastructure can be determined. As a result, they offer a basis for calculating damages.
This thesis aims to find models to calculate damages to persons in the context of railway accidents. These models were tested for their applicability for a railway accident database. The reviewed models for injured casualties were identified by a research of literature. Their applicability for the accident database was tested with the aid of average values and sample values. The analysis of fatalities was executed via the combination of collected values of two literature researches. These values were compared to the values of the database.
It was stated that there is a calculation for seriously injured, which may serve more exact values than the calculation of the database, especially when there is more detailed data about the casualties. The calculation of slightly injured couldn't be realized by just beholding the pure damages to persons, because it's only a small part of the costs the responsible company has to pay. For the calculation of fatalities appeared problems with the methodology of the most studies.
In this bachelor thesis a database for worldwide railway national investigation bodies is created. It contains contact details of those authorities as well as information of public accident investigation reports. The database is intended to serve as a basis for information and data acquisition of railway accidents. The information that can be taken from the investigation reports is an important element for a possible economical evaluation and for the efficiency of safety technologies. Besides the basics of the national investigation bodies, accident investigation reports and the efficiency calculation of safety technologies the thesis presents an evaluation of the existing investigation bodies and reports in the database. Also the usefulness of the database of accident investigation bodies will be explained and the potential impact on railway safety will be examined.
This thesis deals with the approach, the structure and the variety of methods in the field of technology forecasting. Furthermore insights into the environment of Railways Diagnostics and Monitoring Technologies (RDMT), their technology management and industryspecific requirements for technology forecasting (especially in the area SMEs) are given. Combining those a recommendation for practical use of research results in companies of this size and industry is developed. In order to initiate the previously mentioned research elements a literature research was operated in the field of innovation management and the railway environment. In addition, an interview with an expert of a medium-sized technology manufacturer of RDMT industry was performed. The most important finding was that a single method cannot fulfill the requirements on its own, thus a combination of methods and organizational forms is necessary to achieve an effective technology forecasting.
In order to enhance the company’s appeal for potential employees and improve the satisfaction of already salaried workers, it is necessary to offer a variety of work-life balance measures. But as their implementation causes time and financial costs, a prioritization of measures is needed. To express a recommendation for companies, this study is led by the questions if there are work-life balance measures which have more impact on employee satisfaction than others, how big the relative impact of work-life balance measures on job satisfaction in comparison to other work and private life variables is, if there is a relation between the effectiveness of measures and their use and if there is a difference between the measures which are most important from the employees’ perspective and the companies’ offers.
These questions are formulated in eight research hypotheses which are examined in a quantitative research design with online survey data from 289 employees of fifteen different German companies. The formation of a hierarchy of the effectiveness of measures towards job satisfaction as well as the investigation of the relative impact in comparison to other variables is performed using a multiple regression analysis, whilst the differences between employees’ expectations and the availability of offers are examined with t-tests.
Support in childcare, support in voluntary activities and teambuilding events have a significantly higher impact on job satisfaction than other work-life balance measures, and their potential use is higher than the actual use which leads to the conclusion that there is yet potential for companies to improve their employees’ satisfaction by implementing these measures. In addition, flexible work hours, flexible work locations and free time and overtime accounts are the most important measures from the employees’ point of view and already widely offered by the surveyed companies. In general, the overall use of the available measures and the quantity of offered measures are more important with regard to job satisfaction than the specific kind of measure. In addition, work-life balance measures are more important towards job satisfaction for younger people.
Digital happiness
(2016)
Emotions in the digital world gain more and more importance by the accelerating digitalization of recent years. In everyday life as well as professional and educational environments, the use of media is almost inescapable. This work takes a closer look to the still relatively unknown topic, “Digital Happiness“. In the literature emotions in the digital world are studied increasingly, but concerning the topic of “Digital Happiness” there are not many insights.
In this research the differences between communicating emotions through digital media and face-to-face communications, as well as their impacts, are investigated. The perception and expression of emotions in the real and digital world are considered. Furthermore, a first definition of “Digital Happiness” and a model with the associated determinants that influence “Digital Happiness” is developed.
To achieve these goals, a literature analysis by the method of Webster & Watson (2002) is performed. Therefore, 15 articles are selected and analyzed in more detail to illustrate the current state of research. These articles are organized into a concept matrix. In addition, special phenomena, such as Quantified Self, are closely considered in order to determine other factors. Based on the literature analysis, a qualitative study by the method of Mayring (2014) is performed. It is developed into an interview guideline that serves as the basis for the investigation of the established determinants of the literature analysis. This is confirmed or refuted by 30 interviews with users of information and communication technologies. With the help of the interviews, a large part of the determinants in the literature can be confirmed. Moreover, some new determinants are identified. These results are included into the final model. This model provides a basis for further research in the field of “Digital Happiness“. Finally, different implications for research and practice are found, which reveal the need of further research.