Thorsten Wuest

Jakub Mak-Dadanski

Klaus-Dieter Thoben

Data quality in materials science: A Quality Management Manual approach

Keywords: data quality, experimental research data, materials science, QM 1

Experimental research data in the materials science domain is often insufficiently described with regard to metadata and frequently displays an incoherent form of documentation. These circumstances often hinder current and future researchers significantly in reuse and comprehension of data. To support researchers during the archiving and provision of materials science research data (incl. supplementing material), a Quality Management Manual (QMM) approach as an established QM tool is proposed in this paper. Quality-assurance of experimental research data and the perpetuation of good scientific practice in provision and archiving research data are examined before the QMM approach is applied in a case study. The preliminary results indicate that QMM allows to provide practitioners basic guidelines which support integrity, availability and reusability of experimental research data in materials science for subsequent reuse.

Introduction

Research data plays a central role in the scientific process and is the basis of scientific knowledge creation. However, without adequate documentation and corresponding metadata, research data cannot be understood and managed [START_REF] Enke | Leitfaden zum Forschungsdaten-Management[END_REF]. Neatly stored research data (incl. metadata) allows researchers to e.g., test their hypotheses, evaluate experimental results and disseminate the findings in a cohesive way that furthers the state of the art. Thus, a coherent and long-term archiving of research data supports the scientific process. Additionally, the quality assurance of research data can be considered to be essential for the competitiveness of the research location [START_REF] Winkler-Nees | Der Umgang mit Forschungsdaten in Wissenschaft und Lehre[END_REF].

The focus of this work has been placed on the development of Quality Management Manual (QMM) guidelines, which are intended to support researchers during the archiving and provision of materials science research data and to complement the quality manuals of research institutes with the research data aspect. The usage of the above mentioned guidelines is supposed to ensure the quality-assurance of research data and simultaneously perpetuate the terms of good scientific practice in archiving of the created research data.

Research data generally represent the result of experiments and/or observations. These experiments and observations often consist of informal workflows, which may frequently exhibit differences. The so obtained data is often insufficiently described by researchers with regard to its metadata and displays an incoherent form of documentation. This condition hinders the current and future researchers significantly in the reuse and comprehension of the data [START_REF] Neuroth | nestor Handbuch: Eine kleine Enzyklopädie der digitalen Langzeitarchivierung[END_REF], which in turn affects the scientific knowledge creation progress.

Following, the fundamentals of data quality as well as materials science research data will be succinctly addressed. On this basis, a framework for the model of quality assurance of materials science data will be created and presented in the following section. Thereafter, an exemplary guideline for documentation of materials science research data will be constructed. In the following discussion and limitations section, the developed solution is critically discussed. Furthermore, potential challenges concerning the implementation of quality assurance measures are illustrated. In the final section, the results are summarized and a short outlook on future work is presented.

2.

State of the art

In this section, a short overview of the basic terms and the current state of the art of Quality Management (QM) in the domain of research data management are presented. First, existing guidelines, in this case based on a German foundation, regarding the handling of research data are illustrated before the topic of research data in material science is highlighted in more detail. The last subsection is looking into data quality measures for research data.

Existing guidelines of research data management

The German Research Foundation (DFG) serves as the self-governing organization of science in Germany. On the basis of the association's issued recommendations for safeguarding good scientific practice [START_REF] Dfg | Vorschläge zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis: Empfehlungen der Kommission 'Selbstkontrolle in der Wissenschaft[END_REF] and recommendations for the secure storage and delivery of digital primary research data [START_REF] Dfg | Empfehlungen zur gesicherten Aufbewahrung und Bereitstellung digitaler Forschungsprimärdaten[END_REF] a substantive framework for quality assurance of research data has been created. The recommendations state that securing and storing of primary (research) data should be guided by the rules of good scientific practice, as these form the basis of the scientific value chain. Research data should be kept for at least ten years in the institution where they originated. This is useful for efficiency reasons, since it allows the researchers to access the results of previous experiments or observations without having to repeat them. This takes also the often expensive (money and time efforts) creation processes into consideration. Additionally, the long storage time serves the preservation of evidence in the event the published results are ever doubted. Because each discipline is different when it comes to the needs and challenges in the area of research data handling, each domain should develop its own subject-specific approach to safeguarding research data [START_REF] Dfg | Empfehlungen zur gesicherten Aufbewahrung und Bereitstellung digitaler Forschungsprimärdaten[END_REF]. The handling and storage of data should take place within (internationally) recognized and established standards. All information required for repeated use of the research data should be included and stored [START_REF] Dfg | Empfehlungen zur gesicherten Aufbewahrung und Bereitstellung digitaler Forschungsprimärdaten[END_REF]. Each research institution should, therefore, place clear rules for the storage of primary data and data carriers [START_REF] Dfg | Vorschläge zur Sicherung guter wissenschaftlicher Praxis: Empfehlungen der Kommission 'Selbstkontrolle in der Wissenschaft[END_REF].

Research data in materials science

For each scientific discipline research data are the result of an individual scientific value chain. Materials science is no exception. Research and development of materials are the main tasks in the field of materials science [START_REF] Acatech | Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik in Deutschland, Empfehlungen zur Profilierung, Lehre und Forschung[END_REF]. Experiments and tests examine the properties of materials under different conditions. The number of different test methods and the necessary testing machines make data gathering and data analysis partially demanding, since although the older machines are considered good and reliable, they often are not compatible with the latest software. Due to the high research worker turnaround of universities, it is particularly important to collect the relevant metadata and store it in a comprehensive way. Metadata provides the research data with context and describes the contents by means of controlled vocabulary [START_REF] Severiens | nestor: Langzeitarchivierung von Rohdaten[END_REF]. It involves, in case of e.g. material delivery, information on the name of supplier, place of manufacture, chemical composition and possible prior heat treatment of the material.

Data quality measures for research data

The DIN EN ISO 8402 standard defines quality as "the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs" [START_REF] Spur | Handbuch der Fertigungstechnik, Band 6 Fabrikbetrieb[END_REF]. According to a survey by K. C. Tan et al., many companies define quality, as the fulfillment or surpassing of customer-specific product requirements [START_REF] Tan | Quality, manufacturing strategy, and global competition: An empirical analysis[END_REF]. It is generally accepted that the degree with which customer requirements are fulfilled represent the most decisive quality criterion [START_REF] Spur | Handbuch der Fertigungstechnik, Band 6 Fabrikbetrieb[END_REF]. However research data, unlike a physical product, is not produced in accordance to the quality specifications of a client, but in a particular framework of the scientific research question. The performing of experiments, the evaluation and analysis of generated data are an essential part of scientific research [START_REF] Blumbergs | Experimental Research Data Series Quality Analysis[END_REF]. The subsequent use of the research data defines the framework of requirements for the quality of the research data. An important requirement for the quality of research data is to enable its use outside of the original research question, which originally led to the creation of the research data. To say with certainty how a research data set was generated, all input variables have to be known. The quality of scientific research data can therefore be measured by the extent to which anyone who wants to continue to work with these data objects may comprehend the circumstances of the data generation and the information gained from the data.

Background for the development of a QMM framework for experimental research data

In this section, the background of the developed QM method is described before it is applied in the next section. First, a case study which frames the application is introduced before the QM procedure of choice, QMM, is elaborated in more detail.

Case Description

The scope of the conducted case study is limited to the Department of Structural Mechanics of the "Foundation Institute of Materials Science" in Bremen, Germany (IWT). The mechanical experiments carried out in 2011/2012 were subjected to an analysis (according to test type and frequency). 47% of these experiments formed the tensile test. It was thus chosen for the creation of the requirements for the research data. On the basis of the evaluated test figures, and with the aid of expert interviews with scientific staff of the IWT, a picture of the state of data-handling in IWT has been created.

The projects are financed from public funds, or performed within an industrial partnership. The project defines many input variables for a series of experiments. The sample dimensions are therefore project-dependant. The tensile test testing machine generates tension values, which, through software interfaces, are evaluated to first characteristic values and converted to an Excel data set. The researcher analyzes the data on his or her workstation, PC or laptop, where the copies of the converted Excel data sets and framework data are also individually stored. Information on the chemical material composition, sample size, heat treatment conditions and surface characteristics are required for a complete analysis of the sample. However, since the data are located at different places and with different researchers, it is very difficult to access the original research data and metadata among older (> 6-8 years) publications.

QMM & procedural instructions

A QMM is the central document of every QM system (QMS). It describes the quality policy and it's scope, and regulates the responsibilities and powers of quality assurance measures [START_REF] Linß | Qualitätsmanagement für Ingenieure: mit Handbuch 'Qualitätsmanagement[END_REF]. The function of the manual is that of a reference book [START_REF] Rothery | Der Leitfaden zu ISO 9000; mit QM-Musterhandbuch und Erläuterungen[END_REF]. All necessary contents of a QMM are generally defined in ISO 9001:2008 [START_REF]Quality management systems -Requirements[END_REF].

