ESTIEM Magazine | Autumn 2005 | Radio Frequency Identification

Issue 29 2005/II | ISSN 0874-5242 | Price 0 Euro | www.estiem.org 1

ESTIEM MAGAZINE Have you been tagged, yet?

Radio Frequency IdentiďŹ cation

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INTRODUCTION Editorial President’s Speech Introduction to ESTIEM

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4 5 6

NEWS

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ESTIEM News From the Board: What Do You Know?

Vision of Cycles: New Winds Blowing Introducing CRC

8 10 12 13

FOCUS 16

RFID: Tag Mania!

Smart Labels RFID at Avery Dennison Fancy a Fraud?

P&G and EPC METRO Group Future Store

20 22 25 26 28

EVENTS Council Meeting Lyon Pre-Council Meeting Grenoble Summer Academy Workshop Istanbul Summer Academy Hungary Summer Academy Turkey Vision Warsaw Vision Lund Alumni Meeting Sofia Activity Week Hamburg

30 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

PROFESSIONAL P&G Offers a New Challenge Every Day A Thesis in Portugal Interview with a Consultant Microsoft’s Academic Programmes

40 41 43 45

INSIDE ESTIEM Cultural Prejudice: Cool as a Finn?

ESTIEMers Beyond Europe: Edwin van Rest So What’s Happening in... Lisbon?

Observer Groups: Groningen & Dortmund AGENDA

45 47 48 49 50

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INTRODUCTION IMPRINT

Old News?

Project Leader: René Heunen

Layout: David Christian Berg René Heunen Marko Ljubicic Design: David Christian Berg, Public Relations Comittee Acquisition: Aykut Bolat Huseyin Binzat Contact: magazine@estiem.org www.magazine.estiem.org Disclaimer: The contents may not always reflect the opinion of the publisher.

Any reproduction or copy is permitted only with the permission of the editors.

Contact: magazine@estiem.org

ESTIEM Permanent Office Paviljoen B-6 P.O. Box 513 5600 MB Eindhoven The Netherlands Fax: 0031- (0)40 2473871 e-mail: info@estiem.org www.estiem.org

RENÉ HEUNEN

Editorial Staff: Aykut Bolat René Heunen Zoya Ivanova Ivan Karlovic Malgorzata Kucharska Marko Ljubicic Knud Lasse Lüth Anna Marszalkiewicz Yulia Vorozhbyanova

It is the year 585 BC in a town called Melitus, a flourishing commercial city in Asia Minor (now part of Turkey). A very multi-cultural environment, influenced by trade cities such as Babylon and Egypt. Not really of interest in itself, were it not for a man named Thales. This guy, who would probably have made a perfect ESTIEMer, had the idea that loadstone attracts iron because it has a soul. “So what? ”, you’ll say. The prevailing view back then was that movement of any kind indicated life, or a soul, or the intervention of some god. And it was quite something for Thales to openly speak about his idea that this particular type of movement was caused by the loadstone itself, and not by any god.

Luckily for Thales, the presence of many different cultures in Melitus meant that there was not a strongly repressive religious orthodoxy, as was often the case in primitive societies (and unfortunately also in some supposedly not-so-primitive ones today). Hence Thales was free to speak his inquiry and share his idea with others.

Yes, you’re still reading a publication with Radio Frequence Identification as its main topic.

For Thales’ ‘discovery’ of electromagnetism is the very fundament of this technology currently headlining CEOs’ agendas worldwide. In that perspective, it’s simply another application of a principle known to mankind for ages.

So bear in mind that a multicultural environment can be a great base for ideas that might just change the world.

It is the year 2037 AD. A great year for ESTIEM, since one of its founding members is the association’s first alumnus to receive a Nobel prize...

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Have you ever imagined that a small high-tech device, which is not much bigger than a grain of sand, makes it possible for all to communicate by mobile services?

No need to mention the impact this tag has on the supply chain!

RFID spans the supply chain like few other technologies that were remarked after even the birth of handheld communication devices. Early adopters are already realising significant supply chain improvements with RFID and the technology is rapidly evolving along with growing industry, providing solutions to a wide array of logistics problems. By capturing more data, eliminating errors, and tracking inventory throughout the supply chain, RFID can take supply chain management to a more sophisticated and compromising state.

