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Artifical Intelligence Solutions
The INVENSITY Technology Hub is researching together with partners different topics in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
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Shape the future of your company with INVENSITY. Find the right strategies and use cases for digital transformation.
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Focus on eMobility!
INVENSITY strengthens its focus on eMobility and cooperates with ITW-Schindler GmbH, the specialist for electrotechnical safety and qualifications.
INVENSITY Technology Consulting
INVENSITY Technology Consulting
We support our customers in coping with complex technological challenges across all areas of the development process and together we ensure optimal solutions.
The interdisciplinary expertise of our employees enables us to work on highly innovative topics. Due to the internationality of our teams, we operate on a global level. We approach tasks in a targeted manner and with a focus on sustainability.
Our nine Centers of Excellence are an expression of our expertise. They embody our core competencies and those topics to which we attach particular importance.
“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” – Aristoteles
Even Aristotle, the first great systematist among philosophers, understood that a system not only consists of individual subsystems, but also of the respective network – and thus generates complexity.
The procedures of systems engineering serve the time- and cost-oriented as well as market-oriented development of complex technical systems including the necessary roles and disciplines. Thus, the approach is interdisciplinary and covers a broad spectrum of sub-areas.
Today more than ever, companies are forced to deliver their products better, faster and more cost-effectively. In addition, products are becoming increasingly complex due to the increase in interdisciplinary challenges.
High-quality development processes can help organizations meet today’s challenges and compete in the marketplace. The methods of CoE Systems Engineering are aimed at improving the processes of an organization.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SE_Prozesmanagement DE.pdf (107,0 KiB)
Requirements Management (RM or REQM) as the first step of system development is decisive for the success or failure of a project.
Requirements management covers all aspects of working with requirements. It includes requirements engineering (RE) as well as measures for the control, monitoring and administration of requirements. The requirements collection is a step-by-step process. In this process, the individual process steps – collecting & analysing, structuring & refining, harmonising, checking and evaluating requirements – can also be repeated in several iteration stages.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SE_Anforderungsmanagement DE.pdf (104,7 KiB)
A high quality test management can determine the success or failure of a project. The question of whether a test process as such is even necessary no longer arises today. The importance of continuous quality assurance has long been known and recognized by industry.
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Quality creates trust. This is particularly true if the quality of products is maintained at a constant level or even continuously improved over a longer period of time. This is because this is the only way for customers to make predictions about the quality of products to be purchased in the future. Through a continuous level of quality, companies convey reliability and thus create trusting business relationships.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SE_Qualitätsmanagement DE.pdf (395,7 KiB)
“Configuration management is a management process for establishing and maintaining compliance of product performance, functional and physical characteristics of the product with requirements, product design and operational information throughout the product lifecycle.” ANSI & EIA
The task of configuration management is to manage the technical description of a system (and its various components), as well as all the changes made during the development of the system.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SE_Konfigurationsmanagement DE.pdf (143,4 KiB)
In addition to the important management disciplines, INVENSITY also offers services and operational support in the area of technical implementation. CoE Systems Engineering offers a wide range of methods and competencies for the successful development of complex systems. As a member of the Gesellschaft für Systems Engineering (GfSE), CoE SE is always up to date with the latest developments in the field of structured development worldwide and is constantly expanding its knowledge.
By technical expertise we mean the knowledge of our experts at INVENSITY in the areas of software, hardware and function development, as well as the knowledge and experience with various tools. INVENSITY develops state-of-the-art methods and techniques such as MBSE or SOA. With knowledge management and detailed training, we further develop our competencies in order to be able to use them effectively.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SE_Technical Expertise DE.pdf (108,3 KiB)
The working group Hardware Engineering develops efficient and effective methods to combine the separate development of hardware and software. Other important topics that the working group Hardware deals with are hardware description languages and board layouts.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SE_Hardwareentwicklung DE.pdf (115,7 KiB)
Based on our experience from tool evaluations already carried out, we have developed a standardised procedure which we can adapt to your individual needs.
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Holistic variant management starts with customer management and offers considerable savings potential in development and production.
A defined product range considerably simplifies the selection of products for purchasing and secures competitive advantages. Through equal parts policy and equal development artefacts, there is considerable potential for savings.
In order to fully exploit all savings potentials, variant management must be strategically implemented in organizations.
INVENSITY empowers organizations through individual consulting concepts to real variant control.
“Project Management – Plan your work, work your plan.” – Unknown author
Projects bring together different resources, technology and competencies once for a limited period of time in order to create one or more products that are recorded and validated in the business case on the basis of corporate strategies and ideas. The success of projects is therefore decisive for the added value of a company.
Various factors are necessary for project success. In addition to clear processes, structures and methods, an effective use of IT-supported tools from a certain project size makes sense. The ultimate success, however, depends largely on the people and organizations involved in the project. This can also extend beyond the company’s own borders, e.g. to suppliers.
The INVENSITY Center of Excellence Project Management offers its customers a comprehensive range of processes, methods and tools, which can be adapted according to requirements, situation and industry. In order to meet the high requirements of its customers, the consultants of CoE PM certify themselves according to the international project management standard PRINCE2:2009. Furthermore, procedures according to PMI and GPM are also common and find their application.
A structured and professional project management is indispensable nowadays. The complexity and thus the planning and controlling effort is continuously increasing.
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For years agile development methods have been gaining increasing acceptance in software development. There, the advantages of more agile than traditional development methods are known for their flexibility in the project and the provision of high-quality products.
However, a simple transfer of this success story to the larger overall development context with a hardware/mechanics context and integration of production is not possible 1:1.
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Resource planning should be carried out quickly, uniformly and comprehensibly. Development departments responsible for multiple products often face the challenge of organizing efficient resource management. Responsibility for many products results in a large number of parallel projects. In such organizations, matrix structures consisting of lines and project responsibilities are usually to be found, in which a dynamic resource adjustment represents a challenge due to the distributed responsibilities and competencies. Especially in growing business areas, there is a lack of a transparent database for evaluating resource utilization and planning.
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INV_Productpager_CoE PM_Ressourcenmanagement DE.pdf (161,5 KiB)
Supplier relationships have developed into partnership relationships as a result of the intensified competition from Top Down.
New approaches to supplier management can be traced back to two developments within the companies: On the one hand, the complexity of systems and projects to be developed has increased in recent years. On the other hand, the trend among companies to concentrate on their core competencies is encouraging them to outsource production steps. Supplier management is therefore playing an increasingly important role.
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INV_Productpager_CoE PM_Lieferantenmanagement DE.pdf (175,8 KiB)
“Don’t look for mistakes, look for solutions.” – Henry Ford
Can you imagine driving a car without knowing that the brakes are designed to the highest safety standards? How can a medical device manufacturer ensure that its products do not harm patients at any time? How can new systems be safely integrated into an aircraft without negatively affecting the old systems?
Today, we are surrounded by complex technologies in almost every area of our lives and human lives often depend on them.
Many of the modern technologies have been developed to make our lives easier and more enjoyable, often even to secure or save our lives. With increasing demands on such systems, the complexity also increases with each further development step, which makes higher expenditures in ensuring functionality unavoidable. This can be remedied by education, training and the use of efficient and standardised safety management methods.
COE Safety Management has gained extensive experience in various areas of safety management and is continuously expanding this experience.
Our Functional Safety Management experts support their customers in the introduction and implementation of functional safety projects. This includes above all the general design and establishment of safety management projects with regard to the methods and processes to be applied as well as the planning and preparation of assessments and audits.
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The creation and implementation of safety-relevant requirements is a necessary but also time-consuming task. The deployment of internal staff requires extensive training both in the field of safety management and in the handling of the tools used.
AG System Safety Development will be pleased to support you in this challenge and, depending on your requirements, will take over part or all of the specification of the safety-relevant requirements.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SM_System Safety Development_DE.pdf (366,8 KiB)
Inadequate market research can slow down innovation if technology-driven innovations are assigned to the wrong customers or application areas.
The Market Research & Development working group monitors the safety market and identifies new trends, methods and standards at an early stage. A systematic exploration of the market reveals innovations worthy of development. These new developments are assigned to the appropriate standards, industries and customers as well as application areas, taking into account synergies and premises.
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While quality management improves and optimizes the quality of a product, reliability management (RM) is responsible for maintaining this quality over as long a period as possible. It ensures that components, devices and systems function without failure over the entire life cycle, taking into account the specified maintenance intervals. The life cycle ranges from conception to disposal. The Reliability Management & Engineering (RM&E) working group supports projects with the help of experience-based methods and tools to identify potential errors or hazards at an early stage of the lifecycle.
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“Whoever does what he already can always remains what he already is.” – Henry Ford
Innovations drive growth
The unique potential of innovations is undisputed. Innovations should not only serve to improve the range of services on offer – they must also increase yields in the long term, i.e. be profitable. Thus, innovation management must also aim at exploitable results. To achieve this, INVENSITY has developed a specialized approach that enables systematic and efficient action in the field of innovation.
Every innovation can only be as good as the idea on which it is based. Therefore it is more important to create high-quality ideas than just a lot of ideas. Targeted and systematic idea generation techniques in particular offer great potential here. They limit the huge field of possibilities to such an extent that the limited resources are directed to the promising directions. Typical blockades of thinking and well-trodden paths are thus avoided. The positive side effect: Much fewer resources are needed for idea generation and evaluation, since the time-consuming filtering of really good ideas from a mountain of waste ideas is no longer necessary.
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Key figures allow a statement to be made as to whether innovation efforts have had a positive effect. In this way, it is only possible to pursue those efforts that have actually produced added value. Funds are freed up that can be used for other innovation topics.
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INV_Productpager_CoE SI_Innovationskennzahlen DE.pdf (198,8 KiB)
RIMINO – Minimum Risk Innovation Management is a method developed by INVENSITY to systematically reduce innovation risks.
While systematic risk management has long been standard in other areas, there has been no such thing as innovation to date. This is all the more astonishing since about 2/3 of all innovation projects fail. Considering that on average about 50% of the R&D budget is invested in innovations, almost 1/3 of all R&D expenditure is lost. If the success rate of innovations is only slightly increased, this results in a large financial potential.
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INVENSITY offers innovation services in three core areas. They are based on the question with which you approach us. The entire portfolio of innovation services is presented at the end of this page.
