In a design thinking process, the students, led by HNU professor Dr. Jens Kolb, worked out possible scenarios and solutions to the task. In a total of seven phases, the team, which consisted of students of business administration in healthcare, information management and corporate communications, business informatics and industrial engineering, tackled the challenge and developed several possible solutions within five days.
Through numerous employee surveys and expert interviews, the students gathered impressions and opinions from the workforce and the management level in order to take into account as many of the employees' motivations and ways of thinking as possible in the proposed solutions.
At the end of March, the team presented the results to a committee made up of employees from the management, fleet, HR, IT, works council, marketing, plant planning and industrial service & construction departments. The students developed a total of three detailed solutions: an employee shuttle, a ride-sharing app and smart parking management. The promising approach here was that all three concepts interlocked with each other, enabling a well-rounded overall concept. But the depth that the project group achieved in its topics in a very short time also convinced the committee. The proposed solutions were subsequently discussed and scrutinized.
Daniel Pitzer, Commercial Director at Liebherr-Werk Ehingen GmbH, was very satisfied with the results: "It was fascinating to see how quickly and with what passion the students took on the task set for them. I am very impressed with what the team has achieved in such a short time."
Liebherr's Ehingen plant is now setting up a project team directly afterwards to evaluate the results and move into phased implementation.