But what is RFID?!

Radio Frequency Identification is one of today’s most promising technologies for the global supply chain management systems and multiple market-leading companies are currently testing these advanced data capture systems. A typical RFID system uses tags that store a unique serial number and which are embedded in designated objects such as retail items or containers. RFID is not just a way to track products, but also a way to extend information technology all the way to the assets moving through the enterprise.

As human beings we are all interested in developing new technologies, which increase our knowledge, develop our skills, and make us become continuously active by achieving our goals in shorter or longer terms. Technological advances shape our future and

give us the boost to make impossibilities a reality; all of which are directly associated with our international student organisation in the philosophical sense.

Keeping this in mind, it is of great importance that students stay up-to-date with the latest developments in industry. Exchanging knowledge on the European level gives our members the chance to learn in an early stage about new developments and different approaches to new technologies.

However, for our organisation it is also essential that our members stay up-to-date with the developments in our projects and committees. Finding ways to achieve this goal earns a high priority in our Board year; input from our members is the key for a successful widespread organisation like ESTIEM! Our organisation builds on the enthusiasm and affinity of students who want to broaden their horizons, work in virtual international teams and are enthusiastic to go travelling. Do you feel motivated to meet foreign students with different cultural backgrounds and to share your ideas and motivations? If so, it is the right time for you to join our organisation!

Enjoy reading this issue of the ESTIEM Magazine!

In high ESTIEM,

President of ESTIEM 2005

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Back in 1990,

students from five different countries founded an organisation which they named ESTIEM: European STudents of Industrial Engineering and Management. Its aim was and still is to establish and foster interrelations among European students of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM).

in ESTIEM incorporate both the skills required for modern business and an open-minded approach towards other people and cultural issues.

The decision-making body of ESTIEM is the Council, which meets twice a year, in autumn and in spring.

Each university, represented by its so-called ‘Local Group’, sends two student representatives. The five members of the Board of ESTIEM are elected In 15 years, it has grown into an organisation during the autumn Council Meeting. The Board is bringing together 40 000 students from 65 responsible for the management, coordination and universities in 23 European countries, and is still growing. All these universities offer courses in IEM. administration of the association. It represents the Based on this structure, ESTIEM forms links between association in all legal matters. students, academics and companies in order to create ESTIEM has continuously increased the number of a Europe-wide, multi-level IEM network. its activities, thus being able to offer a great variety of events to IEM students. Based on its activities, Through involvement in ESTIEM, students get an ESTIEM has attracted many active students, and the opportunity to experience different cultures, take organisation has seen rapid growth since its founding. part in international projects and become friends Major activities on a European level besides Council with other ESTIEMers from all over Europe. Our Meetings include the only European wide IEM belief is that the activities and projects of ESTIEM case competition TIMES, the seminar series Vision, give our members knowledge and experiences that ESTIEM Magazine, Summer Academy and Exchange are important for their personal development and the realization of future goals. The students involved (a database with information for students who want to study abroad); all led by Project Leaders who are elected at the Council Meetings.

Besides taking leadership positions in the Board and as Project Leaders, ESTIEM members can also take up more responsibility by working in one of the committees. The committees work together closely with the Board, supporting it in its tasks. ESTIEM has six of them at the moment: the Information and Communication Technology Committee, the Public Relations Committee, the Members Committee, the Knowledge Management Committee, the Financial and Legal Committee and ESTIEM’s youngest asset, the Corporate Relations Committee.

Introduction

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With lots of teams and tasks to choose from, there is a place for everyone. Naturally, the backbone of ESTIEM is the European IEM student. Openminded and keen on developing him- or herself, he or she is eager to make friends and create contacts with different IEM representants from all over the continent.

When ESTIEM was founded, the aim was to make it an abbreviation-free association. However, this goal was not completely achieved… After all, “CM” fits much better in your mouth than “a Council Meeting”. The table at the right offers a brief introduction to the most common ESTIEM abbreviations.

For more detailed information about our organisation and its activities, please visit our website at www.estiem.org. Here you can also find everything you need to know if you want to get involved. So don’t hesitate and start moving…. you won’t regret it!