Do you want to increase the growth of your company by innovative extensions of your portfolio?
Read more about our method for systematic brainstorming. It is the only truly systematic method for brainstorming that reproducibly generates high-quality solutions.
Are you looking for a method to select promising innovation projects in a targeted manner and thus guarantee the efficiency of your development?
Find out how you can increase the success rate of innovations using the INVENSITY methodology “Minimum Risk Innovation Management”. We also offer an approach for efficient innovation management that delivers results with little resource input.
Do you want to align innovation decisions with longer-term goals in order to plan strategically for the future?
KPI systems and innovation roadmaps offer you a better basis for decision-making. Find out more in our example of key figure systems. In addition, future product requirements can be determined and used as a basis for decision-making.
Do you have a specific question that cannot be found in the three previous approaches?
INVENSITY offers a variety of innovation services along the entire innovation process.
Nowadays, innovations and functional innovations in the technical field are often achieved by pure software solutions.
CoE Software Engineering provides methods and tools for the successful implementation of software development projects. With methodological competence, a well-trained handling of architectural and design patterns, corresponding tools and expertise in various programming languages, it is also possible to ensure the success of a project for complex tasks.
INVENSITY can adapt the software development process to the project circumstances thanks to a wide range of expertise. Thus, developments according to standards such as V-Modell XT or AUTOSAR, but also agile methods such as Extreme Programming or SCRUM are feasible.
The expertise of the employees in the planning, implementation, testing and maintenance of software flows into the CoE and is constantly expanded through training and internal objectives.
All relevant development steps of software engineering are considered thematically:
- requirements
- design
- architecture
- testing
- maintenance
In addition, support processes such as configuration management are also considered. But also software quality and metrics are important topics of software engineering.
AUTOSAR is a layer model that essentially divides the software into application software, runtime environment and basic software. A virtual function bus system (VFB) is located between the ECU-specific basic software and the ECU-independent application software. This connects all software components, including those that are in different ECUs. This allows them to be moved between different ECUs without having to make changes to the software components themselves. This can be useful for optimizing computing power, memory requirements or communication load.
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Software systems in the automotive industry are becoming ever more complex and at the same time system life cycles are becoming ever shorter. Due to the increasing pressure on the automotive market, OEMs as well as suppliers are forced to introduce products to the market faster. A trend is derived from this, which points away from the classic V-model towards agile software development.
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The long-standing practice of software development means that source codes often have “grown historically”. In addition to structural weaknesses, this is particularly evident in the lack of complete documentation of architecture and design. Such code is also called legacy code.
Migration to new technologies (e.g. AUTOSAR) or requirements from standards (such as ISO 26262) lead to architecture documents being required for this legacy code.
CoE Software Engineering has recognized this need and derived the method “Architecture from Legacy Code” (ArLeCo) from it.
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The Continuous Integration (CI) approach is used to develop complex software in project teams of various sizes in a timely and cost-effective manner. In addition, the Continuous Integration process provides fast and automated feedback on the correctness of an application for each change to software.
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INVENSITY uses the Staged Continuous Integration (StaCI) model to evaluate the maturity level of a Continuous Integration (CI) implementation in companies and to plan the introduction and improvement of CI. StaCI covers both tooling and automation aspects as well as adaptations of the organization and culture in teams.
The result is lower release risk, higher efficiency and reliability, and ultimately improved quality of delivered software and systems.
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The development of systems is becoming increasingly complex. In order to cope with complexity, more and more engineering processes and tools are being used, which are quickly expanding into a heterogeneous landscape. This results in a confusing amount of tools, processes and interfaces through which data is exchanged. The engineering tools and the associated IT will increasingly merge in the future to be able to develop more efficiently.
The INVENSITY Center of Excellence (CoE) Data Systems offers standard solutions to enable data exchange from one tool to another. The CoE gathers all necessary competences to develop tools and applications in different technologies (mobile apps, office macros, SharePoints, web applications and desktop applications) and programming languages.
Development of web-based applications for process support and active knowledge management. Among other things, we provide a complete tool suite for knowledge management in order to distribute the knowledge of your company to all employees.
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INV_Productpager_CoE DS_TestReportingTool DE.pdf (837,6 KiB)
Applications for smartphones can be used to implement projects or as advertising media. We develop these as well as the interfaces to other systems to increase your efficiency.
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The agile “Continuous Integration” method is currently used in the development of complex software in project teams of various sizes. A large number of scripts and tools are used, which are either developed by the CoE or can be taken from the Tool Competencies Map portfolio. INVENSITY evaluates the tool chain used and adds customer requirements. This is where INVENSITY expands its broad knowledge of interfaces and development tools.
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We use INVENSITY’s broad knowledge of tools and interfaces to develop customer-specific applications that support the implementation of projects.
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Many companies are turning to SharePoint more and more. INVENSITY is able to bring the worlds of IT and engineering together and creates SharePoint applications for you or designs your SharePoint according to your wishes.
Due to the large number of successfully completed projects in different industries, INVENSITY has developed a broad expertise in the field of engineering tools, which enables INVENSITY to optimally advise its customers. The aim of the consulting is to design and implement an ideal toolsetup from the heterogeneous landscape.
One basis of the consulting approach is the “Tool Competencies Map”. This allows standard solutions to be recorded and disseminated effectively and simply. This enables INVENSITY to quickly show its customers a way out of the heterogeneous tool landscape.
The INVENSITY Center of Excellence Cybersecurity and Data Privacy is the expert for all questions concerning IT security of embedded systems. Sustainability and traceability are at the centre of our activities. For us, the systematic analysis of existing systems and the design of security concepts are the starting point for a secure system. The systematic identification and assessment of risks serves as a basis for defining suitable measures. When implementing secure systems, we rely on the methods of software and systems engineering, as well as the methods of cybersecurity, such as secure coding or threat modeling.
Using these methods, we pursue the generally accepted goals of Cybersecurity: Authentication, Authorization, Availability, Confidentiality and Integrity. In addition, we include the “Privacy” objective. Most cyber-physical systems available on the market today collect or process personal data in one way or another. From our point of view it is therefore essential to include a strategy for their use and protection already during the concept phase of a product as well as during its development.
Embedded systems are exposed to the same cyber security threats as other IT systems. This simple truth has long been underestimated. In the meantime, many industries have realized that the use of known and widespread technologies facilitates attacks. Defining and implementing individual obvious measures leads to a perceived improvement, but this is deceptive. Only a systematic approach can lead to sufficient security of the systems.
The INVENSITY Cybersecurity Development Process provides a standardized and requirements-based solution to systematically identify risks and define appropriate measures. Based on the identification of the assets to be protected, the relevant threats and vulnerabilities are investigated. On this basis, incident scenarios are described and evaluated with regard to their probability and their effects. The resulting risks form the basis for defining measures to reduce the calculated risk value. Comprehensive documentation and the safeguarding of determined knowledge for reuse are essential characteristics of the software-supported implementation of this process.
The INVENSITY Security Assessment Tool (ISAT) is the result of extensive experience in performing security assessments. It supports the workflow of the INVENSITY Cybersecurity Development Process and thus facilitates compliance with the process. Simple reuse, clean documentation and a systematic approach that conforms to standards were the core requirements for the development of this software. ISAT serves both us and our customers for the implementation of product-related security assessments. Individual adaptability and expandability are further strengths of the software.
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Hackers are trying to identify every possible attack vector. There are no limits to what they can do. Even systems that use a cryptographically secure method are not necessarily free of side channel attacks. In addition to vulnerable hardware, security holes due to careless implementations are very common. Programs that are apparently uninteresting to an attacker can also offer a way to infiltrate a system if they have elevated privileges and a network interface, for example. Therefore, it is important to include the aspect of security in the programming, to adhere to certain rules and to check the program for errors like buffer overflows.
A threat model is a structured representation of all information of a system that is related to security. Through the process of Threat Modelling, this information is identified, organized and analyzed. The goal is to uncover all threats and vulnerabilities of a system. In addition, lists of prioritized improvements in security, requirements, design and/or implementation are created. Countermeasures are planned and implemented according to the effects of a threat. The threat model should accompany a product through its entire lifecycle and be improved and specified in the individual phases of the cycle.
A penetration test serves to identify all possible threats to a system. First of all, all important resources that could become the target of an attack and possible side effects of an attack are recorded. Once the defence objectives have been established, it will be determined how an attacker can gain access to the resources to be protected and/or control over the system and how an attacker can cause unwanted behaviour of the system. For this purpose, the system is analyzed and possible threats are assessed and categorized. Tests are carried out on the basis of the threats found. In these tests, it is important to look at different attack models in order not only to find out what an attacker can do, but also to determine how likely an attack is. In the course of these tests, new threats that were not previously considered can also be identified. Once this data has been evaluated, protective measures can be planned and implemented.
Automotive systems are increasingly being networked with each other and with the environment. This makes it necessary to deal systematically with the entire issue of security, because the security of software has two dimensions. Functional Safety is about protecting the environment from the vehicle. Cybersecurity, on the other hand, focuses on protecting the vehicle from the environment. In the development of modern vehicles and their software, the consideration of functional safety has long been an important part of development. At the latest since the entry into force of ISO 26262 (“Road vehicles – Functional safety”) in 2011, the topic has received increased attention. The topic of cyber security, on the other hand, has so far been neglected in the automotive industry, and a uniform approach, such as that described by SAE’s J3061, is only just beginning to emerge. Based on our many years of experience in implementing ISO 26262 and our sound cyber security know-how, we supported our customers in introducing and implementing this new standard.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is mandatory from May 25, 2018 for anyone collecting or processing personal data within the European Union (EU), tightens data protection requirements and imposes heavy penalties in the event of non-compliance. The topic of data protection for cyber-physical systems and the resulting requirements for development and operation are by no means new. Numerous regional laws and regulations, which pursue the same goals, had already long before introduction of the GDPR validity.
Based on our extensive and cross-industry experience, we have developed a clearly structured approach, based on established and proven process models, to help our customers integrate the issue of data protection into their development processes and products and thus ensure compliance with applicable data protection regulations. This approach starts with a clear definition of the scope of the collection and processing of personal data and the relevant functions and interfaces. Based on this, risks related to the loss or compromise of personal data will be analysed and a strategy developed to prevent data breaches and to satisfy documentation requirements. Concrete technical and procedural solutions are then derived from this strategy and verification and validation criteria are defined for these.
