On 17.9.2020 the Ernst Zander Award was awarded. This prize, donated by Prof. Dr. Ernst Zander, is awarded annually for outstanding scientific achievements (primarily dissertations) from all faculties of the Ruhr-University, in particular from the faculties of economics, law and engineering. The selection of the award-worthy works is made - on the recommendation of the Institute for Corporate Management (ifu) of the Ruhr-University Bochum - by the board of the Alwin Reemtsma Foundation, which includes the Chancellor of the Ruhr-University.
This year, the Ernst Zander Prize was awarded to Dr. Lisa Grandjean ("Strategic controlling of hybrid service bundles using the balanced scorecard", supervisor: Prof. Dr. Marion Steven) and Dr. Pia Steenweg ("Integrating employee preferences into optimization models for personnel planning at various decision levels", supervisor: Prof. Dr. Brigitte Werners).
Dr. Grandjean worked as a research assistant at the Chair of Production Economics of Prof. Dr. Marion Steven until August 2019 and was also active in the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center "Engineering of Hybrid Service Bundles". Since September 2019 she has been working in Controlling at Bosch Rexroth AG.
Dr. Pia Steenweg was a research assistant at the Chair of Business Administration, in particular Corporate Research and Accounting of Prof. Dr. Brigitte Werners until February 2020. Since March 2020 she has been working as commercial project manager at Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW.
Strategic controlling of hybrid service packages using the Balanced Scorecard
The German mechanical and plant engineering industry is facing increasing challenges in view of the advancing globalization and the associated competition. In order to differentiate themselves from competitors in this environment, many companies are expanding their range of services to include product-related services to offer customized hybrid service bundles.
For a successful offer of hybrid service bundles from an economic point of view, a specially designed strategic controlling is required. This supports the company management in the planning, management and control of the hybrid service bundles, so that as much synergy potential as possible can be exploited from the joint offer of material and services.
In this context, the Balanced Scorecard is used as a strategic performance measurement system. First, Dr. Lisa Grandjean presents a basic concept of a Balanced Scorecard for hybrid service bundles, guided by theory. Subsequently, a company-specific support for the selection of the relevant key performance indicators is developed using a Data Envelopment Analysis based procedure and illustrated with an application example. With the help of this procedure, companies are able to select exactly those key figures that are appropriate for managing their hybrid service bundles.
Integrating employee preferences into optimization models for personnel planning at various decision levels
Today's world requires, for example, power plants or emergency services to operate around the clock with sufficient personnel. For employees, shift operation means great losses, as they often work on weekends. In order to be able to participate in social life in the best possible way, the ability to plan work, off-duty and vacations plays an essential role. A duty roster based on a so-called cyclical shift model is advantageous for this purpose, since the shifts are repeated at manageable intervals of a few days and can be planned for years. Also from the point of view of the personnel manager, a cyclic shift model offers the advantage that the planning effort in daily operations is significantly reduced. The highly complex analysis and development of a shift model suitable for the company is accompanied by a considerable one-time effort. This arises from the legal framework and the different interests of employer and employee, which have to be taken into account and can lead to conflicts of objectives.
Operations research methods can be used efficiently to support HR managers. Dr. Steenweg uses them in her work to integrate employee preferences in the duty scheduling process. She develops optimization models for an innovative cyclical shift model and employee-oriented annual leave planning. The defined and advantageous shift sequences and the maximum number of free weekends ensure broad acceptance. The shift model was validated in case studies and was adopted by the emergency services of the city of Bochum in 2018. Using an innovative framework, Dr. Steenweg evaluates the extent to which the strategic duty roster ensures staffing security despite operational uncertainties caused by absent employees. The various qualification profiles in the workforce are also taken into account. Dr. Steenweg not only deals with the organization of working hours but also with work processes by optimally allocating departments to office space: Short distances within her own departments and to content-related adjacent departments are just as important as the desired location in the building. These research results are also examined in case studies with real data for their practical applicability.