CM

Council Meeting. Organised twice a year, this general meeting of member groups holds the ultimate decision-making power in ESTIEM.

CoM, Coordination Meeting, Regional Coordination Meeting. An event where a ReCoM small group of people get together for a Project Meeting or a meeting of Local Groups in a particular region.

CRC

Corporate Relations Committee. Responsible for adding value to relationships between ESTIEM and its current and potential corporate partners.

FLC Financial and Legal Committee. Members of this committee have an advisory function for those who are responsible for financial or legal affairs in ESTIEM. KMC

Knowledge Management Committee. This committee ensures that all knowledge is preserved and that experiences don’t get lost during handover periods or when people resign from their active ESTIEM career.

LG Local Group. ESTIEM is basically a network of these IEM student associations located at different universities around Europe.

LR Local Responsible. The person in charge of a LG. MC

PL

Members Committee. This team supports the member groups of ESTIEM and provides information to those who are interested in joining the ESTIEM organisation.

Project Leader. The person in charge of an ESTIEM project. Analogously, Committee Leader is designated with CL.

PRC

Public Relations Committee. Concerned with ESTIEM’s outer appearance and increasing the awareness of ESTIEM among companies, professors, as well as IEM students throughout Europe.

SAC

Summer Academy. A two-week event, of which two editions are held somewhere in Europe each summer. It is highly academic and guided by a well-known professor.

TIMES

Tournament in Management and Engineering Skills.

WG Working Group. In Council Meetings, several Working Groups are formed to discuss different crucial ESTIEM matters.

WGL Working Group Leader. A person who is in charge of the WG. He or she plans, guides the members and prepares the documentation.

n to ESTIEM

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tradition: NEWS New The ESTIEM Travel Trophy Associations come with traditions, and so does ESTIEM. But there’s always room for some more!

That’s why at the Council Meeting in Lyon, for the first time the most active Local Group of the past year was awarded for their high level of participation in ESTIEM events throughout the year 2004.

A ranking system was created, in which a Local Group gets awarded points when visiting an event.

One participant of an LG at an event is worth five points, every next participant at the same event means one extra point. To assure a fair competition, Board Members and Project and Committee Leaders do not get any points for their event participations and Local Groups can get a maximum of five points for participation in a Council Meeting.

In the final ranking over the year 2004, Local Group Karlsruhe seized the first place with 116 points, followed by Local Groups Ankara-Bilkent and Eindhoven with 106 and 88 points respectively.

For this great achievement, Local Group Karsruhe was allowed to take home the brand new ESTIEM Travelling Trophy in the form of a small suitcase.

Next spring, at the Council Meeting in Porto, another Local Group will be able to take it home… yours? 

Top 10 of most active Local Groups over 2004: 1. Karlsruhe 2. Ankara-Bilkent 3. Eindhoven 4. Bremen Istanbul-Yıldız 6. St. Petersburg 7. Ankara-METU Gothenburg 9. Zurich 10. Kaiserslautern

116 points 106 points 88 points 57 points 56 points 51 points 48 points 45 points

Mnohiya lita!

Sretan Rodendan!

Happy Birthday!

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15 Years ofa milestone ESTIEMto celebrate!

Some 15 years ago, the idea of an organisation of European Industrial Engineering and Management Students was born in Darmstadt, Germany, on Friday, 26th of January 1990. Four pioneers – they deserve to be named here: Christoph Hagedorn and Stefan Schneider from Darmstadt, Germany, Mika Gerlander from Helsinki, Finland and Heimo Mauser from Graz, Austria – discussed intensively through the night in a Gasthaus room. They were excited about the spirit that evolved when students from different parts of Europe gathered together. But the name “ESTIEM” was still not known...

Somebody – nobody remembers who – came up with the idea of forming an official organisation. It would gather together all Europeans who studied the strange combination of technology and economics.

This leading innovation led to a load of goals for such an organisation, such as student exchange, alumni organisation and all kinds of common activities. But the name “ESTIEM” was still not known...