The entire process of gaining scientific knowledge is covered by the Center of Excellence Analytics & Sensorics. It is divided into four subject areas namely: Measurement & Sensor Technology, Predictive Maintenance, Modeling & Simulation and Statistics & Data Analysis. It can therefore be placed chronologically between basic research and prototype development.
Our in-depth knowledge of measurement technology and data analysis enables us to provide efficient and precise solutions to challenges in the fields of statistics, sensor technology and physical modeling. Our multidisciplinary approach allows us to think outside the box and generate real added value.
The working group deals with the mathematical-physical simulation of models. The focus is on the scientific aspect, i.e. the investigation of mathematical models which include among others: partial differential equations and ordinary differential equations.
In cooperation with the customer we model physical systems and support our customers in better understanding them. Modeling a system can also help to reduce prototype costs, identify design potentials and support troubleshooting.
The Metrology and Sensor Technology Team deals with the conception of sensor systems and measuring methods. Physical knowledge serves as a way to solve the challenges of our customers to the physical properties and to convert them into relevant digital data.
The group develops innovative solutions for manufacturing optimization (industry 4.0), smart technologies such as smart keys or smart cities, and data connectivity to achieve a networked future. We support our customers in digitizing their sensor systems and identifying possible sources of error in the measurement system.
The aim of the Working Group Statistics and Data Analysis is to acquire knowledge and expertise on the topics of statistics, algorithms and data analysis. Furthermore, best practices for data visualization are to be developed.
Internally, we work as a think tank for statistics and data analysis. We enable our clients to better understand themselves by analyzing their data and extracting hidden information. In-depth parameter analysis enables us to identify relationships that were previously unknown to the client.
The Working Group Predictive Maintenance works on condition monitoring of machines in production and thereon based predicting possible failures ahead of time. The aim is to increase reliability, improve maintenance planning and save costs. In addition, production can be better controlled by transparent condition monitoring.
The main tasks include data collection and pre-processing, statistics, machine learning and modelling in order to find and validate application cases. However, the implementation of the found use cases into a productive system is also a related and possible task.
As one of the leading and independent technology consultancies, INVENSITY advises both buyers and sellers on domestic and cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions activities of technology-oriented companies.
The successful INVENSITY approach here is that consulting for the commercial and technical issues of a transaction can only lead to added value if the business model and the processes as well as the influence of future changes in the industry are fully understood by the consultants.
INVENSITY has the following expertise in M&A:
- Excellent market knowledge in technology-driven industries (automotive, mechanical and plant engineering, energy, medical technology, …)
- Strong network in these industries to gain industry insider knowledge
- The influence of megatrends (digitalisation, autonomous driving, …) on current business models is continuously monitored.
- Expert knowledge in the field of development and production technologies allow us to benchmark with other technology companies.
- Independent advice without conflicts of interest
On this basis and our broad network of experts, INVENSITY can offer a wide range of advisory services along a transaction process. The offer starts for the buyer and seller side in the preparation of the transaction, continues with the commercial / technical due diligence and leads to the implementation of the strategy after the transaction.
INVENSITY Consulting offer for the acquisition of companies (buyer side):
- Search and identification of suitable target companies
- Commercial Quick Check
- Commercial / Technical Due Diligence
- Creation of a 100-day plan
- Strategy after Transaction / Post-Merger Integration (PMI)
INVENSITY consulting offer for the sale of a company (seller side)
- Setting up the contents of a data room and creating company presentations
Create business plans including growth options to optimize the purchase price
Support of the due diligence process on the seller side through preparation and quality assurance during the handover of requested documents to the buyer side.
The acquisition and sale of a company is a very complex process. It must be planned and prepared very precisely by competent partners who fully understand the business model, technology and market trends. Both the buyer and seller sides benefit from such careful preparation of the transaction process. INVENSITY offers this support as a competent partner for technology-oriented corporate transactions.
For the buyer, INVENSITY can quickly identify deal breakers and significant risks before granting exclusivity. Our particular expertise lies in technology and innovation risks.
INVENSITY can also assist in identifying target companies when considering M&A as a complement to the company’s growth strategy. INVENSITY sifts through the market in search of suitable targets that can expand the product portfolio or technical capabilities. First contacts to the high-priority target companies can be established through the proven INVENSITY network in the technology sector.
For the seller, the good preparation of the sales activities leads to a higher company sales price. First, the vendor can focus on negotiating and is not under pressure to create sensitive documents during the “hot” acquisition phase. Secondly, a good chain of arguments can be built up as to how future cash flow planning and sales pipeline can be filled with realistic growth options.
In addition, INVENSITY creates and examines the documents for the data room together with the seller. The focus is on the consistency of the various data sources and a logical and well thought-out strategic outlook. In addition, INVENSITY searches the market for opportunities to expand the product portfolio. This also automatically identifies the technological capabilities required for the products of the future.
Avoid the ‘blind spot’ of classic due diligence through technical and innovation-oriented due diligence services.
Classical due diligence has a blind spot: it refers almost exclusively to business figures and also only to the past to the present. It ignores the true capabilities of a company and future potential. It can therefore be doubted whether the actual objective of a due diligence – to determine a realistic purchase price – is achieved with a backward-looking and static approach.
INVENSITY helps to see a company with two eyes open. As technology and innovation consultants, we work in the development departments of the world’s leading technology companies. We understand the technology behind the products. We develop them with you. This is why we also know how products are successfully developed and what skills are required to do so. We also have a good insight into the technological markets and future products. In a nutshell: INVENSITY has a deep understanding of how companies work and develop successfully.
We transfer this knowledge to due diligence to provide a unique service to both investors and sellers.
Investors receive a realistic and holistic picture of a company. We can easily see whether company figures have been “optimized” for sales. But in reality, the company is a shell of products based on outdated technology. The investments saved are reflected in the figures. But the ability to develop new products has been lost. Based on the real capabilities, we analyze for investors whether there is innovation and expansion potential in a company. This helps to create a realistic growth forecast, which is often part of the purchase price negotiations.
From this information we create a ‘bankable’ report. From our experience, banks appreciate this detailed picture of a company as it helps them to calculate their own risks. This is reflected in good conditions for leveraged purchases.
Sellers benefit from our services by helping to present information as well as future opportunities attractively in order to achieve a good selling price. INVENSITY supports the technological strengths and capabilities to market. We support you in drawing up a realistic and credible growth plan. This may also include new products and innovation opportunities based on future trends. In addition, we can make your company fit – as preparation for a sale.
The implementation of the results of the due diligence is a prerequisite for a transaction to pay off. This includes measures to minimise risk from the Red Flag Report as well as the implementation of positive potentials in a roadmap or a 100-day plan.
INVENSITY begins the activities after the transaction with a future-oriented mission statement and strategy. A roadmap for sales and technology is derived from this. In the next step, the various activities will be combined on the basis of our industry expertise to form a growth strategy for the company.
INVENSITY is also able to set up a small and flexible Integration Management Office (IMO). A joint program management team consisting of consultants from INVENSITY and employees from the acquired or merged companies works in this team. They support the planning and implementation of the defined activities.
Academy
Academy
“Nobody is able to prevent me from getting smarter”
– Konrad Adenauer
Technology and innovation thrive on the expertise of people who work on them every day. The continuous increase in knowledge and the sustainable professional development of our staff are the key to our company’s success. To this end, the INVENSITY academy offers an extensive program of training courses and workshops.
Innovation
Innovation
“We owe progress to people who have either asked ‘why?’ or ‘why not?’.” – Robert Lembke
To provide new knowledge, new ideas have to be generated and there must be scope for creativity. To this end our technology hub was founded: to make the most of being able to try things out that may be unfamiliar or to simply start again, but this time applying different angles.
INVENSITY independently works on developing practice-oriented innovations. In its technology hub – partly in cooperation with universities, institutions and associations – topics that aid technological advancement are worked on as part of innovation projects. INVENSITY systematizes the knowledge generated in projects using an internal knowledge management system. The newly-gained expertise can then, thanks to INVENSITY’s cross-sector organization, be made available to companies from various industries within the framework of client projects.
The term „Augmented Reality“ describes a Man-Machine Technology, with which virtual objects (computer generated 3d models of Objects) are overlaid in a real environment. The real world is recorded with a video camera and the picture is made visible in real time together with the computer models overlaid at defined positions on the screens. The positions, where computer models should be displayed, are defined with a so called “marker” in the simplest case. Every marker is then uniquely mapped to a model and has a pattern, often very simple and rich in contrast, which is not or very seldom displayed. A lot of markers can be printed on normal printers. In order to define the position on which the virtual model should be displayed in the picture, the marker should be placed in the desired place in the real world. The recognition and mapping of the marker is called “Tracking”.
The virtual models complement and extend the real image of the environment and deliver added value of information to the viewer. To sum up, Augmented Reality Applications strive to complement Reality and to supply the viewer with additional information about a defined position in a real environment.
The contrary term is the virtual reality. The goal of virtual reality is to place the viewer in a totally virtual world. This means that while in Augmented Reality where the real world with partly virtual objects is seen, in virtual reality the viewer is in a completely computer generated environment with which he can interact.
During an INVENSITY innovation project new application areas were explored, discussed and rated with the help of different creativity techniques. The best rated ideas were investigated in a feasibility study, unveiling their potential and risks, thus helping to come to a sound decision about the start of a following phase of the innovation process.
More and more medical devices depend on software. Therefore the number of reports about problems caused by software is rising dramatically (BfArM 2007). It is necessary to develop software which is error free and safe from the beginning as well as to consider all risks and hazards.
A structured and traceable development is essential, because even the smallest mistake during the development of medical devices can result in fatal consequences. For the software development there are no safety instructions and the software for medical devices can be a very complex system. The Assurance Case is used to structure and divide this complex system in parts that are easier to handle.
The Assurance Case is a documented line of evidence method which uses a convincing and valid argument to proof the accumulation of critical claims by significant evidences.
The structured argumentation and evidence support the reliability of the main claim: e.g. „The device is safe”. If the main claim refers to the safety of the device (like in the given example) the Assurance Case can be called Safety Case.