The transparency, the ability that a third party can understand and comprehend the processes and procedures in an organization is a central point of each QMS. One can transfer this perspective on to the quality of research data. Information and data necessary for repeated testing are the minimum requirements considering the quality of research data. A viable solution would be to pass all input parameters that can be captured and measured with a plausible effort (in terms of efficiency). Every relevant input parameter, which has not been passed on, reduces the reproducibility of the research data and thus reduces the data quality. According to ISO 9001:2008 clause 4.2.3 Control of Documents and 4.2.4 Control of Records [START_REF]Quality management systems -Requirements[END_REF], procedural instructions can be used as in-house regulations for implementation of quality requirements for research data. They can be used to establish clear structures of information transmission [START_REF] Schmidt | Das QM-Handbuch: Qualitätsmanagement für die ambulante Pflege[END_REF] and thus support linkage of relevant research data documents.

Exemplary application of QMM

In this section the case study with an exemplary application of the previously described QMM method is presented. First, the scope of the method application within the case is detailed before the specifications are elaborated briefly. Subsequently, an exemplary reference sheet illustrates the application in practice.

Scope of method application & specification

The procedural instructions regulate certain cross-divisional process flows [START_REF] Schmidt | Das QM-Handbuch: Qualitätsmanagement für die ambulante Pflege[END_REF]. In the presented case, these are designed to ensure the processes of archiving and provision of materials science research data are based on clear criteria and contribute to quality assurance of the research data. An exemplary procedural instruction has been created, designed to support the documentation workflow of tensile tests for testing metallic materials (as illustrated in Figure 1). Research data management needs to include monitoring of the entire process of scientific work. This can be achieved through description of the necessary steps into the procedural instructions. Necessary for a completeness of a data set are (among many other factors) project description, the affected actors (e.g. researcher and technician), their tasks, and responsibilities along the process chain, material and experiment description. The in Figure 1 illustrated data model presents, as such, all the essential data required for a quality assured materials science data set. The researcher defines the framework of the experiment and the accompanying metadata. The technician performs the experiment, and forwards the results to the researcher. The traffic lights in Figure 1 indicate the 'completeness' of the data set and its quality.

The aim of procedural instructions in the QMM would be to define the scope and system boundaries of research data generation, as well as ensuring a link between all relevant input variables (e.g. sample size) and metadata (e.g. project number, material composition, heat treatment) necessary to recreate the test results, or at least to repeat critical processes. Following points of a procedural instruction could be determined and adapted [11; 14]: Objective of the instruction; Scope; Terminology; Description; References to documents; ID-Key; Responsibilities; Contact person for the process.

4.3

Exemplary reference sheet of a procedural instruction

Discussion and Limitations

Compliance with the above described exemplary procedural instruction can contribute to the quality assurance of the research data, as laid down by the DFG recommendations. A quality assurance representative would be responsible for the implementation of the procedural instructions into the documentation of the quality system, management and distribution among the affected employees. In terms of the continuous improvement of processes and workflows in the QMS, the procedural instructions should be continuously maintained and developed. This could be done by systematic routine internal auditing, according to the ISO 19011:2011 guidelines.

To ensure the success of the procedural instructions, it is essential that the affected employees recognize and use them regularly. Employee participation is indispensable and the basis of the continuous improvement process [START_REF] Torre | Empirical evidence about managerial issues of ISO certification[END_REF]. Therefore it is important to convey to the employees the positive effects of a complete documentation, the procedural instructions, and the benefits of process transparency on the quality of the research data [START_REF] Petzoldt | Qualitätsmanagement für Lehre und Forschung: Erfahrungen der Technischen Universität Ilmenau[END_REF]. By knowing where research data and documents can be found, unnecessary duplication of effort can be avoided and access to information is improved [START_REF] Jones | The Data Audit Framework: A First Step in Data Management Challenge[END_REF]. The procedural instructions and included regulations, should be checked regularly and developed simultaneously with the affected employees. It is necessary to always remain critical, while examining existing processes and workflows [START_REF] Petzoldt | Qualitätsmanagement für Lehre und Forschung: Erfahrungen der Technischen Universität Ilmenau[END_REF].

Conclusion and outlook

Missing format requirements lead to inadequate description of the research data with metadata. This condition complicates the re-use of research data and thus reduces their quality. The quality of research data results from the ability to use the data under conditions different from the original scientific question. Only when this condition is reached in the documentation of the data, is the research data ready for sustainable use. Using the example of the Research Institute IWT a procedural instruction has been identified, which supports quality-assured data archiving, and -provision of materials science research data in a QMM. During the case study, it was found that the employees have no internal regulations for quality assurance of research data. Due to the inconsistencies in the storage of research data (incl. metadata), the retrievability of the original research data for publications (after 6 to 8 years) may be considerably hindered. There is a need for improvement, since it is apparent from the DFG recommendations that research data should be stored for at least 10 years.

The presented template of a procedural instruction can be added to the annex of an existing QMM and, in form of an in-house regulation, support it. The solution described here has been specially tailored to data generation of tensile testing in department of structural mechanics of IWT Bremen. Future studies may address the transfer to further processes and test methods.

The implementation of the Dublin Core standard for the integration of the metadata in the project documentation and a solution for potential national and free provision of research data, in terms of Open Access principles, would further benefit the documentation and quality of the research data. The creation of a documented process for updating the procedural instruction is another open issue. The procedural instructions should be maintained and further developed, within the terms of continuous improvement of processes and workflows of a QM system, e.g. through systematic routine internal auditing, according to the ISO 19011:2011 guidelines.

Figure 1 :

 1 Figure 1: Illustration of data model from user perspective

Figure 2 (

 2 Figure 2 (based on: [14; 15]) illustrates the structure of an exemplary reference sheet of a procedural instruction designed for documentation of the tensile testing of metallic materials. The top header of the pattern sheet contains general document information. The second header contains the version, the title of the instruction, and page numbers. The main area includes the previously identified elements of the instruction. The bottom line of the sheet contains information on the person responsible for the publication of the document, date of publication, information on the person who approved the document and the date of approval.

Figure 2 :

 2 Figure 2: QM, procedural instruction reference sheet

Acknowledgement

This work was funded by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft" via the project "InfoSys". The authors would like to extend their gratitude to project partners and funding party for their generous support.


Gino Marchet
email: gino.marchet@polimi.it

Marco Melacini
email: marco.melacini@polimi.it

Sara Perotti
email: sara.perotti@polimi.it

Elena Tappia
email: elena.tappia@polimi.it

Setting the International Logistics Strategy: Empirical Investigation of its Evolutionary Stages

Keywords: Sales Internationalisation, Logistics Strategy, Case Studies

A company may face the international challenge by tackling several issues, such as international sales and marketing, international sourcing, and foreign direct investments (FDI). The academic literature firstly focused on the reasons behind company internationalisation and then adopted the abovementioned issues related to the international challenge as perspectives in the investigation of the company internationalisation process. However, the literature review showed that the internationalisation process from a logistics perspective has not been fully investigated so far. Specifically, the relationship between company internationalisation choices and international logistics strategies has not adequately taken into account. This paper represents a first attempt to fill this gap by studying the relationship between the evolutionary stages of the company internationalisation and the key variables defining its international logistics strategy by providing empirical-based evidence.

Introduction

A company may face the international challenge by tackling several issues such as international sales and marketing, international sourcing, and foreign direct investments (FDI). The academic literature firstly focused on the explanations of the reasons behind company internationalisation (e.g. [START_REF] Hennart | A Theory of Multinational Enterprise[END_REF]) and then used the abovementioned issues related to the international challenge as the perspectives to study the company internationalisation process. Previous contributions widely agree that the growth in the international trade implies that supply chains become more international and complex ( [START_REF] Monczka | Achieving Excellence in Global Sourcing[END_REF]) and that logistics play a key role in such context ( [START_REF] Peterson | An Empirical Investigation of Global Sourcing Strategy Effectiveness[END_REF][START_REF] Straube | Internationalisation of Logistics Systems -How Chinese and German Companies Enter New Markets[END_REF]). However, our analysis of the literature showed that the internationalisation process from a logistics perspective has not been fully investigated so far. Specifically, the relationship between company internationalisation choices (e.g. export via independent agents and creation of sales subsidiary) and international logistics strategies has not been in-depth examined. The different internationalisation choices of a company have been widely studied in the literature (e.g. [START_REF] Johanson | The Internationalisation Process of the Company -A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments[END_REF]), whereas the international logistics strategies have been examined by focusing only on specific topics, such as global supply chain planning centralisation (e.g. [START_REF] Jonsson | Centralised Supply Chain Planning at IKEA[END_REF]), logistics strategies for entering new markets (e.g. [START_REF] Straube | Internationalisation of Logistics Systems -How Chinese and German Companies Enter New Markets[END_REF]), and global supply strategies (e.g. [START_REF] Loppacher | Key Factors in Global Supply Headquarterssubsidiary Control Systems[END_REF]). The above-mentioned issues represent a gap in the extant literature, as in company experience the international logistics strategy evolves and its evolution seems to be related to the stage in the company internationalisation process. This paper represents a first attempt to fill this gap by studying the relationship between the key variables defining the company international logistics strategies and internationalisation process by providing empirical-based evidence.

The remainder of the paper is organised as follows. The next section summarises the theoretical background. Afterwards, the research framework and methodology are reported, and findings are discussed. Finally, conclusions and limitations are drawn.