The next meeting of the core group behind our current organisation took place in Linköping in April of 1990, also to sell the idea to the Swedes (which didn’t prove to be hard). Here, the idea of a Europe-wide IEM Magazine was born, as well some legal matters discussed. The latter continued over the summer and at another meeting that took place in Graz, Austria, where the annual Austrian IEM congress was taking place in the meantime.

La Multi Ani! Nifrahlek ghal gheluq sninek!

Palju onne sunnipaevaks!

The final kick-off for the new organisation was to Hyvaa syntymapaivaa! be the first Council Meeting in Berlin in November 1990, almost exactly 15 years ago. Note that it reads Joyeux Anniversaire!

Council Meeting, not “CM”, as our “founding fathers and mothers” wanted to avoid acronyms as much Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! as possible. Shortly before the first-ever Council Chestit Rojden Den! Meeting, Astrid Dings from Eindhoven had coined the name “ESTIEM” (relating to “esteem”, signaling Dogum gunun kutlu olsun! pride), but the final decision was to be taken by a vote of the council. Nobody was surprised that Boldog szuletesnapot!

“ESTIEM” beat all other propositions. Not only the baby finally had a name – ESTIEM was already Buon Compleanno! starting to grow as some first representatives from Gratulerer med dagen!

Eastern Europe were also present.

From those days on, our organisation has seen periods of sometimes explosive growth as well as periods of ups and downs. But still we are here today, and stronger than ever!

Sreken roden den!

Per molts anys!

Lihkos Riegadanbeaivvis!

Ois Guade zu Deim Geburdstog!

So where do we go from here? ESTIEM is a student organisation – a playground for new and innovative Feliz Aniversario! ideas, a place for learning and self-development, and, definitely and most importantly, a network for S dniom razhdjenia! connecting people in Europe. The enthusiasm and motivation of you, the members, is what carried our Srecan Rodjendan! organisation in the past, and will enable it to thrive in Feliz Cumpleaños! the future. Nothing else matters.  Grattis på födelsedagen!

CM Helsinki, autumn 1991 The first ESTIEM Magazine was being handed out, and the ESTIEM logo was decided upon Summer 1992 The Go East project laid the foundation for the expansion into eastern Europe Spring 1993 The ESTIEM study guide was presented (foundation for the current Exchange Database)

Vill Gleck fir daei Geburtsdaag!

Autumn 1993 The first Vision Series kicked off (TQM Vision) Autumn 1993 TIMES taking place for the first time

CM Lisbon, autumn 1994 Foundation of the Statutes of ESTIEM

Til hamingju med afmaelisdaginn!

Yom Huledet Same’ach!

Wszystkiego Najlepszego!

CM Eindhoven, spring 1991 The legendary ESTIEM Songbook Working Group (ESTIEM song!)

Penblwydd Hapus i Chi!

Bun Cumpleani!

Hartelijk gefeliciteerd!

Early 1995 ESTIEM Alumni founded Summer 2001 A new project: The ESTIEM Summer Academy Summer 2002 Launch of the first ESTIEM Intranet Portal

CM Istanbul, autumn 2004 The ESTIEM Framework (mission, vision, core values)

Ledicia no teu cumpreanos!

Tillykke med fodselsdagen!

Vsechno nejlepsi k Tvym narozeninam!

FROM THE BOARD

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What do you know ???

Knowledge Transfer and Information Transparency

ANDY MARCH

As a student organisation, one of the main challenges due to the nature of ESTIEM is the rapid turnover of members and thus, the threat of rapid degradation of organisational knowledge over time. This article is about different aspects of knowledge transfer and its relevance in teamwork and motivation.

Knowledge?

All of us possess a certain amount of knowledge, but then, is it only about being able to state facts or far more than that? Have you ever asked yourself where your knowledge comes from, where and how you learnt it? And are you sure that you “know” what your knowledge is?

Knowledge!

When thinking about it, knowledge will quickly mean far more to you than just being able to state simple facts or answer questions on the “Who wants to be a millionaire” TV show. Knowledge is the awareness and understanding of facts, truths or information gained in the form of experience or learning. Knowledge is also an appreciation of the possession of interconnected details which, in isolation, are of lesser value.