Assurance Cases were initially used in the nuclear technology, aerospace engineering and the defense industry where they are mainly used as Safety Cases.
The Assurance Case is sub-divided in three main categories which are characterized by symbols:
Claims
The claims have to be in a specific context, which can be in relation to the environment, application, behavior, risks or hazards.
The main claim: „The device is safe“, is on the top level. Sub-claims which are built hierarchically can characterize the claim further and have to be argued and proven as well.
Arguments
Arguments are the link between claim and proof. There are three kinds of arguments:
- Deterministic: predetermined rules are applied for a true/false claim (e.g. demonstration of a safety requirement, formal proof or exhaustive test of the logic).
- Probabilistic: quantitative statistical reasoning in order to establish a numerical level (e.g. reliability testing, mean time to failure).
- Qualitative: observation of rules that have an indirect link to the desired feature (e.g. staff skills and experience, compliance with QMS standards).
Evidence
Evidence can be based on product analysis, on development processes and reliability testing for a new design, field experience for an established design or product review.
Assurance Cases are illustrated as diagrams with specific symbols. Like mentioned above, every symbol is assigned to a certain level. This graphical illustration is called Goal Structuring Notation (GSN) (T. Kelly, 1998). Thereby goal is used simultaneous for claim. In its simplest form the Assurance Case consists of the three main levels:
The advantage over other procedure models is its easy traceability due to the graphical illustration. This kind of graphical demonstration can refer to the principle of the software modeling language UML (unified modeling language) or SysML (system modeling language) respectively. UML is a standardized graphic modeling language which is used for graphic construction and specification of software-parts, but also other types of systems can be represented. Notations which are language elements that are demonstrated as symbols are used.
An advanced modeling language for more general systems is SysML, which is more flexible and variable in its appearance than UML. It can be used for analysis, specification, verification and validation of many systems.
Next figure shows an example of a typical structure of an Assurance Case:
:
Assurance case for medical devices
In the field of medical technology the Assurance Case has been developed for generic infusion pumps (GIP) (Figure 3). GIPs belong to the risk class II and III, depending on their usage. Therefore they have very high security and safety requirements. In the US alone, 56.000 incident reports on infusion pumps have been reported between January 2005 and December 2009. 1% of those reports resulted in loss of life (FDA, 2010). Due to this enormous error rate the FDA has chosen the Assurance Case as a process model in order to minimize the risk and afford better safety quality.
The FDA report “510(k) Working Group- Preliminary Report and Recommendations” released in August 2010, advices the use of the Assurance Case for premarket notification (510(k)) by the FDA division CDRH (Center for Devices and Radiological Health). 510(k) is an approval regulation for risk class II products, which have to be tested by a premarket review before market launch. The CDRH expects a better traceability of the development and safety examination due to application of the Assurance Cases and therefore a faster approval time. In the case of infusion pumps belonging to class II all risks and hazards as well as safety implementation have been described and demonstrated for Assurance Cases.
For other medical devices the CDRH has to determine the conditions how to develop the Assurance Case and what is needed to guarantee a good comparability and simplified management.
The guidelines have to contain detailed product descriptions of all medical devices with requested approvals and also user descriptions. Furthermore, all modifications since the first release have to be described again. Additional the CDRH has to tutor its reviewers and managers for evaluation of Assurance Cases.
This shows some of the challenges for the introduction of Assurance Cases. The Assurance Case refers to very complex systems and the demonstration of evidence is very work-intensive. Further it is hard to generalize or reuse the case for different medical devices.
The creation of the Assurance Cases and its handling is very labor- and time intensive, but on the other hand safety and elimination of errors are the greatest challenges and should have highest priority. It has to be considered that recalls and error reports are not only cost intensive, but also cause damage of the company’s image.
Assurance Cases are an efficient process model, which in the future can speed up the process of approval and assure highest safety standards at the same time.
INVENSITY would like to support and advice you in introduction and implementation of Assurance Cases for your medical device and questions on functional safety.
Example of an Assurance Case
The claim described on the top level is: The GIP is safe for the patient (C1). A strategy that results from this assumption could be to argue all risks and hazards (S1). This strategy can be considered in different contexts, for example: risks due to user errors by programming (Ct1, Ct4) or wrong application to patients (Ct2, Ct3). Due to the different sub-claims and contexts, more and more specific sub-claims (C18-21) can be considered.
On the second level the GIP is categorized in different hazards: operational hazard, environment hazards, electrical hazards, hardware hazards, software hazards, mechanical hazards, biological and chemicals hazards as well as use hazards. Those categories divide in more detailed sub-claims. All sub-claims have to be proven (E1-14). The evidence can be performed in different ways: user testing (E14), description of behavior if critical situation occurs (E13) or it can be addressed to documentation (E3).
Our daily lives are full of informations that we exchange constantly with our surroundings. Parts of those data are of private nature with the rights and user confidentiality protections that apply to it. The other part of those data belongs to the public domain. In the past, the later was not easily available or simply not usable without limitations or copyright fees. Today, the OPEN DATA trend tries to promote the free access, use and distribution of those public data in order to unlock innovation of new services and products.
The first sources of open data are the public administrations. They gather information from citizens, companies and offices.
Some examples are:
- Department statistics
- Publications (Open Access)
- Library databases, Archive databases
- General health statistics
- Geodata (Maps as well as enriched map contents)
- Weather data and environmental statistics and data
- Public transport routes and time plan , traffic
- Legislation and civil codes
“Europe’s public administrations are sitting on a “goldmine of unrealized economic potential” in the form of data”
European Commision
The recent increase of IT-ressources from offices and administrations rendered those data easily available.
Until now, data originating from those offices were only available as “pay-to-use” basis or would be only used internally. In the last years, the administrations started to recognize this “goldmine of unrealized economic potential”. They also realized that they didn’t have time or resources (human as well as financial) in order to maximize the potential benefits of those data.
As a consequence, the OPEN DATA Initiative was created in 2008 and was taken in various political programs by politicians of various institutions, states and countries around the world. They started then to publish eligible data on a “free-to-use” license in a machine readable format in order to let others find or invent a use for the data they gathered.
The OPEN DATA definition was then born and set as follow: “Open data is data that can be freely used, reused and redistributed by anyone – subject only, at most, to the requirement to attribute and sharealike.”
The diffusion of data as OPEN DATA has a lot of advantages:
- First, the OPEN DATA trend is an interesting vector promotes government transparency as well as encourage citizen interest and involvement in administration processes.
- Second, OPEN DATA is a promising vector for the development of innovative products and services. Those will not only improve living standards but will also provide economical growth and competitiveness of various companies and sectors.
Some countries are already pioneers of the OPEN DATA trend. The US or the UK with their portals www.data.gov andwww.data.gouv.uk are a good example and references.
The European commission published in December 2011 its OPEN DATA strategy. It estimates that this strategy could lead to a 40 Billion Euros GDP increase. In the meanwhile, OPEN DATA is already present in the German government official agenda since 2010!
“Open public data benefits everybody – and more and more public authorities across Europe are recognizing this and opening up. […] I am delighted that Germany is joining the movement towards open government data!”
Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda
As an example, in Germany, different states and cities already set up their own portals like Berlin and Munich. Different ministry and government offices also created their own website dedicated to OPEN DATA. Good examples are the databank of the federal statistics office (Datenkatalog des Statistischen Bundesamtes) and the databank of the federal education ministry (Datenkatalog des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung).
Those website are still in a development phase and competitions are regularly being held in the scope of European projects in order to make them know to the public and encourage their further development.
Through the work of its Technology Hub (ITH) and its Center of Excellence CoE Systematic Innovation, INVENSITY is holding innovation workshops and conducting research work in order to bring forward the OPEN DATA trend.
All together, contrary to other data, OPEN DATA have the advantage of being already available and free of use. It is a promising vector of innovation that INVENSITY identified as of strategic value: OPEN DATA is a practice and philosophy that will modify the way we collaborate with our governments and enrich our interaction with our environment.
High rates of growth of the photovoltaic (PV) market within the last 10 years helped Germany to be the most important player in the global market, with market shares of at least 50% in most years. PV systems have evolved within a few decades from a niche to a successful mass product. However, these systems are mainly used for stationary operation. Against this background, there are also significant market opportunities for applications on vehicles (passenger and freight transport). However, there are no clear system requirements for such mobile PV systems.
This study realized by INVENSITY closes this gap. In the first time and across industries unique demands on solar panels for use on mobile systems (cars, commercial vehicles, aircraft, yachts / boats) are defined. The attractive market potential for new application of solar cells is shown. In this study, cross-industry interviews were conducted with experts from industry and research.
If you have questions about the study, you can contact INVENSITY Innovation Center at any time.
“Those who always do what they already can will always remain what they already are.” – Henry Ford
INVENSITY consultants are exceptionally well-qualified, dedicated and creative engineers and scientists. The combination of their creativity with experience in highly diverse industries leads to ideas which are taken up and further developed by the innovation center. This creativity is the most important source for INVENSITY innovation projects. After joining INVENSITY and at regular intervals, each consultant takes part at innovation discussions. In these discussions ideas get addressed, discussed and after a brief evaluation phase, will get stored in an ideas repository. This ideas repository is regularly searched to discover new innovation projects.
The INVENSITY technology hub enjoys having a large playground to pursue some wacky and unusual ideas. Certainly we follow our clients’ wishes, or research areas and findings from universities and new innovations by other companies. Besides the innovation discussions with our consultants, there’re four other sources for INVENSITY innovation projects.
Innovation projects, too, must be effective and efficient
The systematic management of innovation projects is not just crucial for their success. The efficient execution of projects always means creating scope for further projects and investigating ideas quickly in terms of their marketability. The process of executing innovation projects is divided into five steps.
Research and assessing the topic is a key role on this topic. An innovation’s innovative strength and market potential are derived from these two steps. This is the crucial step from idea to innovation. The processing of projects is carried out by team members of the technology hub, which receive expert support from INVENSITY staff and external cooperation partners. A final report and final evaluation ensure that INVENSITY learns from every innovation project and improves its own innovation management process.