Literature Review

Coherently with the aim of this paper, the theoretical background is hereinafter discussed according to the two different issues involved, i.e. the company internationalisation process, and the company international logistics strategy.

Internationalisation Process

The entry modes into foreign markets can be classified into two main types, i.e. equity or non-equity. In the first case, the company acquires an existing local company or makes a green-field investment and has to decide whether partially or wholly own the local enterprise. In the second case, the company exports via agents and/or licensing.

In the literature, the choice of the entry mode and the factors that impact on this decision has received a considerable attention and different theories have been developed to explain the reasons behind company internationalisation, such as the internalisation theory ( [START_REF] Buckley | The Future of the Multinational Enterprise[END_REF]), the transaction cost theory ( [START_REF] Hennart | A Theory of Multinational Enterprise[END_REF]), and the eclectic paradigm ( [START_REF] Dunning | Toward an Eclectic Theory of International Production: Some Empirical Tests[END_REF]).

As far as the internationalisation process is concerned, the Uppsala model represents the most interesting contribution, especially considering the purpose of this study. Proposed by [START_REF] Johanson | The Internationalisation Process of the Company -A Model of Knowledge Development and Increasing Foreign Market Commitments[END_REF] and supported by several empirical studies (e.g. [START_REF] Barkema | Foreign Entry, Cultural Barriers, and Learning[END_REF][START_REF] Bello | Exporting at Industrial Trade Shows[END_REF][START_REF] Luo | Learning to Compete in a Transition Economy: Experience, Environment and Performance[END_REF]), it is a behavioural and dynamic model that considers the internationalisation process as a sequence of incremental decisions. According to this model, all stages in the internationalisation process can be explained using the concepts of "State" and "Change" aspects. The "State Aspects" refer to the foreign market knowledge and commitment. The "Change Aspects" allowing to move along the stages of the internationalisation process lies in the commitment decisions that can strengthen the position in the foreign market and the learning from the experience of the current business activities. The Change and State Aspects affect each other, so that a stronger position in the market and better performance lead to a higher level of commitment and market knowledge. According to the Uppsala model and other contributions (e.g. [START_REF] Johanson | The Internationalization of the Company: Four Swedish Cases[END_REF]), four progressive stages can be selected by a company to sell products in foreign markets over time: no regular export activities, export via independent agents, creation of sales subsidiary, and production establishments.

International Logistics Strategy

The concept of "international logistics strategy" is widely used in the literature, but a detailed description of its related variables has not been developed so far. For the purpose of this study, we try to summarise as follows the main decisions involved in the definition of the company international logistics strategy that may be affected by the internationalisation choices. The primary decision involved in the definition of the company international logistics strategies concerns the global supply chain network design that has a significant impact on the logistics performance (e.g. [START_REF] Sezen | Relative Effect of Design, Integration and Information Sharing on Supply Chain Performance[END_REF][START_REF] Pero | An Exploratory Study of the Relation Between Supply Chain Topological Features and Supply Chain Performance[END_REF]). The design of the global supply chain networks refers to the number, location and capacities of warehouses and manufacturing plants, or the material flow through the logistics network (e.g. [START_REF] Chopra | Supply Chain Management: Strategy, Planning and Operations[END_REF][START_REF] Creazza | Evaluating Logistics Network Configurations for a Global Supply Chain[END_REF]).

Another key issue defining the international logistics strategy refers to the centralisation level in the global supply chain planning ( [START_REF] Melacini | Analysis of Supply Chain Planning Centralisation for Multinational Companies[END_REF]). Although planning is more critical to handle in case of inter-organisational supply chains, it represents a critical challenge also in internal supply chains ( [START_REF] Forget | Multi-behavior Agent Model for Planning in Supply Chains: An Application to the Lumber Industry[END_REF]). Moreover, it is particularly demanding for companies selling their products in different foreign markets when considering the planning of demand, inventory and transport ( [START_REF] Melacini | Analysis of Supply Chain Planning Centralisation for Multinational Companies[END_REF][START_REF] Pirttila | Generic Organizational Choices for Logistics in Decentralized Organizations: Implications for inventory management[END_REF][START_REF] Rudberg | Global Operations Strategy: Coordinating Manufacturing Networks[END_REF]). Previous contributions (e.g. [START_REF] Melacini | Analysis of Supply Chain Planning Centralisation for Multinational Companies[END_REF]) also showed a strong correlation between the levels of internationalisation and centralisation of the supply chain planning process: the higher the internationalisation of production and procurement processes, the stronger the need for centralising the planning due to the increase of logistics complexity.

Also the planning of transport activities is part of the international logistics strategy and it is strictly connected with the company internationalisation choices, as they may be characterised by different pressures on lead times. The transport mode has been considered in numerous studies. For example, [START_REF] Zeng | Global Sourcing: Process and Design for Efficient Management[END_REF] and [START_REF] Colicchia | Increasing supply chain resilience in a global sourcing context[END_REF] considered three global transport service categories: airfreight, less than container load (LCL) shipping, and full container load (FCL) shipping. A more recent study by [START_REF] Creazza | Evaluating Logistics Network Configurations for a Global Supply Chain[END_REF] evaluated different international logistics strategies mainly in terms of logistics network configuration and transport mode.

Finally, also the Incoterms (International Commercial Terms) contribute to describe the international logistics strategy, as they represent an indicator for the level of control on logistics flows. According to [START_REF] David | International Logistics: the Management of International Trade Operations[END_REF], a strategic advantage can be gained by a company willing to facilitate the sale of its products by assisting the importer in the shipment. Therefore, it can be assumed that the company interest in being involved in the shipment planning depends on the internationalisation choice.

Research Framework and Questions

The literature review showed that both the company internationalisation process and the related motivations have been widely studied. The stages along which a company may increase its international expansion can be considered well-defined, as well as the description of the dynamics for moving along the stages. At this regard, the Uppsala model seems to be the most consolidated. The key aspects explaining the evolution of the internationalisation process are the company commitment and learning over time, mostly related to the sales growth. Additionally, the evolution of the international logistics strategy, especially its relationship with the internationalisation process, has not been investigated so far. Specifically, there is no clear definition of the variables involved and, although a number of specific aspects have been addressed, they were studied separately from each other and independently from the internationalisation process. The literature review led us to develop the following research questions (also reported in Figure 1): RQ1: What are the main variables involved in the definition of the company international logistics strategy that are related to their internationalisation choices? How are they related to the internationalisation choices? RQ2: Is there a model for describing the evolution of the company international logistics strategy during the internationalisation process? Is the volume of the international sales the key variable of such model?

Methodology

In order to empirically investigate the designed research framework, the development of a series of case studies was considered as the most suitable methodology. In fact, the objective of the present research is to in-depth investigate how the variables involved in the definition of the international logistics strategy are affected by the company internationalisation choices ( [START_REF] Eisenhardt | Building Theories from Case Study Research[END_REF]). The companies included in the sample are big national or multi-national companies with plants concentrated in Europe.

Additionally they export their finished goods in countries belonging to other continents with a make-to-stock production system. A deeper overview of the sample features is provided in Table 1. In line with the aim of the paper, the units of the analysis are represented by the single export areas of a company, so that multiple case studies were performed. Additionally, we used retrospective multiple case studies to collect longitudinal data on the evolution of the international logistics strategy during the different internationalisation stages that companies have experienced. Case studies were performed through semi-structured interviews with Logistics and Supply Chain Directors. General information about the company and the context in which it operates were also collected using secondary sources. As far as the internationalisation process evolution is concerned, we defined three levels, based also on the stages identified by the extant literature: (i) early stage, i.e. export via independent agents or distributors, (ii) intermediate stage, i.e. export via sales subsidiary, and (iii) advanced stage, i.e. export via company own stores. To assess the company international logistics strategy, we gathered information on the variables highlighted in the literature review: (i) network design, (ii) centralisation level in the distribution planning, (iii) governance of the transport planning, and (iv) level of control on logistics flows.

Discussion and Findings

Variables Defining the Company International Logistics Strategy

Network Design. All companies have confirmed that the decisions on the supply chain network design are much related to the internationalisation choices. According to the information collected through the case studies, the types of decisions mainly refer to the selection among direct shipment, 1-echelon networks and 2-echelon networks. In fact, a company can sell its products without having local distribution centres (as in the B2 case in which there are monthly shipments to distributors) or, on the contrary, it can be decided whether it is necessary to have stocks near its point of sales based for instance on the lead-time constraints (as in the C1 case). The adoption of a 2-echelon network has been observed in case of logistics networks delivering products in different countries of the same continental area (as in the A1 case).

Centralisation Level in the Distribution Planning. In line with the extant literature, the level of distribution planning centralisation is a key aspect to manage when defining the logistics strategy of global supply chains. The following aspects are those mainly involved in such process with reference to each export area: sale forecasts, inventory management, service level to the customers, and transport planning. The distribution planning can be decentralised (as in the B1 case), i.e. only some decisions made by the subsidiaries are shared with the headquarter (e.g. the maximum stock levels and service levels that have to be provided by the logistics service providers), or centralised (as in the A1 case), i.e. the subsidiaries are not autonomous. Besides, as for example in the company C case, the distribution planning can be coordinated, i.e. the company develops the sale forecasts together with the independent agents but is not involved in managing the logistics process as it does not have an own network in the export area.