There are things you are sure you know, that can be documented or found in books: that type of knowledge is called “explicit knowledge”. Almost all the information you are expected to learn in university is of that type. But if many students complain that this kind of knowledge learned will often be of limited use in their future career, there must be more to this.

There is also the knowledge that people carry in their heads, often based on personal experiences.

It is difficult to access and most people are not even aware of what they possess or how it is of value to others. It provides context for ideas, experiences, people, etc. and is not easily captured. This knowledge is called “tacit knowledge”.

Knowledge Transfer in Organisations Based on the definition of knowledge transfer being the “process of sharing information between people”, the challenges in the fields of organisational development and organisational learning are of a somewhat more practical nature. It is the problem of getting a packet of knowledge from one part of the organisation to another (or all other) parts.

This is definitely more than just a communication problem. If it were merely that, an e-mail would accomplish the knowledge transfer. Simply providing information is not enough: it has to be internalised and absorbed. To achieve this, a transfer process and transfer practices need to be established – with the goal of turning all organisational knowledge into tacit knowledge.

Knowledge Transfer in Teams ESTIEM’s work depends mainly on teams. These teams usually consist of members from all over Europe who cannot meet on a frequent basis. To gain the most benefit from working in such an international, virtual team, transparent working is one of the key success factors.

The activity time of an ESTIEM team member is quite short. This has a significant impact on the learning and handover period, marking the beginning and the end of one’s team membership.

Starting to work for the team, the new member should be able to gain information about the team’s progress in the past and current issues in written form in addition to personal handover meetings to avoid losing information over two generation changes. Constant communication and sharing of information between team members are also paramount to enable constant learning and development.

External Transparency and Feedback The best method to document the ongoing progress in a team is to write down every topic as soon as it occurs. Although this implies a certain effort, the benefits overweigh strongly. Every decision starts with an idea, develops into a draft, further on into a concept and finally into a decision. Some ideas fail

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on their way to develop into a decision. During this process the idea will face the stages of feedback and critical discussion which are inevitable steps towards a decision. This feedback has a strong influence of the further development of the idea. Based on the feedback and the resulting discussions, the development process of the idea is often taken a step back to integrate new ideas and/or to correct errors. They significantly increase the quality of the fi nal decision. Moreover, they are necessary part of the process in order to increase the acceptance among all members, not only of the team but of ESTIEM. Thus, starting the feedback and discussion process at an early stage has multiple advantages: If there are flaws in the idea or if some issues have been left out, the development process needs to be taken back a step. With feedback input at an early stage of the process, the feedback can be integrated quite easily. More people can involve themselves in the discussion and thus contribute to the quality of the decision, raising overall motivation in ESTIEM as well. Moreover, through opening the process for as many people as possible, less critical feedback will occur at later stages. Finally the idea will be supported by a large group of people, in the best case even before a decision.

In contrast, having to go back from a concept to a draft or even further on correcting a decision requires more work. All documents have to be rewritten while the previous work will become partly obsolete. Not only the motivation in the team might go down if the process has to be repeated, but in addition the outward impression of the team will suffer as well.

Difficult, but worth it In the beginning this approach obviously requires careful work. The first draft or maybe even the fi rst article about the idea has to be posted to the public. This will cause multiple feedback that has to be handled carefully, and the team has to

keep an open mind to this feedback.

Although writing down the idea/draft for a wide public requires more work than to share it with a small number of people, this step will come anyway further down the development process. If the idea is initially written down, the later work will decrease to updating the documents. At the same time the feedback will become less critical so that the required effort to handle it will go down. Thus, sharing new ideas quite early requires a higher amount of work at the beginning but lowers the later effort while improving the quality and acceptance of the fi nal decision.

Looking at the ultimate contrary, to publish the idea when it has already been decided, shows that not only corrections will require a lot of energy but also that the team will face strong criticism about its way of working. Even if the decision is of high quality, less people will support it because they might feel left out of the decision process. Moreover, later generations will have trouble understanding the motivation behind the decision because no information about the progress that led to the decisions is available.