For consultants, the documenting and utilization of previous results is confirmation of their achievement
The results of the technology hub’s work are compiled in innovation reports. These will be presented to clients and partners. Development partners and clients can use the results to advect them to their own specific products or processes. We´re happy to provide you with information about the current topics, handled by the technology hub, via press releases the INVENSITY newsletter and at conferences.
The project „Elektrischer Kinderwagen – ELKIWA“ is the first internal hardware innovation project of INVENSITY.
The goal of the project is a pram, supported by an electrical engine, which offers additional convenience for the user. ELKIWA is equipped with sensors and an intelligent regulation so that it is intuitive to use and surprises with varied functions.
The efficient handling of all available resources, e.g. the use of potential energy when going downhill, stresses the innovative approach at the highest technological level.
The finished product is not the sole objective of the project. In addition, ELKIWA serves a playground for new and experienced consultants to express themselves creatively and realize extraordinary ideas. The implementation of innovative ideas requires a professional requirement management, a convincing safety concept and as well as an organized project management. Today’s customers except special skills of our consultants, which will trained with internal innovation projects like ELKIWA. Imagination, engagement and willingness to implement extraordinary ideas lead to success of ELKIWA and other innovations made by talents.
All the major car manufacturers are trying new technologies, such as improved aerodynamics, or development of hybrid engines, to reduce the consumption of fuel. The approach of the economically efficient shifting of gears can not only greatly reduce the cost of fuel, but also helps to saves the environment. In this case a less fuel consumption also means lower emissions of combustion gases. The gear shift indicator would show the driver the right time, to shift gears energy efficient. For this the characteristics of the engine and the number of revolutions are crucial. Unfortunately, most of the in-use vehicles have this help not installed.
During a thesis at INVENSITY a gear shift indicator app for the iPhone, which recommends the driver visually and audibly for the in-time gear shifting, was created. The right gear is calculated through the speed which is determined by GPS and the number of revolutions which is determined by the number of gears of the vehicle. The application is independent from a mobile service and a mobile telephone network is not needed. For audible output in the app, there are four languages. Furthermore, the color of the gear selection indicator, the sleep mode and the speed unit can be changed. A demo mode allows you to test the app without a vehicle.
In the decision process of switching to an electric car the consumer raises the question of practicality. A road test may take the uncertainty only in part. A simulator that emulates an electric vehicle during the runs of a car with a combustion engine could provide a remedy for this uncertainty. A solution with a smartphone and a related application would be self-evident because it provides an integrated acceleration sensor and a GPS for the recording of the daily trips. In addition, an electrical car model should be integrated in this application for realistic simulation. In this way, the user can see the behavior of the electric vehicle (consumption, operating costs, possible acceleration, and range). The user could furthermore compare between different electric car models if they are implemented in the simulation. The resulting data can be used by manufacturers of electric vehicles and infrastructure for their optimization. For example the placement of charging stations for electric cars can be determined. The basis for the decision is enormously increased by such a simulator.
The intended project had the following objectives:
- Facilitate decision to buy electric vehicles
- Delivery of objective information directly to the consumer
- Increasing the acceptance of electric vehicles among consumers
At first a model of an electric vehicle was created through an innovation project of INVENSITY. In the next step an iPhone app “eMobil Simulator” was created as a successful collaboration with the Technical University of Darmstadt, as part of an IT internship. The electric vehicle is very well simulated through various settings in the model of the electrical car and the usage of GPS, accelerometer of the iPhone and the height data. Further, various display options, the price of electricity and the behavior of the application can be changed. If the app is configured, the simulation can be run directly by pressing a button. There are three views with lots of useful informations during the simulation. The list view shows dynamically the data of speed, distance, fuel consumption, range and nearby charging stations. In the next window, the course of the simulation and closest charging stations are displayed on a map. The last view shows the remaining range, battery level and status of energy recovery. If the battery of the electric vehicle reaches a low level, a loading
Next, real vehicle data will be integrated into the application and it is intended to publish the “eMobil Simulator” in the Apple App Store.
Our clients and us face the same challenge: How can knowledge be managed in such a way that core competences are not lost? How can new employees quickly acquire the necessary expertise and skills? How can knowledge be developed for the pursuit of strategic aims? How can all this be realized with the optimal use of resources?
Summary
Hivescout is a web-based knowledge management and information system that is available for use by INVENSITY consultants in their daily work. By connecting Web 2.0 technologies and a semantic interlinking, the consultants obtain information, knowledge and skills in a targeted manner and in a structured format in order to efficiently execute projects for their clients in a target-oriented way. Hivescout is integrated into the INVENSITY processes and assists the management in the coordination of projects and the processing of client enquiries. A test version of the Hivescout knowledge management system can be submitted atmail@invensity.com.
Background
“Knowledge management is defined as the process of continuously creating new knowledge, disseminating it widely through the organization, and embodying it quickly in new products/services, technologies and systems” – (Nonaka and Takeuchi)
INVENSITY develops high-quality solutions for the challenges its clients face – but how do these solutions come about? INVENSITY employs experts who can demonstrate exceptional expertise in various areas. So that every consultant can benefit from this knowledge pool, INVENSITY provides its consultants with a tool called the Hivescout system, which makes each individual’s expert knowledge available as formatted information.
Hivescout has been developed as a web-based knowledge management system and uses modern and innovative Web 2.0 technologies. The knowledge, which is stored in Hivescout in form of numerous knowledge objects, is linked up semantically. In this way, each knowledge object relates to its predecessor, thus enabling our consultants to think outside the box to develop innovative solutions and thus create added value for our clients. INVENSITY’s employees are always able to access and use this knowledge via the Internet using their iPhone, notebook or any other computer of their choice.
The principle behind Hivescout is based on the classic ‘SECI’ knowledge management model (fig. 2) by Nonaka and Takeuchi. By publishing knowledge in Hivescout, each INVENSITY employee’s implicit knowledge is continuously transformed into explicit knowledge. By combining a range of explicit knowledge and internalization of it results in this explicit knowledge, in turn, becoming implicit knowledge again. In this way, knowledge within INVENSITY is passed on and developed from each employee to a group of employees in a kind of spiraling process. This process assists our consultants, continually develops them and makes day-to-day project work significantly easier.
What does Hivescout offer the consultants of INVENSITY?
Knowledge is stored in Hivescout in the form of knowledge objects, which can be interlinked semantically; for instance, it is possible to create relationships from one knowledge object to another. Let’s take the Employee knowledge object as an example. This knowledge object is linked to another employee – but what does this connection reveal? Not much at first, as the connection is unclear without any context. However, thanks to the semantic connections integrated in Hivescout, the two employees’ relationships with each other can be shown, thus providing added value for the consultants. An employee may, for instance, be the mentor or mentee of the other employee. Thanks to the iPhone app created by INVENSITY, this knowledge network can also be accessed while on the move and at any time.
The technological backbone of Hivescout
Hivescout is based on the PHP5 web technology in cooperation with the MySQL database system. Together with the jQuery JavaScript framework, this triumvirate forms a symbiosis of technology and user-friendliness. Furthermore, Hivescout is equipped with an LDAP interface, which enables Hivescout to be fully integrated into the INVENSITY infrastructure. By using SOAP technology, Hivescout is able to also provide second and third-party systems with information and data. Various INVENSITY online tools benefit from this web service. The provided database reduces administrative work, as the information is available centrally.
Benefits at a glance
- Access to information anywhere, any time
- Knowledge is available to every member of staff
- Continuous professional employee development thanks to knowledge spiral
- Semantic connections and the added value that these create
- Process assistance for employees and the management
Career
Career
INVENSITY is characterized by a well-balanced mix of professionalism, innovative power, internationality and social responsibility.
There are a variety of challenging tasks waiting for you – the level of the challenge is in your hands. In any case, our down to earth working atmosphere, a thorough integration and our team spirit contribute to a good working environment. To find more about the working atmosphere, please refer to our employee testimonials.
Our INVENSITY – values affect all of our actions and thus are also essential in our the search for new team members.
We joined the “Fair Company”- initiative and received the seal “Top Company” as well as “Open Company” by kununu, that are testimonial to our values. Users on these sites rate us with top ratings for our good working environment as well as our transparent business culture.
Join our team! We are looking forward to your application, whether unsolicited or in response to one of our vacancies.
Please feel free to contact us, should you have any questions. Kindly refer to the FAQs for our answers to the most common questions and please find our recruiting system:
Company
Company
“You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it” – Samuel Butler
The business ideals of INVENSITY form the framework for business relations with our clients, which are characterized by trust and respect. We also live by our convictions within the company, which serves to produce a holistic corporate culture.
We define strategies and aims in accordance with our vision and mission; our actions are based on corporate values
– The mission and vision reflect the aim of our actions. Our strategies and, ultimately, our aims, are derived from them. The overriding aims are broken down further and represent the objectives of each individual member of staff during half-yearly appraisals. In this way, each INVENSITY employee has the opportunity to make his or her own contribution to the overall company objective.
– The values ultimately form the basis of our actions. They shape how we treat each other and shape our conduct towards clients, suppliers and the general public.
Sincerity means always saying what you mean, and meaning what you say, all the while practicing the culture of feedback, listening to others in an open way without preconceptions.
Respect means showing everyone by my actions that I appreciate their worth, regardless of their career status, their experience or performance and ensuring that my actions are always informed by the principles of care, being interested and wanting to be involved.
Trust means that I express my confidence in INVENSITY employees and colleagues when dealing with customers and that I gain credibility through my own actions which are based on integrity and honest intentions. For us, trust is the basis of all cooperation. It grows with time and with shared experience.
Fairness means treating INVENSITY employees and clients in a fair, decent and honest manner while taking into consideration their individual abilities and situation, as well as observing the rules that have been put in place.
Responsibility means standing by the consequences of your own actions at INVENSITY and standing by clients, and actively doing all you can to ensure that tasks that fall under your area of responsibility are fulfilled completely.
Commitment means taking on tasks and responsibilities with energy and enthusiasm as well as being actively involved in achieving both your own objectives and those of INVENSITY.
Our mission is geared towards our external stakeholders with an emphasis on added value, and is also aimed at internal stakeholders, referring here to freedom for growth.
External mission:
– We offer professional support to our clients with regard to technological challenges and together achieve optimal solutions thanks to our expertise.