Governance of the Transport Planning.

In line with the literature, the transport planning is a variable of the international logistics strategy and the related decision process varies according to the company internationalisation choices. When a company exports via independent agents, the governance of the transport planning is "low" as the transport organisation depends only on the lead times and order quantities required by the customers (e.g. in the D2 case). Instead, when a company exports via sales subsidiary and its logistics network is more complex (e.g. a local warehouse delivers goods to the sales subsidiary), the governance of the transport planning is "high" (e.g. in the C1 case). In this case, the company has to manage the delivery of goods to the warehouse and has the possibility to optimise the transport activity (e.g. use of sea instead of air freight or use of FCL service).

Level of Control on Logistics

Flows. According to the information collected through case studies, the Incoterms can be viewed as an indicator of the level of company control on the logistics and transport process to the foreign market and strictly related with the internationalisation choices, although quite disregarded by past literature on the logistics process in global supply chains. The case study analysis shows that companies exporting via independent agents (e.g. D2 case) or subsidiaries (e.g. C1 case) select Incoterms E and F. In fact, in this case the company sells its products to the agents and it not interested in managing the transport and logistics process. Instead, a company that a company selling its products via company own stores manages the distribution process and uses Incoterms C and D (e.g. A1 case).

Three international logistics strategies have been identified based on the values assumed by each variable and the correlation among them (Table 2): (i) International sale, (ii) International outpost, and (iii) International network.

Evolution of the Company International Logistics Strategy During the Internationalisation Process

The case study analysis provides evidence supporting the relationship between the company international logistics strategy and its internationalisation choices. As shown in Table 3, the International sale strategy is more likely to be selected by companies in the early stage of the internationalisation process evolution, the International outpost by companies in the intermediate stage, and the International network by companies in the advanced stage. Additionally, for a given export area the evolution of the international logistics strategy incrementally evolves together with the internationalisation process as the sales and the learning in the foreign market growth. When a company is in the early stage of the internationalisation process, its export volume is typically low as well as its market knowledge. As a consequence, it operates in a foreign market with a low level of control on the logistics and transport process, which is a key feature of the International sale strategy. According to the case study analysis, at this stage, the choice of exporting via independent agents (as in the D2 case) or distributors (as in the D1 case) allows the company to not have own resources, and therefore sunk costs, that are implied instead when it has subsidiaries or store networks. Additionally, the benefits related to have no local warehouses and to overcome complexities (e.g. to face the local regulations and to collaborate with local logistics providers) have been cited by companies of the sample as other benefits of selecting the International sale strategy in the early stage of the internationalisation process. Such approach for entering a new market has been adopted in all cases except for the A1 case in which the company opened a subsidiary when starting to sell its products in the new market.

Looking at the sample, companies A, B and C developed their logistics strategy from the International sale to the International outpost when they started to export via sales subsidiary (i.e. the intermediate stage of their internationalisation process) in South America, North America and Asia-Pacific, respectively. They report the increasing in sales and market experience as enabling factors to develop the second stage of the internationalisation process and the international logistics strategy. The transition to this second stage can occur through the acquisition of the local distributor by the company (as in the A3 case). At this stage, the companies let the subsidiaries work autonomously in developing the sale forecasts, defining the order quantities (i.e. decentralised planning), and also managing the transport and logistics process (i.e. adoption of Incoterms E or F). The local logistics network is composed of one distribution centre (i.e. 1-echelon network) that receives FCLs.

In the examined sample, no companies have already the International network strategy. Only company A is evaluating the adoption of such approach in South America where the advanced stage of the internationalisation process has been reached by selling its products via own stores. It intends to build a 2-echelon logistics network composed of a central distribution centre for the entire export area and other regional depots in each country belonging to the area. This approach seems to imply a more centralised planning and control on the transport process.

It should be noted that a company has not necessarily to go through all the stages. For instance, a company can directly go to the intermediate stage by adopting the International outpost as logistics strategy without exporting via independent agents or distributors before this settlement (as in the A1 case).

Conclusion

This paper explores the relationship between company international logistics strategy and its internationalisation process through case study methodology. Findings suggest that companies progressively develop their international logistics strategy based on the stage of their internationalisation process. Three international logistics strategies have been identified, that diverge in terms of network design, level of centralisation in the distribution planning, governance of the transport planning, and level of control on logistics flows. The International sale strategy is more likely to be chosen by companies in the early stage, the International outpost by those in the intermediate stage, whereas the International network by those in the advanced stage. Although interesting, the conclusions drawn require further effort to be more generalised. Other case studies are recommended with the aim of i) verifying whether the variables considered are comprehensive and consistent, and ii) further exploring the variables driving the evolution of the logistics strategy. Finally, additional effort should be devoted to the development of a normative model supporting companies in aligning the international logistics strategy with their plans in term of internationalisation.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Research framework

Table 1 .

 1 Summary of the characteristics of the four companies of the sample

	Company	Business sector	Annual group sales	Value to weight ratio	Unit of analysis
	A	Baby, health & beauty care	1.5 billion €	Medium	A1: South America A2: Asia-Pacific area A3: Russia
	B	Porcelain stoneware	0.5 billion €	Low-medium	B1: North America B2: Israele
	C	Medical technology	1.1 billion €	Medium	C1: Asia-Pacific area C2: Russia
	D	Sanitary technology	1.8 billion €	Low-medium	D1: Pacific area D2: South America

Table 2 .

 2 International logistics strategies from the case studies

			International logistics strategies
			International	International	International
			sale	outpost	network
		Network design	Not significant	1-echelon network	2-echelon network
	Dimension of the international logistics strategy	Centralisation level in the distribution planning Governance of the transport planning	Coordinated Decentralised Centralised Not significant Medium High
		Level of control on logistics flows	Low	Medium	High

Table 3 .

 3 Alignment between internationalisation process and international logistics strategies

		International network		A1
	International logistics strategies	International outpost		A1; A2; A3; B1; C1; D2
		International	A2; A3; B1; B2;
		sale	C1; C2; D1; D2
			Early stage	Intermediate stage Advanced stage
			Internationalisation process stages


Giulia Bruno

Dario Antonelli

Roman Korf

Joachim Lentes

Nikolas Zimmer- Mann

Exploitation of a semantic platform to store and reuse PLM knowledge

Keywords: PLM, knowledge management, semantic model, ontology, UML

Products generate a large amount of information during their lifecycles. Small and medium enterprises are often not structured enough to enable the efficient management of such amount of information. Several tools of product lifecycle management have been developed in the last years to address this issue, but they are rarely exploited by companies, especially SMEs. The aim of our work is to present a semantic platform to integrate data along the whole product lifecycle to allow semantic search and knowledge reuse. The integration of data is realized with a reference PLM ontology, containing the main concepts and relations to describe a PLM. This ontology has a modular structure, so that it can be easily extended to describe concrete product lifecycles. An example of a real application of the semantic platform in an industrial case is reported.

Introduction

The process from the idea for a new product over its development and production to the market is typically fragmented across different functional units, but requires input and activities from experts from a variety of disciplines using different methods and tools. This leads to a high coordination effort to synergize work and information transfer, to sub-optimal decisions, and unused knowledge as well as experiences. The resulting waste in engineering processes results in an unnecessary extension of timeto-market and time-to-production of new products and to a loss of competitiveness of companies. To tackle the resulting challenges for engineering in manufacturing companies, the amePLM (advanced platform for manufacturing engineering and PLM) project is based on an ontology that serves as an interoperable model and integrating element for an open engineering system. Furthermore, the usage of an ontology-based approach advances the information provision in activities during product creation.

An essential advantage of the application of ontologies in product development is knowledge sharing. Bradfield and Gao determined three main problem categories for knowledge sharing in the new product development (NPD) process of a manufactur-ing company: inappropriate information about the knowledge in the NPD process, multilingualism as well as multidisciplinary, and insufficient information provision to users [START_REF] Bradfield | A methodology to facilitate knowledge sharing in the new product development process[END_REF]. By means of an ontology-based approach, knowledge sharing in NPD may be facilitated. Lutters et al. work to apply information management based on an ontological approach on design and engineering processes under special consideration of manufacturing, i.e. process planning and cost estimation [START_REF] Lutters | Information management and design & engineering processes[END_REF]. Young et al. showed the benefits of applying ontologies to support knowledge sharing in PLM with a focus on manufacturing processes [START_REF] Young | Manufacturing knowledge sharing in PLM: a progression towards the use of heavy weight ontologies[END_REF]. By using a product ontology as pivotal element, Panetto et al introduced an approach to support interoperability in Product Data Management (PDM) [START_REF] Panetto | ONTO-PDM: Product-driven ONTOlogy for Product Data Management interoperability within manufacturing process environment[END_REF]. Matsokis and Kiritsis developed an ontology of concepts and rules to support PLM, emphasizing the product and its role in closed-loop PLM [START_REF] Matsokis | An ontology-based approach for Product Lifecycle Management[END_REF]. Raza et al. tested an approach building up on existing work by usage of ontologies for knowledge management [START_REF] Raza | Improving Manufacturing Efficiency at Ford Using Product Centred Knowledge, Digital Information Management[END_REF]. Furthermore the ongoing work of Fiorentini et al. using ontologies to model the engineering data of nuclear power plants to leverage interoperability with external information systems shows the potential of an ontological approach [START_REF] Fiorentini | Modeling nuclear power plants engineering data using ISO 15926[END_REF]. So, the principal applicability of ontology-based approaches to PLM as in the platform amePLM (cf. [START_REF] Lentes | A platform for information and decision support in engineering[END_REF]) has been shown, but there still is a potential for improvement in automated information provision in PLM to reduce manual efforts for information management and retrieval.