FROM THE BOARD

Early Publishing Process: Initial effort to post the information Open mind to involve feedback at an early stage Careful documentation on the ongoing process More people involved in the process

Results: Higher quality because more people involved Early acceptance of the idea Less effort to promote the decision

Late Publishing Process: Less initial workload due to few people involved Strong promotion when decision is published Strong feedback when decision is published High effort to explain motivation behind decision

Results: Possibly lower quality because less people involved More critical feedback Less acceptance

To make an idea available for the public at an early stage requires an initial higher workload. However, the benefits of this process will not only outweigh this effort; the energy that is required to handle feedback and to integrate people into the decision process will even decrease the further the idea develops. So don't be afraid to open up – it will be worth it! 

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SAIJA EKORRE

Vision of Cycles – New Winds Blowing

The Seminars Each seminar will take a different viewpoint towards the main topic. “Vision of Cycles – Cycles in Business and Industry” enlightens the IEM students about e.g. changes in product life cycles, the effects of life cycle on the environment and logistics cycles related to products and services. Thus, Vision is a wide, detailed investigation over a broad scope. It is Vision is a Europe-wide seminar series with topic also a chance for universities with different study and organisers changing annually. Each year, curricula to join an international chain of events the topic is found within the scope of Industrial colouring Europe.

Engineering and Management, a topic that should play a great part in the future business ESTIEMers are invited to join any seminar they life. During year 2005/2006, the series studies find interesting, important to their studies or aspects of “Cycles in Business and Industry”. It just nicely close by! There are over 20 seminars consists of three to five days long seminars that to choose from, and geographically it would be concentrate on the issues and trends related to possible to join every one of them in a row. More the general topic. Vision of Cycles seminars are information about the seminars can be found on held between September and May and after them, the official Vision webpage: www.vision.estiem.org. a Final Conference in Ankara and possibly even a Study Tour in some region of our continent will Coordination Meeting conclude the series.

In June, the project members met in a new observer group at the University of Dortmund.

20 participants came to evaluate, develop, and improve the project. The new but very inspired ESTIEMers from the University of Dortmund ensured the enjoyable stay of the guests.

The last six months have seen the current Vision grow up and emerge within the Local Groups. Some have already held their event, others are getting ready for dozens of ESTIEMers visiting their cities, and the project team is working on new strategies and tasks that were initiated in the spring Council Meeting and at the Coordination Meeting in June.

Discussions during the meeting brought up new ideas concerning e.g. creating a publication on the general theme of the series, the evaluation process, and even a Study Tour project, which might return on stage after a few years’ break.

Outlines of the project and the importance of respected supporters were contemplated, and the vital role of documentation came up as well.

The participants got a nice share of barbeque, a tram station party, Turkish strength games, and glimpses of gold in a mine museum, too, while the German weather hesitated whether to rain or to shine.

Vision of Cycles is here now – grab your opportunity to experience it! Check your schedules and join it where and whenever you want, we are waiting for you!

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Introducing

Corporate Relations Committee, abbreviated as CRC, is the latest addition to ESTIEM’s range of committees. As the name indicates, the role of the new committee is to take care of relations between ESTIEM and companies that support the organisation.

Idea There is no doubt about the strategic importance of corporate relations to ESTIEM. Consider the financing structure of the organisation: more than 90% of the funds that are needed to run activities ans projects in ESTIEM are donated by companies. However, the sponsors hardly ever get any attention in the actions that the organisation takes. Only when problems occur, actions are taken; often without a consistent plan on an ad hoc basis.

The ESTIEM Partner Pool was founded roughly five years ago to increase stability of sponsoring. The idea is to make long term contracts that guarantee funding to ESTIEM and give preferential status to partners. After the initial launch, the Partner Pool has not seen much improvement, and thus has not been able to accomplish quite what it was designed to achieve. This can be seen in many aspects: the number of partners has remained low, the stability of partnerships could be improved and more practically, some of the things promised in the partnership contracts are currently hard to deliver.

When discussing about corporate relations, people tend to focus on money and ignore the non-financial issues. There are four kinds of activities in working sponsor relations: the activities where ESTIEM wins, the activities where the sponsors win, the win-win activities,

and the activities that are used to control all the other activities. Paying money is clearly an activity where there is a winner and a loser.