– We are valued by our clients as a top-class consultancy and are held in the highest regard.
Internal mission:
– As an employer extraordinaire, we offer our excellent employees a diverse range of opportunities to contribute to achieving excellent results in high-performing teams.
– So as to enable our employees to fully develop and apply their abilities and talents, we create an environment of opportunities and freedom in which our staff can learn from each other, undergo continuous professional development to unfold their full personal potential.
We believe in the achievability of our vision and orient our strategy and actions towards it:
It is INVENSITY’s vision to become the company of reference for innovations, technologies, talents and trust in the global consulting market.
“One cannot tie a knot with just one hand” – Saying from Mongolia
People at INVENSITY are individual personalities and experts at their field. However, the more different characters and abilities are, the more we all have one thing in common: passion for technology. That’s why we are standing behind our actions.
Frank Lichtenberg (Director)
Born in Berlin, Frank Lichtenberg completed his international studies with an MBA, attending the European Business School, Schloss Reichartshausen, the École Supérieure de Commerce, Dijon, France, and the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
Over the course of his career Frank Lichtenberg got to know his trade, i.e. management, consulting and technology business, from various perspectives. As a member of the management in a venture capital enterprise, he has been instrumental in the founding and development of primarily technology-oriented companies, which, in some cases, progressed to become the market leaders in their segments. He was the founding member and CEO of the famous Frankfurt-based VentureLab, which turned out to become the “hotbed” for a wave of start-ups in Germany.
He gained extensive consulting experience in a responsible position in an international technology consultancy and gained experience in the area of corporate strategy & organization in leading strategy consultancy projects.
Christopher Seinecke (Associate Director)
Born in the German city of Ingolstadt, Christopher Seinecke studied Business Administration in Lyon and Rouen, France, after graduating from high school in Geneva, Switzerland.
After his subsequent MBA in Los Angeles, USA, he transferred as a systems analyst to one of the best-known IT system houses for quality management. There, he was responsible for setting up and implementing quality-relevant processes in automobile and medical technology.
Between 2006 and 2007, Christopher Seinecke worked for an international technology consultancy. He enjoyed success in diversifying the client portfolio by opening up new industry sectors and bringing forward industrial best practices.
Since the summer of 2007 he has been in charge of the diversification strategy of INVENSITY and has been leading the development of the Business Development Center of Excellence.
Volker Lippitz (Managing Consultant)
Volker Lippitz studied Industrial Engineering at the University of Siegen, Germany.
He first worked on cross-sector projects in the department for innovative vehicle concepts at Daimler before implementing a similarly cross-sector technical market research for innovative lightweight materials at ThyssenKrupp. At ZF Sachs, he worked in multi-project management for numerous development projects.
Internally, Volker Lippitz is developing the field of innovation management. His interests lie in technology transfer across sectors, in resource-saving innovation management and systematic idea generation.
Christian Friedrich (Managing Consultant)
Born in Bernkastel-Kues (Rhineland Palatinate), Germany, Christian Friedrich completed the International Studies in Electrical Engineering at the Aachen University of Applied Sciences with a degree in electrical engineering. He also spent a year at Coventry University (UK) and graduated in Master of Science in Control Engineering.
Christian began his professional career at Jaguar/Land Rover Research where he was responsible for the development of a complex system. After his return to Germany, he worked as a consultant for an internationally-operating corporate consultancy, where he was responsible for the model-based development and the required processes.
After joining INVENSITY Christian was able to bring in his valuable experience in various industries like the automotive industry, defense industry and medical industry and headed e.g. organization-wide process improvement initiatives.
Since 2008, Christian Friedrich is Head of the INVENSITY Systems Engineering Center of Excellence. In this position he coordinates the activities of INVENSITY in Systems Engineering. The issues of process and quality management are particularly close to his heart. As the management representative for quality management he is responsible for the continuous improvement of the company. As a managing agent of the GfSE (German Society on Systems Engineering), Christian Friedrich represents the interests of INVENSITY in this body. He has been a member of the management of INVENSITY since 2012.
Christian Beul (Manager)
Born in Düren (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany), Christian Beul studied at the University of Cologne and the Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary, graduating with a degree in business informatics.
Following his studies, Christian Beul began working at INVENSITY as a consultant in the summer of 2008. Since then he has successfully implemented numerous R&D projects in the areas of process optimization, project management and safety management for renowned companies in the automotive & defense industry. He also gives regular lectures for the Gesellschaft für Systems Engineering (GfSE).
Motivated by the desire to combine the technical expertise gained with economic background knowledge, Christian Beul has been working as a business consultant in the area of business development since 2011.
Daniel Pfeifer (Associate Manager)
Born in Wiesbaden (Hesse), Daniel Pfeifer studied at the Technical University in Darmstadt graduating with a degree in business informatics.
In 2011 Daniel Pfeifer started as Consultant for INVENSITY and has successfully implemented numerous R&D projects in the areas of requirements- and test management, as well as innovation and safety management for renowned companies in the automotive, transportation, IT and aerospace industry.
Motivated by the desire to combine the technical expertise gained with his economic background knowledge, Daniel Pfeifer has been working as a business consultant in the area of business development since 2013.
Matthias Welge (Principal Consultant)
Matthias Welge is Principal Consultant at the technology consulting company INVENSITY and is based in the Düsseldorf office, Germany. He consults German and international clients in the area of Project/Portfolio Management, R&D processes and Technical/Commercial Due Diligence.
Over the years, he has developed particular expertise in the Automotive & Transportation (OEMs and Tier-1/2/3) sector as well as in a broad range of technology driven industries with high R&D efforts. In recent years, he has been involved as project lead for numerous organizational change and M&A projects. Matthias Welge has special interest in managing complex projects which he pursued by publishing articles and studies as well as speaking on conferences.
Before joining INVENSITY in 2007 he was working for another technology consultancy and finished his studies of industrial engineering at TU Darmstadt.
Fabian Koark (Principal Consultant)
Fabian Koark gained his expertise with our clients KMW, Daimler, BMW, ZF, TRW, Bosch, Continental, KSPG, SAIC and Dräxlmaier in Germany, USA and China. He joined INVENSITY in 2009, after his studies at the TU Darmstadt, the University of California and his consulting experience within the St. Gallen Consulting Group and Lufthansa Systems. As consultant for engineering projects and organization, he is an asked expert for system and organization optimization. He is well-regarded as referent and author of publications.
In 2011, he established the Center of Excellence for Organizational Change. Since 2016, Fabian Koark manages all North American activities from the INVENSITY office in Detroit, Michigan.
Paul Arndt (Principal Consultant)
Paul Arndt is responsible for cyber security activities at INVENSITY. He obtained his diploma in informatics at the TU Darmstadt with focus on the development of embedded systems and IT security.
He specializes in implementation and optimization of development processes, particularly in projects with high software share. A special focus is made up of methods and tools around cyber security. He carried out projects at Daimler Busses, TechniSat, DIEHL Aerospace, KMW and Continental. Furthermore, he is the responsible IT safety officer for IT security strategies at INVENSITY.
Björn Engelhardt (Principal Consultant)
After studying at the University of Göttingen and the Technical University of Darmstadt Björn Engelhardt has obtained his diploma in industrial engineering/mechanical engineering. The focus of his studies was in the topics of product development, project management and innovation management.
His focus at INVENSITY is in the areas of project management and cooperation & supplier management. He gained experience in projects with leading companies in the automotive, aerospace and defense sector in Germany and abroad. Findings of his consulting projects can be found in various professional articles again.
Ulf Stocker (Principle Consultant)
Ulf Stocker has a degree in technical computer science – an interdisciplinary bridge course between electrical engineering and computer science – graduated from the University of Kaiserslautern. The studies placed emphasis on embedded systems and distributed software.
His main subjects at INVENSITY are the design and development of software, considering classical as well as agile methods and including requirements engineering and support of processes. He applies his knowledge in the areas of automotive, aerospace and defense in customer projects.
Since 2012 he is one of the executive leads of the CoE Software Engineering and together with his colleagues he creates new methods to current challenges of software engineering.
Sebastian Hetzel (Principle Consultant)
Sebastian Hetzel has finished his study at the University of Technology Dresden as well as the University of Southern Queensland Toowoomba, Australia by reaching the Diploma in Business and Engineering. The core subjects of his study were Electrical Engineering, Automotive Engineering and International Project Management.
At INVENSITY, his focus lies in project management. He is skilled in research and development agitations based on his engagements in the utility vehicle- and the defense sector. His knowledge in project management is based on his positions as technical project manager as well as project leader. Besides, he earned leadership skills as result of his position as site-leader.
Stefan Marquart (Senior Business Consultant)
Born in Aichach (Bavaria), Stefan J. Marquart finished his studies at the TH Ingolstadt (Germany) and University of Borås (Sweden) as a Bachelor of Enigneer in Business and Engineering after his apprenticeship as an electrician. Subsequently he passed his Master of Arts in Business in Strategic Management at the FH Wiener Neustadt (Austria).
Stefan J. Marquart gained first project experience in a market leading company in development and manufacture of special founding machinery and mining equipment. He was responsible for activity-based accounting, process analysis and optimization for a newly built Power&Free enamelling line, as well as for production planning and scheduling procedures of the steel production.
In 2012 and 2013 he was working for a management consultancy in Vienna, which is specialized on the field of Innovation Management, particularly the Lead User method. As a research agent he was in charge of establishing trend- and market studies, customer needs analysis and identification of Lead Users, as well as development of new project formats.
Since 2014 Stefan J. Marquart is working as a Business Consultant for INVENSITY, where he combines his technical experience and economical knowledge.
Steffen Hofferbert (Business Consultant)
Born in Seeheim-Jugenheim (Hesse), Steffen Hofferbert graduated in business informatics with a focus on operational and strategic project management at the Technical University of Darmstadt as Master of Science.
Before joining INVENSITY, Steffen Hofferbert gained experience in the industry and consulting area. He worked in Product Management at Deutsche Telekom, Program Management at Software AG and IT Business Consulting at PwC. At the University of New South Wales (Australia), he worked as a research intern in the area of social media and published a research paper on gamification.
At INVENSITY, he was involved in several R&D projects in the fields of test management, project management and process consulting. Internally, Steffen Hofferbert worked in the Center of Project Management in the areas of PMO, project ramp-up as well as operational method and process development.
