Technology and Operations Management

The working group develops concepts and methods to evaluate and design technologies and transformation processes. These are tested and implemented in projects with clients. The aim is to provide clients with well-founded decision-making aids in all phases of technological innovation and transformation – for example in the selection of technologies, the determination of plant capacities or the choice of location.

A comprehensive assessment of technologies and technology-based value chains is carried out by analyzing the economic, ecological and social impacts. The entire value creation networks – from raw material extraction to the end product – are modeled using methods such as material and energy flow analyses and life cycle analyses. At the same time, the technological environment is taken into account, including market conditions, political framework conditions and social aspects, which are analyzed using suitable key figures (e.g. intensity of competition, market volume, regulatory environment). Decision support and management tools are developed on the basis of these analyses, for example through simulation, decision-making and optimization models.

Services offered
 

• Techno-economic analyses (TEA) of technologies and value creation systems:
  Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Cost of Goods Manufactured (CoGM), Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Environmental Assessment:
  Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) according to ISO 14040/44, Prospective Life Cycle Assessment (pLCA), Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) according to ISO 14067
• Market and Regulatory Analyses: 
  Market access pathways, approval procedures, time-to-market/cost-to-market, as well as competitive, trend, and market size analyses (e.g., Porter’s Five Forces Model, TAM-SAM-SOM)
• Development of simulation and optimization models to support operational investment decisions, e.g., for evaluating alternative process routes, plant configurations, or scaling strategies
• Mathematical Modeling:
  Optimization Methods, Regression and Allometric Modeling, Numerical Simulation, Python-Based Model Development