Because of this, there needs to be an equal action where the other party wins, for example an opportunity to present the company at a Council Meeting, which can be considered as a loss to ESTIEM, since valuable time needs to be dedicated to an activity that is not focusing on the issues that the council needs to decide upon. An example of win-win activity is internships where the company and the providing organisation clearly win.

Currently the sponsoring activities of ESTIEM are money-oriented. This can be seen in many ways: sponsors are only contacted when money is needed. After a deal is made, the effort that is spent on sponsoring diminishes; the two activities that are seen as most important are the decisions of pricing and the target group of sponsor emails. An analogy for this is considering the revenue of a company to be formed as a function price and number of sales, which leads to totally disregard the value of relationship. An approach called customer relations management offers an alternative approach that has number of customers, customer loyalty, annual purchases of a customer and customer conversion rate as the variables. How can one improve the loyalty, if one does not focus on the customer, which a sponsor should be considered?

There is clearly some room for improvements in ESTIEM’s corporate relations, and CRC is an attempt to create the needed improvements.

Basic premises of quality management state that you cannot control what you cannot measure and you cannot improve what you cannot control.

MIKKO RÖNKKÖ

Corporate Relations Committee

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This implies that an authority that keeps track of sponsor relations is needed to improve the sponsoring of ESTIEM.

the mailing list were not planning on participating in the practical work of the committee, but were there for other reasons, probably including learning and lead collection. During History the summer, some of the foundations The idea of forming the CRC started of the committee have been built and after the Development Working Group the mailing list was cleaned, resulting at the Council Meeting in Istanbul, in a group of eight people. For the autumn of 2004. The discussion about future this is not enough – if the improving the sponsoring options of committee is to be considered worth ESTIEM lead to the idea of centralising continuing, recruiting new members is the control of sponsoring. Besides an imperative. a new committee, restructuring the work division of the European Practical Work Board, and introducing a sixth Board The goal of the committee is to create Member were seen as alternatives. and internalise a corporate relations Due to several issues (mostly financial strategy for ESTIEM. For most people, and hesitance towards change) the strategy is seen as a document that committee was decided to be the guides the actions of an organisation. way to go. The work done in Istanbul However, there are other views on was continued in the Working Group strategy that are more applicable to Partner Development at the Council ESTIEM: strategy is a result of actions Meeting in Lyon, resulting in a rampof the organisation, and strategic up plan for the committee. management is guiding these actions.1 One document cannot steer all the From the beginning the committee little actions. What then is needed has faced several problems. First of to align the things that we do? The all, if the committee is to focus on answer is quite simple: the actions of delivering value to sponsors, a some the organisation are controlled by the what different mindset is needed. structure and culture of an organisation Let’s call this value driven thinking. and the tolls and processes that are The difficulty in this is that one really used by the organisation. This implies needs to believe in this, or one cannot that when the proper organisation is in implement the improvements that place, much can be done by enhancing the structure of having a Corporate the tools and processes.

Relations Committee would enable.

There are several tools that are or Another problem is the amount of will be introduced by CRC. First, expertise needed. Most people that the committee has introduced a have sufficient expertise in student professional level customer relations corporate relations are either pretty management information system old or are currently too involved in that can be used to keep track of other responsibilities. sponsoring work. Documenting communications between ESTIEM Initially the committee attracted more and companies enables several nice things. Seeing the status of sponsor than 30 members. After a while, it work on one web page is clearly and was clear that most of the people on

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advantage, but is only a beginning. The documented communications enable sponsor management, that is, CRC has the ability to recycle sponsors between projects and identify new partner candidates. Furthermore, this enables one to tailor communications based on previous experiences. Last but definitely not least, this facilitates learning: by analysing lost sponsor cases we can realise where we went wrong and how we could improve.

The CRM system is now available to all projects and Local Groups. The login data for the free-to-access demo account can be found in the CRC section of the ESTIEM Portal. It is highly recommended to check out the system!

tracking sponsors. The latter refers to managing the sponsor life cycle. After the deal with the sponsor is done, the cooperation should not end. After post deal communications is done the data of the sponsor is stored in database so that it can be later recycled to be used by other projects.