Motivated by his successful project acquisitions and the desire to combine his technical expertise with his economic background, Steffen Hofferbert joined the business development as a business consultant in 2018.
Marvin Edelkamp (Business Consultant)
Marvin Edelkamp (born in Hoya, Lower Saxony) graduated in mechanical engineering with focus on international project management at the University of Siegen as a Bachelor of Science.
Prior to his consultancy work, Marvin Edelkamp was already able to gain industrial experience abroad. For example, he worked in the quality management department at the Volkswagen AG in Mexico.
Since 2015, Marvin Edelkamp has been working as a consultant at INVENSITY in the Center of Excellence Project Management. In 2016, he joined the business development department as an Associate Business Consultant, combining his technical background with knowledge in economics and project management.
Julian Scherbarth (Business Consultant)
Julian Scherbarth graduated with his master’s in digital communication with focus on big data and data visualization from the Saginaw Valley State University in the United States, Michigan.
Prior to INVENSITY Julian Scherbarth gained experience in project management and planning game theories supporting a UNESCO project in South Africa. Before joining INVENSITY in 2017 he worked for another consulting company where he was specializing in the Industry 4.0 mainly on machine vision and machine learning for industrial automation.
In 2017 and 2018 Julian Scherbarth was responsible for the business development activities in North America at INVENSITY Inc. in Detroit, Michigan. He managed Fortune 200 clients in the automotive sector in various R&D topics including: E-Mobility, Autonomous Driving and HMI.
Since 2019 Julian Scherbarth is part of the Munich office where he is focusing on clients in the field of E-Mobility and HMI.
Christopher Flahs (Associate Business Consultant)
Christopher Flahs, born in Belo Horizonte (Brazil), first studied Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Product and Production Development at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf. He then graduated from the University of Duisburg-Essen with a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering specializing in Automotive Engineering & Management. Meanwhile, he spent a semester abroad at the Universidade de São Paulo (Brazil), focusing on Mechanical Engineering.
Christopher Flahs already gained his first professional experience during his studies: He was a student trainee at SMS Siemag in Düsseldorf for four years, where he worked in technical sales and in the innovation department. He also did his master’s thesis in the aftermarket at Bosch Automotive Steering in Schwäbisch Gmünd.
Christopher Flahs began his career at INVENSITY in 2017 as a technical consultant. He initially supported various projects in the automotive sector and worked for several months as Project Manager before changing into the BDD in August 2018. Since then, he has focused on customers from the automotive sector.
Christian Schubert (Senior Consultant)
Christian Schubert has achieved his diploma in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology with a specialization in Information and Communications Technology at the University of Applied Sciences Giessen-Friedberg.
As a technical consultant at INVENSITY, he has gained interdisciplinary expertise in the entire range of systems engineering at various companies in the automotive, aerospace and defense sector.
Dr. Marc Großerüschkamp (Senior Consultant)
Marc Großerüschkamp studied physics at the University of Leipzig. The main focus was in the field of biophysics. The diploma thesis deals with the investigation of cancer cells with the help of optical traps. During his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, he worked on spectroscopic measurements of functional proteins.
At INVENSITY, Marc Großerüschkamp is the head of the INVENSITY Technology Hub. The task of this department is the observation and evaluation of novel technologies as well as the targeted knowledge building on relevant technologies. Currently, the focus is on artificial intelligence, which is playing an increasingly important role in the consulting projects of INVENSITY.
Jan Zutter (Senior Consultant)
Jan Zutter completed his studies in the field of Information Technology at the University of Kaiserslautern with diploma. He focused on embedded systems and hardware/software co-design.
Jan Zutter is an expert in Systems Engineering at INVENSITY. The introduction and optimization of development processes for requirements and test management are especially important to him. With his experience he manages projects in the sectors of aerospace, automotive and defense.
Kai Hardy (Senior Consultant)
Kai Hardy obtained his B. Sc. in computer science at the University of Applied Sciences Rhine-Main. His focus during the academic studies was on Software Engineering and Image Processing.
His focus at INVENSITY is on agile software development methods, IT and tool development. He accompanied successful projects at KMW, Qiagen, DIEHL und Continental.
INVENSITY internal Kai Hardy is responsible for the work group knowledge management and for the development of the INVENSITY knowledge management tool Hivescout.
Juliane Kläs (Senior Consultant)
Juliane Kläs studied biology at the University of Düsseldorf, Würzburg and at SUNY, NY, US. Her major was microbiology. During her PhD at the IPMB, Heidelberg University and at the Tokyo University she specialized in pharmaceutical biotechnology and focused on the transport of active substances into the brain.
At INVENSITY, Juliane Kläs works on projects in the fields of process development, project-, safety- and quality management. Furthermore she is a member of the Mentoring Board which defines and configures the INV-Mentoring program. She is also a trainer for internal trainings like communication skills, conflict management and project management. In the CoE PM she is responsible of the topic supply management in the medical field and published some professional articles.
Anna-Lena Marquart (Head of HR)
Anna Marquart focused on marketing and Human Resources Management during her bachelor studies at the University of Regensburg. Her bachelor thesis dealt with the effects of presenteeism on the corporate success and its negative consequences for the health of employees. With her successful completion of her studies she chose to start her career at INVENSITY in 2016.
As Head of HRD Anna Marquart is responsible for the department’s strategy as well as supporting the company’s internationalization, therefor she spent half a year in the office Detroit.
Barbara M. Bschorr (Managing Assistant HR)
Barbara Bschorr has been a graduate business economist (FH) since 2007 and completed her studies at the Rosenheim University of Applied Sciences with a focus on Human Resource Management & International Management (country focus: South-East Asia) and a successfully published diploma thesis on Talent Management. She has several years of professional experience in the field of personnel management in engineering and is responsible for HR, recruiting and university marketing at INVENSITY as Managing Assistant HR at the Munich location.
Tatevik Mkrtchyan (Managing Assistant HR)
Tatevik Mkrtchyan completed her bachelor’s degree in education and sociology with a focus on adult education and media education at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz in 2012. In her bachelor thesis she dealt with the role of lifelong learning and the difference between qualification and education in the context of in-company training and further education. After the successful completion of her studies she gained experience in human resources management at a large German bank. As Managing Assistant Human Relations at the Wiesbaden office, Tatevik Mkrtchyan is responsible for recruiting, employee support and personnel development.
Svenja Kapust (Managing Assistant HR)
Svenja Kapust completed her master’s degree in business psychology with a focus on personnel and organizational psychology at the Business School in Berlin in 2016. In her master’s thesis she dealt with the topic “Self-Organization – An Empirical Study on the Future of Leadership”. After the successful completion of her studies she gained her first professional experience in Italy. As Team Assistant Human Relations, Svenja Kapust is responsible for recruiting employees throughout Germany, as well as for employee support and personnel development at the Stuttgart location. Furthermore, she is the contact person for labour law.
Daphne Wölk (Managing Assistant HR)
Daphne Wölk completed her master’s degree in management with a focus on human resources at HS Mainz in 2018. Her master’s thesis dealt with the topic “Retention Management in Times of the Working World 4.0”. Parallel to her studies she already chose to start her career at INVENSITY. As Managing Assistant at the Wiesbaden location she is responsible for recruiting and employee support, nationwide trade fairs and onboarding at INVENSITY.
“We cannot make things 1000 per cent better. But we can make 1000 things 1 per cent better.” – Ralph Wright Ketner
“One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.” – Marie Curie
INVENSITY shares its wealth of expertise in high-end technology gained over many years with its customers in a solution-orientated and flexible way. INVENSITY’s employees deliberately make use of the bundled knowledge of a sector or a technology and also check applicability of this knowledge in other industries. Thus added value can be created beyond the core industries of INVENSITY.
Automotive
The automobile industry is one of INVENSITY’s core industries – here INVENSITY works closely with OEMs and their suppliers. The commercial vehicle industry is also part of this client segment.
The requirements of these three client segments can differ significantly.
Nonetheless, thanks to its experience in all three client segments, INVENSITY is able to offer its clients a wide range of solutions, both with regard to development management and project management. These include, for instance, taking over development tasks in the mechatronics field, project management/partial project management in the development and the optimization of R&D processes in accordance with the current standards in the automobile industry (e.g. IEC 61508 and SPICE).
Rail Industry
With annual growth of 3% the rail industry is a core area within the manufacturing industry in the high-tech sector, and sees itself confronted by changing framework conditions and increasing competitive pressures based on an internationalization of production, the expansion of the EU and a liberalization of markets. As the transport sector with the fastest-growing transport performance and the best environmental balance, the rail industry is an industry with a promising future and an excellent growth prospect and is therefore an area INVENSITY is paying particular attention to.
With far-reaching experience, INVENSITY offers assistance in the 3 core areas
1. locomotives and rail vehicles
2. infrastructure
3. signaling equipment and telecommunications
and in large-scale projects of operating companies, making best use of our expertise in project management/partial project management, safety management in accordance with the required standards and in the optimization of research and development processes.
The aerospace industry has become one of the catalysts of innovation in Germany. With continuous growth and industry turnover of around €20 billion, the industry has become an important economic factor.
The high level of innovation in the sector makes it an attractive client segment for INVENSITY. The structure of INVENSITY corresponds to the high client requirements that rely on technical know-how, experience and communication skills. The cross-sector approach, which is based on transferring best practice from other industries, proves to be rather interesting here as well.
INVENSITY’s experience enables it to offer customized solutions, both in development and project management. These include, for instance, taking over development tasks, investigations into material properties, project management/partial project management in development and the optimization of maintenance processes.
The defense field is characterized by increasing innovation pressures and internationalization. In particular mobility and the development of mechatronic systems are at the very fore of investment.
The technical challenges are similar to those faced by the other industries within the INVENSITY client circle, with maintenance and the need for safety naturally being of greater significance in the defense industry. With INVENSITY’s experience in this industry it can provide highly bespoke solutions for this industry in particular.
INVENSITY managed to attract much attention due to its ability to develop in accordance with the V-Model XT conforming to IEC 61508 and AQAP 2210 while taking into account MIL-STD 882. As a result, companies in the field of defense regularly make use of our process consulting and book training courses, and entrust us with challenging operational implementation projects.