The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the semantic platform for PLM knowledge structuring and reusing, while Section 3 reports the structure of the PLM ontology at the basis of the platform. Section 4 shows how the developed semantic platform can be used for semantic search and information reuse. Finally, Section 5 draws conclusions and states future works.

Advanced platform for manufacturing engineering and PLM

The architecture of the amePLM platform is shown in Fig. 1. It functions as a middleware by allowing the integration of information as well as it provides interfaces for several engineering modules and applications. Based on the engineering models (i.e., the PLM ontology, cf. section 3), the knowledge is structured and concrete relationships between knowledge artifacts within the PLC are established. The semantic search provides access to arbitrary information sources of the PLC like databases, document management systems, CAx systems and documents on file systems. The knowledge is indexed based on the PLM ontology which directly integrates indexed knowledge artifacts into the knowledge base. An intelligent agent layer allows applications and other engineering modules to access knowledge using a single access point. The workflow orchestrates the services and knowledge access along the PLC. An example to illustrate the interaction of graphical user interface (GUI), i.e. the 3D-workspace, the working memory, the agent-based platform and the semantic backend is provided in Fig. 2. In the simplified example, the user is working in a document concerning requirements of a specific product (e.g. with id "4711"). The related user input and the name of the document as well as the used software module are published to the blackboard of the working memory. By reasoning, the memory can determine that the user's current work is concerned with product requirements of product 4711. This finding enables the consequence to support the user with related information. So, a related request is sent to the semantic backend that in turn delivers information about product requirements and about product 4711 (if available). The information or documents provided by the backend to the respective software agent can then be supplied to the user, preferably in a non-obtrusive manner, e.g. in a background window of his virtual working desktop.

PLM ontology

The PLM ontology at the basis of the semantic platform is shown in Figure 2, according to the UML class diagram formalism. The three core concepts are the product (i.e., whatever it is produced by a company which serves a need or satisfies a want), the activity (i.e., an action executed during the product lifecycle for a specific product that can be univocally be identified), and the file (i.e., an electronic information stored as a single object in the file system). A product is associated with all the activities of its lifecycle and with all the files containing information about it. There are several kinds of associations between an activity and a file, due to the different kind of usage of the file done by the activity. An activity can (i) consult a file, if it is simply read, (ii) have a file as input, if it is used and modified by the activity, and (iii) produce a new file as output.

The product class is linked to the project class because a product is developed during a project. The project class is associated with the customer class to store the involvements of customers in projects. A product is also associated to the product component class, because each product can be made of several components. Both the product and the product component are associated to the material class and to the physical characteristic class, to store their material and their characteristics of interest.

To keep trace of the people involved in the activities, the person class, which is a specialization of the resource class, is represented, which includes personal data and contacts. The other specialization of the resource class is the machine class, which represents the machines used in each activity. To each person is also assigned a role. For each activity, it is known the roles that have to execute it and the roles that are allowed to consult it. For each file the software tool exploited to produce it and the roles that can access it are known. Files or groups of files can be used to create documents. Additional information on the PLM ontology can be found in [START_REF] Antonelli | Full exploitation of Product Lifecycle Management by integrating static and dynamic viewpoints[END_REF][START_REF] Bruno | The exploitation of an ontology-based model of PLM from a SME point of view[END_REF].

Knowledge exploring by using the semantic platform

The following section describes the access of knowledge within the semantic platform along the product lifecycle (PLC). In this example the PLC starts with a customer request for quotation where a customer specifies the requirements on the product enquiry. The responsible needs to get an overview on the details of capabilities of the company based on past projects with similar requirements to assess the feasibility.

A RFQ will result in creating a new customer project for the product 4711. The SPARLQ update statement for the RFQ populating the PLM ontology is the following: Integrating the information into the knowledge structure now allows us to asses this information and to compare it with requirements of previous projects. For the comparison we currently use a naïve approach by comparing the RFQ features of the current enquiry with the once of previous projects. Once the similar projects have been collected, their information gathered along the PLC is to be assessed. The following simplified query retrieves the documents containing information about a previous project with product 4710: This short set of over-simplified queries has the purpose of giving a brief overview on how the amePLM approach explores knowledge stored in the amePLM platform and how to apply simple heuristics using software agents.

Conclusions

In this paper we have described a semantic platform to structure the PLC knowledge of companies. The current version of this platform has been successfully applied in an industrial use-case and proven to be a feasible approach. It provides basic functionality necessary to support information needs within the PLC and it already integrates workflow, information workspace and other engineering modules with the information layer. However, it still needs improvements for extensibility and adoptability. One of the improvements will be the simplification of the integration of engineering modules (e.g. applications for CAx or simulation) and knowledge sources (e.g. product data management, customer feedback or failure statistics). Future works will also consider the integration of a semantic search engine into the platform.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Architecture of the semantic platform.

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. Context-based user support.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. UML class diagram of the PLM ontology.

  PREFIX amePLM: <http://www.amePLM.org/PLM#> PREFIX p4711: <http://www.my-company.com/amePLM/4711#> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> INSERT { # Creating/retrieving the customer instance p4711:thisCustomer rdf:type amePLM:Customer. # Creating the new product instance for product 4711 p4711:Product4711 rdf:type amePLM:Product. # Creating a new project instance p4711:thisProject rdf:type amePLM:Project; # Linking project instance with customer amePLM:HasCustomer p4711:thisCustomer; # Linking product and project amePLM:isProjectOf p4711:Product4711. # Adding some product characteristics coming from the RFQ form # Characteristics are product dependent. # Here we use the example length. p4711:thisPhysicalCharacteristicLen rdf:type amePLM:Length. # Creating unit for length; could also be retrieved by variable p4711:thisMMUnit rdf:type amePLM:Unit. # Creating instance for length 100 p4711:thisLenValue rdf:type amePLM:Value; amePLM:value 100. # Setting the value p4711:thisPhysicalCharacteristicLen amePLM:HasUnit p4711:thisMMUnit; amePLM:CharacteristicValue p4711:thisLenValue. # Setting the characteristic for the product p4711:Product4711 amePLM:ProductCharacteristic p4711:thisPhysicalCharacteristicLen. }

Acknowledgments

The research presented in this paper is supported by the EU-FP7 research project on Advanced Platform for Manufacturing Engineering and Product Lifecycle Management (amePLM, contract number 285171).


Klaus-Dieter Thoben

Jens Pöppelbuss

Stefan Wellsandt

Michael Teucke

Dirk Werthmann

Jens Pöppelbuß

Considerations on a Lifecycle Model for Cyber-Physical System Platforms

Keywords: Shared Resources, Industrie 4.0, Lifecycle Management, Shared Information Systems, Cyber-physical System Platform

niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction and problem statement

The concept of "Industrie 4.0" has been developed as a strategic agenda for the future development of the German manufacturing industry in the Internet-driven age. Industrie 4.0 assumes that industrial processes, services and applications will be based on so called cyber-physical systems (CPS). These CPS are embedded systems integrated into physical/mechanical systems. Sensors and actuators as well as hardware and software are part of them. For interaction with human beings, CPS can be endowed with human-machine interfaces. By using an integrated communication infrastructure, they can also interact with other systems [START_REF] Broy | Cyber-Physical Systems: Wissenschaftliche Herausforderungen bei der Entwicklung[END_REF]. Instances of such CPS may comprise smart machines, storage systems and production facilities that autonomously exchange information, trigger actions and control each other independently. A characteristic property of CPS is their vertical integration into business processes and net-worked manufacturing systems within factories and enterprises and their horizontal connections to CPS in other value networks to manage them in real time [START_REF]Umsetzungsempfehlungen für das Zukunftsprojekt Industrie 4.0[END_REF]. As such, CPS platforms can be considered a specific kind of shared resources [START_REF] Schönberger | A micro-and macro-economic view on shared resources in logistics[END_REF] that are cooperatively managed by two or more independent companies to improve interorganizational processes within a value network. CPS platforms have been defined to act as federated, inter-organizational information systems [START_REF] Pöppelbuß | Managing the Life Cycle of IT-Based Inter-firm Resources in Production and Logistics Networks[END_REF] exchanging information between different CPS. The ongoing evolution of such technologies will increasingly allow implementing the already proclaimed Internet of Things. Some research projects have already implemented parts of CPS platforms as prototypes. For example, Fraunhofer's Virtual Fort Knox project uses a CPS platform offering IT-based services and applications for the machine tool industry, based on a Software as a Service (SaaS) concept [START_REF] Diemer | Sichere Industrie 4.0-Plattform auf Basis von Community-Clouds[END_REF]. Another relevant research project in context of CPS platforms, called RFID-based Automotive Network (RAN), has developed and implemented concepts based on Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) specifications [START_REF]EPC Information Services (EPCIS) Version 1.0.1 Specification[END_REF] for improving automotive value networks [START_REF]Transparenz in globalen Lieferketten der Automobilindustrie: Ansätze zur Logistik-und Produktionsoptimierung[END_REF]. Some further related work is performed in a European context. This includes e.g. the research project FITMAN [START_REF]Future Internet Technologies for MANufacturing industries[END_REF] within the Future Internet initiative [9], the EFFRA research association [9] within the Factories of the PPP Future initiative [10] and the recently established Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) [START_REF]The Industrial Internet Consortium: A Nonprofit Partnership Of Industry, Government And Academia[END_REF].

