Systematik zur Gestaltung und Optimierung von wissensintensiven, kooperativen Problemlösungsprozessen in der Produktentwicklung

The objective of this thesis was to support the distributed solution of knowledge intensive problems in the product development. This comprises individual as well as cooperative aspects of problem solving. This work considers not only the organizational structure and the problem solving process itself. It comprises also the consideration of knowledge and learning processes, which are relevant for problem solving as well as the implementation of a holistic inte-grated problem solving management. Further it was aimed to focus on real, practice-related problems, which occur in the daily working environment of engineers. The problem solving activities were adjusted and aligned to this kind of problems. The objective was achieved by the development of a systematic for the configuration and optimization of knowledge intensive, cooperative problem solving processes and the prototypic implementation of a problem solving assistant. Therefore the state of the art was analyzed in depth. It was analyzed, whether existing approaches fort he classification of problems correspond to the requirements of the industrial practice. In analogy it was examined, to what extent existing approaches for the prevention of problems, for the problem solving as well as systems for the problem solving match to the de-fined requirements for knowledge intensive, cooperative problem solving processes. Based on the analysis of the state of the art a framework fort he configuration and optimization of knowledge intensive problem solving processes was developed. This includes the develop-ment of a model to describe industrial, practice-related problems, which was empirically validated. This model served as basis for the deduction and definition of the following three design elements: - Organization and coordination of problem solving processes - Communication and knowledge transfer - Knowledge integration and knowledge generation. In order to ease the implementation of the developed approach into the companies, a problem solving assistant as IT-solution was developed and realized. Finally a case study documents the use of the problem solving assistant in the product development department of an engineering service provider. In cooperation with a development partner 69 problems were fed into the problem solving assistant and then worked on collaboratively. In principle, this proves the applicability of the systematic, as well as of the problem as-sistant in the product development. It could be shown, that the advantage of the use of the problem solving assistant is high for manufacturing companies. The value added for the companies was as follows: The involved companies achieved time savings through a more efficient problem retrieval as well as a more structured problem solution development. Further the communication could be improved by the high level of interaction during the problem solving process. The systematic procedure had furthermore an impact on the quality improvement. The approach presented in this thesis was designed for the product development in the area of rapid prototyping, however it is also applicable to other areas. For example the problem solving assistant can also be applied in the distribution and customer service. Customer complaints and problems can be identified, managed and documented in a structured way. Another area of application is provided in the software sector, respectively in the second level support. More complex problems, which can not be easily and directly solved by the call center can be managed by using the problem solving assistant. Potential for further development is seen on the one hand with regard to the software support, e.g. semi-automatic support of distributed problem solving processes through dynamic, ad-hoc workflows. It could be also of value to further analyze the evaluation of problems, e.g. through statistic evaluation methods. The research could also be extended in order to develop IT-solutions for routines and constraints, as well as cause-and-effect chains. An intelligent problem solver could support the selection of solution alternatives and the development of suitable solution strategies. Additional research questions refer to social and psychological aspects. The human behavior in the context of problem solving provides a huge field of research. In this context, inter-organizational and intercultural problem solving, considering aspects like motivation and incentives, can be mentioned as examples