Energy
Overall, the global markets for energy technology have good prospects for growth. In view of the rising crude oil prices, especially the demand for renewable energy is increasing significantly and, according to estimates, will reach approx. 30 percent p.a. for solar energy plants and around 15 percent p.a. for wind power plants.
German companies are proving to be particularly innovative in the field of fuel cells, where the number of registered patents is showing a double digit growth rate. Thanks to its cross-sector experience, INVENSITY offers customized solutions in this industry in the areas of development, optimization of processes and project management.
Plant Construction
A typical feature of industrial plant construction is, that the plants are specific to the individual client. In general, they are individual constructions or small batch types, which are associated with very high investment costs. Plants of this kind can be found in process engineering, power engineering, supply engineering, production engineering, machine construction and electrotechnology.
The many competitors against whom companies must compete with their core competences are not the only challenge this industry is facing. The tremendously high pressure of keeping to budgets and deadlines, also requires matured management processes.
Our extensive expertise in project management means INVENSITY can assist plant manufacturers and plant operators in all project processes, from defining the requirements to initial start-up and process optimization for the plant.
Germany is one of the world’s leaders for medical technology, with two out of the ten largest companies globally being German companies. Medical technology is characterized by an increasing interconnectedness of a wide range of systems and by great diversity. German companies are in addition increasingly putting their efforts in developing technologically challenging components and are investing substantially in R&D.
Based on INVENSITY’s experience across all sectors, we are ideally positioned to offer tailored solutions in this industry, especially in the areas of embedded software, supplier management and software development/testing.
Light is a tool with unparalleled properties. Precision, speed, and high energy and information densities make the control of light a key technology.
Optical technologies as a technological area, is a sector of indispensible importance for an innovation consulting company. It comprises nine areas, which are found in everyday and high-tech applications in the photonics industry, and which also form key technologies in other industries:
* Optical equipment and components
* Energy management
* Medical technology and life sciences
* Flat-panel displays
* Lighting engineering
* Image processing, measuring equipment and analytics
* Information technology, office automation and consumer electronics
* Communications technology
* Industrial production
Telecommunications is an important industry in Germany. On one hand the sector has great economic significance, as its innovations lead to a productivity increase in industry, and on the other hand because it represents a catalyst for innovation due to its short development cycles.
Challenges are in particular caused on the back of an ever-increasing interlinking of different technologies and as a result of constant changes in technology. Thanks to its cross-sector experience, INVENSITY offers bespoke solutions in this industry, particularly in the areas of IT development, change management and in the optimization of processes.
“Always act in such a way that further possibilities arise.” – Heinz von Förster
INVENSITY supports a variety of social responsibility projects.
Amongst others we organize every year our “Kindergarten Contest”. Kindergarten and nursery schools around our office locations (Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden, Stuttgart, München, Detroit) have the opportunity to win a prize money to realize their kids dreams.
With our own Children-Engineering-Academy we show children in a playful way the backgrounds of all-day technology.
Furthermore we are active with several local an regional social events.
Due to our engagement in social activities we were decorated with the “Golden Lily” in 2013 and 2015.
Do you have an special need or idea for a social project? Please contact us!
INVENSITYs goal with the Children Engineering Academy is to show even the small ones how all day technology is all about.
In a playful way the children learn, how the daily things work. Especially these kinds of technology, that are in use every day without thinking about it:
How das a GPS work? In which way is it connected with the magnetic field of our earth?
Why does the sound come out of an MP3 player? How does my ear hear the music?
The INVENSITY Kindergarten Contest 2019 has started! We would like to invite you to participate again this year.
The contest is aimed at kindergartens, day care centres and nurseries in and around our offices in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Wiesbaden, Stuttgart and Munich. INVENSITY is a technology and innovation consultancy and sustainable social commitment is part of our self-image. We launched the contest nine years ago with the aim of promoting the commitment and innovative ideas of children’s institutions. With our growth, the scope of the contest has also grown. For example, we are currently awarding a prize money of 10,000 euros for all locations in total.
Do you have an idea for your institution that will help the children to develop or that you simply enjoy more? Then we look forward to receiving your application:
Please send us your concept by 21.06.2019 to the contact below. The documents should briefly describe on about one or two pages what makes up your kindergarten, what the idea is, how you imagine the implementation and how you plan to use the prize money if you win. There are no limits to your imagination! We evaluate all project proposals submitted on time according to the criteria of innovativeness & creativity, feasibility and sustainable benefit for all children in your institution. The institutions with the most exciting projects will then have the opportunity to present their ideas in more detail.
You are welcome to find out more about last year’s winners below.
We are looking forward to your ideas and your submissions! Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Contact person:
Beate Christmann
INVENSITY GmbH
Mainzer Str. 19
65185 Wiesbaden
Tel +49 611/ 334 804 10
Fax +49 611/ 334 804 19
Hamburg
- At the FRÖBEL Kindergarten Elbwichtel it is one of the basic principles to strengthen the children’s right to self-determination and participation. For this reason the institution is now implementing a children’s parliament in which each child can influence the kindergarten’s everyday life with his or her vote.
Dusseldorf
- The Arche nursery in Düsseldorf raises the awareness of its children for the topics of sustainability and environmental protection. For this purpose, it is further expanding its environmental sheriff’s project: The children will explore the path of rubbish, learn what it means to shop packaging-free and understand the life cycle of vegetable plants. In addition, a stamp road will be built to reward children who come to the facility on foot, by bicycle or by public transport.
Wiesbaden
- The Catholic Kindergarten Haus Marienfried wins the INVENSITY Kindergarten Contest in Wiesbaden for the second time, after 2017, with its project idea for the construction of a water experiment laboratory. In this natural science laboratory, the children will playfully explore the element of water.
Stuttgart
- In future, the parent-child group Rohrspatzen will be using an outdoor materials laboratory to bring its children closer to the topics of resources and ecology. The little ones will learn to discover and describe different materials and their properties in a playful way.
Munich
- The Naturkinder Prinz-Eugen-Park are building a kindergarten without walls in which around 50 Munich city children will come into direct contact with nature. With the prize money of the Kindergarten Contest, the parents’ initiative realizes the construction of a groundwater pump with hand pump. The children should learn about the element water and its properties in a playful way.
Hamburg
- The child daycare facility “Caning & Caning” won the first Kindergarten contest in Hamburg, where our youngest office is located. The facility received support from INVENSITY to build a greenhouse and an art studio.
Dusseldorf
- Our team in Düsseldorf was pleased to declare the kindergarten Saint Reinold the winner of the local contest. Among so many applications their concept could win through. The kindergarten will set up a new relaxation room that offers a retreat as well as a quiet and comfortable space.
Wiesbaden
- We were able to deliver a great treat to the kids daycare center Marienfried in Wiesbaden Dotzheim. We enabled them to set up their own vegetable garden to educate the children on sustainability. A nursery will supervise the project professionally. The children will help planting and designing the garden-paths, fences and the large concrete wall in their still meager outside area.
Stuttgart
- In Stuttgart, we enabled the Gedächtniskindergarten to build a great theatre stage to give children a room to experience immerse themselves in different roles. Moreover, the children are motivated to participate in creating the stage accessories.
Munich
- Due to the low number of participants in Munich, previous year’s applications have been included. Finally, the Ehrenbürger e.V. won with their concept. They will implement adjustable wooden platforms to create playing and resting areas, just as required.
Düsseldorf
- Kindergarten Kleiner Planet, Lebenshilfe Düsseldorf e.V. – Redesign of the corridor into a creative space with five sensory stations. Especially children with a disability can experience various environmental impressions independently with all their senses.
Wiesbaden
- Ecumenical Kindergarten Wiesbaden – Construction of a larger and safer wardrobe with combined stowage and storage options.
Stuttgart
- Children’s group Nikolausstraße e.V. – Construction of a bicycle water pump with electricity generator, with which the children can generate electricity for their own use. In this way, the topics of sustainability, team building and responsibility are taught in a playful way.
München
- Children’s group Panama e.V. – Construction of a sustainable natural fence that protects the children from the busy road, but at the same time stands for openness and a culture of welcome.
Düsseldorf
- In Düsseldorf, the “Kinderforum e.V.” receives support from INVENSITY in the design and reconstruction of various play areas so that they can be used on several levels.
Wiesbaden
- In Wiesbaden, INVENSITY helps the parents’ initiative “Die Rübe e.V.” to build a modular sensing wall for the playful development of the sense of touch and feel.
Stuttgart
- In Stuttgart, the parent-child initiative “Weissenhofkindergarten e.V.” is given a “number and letter land” with a sitting and reading corner for effortless early language support.
München
- In Munich, INVENSITY helps to rebuild the creative hut for the parent-child initiative “Osterwald e.V.”. It offers retreats for concentrated and creative work.
Düsseldorf
- Daycare center “Die Zaunkönige” – Sand house with toys
Wiesbaden
- Daycare center Tigerbär e.V. – Conversion of the outdoor area into a football field
München
- Municipal Kindergarten Feldmochinger Str. – Construction of a light and shadow room
Düsseldorf
- Daycare center Anna Siemsen – Redesign of the outdoor facility for romping and playing
- Kindergarten “Kleiner Elefant” – Equipment of a media room to playfully learn how to deal with the media
Wiesbaden
- Daycare center Wiesbaden – Construction of an outdoor barefoot path
- Daycare center of the evangelic main church “Regenbogenland” – Course “self-confident and strong” for the little ones on violence prevention and self-esteem.
München
- Nursery Krabbeleck – Conversion of a room for a permanent experimental corner for playful experimentation and discovery
- Parent-child-initiative Würmchen e.V. – Construction of an explorer and ravine landscape for the curious crib children
Düsseldorf
- Kath. Kindertagesstätte St. Maria vom Frieden with a adventure castle
Wiesbaden
- Parent initative Kindergruppe Omnibus e.V. with a raised flowerbed for the outdoor area
München
- Parent initative Mäcki Löffel e.V. with the redesign of a rest area
Wiesbaden
- Parent initative Rübe e.V. with a concept for redesigning the outdoor play area. Read here, how the place looks like after the implementation.
München
- Kindergarten an der Toni Pfülf: Street with a garden from which the children can earn and eat fruits and vegetables.