In addition to technical issues, the use of CPS in value networks also raises many economic, legal, and ethical issues, including, e.g., costs of introduction and operation, legal guarantee of proper operation of these systems, or their impacts on the workforce. Value networks are evolving continuously over their entire life-span, as new partners become part of the particular value chain, while former member companies leave. Main reasons for the mentioned continuous modification of value networks are dynamic influences of markets, products, technologies and processes [START_REF] Hülsmann | Changing Paradigms in Logistics -Understanding the Shift from Conventional Control to Autonomous Cooperation and Control[END_REF]. Due to the dynamic nature of value networks, related CPS platforms are subject to ongoing change.

Frequent changes and complexity of the platforms challenge their management significantly. One driver of this challenge is the fact that hardware, software, services, applications and the network itself evolve along individual yet connected lifecycles. To our knowledge, the underlying lifecycle models for information exchange infrastructures in value networks (i.e.,CPS platforms) have not been investigated yet.

This paper aims to point out the importance of lifecycle models for the management of CPS within the Industrie 4.0 paradigm, particularly in relation to value networks. Its main argument is that lifecycle models are a viable approach to deal with this challenging complexity of CPS operating in dynamic enterprise networks. The main argument is derived from a review of different lifecycle models.

The paper's content is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the relation between CPS and value networks and points out requirements for efficient management of all elements of CPS platforms over the entire life span of such platforms. In section 3, existing lifecycle models are examined. We derive suitable components from them, which can be used to create a holistic lifecycle concept for CPS platforms as shared resources in industrial value networks. Finally, some directions for future research are outlined in order to guide the development of a lifecycle model for CPS platforms.

Lifecycle perspective on CPS platforms

Different elements are needed to realize the Industrie 4.0 paradigm in industrial value networks. Each value network typically consists of a number of companies as supply chain partners. To improve the processes within the value network, many CPS will be needed, operating at the involved companies to generate necessary information or trigger actions. In order to coordinate processes within the whole value network, one or more CPS platforms will connect different CPS with each other or with additional software systems as well as human beings through user interfaces. Moreover, CPS platforms can act as platforms for running services. This means CPS platforms and CPS are connected by information and communication technology for interacting with each other, as illustrated in Fig. 1. Furthermore, most companies are participating in more than one value network. This means that their CPS platforms and CPS have to connect to CPS platforms and CPS being part of other value networks. This increases the complexity of CPS platforms and CPS as well. Obviously a high variety of different CPS platforms and CPS will be necessary to address all individual needs present in various value networks. In consequence, CPS platforms and CPS consist of a high variety of hardware, software, communication infrastructure and other components. To cope with the resulting complexity, interorganizational CPS platforms, which are used for connecting different CPS and other CPS platforms, need to be based on a common reference architecture. Regarding the fact that CPS platforms are shared resources, the management of those CPS platforms has to consider the interests of all the involved partners. That means the whole functionality of the CPS platform, based on the hardware, software and communication technology, need to consider these interests. These interests have to be taken into account during the whole lifecycle of the different hardware, software, communication infrastructure and other components. Moreover the lifecycle of the dynamically changing value network itself has to be considered. From a more generalized perspective the different lifecycles have to be synchronized to achieve high performance processes within the whole value network under respect of the interests of the involved partners.

In the following specific characteristics of CPS platforms from a lifecycle perspective were investigated. The "lifecycle" concept can be found in different domains, such as manufacturing, information systems, service engineering or marketing. A key proposition of the concept is that a certain object (e.g., product, software and service) and its related states are described through a sequence of activities or situations. The beginning of the sequence is characterized by the creation of the object or its integration into a network of objects, while the end typically concerns its destruction. In between these two extremes, the lifecycle typically covers a dedicated activity representing an object's operational time.

Adopting a lifecycle perspective on shared CPS platforms, it is obvious that the lifecycles of the platforms may differ from that of the value network. Furthermore, the different components making up a CPS platform may have lifecycles that again differ from each other -the lifecycles of hardware components, for instance, may differ from those of system software components, and of services. In addition, different instances of components can have individual lifecycles that are running asynchronously. This implies that a large number of different, but interrelated lifecycles requires an efficient management to be sustainable. Some interrelations between the lifecycles of the different entities and components are illustrated in a simplified way in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Relations between lifecycles of different CPS platform components

We therefore see the following requirements to be fulfilled by a lifecycle model for CPS platforms in value networks:

-The value network lifecycle should adequately describe the development of the value network structure over time. Existing partners within a network might terminate existing relations between them and create new relations instead. In addition, new partners might be included into the value network, while previous partners leave the network, resulting in an overall expansion or contraction of the value network. A lifecycle model has to take into account the changing network structure. -Development of the hardware and software components and their dynamic relation should be adequately covered as well. New hardware components may be needed within the life of a CPS platform, thus existing hardware will be replaced by new or updated hardware components. -Software may be updated, because improved or new software becomes available or because new hardware components may need new or reconfigured software. -The technical lifecycles of components (e.g., hardware) are not independent of their respective economic lifecycles (i.e., the market situation). Thus, in addition to the technical perspective, a market perspective on the lifecycles of CPS platforms is required. -Since value networks can employ thousands of individual CPS that must be produced (e.g., rare resources), operated (e.g., energy), maintained (e.g., spare parts) and disposed (e.g., waste), the environmental impact of these systems needs to be concerned. For this reason, an ecologic or sustainability perspective on the lifecycle should be taken into account. To sum it up, a lifecycle model concerning CPS platforms in value networks should include technical, market and environmental perspectives for hardware, software and services both at type and instance level, as well as a perspective on the dynamic aspects of enterprise networks employing the platforms and CPS.

Review of lifecycle models

In this section, different lifecycle models are introduced covering a range of aspects that can be relevant for the management of CPS platforms in value networks. Domains utilizing the lifecycle concept defined their own characteristic lifecycle models to describe objects of interest in light of domain-specific problems. For this reason, there can be numerous models in each domain. Furthermore, among the domains very different models evolved. The differences typically concern the covered activities and situations of the model, as well as different emphasis on flows of information, material and energy. One of the application fields for lifecycle models is the domain of product lifecycle management (PLM). This domain is particularly rich in diverse perspectives on lifecycles. Table 1 provides a non-comprehensive selection of different lifecycle models. These models are selected because they provide a large spectrum of different aspects of lifecycles that should be taken into account when managing CPS platforms in value networks. Model A argues the lifecycle from a perspective of environmental impacts. A focus of this model is on three different scenarios that can be selected to discard the product, i.e., reuse, remanufacturing and recycling [START_REF] Pigosso | Ecodesign methods focused on remanufacturing[END_REF]. Model B is introduced to argue the suitability of item-level based product information handling to support PLM strategies [START_REF] Ranasinghe | Enabling through life product-instance management: Solutions and challenges[END_REF]. Model C extends earlier work of Kiritsis and focuses on the information and knowledge flows among different lifecycle activities [START_REF] Kiritsis | Closed-loop PLM for intelligent products in the era of the Internet of things[END_REF]. Model D is different from the other models in so far as it proposes three types of activity classes, i.e. engineering, operation and support [START_REF] Kovacs | Ambient intelligence in product lifecycle management[END_REF]. Because of the three activity classes labeled as "chains", there is a similarity of the concept with Porter's traditional value chain concept characterizing an organization's activities [START_REF] Porter | Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance[END_REF]. Preparation  Setting Up  Operation  Decomposition Model E is taken from the ISO/IEC 12207 standard and is a complex framework to describe individual software lifecycles in detail [START_REF]ISO/IEC/IEEE: Standard for Systems and Software Engineering: Software Life Cycle Processes, IEEE STD 12207-2008[END_REF]. The complete framework consists of more than 40 activities but only the technical processes are covered in this paper. Model F concerns a widely accepted marketing perspective, where four phases are introduced describing a certain characteristic of revenue development [START_REF] Levitt | Exploit the Product Life Cycle[END_REF]. Model G addresses the dynamic assembly and decomposition of enterprise networks through the lifecycle concept [START_REF] Thoben | Typological issues in enterprise networks[END_REF].

In summary, each of the selected models covers a certain aspect relevant to the management of CPS platforms in value networks. The required perspectives argued in section 2 are covered by the models, though the models do not provide a comprehensive view and must be revised according to the actual value network's requirements. One of the key challenges concerns the identification of relations among the models (e.g., sustainability and information perspectives), due to their differences in content.

Conclusion and Outlook

The paper is meant to be a position paper providing an overview of relations between CPS platforms as shared resources in value networks from a lifecycle oriented perspective. It argues that the complexity of the system poses challenges to current management approaches. It is argued that a driver of the complexity is related to the heterogeneous and typically asynchronous lifecycles of the system elements. In order to provide grounds for efficient management approaches of CPS platforms in value networks, important lifecycle perspectives are described. The paper closes with a selection of examples for lifecycle models that cover the relevant lifecycle perspectives. While the provided selection of lifecycle models is a first step to create efficient management approaches for CPS platforms, further validation is necessary and questions from different perspectives still have to be answered. These questions concern many research domains, such as system interoperability, drivers and barriers of information exchange, employee acceptance of large scale CPS infrastructures, ITsecurity in dynamic enterprise networks, flexibility and standardization decisions for CPS-Platforms, and disposal of large scale CPS infrastructures or parts of it. A specific point of interest for future work is the refinement of existing lifecycle models, to establish a diversified collection of relevant activities and situations. Further research should investigate the relations between the different lifecycle models. This could be done through the identification of activities and situations that significantly influence each other across the different models. The relations between activities and situations from different models can be used to tailor management processes for specific value networks. A complementary research topic concerns quantification of the network's complexity problem. Real CPS platforms and real use cases could serve as valuable sources to gain quantifiable arguments for revised management approaches of CPS platforms within value networks.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Value network in context of Industrie 4.0 [2]

Table 1 .

 1 Selected examples of different lifecycle models

	Id	Domain	Activities (the  symbol represents the sequential order of
			different activities)
	A	PLM	Raw material extraction  Primary industry  Manufac-
		(Environmental	turing  Use  Product discard (Reuse, Remanufacturing,
		Impact) [13]	Recycling)  Treatment and final disposal
	B	PLM	Beginning of Life: Product design  Manufacturing (de-
		(Information	sign)  Logistics  Distribution
		Management)	Middle of Life: Use  Maintenance/Service
		[14]	End of Life: Re-use  Recycling  Remanufactured 
			Disposal
	C	PLM	Beginning of Life: Conceptualization  Definition 
		(Information	Realization
		Management)	Middle of Life: Use  Service  Maintenance
		[15]	End of Life: Reuse of products with refurbishing  Reuse
			of components with disassembly and refurbishing  Mate-
			rial reclamation without disassembly  Material reclama-
			tion with disassembly  Disposal with incineration 
			Disposal without incineration
	D	PLM	Engineering Chain: Product design  Process planning
		(Maintenance)	 Factory planning
		[16]	Operation Chain: Production planning  Production
			scheduling  Production control
			Support Activities Chain: Marketing  Procurement 
			Sales  Distribution  After Sales  Quality  Mainte-
			nance
	E	IT-Systems	Stakeholder requirements definition  System require-
		Development	ments analysis  System architectural design  Imple-
		[18]	mentation  System integration  System qualification
			testing  Software installation  Software acceptance
			support Software operation  Software maintenance 
			Software disposal
	F	Marketing [19]	Market development  Growth  Maturity  Decline
	G	Enterprise
		Networks [20]


Anita Friis Sommer

Iskra Dukovska-Popovska

Kenn Steger-Jensen

Agile Product Development Governance -On governing the emerging Scrum/Stage-gate hybrids

Keywords: Product development governance, agile product development, scrum, stage-gate models, case study

Product Development (PD) management is changing through the emergence and implementation of agile principles into existing PD frameworks. This process changes PD governance assets, even though this aspect is not yet described in existing literature. Thus, this paper introduces PD governance of agile/stage-gate hybrid solutions through a comparative study including five case companies supported by a review of existing literature. The results include an overview of applied governance assets including which are supportive for PD management. The study indicates that only assets not part of corporate governance are affected by the introduction of agile, and that unaltered corporate assets affect PD performance of the hybrid solutions negatively.

Introduction

Globalization is believed to be a major driver of increasing competition, generating higher customer expectations and thus shorter product life cycles [START_REF] Jou | A study on the improvements of new product development procedure performance-an application of design for Six Sigma in a semi-conductor equipment manufacturer[END_REF]. In this globalized world, the competitive industrial company is the one that succeeds in being open and flexible to any customer demand, while still developing and producing highquality products at low cost [START_REF] Soosay | Supply chain collaboration: capabilities for continuous innovation, Supply Chain Management[END_REF] [START_REF] Hilletofth | Coordinating new product development with supply chain management[END_REF]. From a systems perspective we can see PD processes evolving from fitting the description of a closed deterministic system to approaching more the definitions of an open system. Indeed, complex PD processes are more accurately described through open-system models, including a number of undetermined influential external factors.

To support the PD management process the majority of large industrial companies have generic process models or process standards [START_REF] Haque | Problems in concurrent new product development: an in-depth comparative study of three companies[END_REF]. The generic process model includes a visual representation of the series of main activities in the PD process often sorted in a series of stages and gates [START_REF] Cooper | Overhauling the New Product Process[END_REF]. The process model is accompanied by corresponding PD methods describing how to use the model during the PD process. Furthermore, PD is enabled by PD process governance, which entails the supporting management processes and supporting mechanisms of the organization. While much research has been concerned with PD process improvement and PD management methods, only few articles focus on PD governance. PD governance has emerged from project governance, among others, where a major and recent trend is concerned with governance from an institutional perspective [START_REF] Clegg | Governmentality matters: designing an alliance culture of inter-organizational collaboration for managing projects[END_REF]. In 2007 Patel [START_REF] Patel | Why executives should care about project governance; What your peers are doing about it[END_REF] even used the phrase 'governance movement'. The aim of PD governance is to support the PD process in achieving long-term value [START_REF] Klakegg | Governance frameworks for public project development and estimation[END_REF]. Hence, PD governance is of major importance for PD performance, yet little research is concerned with governance of complex PD processes [START_REF] Klakegg | Challenging the Interface between governance and management in construction projects[END_REF], which includes the open system PD processes of interest in this paper. One of the latest branches of research on PD management is agile PD, which has recently emerged (in the early 10's) on managing the increasing complexity of the PD process using agile methods. The agile methods originate from the software development industry and are now increasingly being adapted by, among others, research and development in industrial companies. Recent academic findings include Cooper [START_REF] Cooper | What's Next? After Stage-Gate[END_REF], who shows that agile methods are applied within the context of existing stage-gate PD models, and Ovesen [START_REF] Ovesen | The Challenges of Becoming Agile: Implementing and Conducting Scrum in Integrated Product Development[END_REF], who in 2012 conducted a multiple case study of industrial manufacturers implementing Scrum. Scrum is one of the dominant agile PD frameworks, including agile process model, methods and PD governance. The findings indicate that companies significantly improve PD performance after implementation, but that the agile framework is merged into the existing PD standards rather than replacing them. This paper is concerned with exploring PD governance of the agile/stage-gate hybrid solutions, which are currently emerging in industry for the purpose of developing theoretical proposals for further research on PD governance. The paper includes a theoretical background of PD governance, agile PD with focus on Scrum, and an introduction to Scrum governance. Afterwards, is a presentation of a multiple case study method and the involved case companies, followed by an overview of the case study findings, discussion of the results, and finally proposals for further research.

Theoretical Background

Governance is an emerging aspect of PD management and an area of increasing attention [START_REF] Sanderson | Risk, uncertainty and governance in megaprojects: A critical discussion of alternative explanations[END_REF][START_REF] Baker | A Governance Framework for the Idea-to-Launch Process: Development and Application of a Governance Framework for New Product Development[END_REF][START_REF] Sommer | Barriers towards Integrated Product Development:-a holistic project management perspective[END_REF]. Governance is a set of management systems, rules, protocols, relationships, and structures that provides the framework within which decisions are made to achieve the intended business or strategic motivation [START_REF] Bekker | Project governance for global projects[END_REF]. A PD governance system includes an overall governance structure with supporting governance assets (adapted from Weill and Ross [START_REF] Weill | IT governance on one page[END_REF]), which is illustrated in Figure 1. Agile PD is one of the latest branches of research that recently emerged (in the early 10's) within industrial PD management. Agile methods are specialized in managing highly complex PD including active customer involvement. The agile methods originate from the software development industry and have now been adapted to new PD research in the context of the manufacturing industry. Recent academic findings include Cooper [START_REF] Cooper | What's Next? After Stage-Gate[END_REF], who shows that agile methods are applied within the context of existing stage-gate models, and Ovesen [START_REF] Ovesen | The Challenges of Becoming Agile: Implementing and Conducting Scrum in Integrated Product Development[END_REF], who in 2012 conducted a multiple case study of seven Danish manufacturers implementing the agile PD method called 'Scrum', which included an agile process model and governance of PD projects into the existing traditional PD solution. The findings indicated that companies significantly improved PD performance after implementation. These findings are supported by Sandmeier, Morrison and Gassmann [START_REF] Sandmeier | Integrating Customers in Product Innovation: Lessons from Industrial Development Contractors and In-House Contractors in Rapidly Changing Customer Markets[END_REF] reporting of increased PD performance and improved customer integration after implementation of the agile PD method 'Extreme Programming' at three large German manufacturers. Hence, empirical studies show that mass-producers can benefit significantly from implementation of agile/stage-gate hybrid PD methods. Furthermore, the agile methods support the trend of increased active customer involvement in especially the early phases of the PD process [START_REF] Franke | Why Customers Value Self-Designed Products: The Importance of Process Effort and Enjoyment*[END_REF]. The trend encourages companies to engage in collaborative PD since the agile methods enable a flexible PD method supporting active involvement. Thus, the agile/stagegate hybrid methods seem to fit managing PD as an open system (including the considerations for ongoing change and thus high uncertainty) and active customer collaboration. However, there are no prior case studies on the corresponding PD governance assets supporting these hybrid PD solutions.

Scrum Governance

Scrum was originally exclusively a software development framework or, rather, a generic PD standard. Scrum has recently gained interest in agile PD in industrial companies due to the positive impact on PD performance [START_REF] Ovesen | The Challenges of Becoming Agile: Implementing and Conducting Scrum in Integrated Product Development[END_REF][START_REF] Schwaber | Agile project management with Scrum[END_REF]. The Scrum Guide, which is the official Scrum guidebook, includes a toolbox of interconnected project management methods and a process model. The process model is the visualization of the Scrum activity-flow which works as a visual coupling of the Scrum methods [START_REF] Boehm | Management challenges to implementing agile processes in traditional development organizations[END_REF].

The governance assets within Scrum governance differ significantly from traditional PD governance. Generally, physical facilities are not well defined for traditional PD. However, Scrum includes a set of distinct required physical facilities. Each active scrum team must have a dedicated project room, where they are physically located throughout the development process. Furthermore, the project rooms are equipped with at least one large white board (called the scrum board), used for visually displaying the sprint process, burn-down chart, and product backlog. On the other hand financial structures are as little described in Scrum as is the case for traditional PD. Hence, it is relevant to notice that the goal for PD management frameworks is to improve PD performance including financial performance, and at the same time the determining financial structures are undefined. The same situation occurs for both information systems and reward systems for PD management, which generally remain undescribed in both Scrum and traditional PD frameworks. However, roles and responsibilities are well described in existing frameworks with distinct variations. The Scrum roles are the product owner, scrum master, and scrum team, which have a set of distinct responsibilities as described in Table 1.

Table 1 Scrum roles and responsibilities

Scrum Roles Responsibilities

Product Owner -Clearly express product backlog items -Order product backlog items to best achieve goals and missions -Ensure the value of the work the development team performs -Ensure that the product backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all -Ensure the development team understands items in the product backlog Scrum Master -Clearly communicate vision, goals, and product backlog items -Teach participants to create clear and concise product backlog items -Facilitate Scrum events as requested or needed -Coach in self-organization and cross-functionality -Remove impediments to the Development Team's progress -Plan Scrum implementations within the organization; -Help employees and stakeholders understand and enact Scrum Development Team -Self-organize -turning product backlog into product increments -Cross-functional collaboration -Share accountability in the Development Team as a whole -Avoid sub-teams dedicated to particular domains

In contrast, traditional PD frameworks generally operate with a steering committee, a project manager, an a project team. The steering committee is responsible for strategic decisions, whereas the project manager is responsible for all tactical and operational decisions including both project and process management. The project team does not have management responsibilities and are only responsible for finalizing assigned tasks.

Hence, there are significant differences between traditional PD governance and Scrum governance, but some governance assets still remain undefined within both. Since companies increasingly implement Scrum in combination with traditional PD methods, it is relevant to explore how governance systems are correspondingly affected by the emerging hybrid solutions. Therefore, we ask the research question: "What are the applied governance assets in practice, in cases of scrum/stage-gate hybrid methods for product development management?"

Method

In order to answer the research question, an explorative comparative case study has been conducted including five large companies with different product types in different industries. The companies were selected based on their maturity in hybrid/stagegate solutions to include companies with experience in using them, and thus the chosen companies had implemented their solutions between 2-5 years prior to the study. An overview of the companies is presented in Table 2. A multiple case study approach was chosen to enhance the possibility of attaining rich data hence allowing greater depth and clarity [START_REF] Yin | Case Study Research: Design and Methods[END_REF]. Furthermore, a multiple case study creates the opportunity to compare results across the case contexts and develop a broader and more generalizable understanding of the phenomenon. The data was analysed through open coding and sampling according to governance assets into a conceptually ordered display. The interview study findings were strengthened through triangulation to company internal documents and company project management standards for PD.

The results have been structures according to the five governance assets, and overview of applied assets in the case companies is presented in table 3. Physical facilities include project rooms with scrum boards in four out of the five companies, which were implemented together with Scrum. These facilities enabled and enhanced process visibility and knowledge sharing both within the team and towards PD stakeholders. The company without dedicated facilities was in a process of implementing these due to recognition of the possible benefits. Company D furthermore had a portfolio board displaying the PD projects publically within the company enhancing visibility across PD projects. Based on the cases, project rooms with scrum boards are regarded an essential part of PD governance of agile/stage-gate hybrids. Four of five cases have dedicated account to PD projects as part of the financial structure. The dedicated accounts allow for PD managers to purchase resources from the surrounding organization and make the project independent from other activities. Company D had no dedicated accounts, and based on this experienced difficulties in finalizing PD projects towards internal customers, and challenges in 'borrowing' specialized resources especially from manufacturing. Thus, dedicated accounts are considered to be the preferred financial solution for PD governance. Regarding the information system, only company E had implemented an information system to support the agile PD process, however the effects were still too immature to materialize. Hence, for information system asset it is deduced that this governance asset is not yet part of hybrid PD governance practice. The reward systems were not affected through implementation of scrum, and the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) system was applied in all five cases. Even so, this entailed challenges due to a mismatch between the rigidity of the system and the level of change in PD projects. Hence, even though the KPI system is present in all cases, it is not the ideal solution, and practi-tioners call for more flexible adaptable reward solutions. Finally, the Roles and Responsibilities included a hybrid between traditional PD and agile PD. For all companies, the Scrum terminology has been adapted including product owners, Scrum masters, and a self-organizing development team. However, all cases also had steering committees consisting of line managers and management stakeholders. Through the implementation process, the former project managers had become product owners, whereas selected team members had been trained scrum masters.

Discussion and Conclusions for Further Research

In a majority of the cases PD governance assets include; dedicated project rooms, Scrum boards, dedicated project accounts, and hybrid project roles as supporting governance mechanisms. Hence, these governance assets are relevant for further studies on advantages of hybrid PD including explanatory research developing theories to explain why these solutions work in practice. Furthermore, the cases suggest that there is potential for improving PD performance in further improvement of agile/stage-gate governance, and thus we call for further research on agile PD governance effects on PD performance. However, some assets were not affected by the introduction of agile, which were the information system and a KPI reward system. These two assets are generally part of corporate governance, since they expand to the entire company. Based on this finding, we suggest that implementation of agile/stage-gate hybrids affect the PD governance system towards more agile governance assets, however only for assets not influencing corporate governance. Thus further research is recommended on the affect of corporate governance on PD performance especially in cases with agile/stage gate hybrids.

A final conclusion on the study is related to the generalizability of the emerging hybrid governance assets. The assets were identified across five companies in different markets, and based on this study we suggest that it is possible to develop a prescriptive generic model for hybrid PD governance, which is applicable across industries, and thus we also call for further applied research on this subject.

Figure 1

 1 Figure 1 Supporting governance assets Weill and Ross [16].

H

  No dedicated facilities Dedicated None KPI Hybrid PR = Project Room, SB= Scrum Board, Dedicated = Dedicated project account No Account = No dedicated account within projects, owned and managed financially by R&D department. Hybrid = Scrum team with project manager as project owner and liaison to a steering committee.

Table 2

 2 Case studies on agile PD governance

	Company Product types	Number of employees	Company type	Data
	D	Pharmaceuticals 37,000	Industrial mass-producer	3SI, 1 GI, 1 OS,
					PM, ID.
	E	Plastic Toys	10,000	Industrial mass-producer	2 SI, PM, ID
	F	Electronics	170	Industrial mass-producer	2 SI, PM, ID
	G	Windows	10,000	Industrial mass-producer	16 GI, PM, ID
	H	Cross-country	700	Energy Construction and	24 SI, 6 GI, 1
		power lines		service provider	WS, PM, ID.
	SI= single interviews, GI= Group Interviews, OS=Observations studies, WS=Workshops,
	PM=Project Management standards, ID=Internal Documents.

Table 3

 3 Case studies on agile PD governance

			Governance assets in case companies
	Cases	Physical facilities	Financial	Information	Reward	Roles and
			Structures	System	System	responsibilities
	D	Portfolio board, PR	No Ac-	None	KPI	Hybrid
		and SB	count
	E	PR and SB	Dedicated Rally	KPI	Hybrid
	F	PR and SB	Dedicated None	KPI	Hybrid
	G	PR and SB	Dedicated None	KPI	Hybrid