Future The future of the committee is currently unclear. Even though many active people think that this is the way to go, getting the committee running is still a task that needs to be accomplished. One of the key discontinuities is that the current committee leader has graduated and needs to be replaced. Whether this demands changes to strategy of the The second tool to be introduced by committee is unclear. Also, sponsor CRC is a corporate relations toolkit. work is something that demands This term refers to a collection of rare skills. Participating in creating a best practice documents, marketing magazine or programming the ESTIEM material and communications portal is a lot more concrete and can templates that should be used when be better specified than participating in contacting companies. Sharing the improving sponsor work. same documents enables more My personal opinion is that a coherent sponsor work and enables committee for corporate relations is changes to direction of the organisation needed and can be implemented. It by changing the documents, at least is not the idea of corporate relations theoretically so. committee that is not working, but the On the process side CRC has an implementation. The council meeting impact through the tools, but also K2K is a major step where the future through assigning CRC members as direction of the committee is to be contact persons to projects. This little decided. modification in the structure of the organisation enables realization of If you wish to join in on improving the many potential benefits, which can be sponsor work or have any questions, do classified into categories guidance and not hesitate to mail crc@estiem.org.  control. On the guidance side, CRC can give contacts and help in making sponsor strategy for projects. Control refers to two things: monitor and ensure that the project sponsor work is according to quality requirements and others standards of ESTIEM, and to 1See Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (1998) Strategy Safari for a great discussion

FOCUS

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Tag Mania!

Requirements For International Development?

Reduced Future Innovation Directives? Industrial engineers working ‘in the field’ must have spent the last few years on a deserted island if they haven’t picked up anything on the ‘buzz’ surrounding RFID. In this edition we will focus on a technology poised to radically transform supply chains worldwide.

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The Basics: Tags, Readers and Radio Waves RFID stands for ‘Radio Frequency Identification’ and is based on a relatively simple concept. It consists of two elements that communicate through radio transmission: a tag and a reader. The tag, which can be small enough to be placed on any object, combines a microchip and an antenna. The chip can contain information such as an identification number. This information can be transmitted to an RFID reader over a distance of a few metres.

Generally speaking, two types of tags can be distinguished based on the energy supply: active and passive tags. Active RFID tags contain a battery to provide the microchip with power and can send a signal independently to a reader. Passive tags do not have a battery and are powered indirectly via the electromagnetic radio waves from the reader. The different types of tags are discussed more thoroughly in another article in this section (page 20).

Tags communicate with the reader via radio waves which are part of the electromagnetic spectrum. For RFID technology using passive tags, a distinction can be made between three frequency levels: low (LF), high (HF) and ultra high (UHF). The table shows the characteristics of these different frequency levels.

These are only indications, because each situation in practice can lead to a different performance.

RFID readers can communicate with tags in different ways. The most commonly used method for reading passive tags at close range is the so-called ‘inductive coupling’. The reader’s antenna creates a magnetic Frequency

Type

field in the tag’s antenna, which provides the tag with energy. The tag can then send its data back to the reader.

RFID Readers can be classified with different terms.

‘Intelligent’ readers have the ability not just to read tag information, but also to run applications, filter data and store it. A ‘dumb’ reader is a simpler device that might only have the ability to read one type of tag at one frequency and doesn’t have the computing power to filter data and such.

Readers can also be ‘agile’, meaning that they can read tags using different frequencies or using different communication methods between tags and readers.

Attention RFID technology has been around for many years and is used in applications such as access control, animal tagging and electronic toll payment.

Electromagnetism, which forms the technology’s source, has even been around for more than 14 billion years. Its scientific understanding processed rather slowly and wasn’t really documented until well in the 1800s, and the first real prelude to RFID took place during the 1960s, followed by an RFIDexplosion in the 1970s. Most efforts were focused on tracking of animals and vehicles, as well as factory automation. Since then, the technology has become more and more widespread, albeit with differing application areas around the world. Most important landmark during the nineties was the deployment of the electronic toll collection system in the United States.

Read range (m)

Data speed (tags/s)

125-134 kHz

LF

0.45

1-10

13.56 MHz

HF

<1

10-40

868-870, 902-928 MHz

UHF

2-5

The different frequency levels of RFID readers and their characteristics.

10-50

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EPC Global Tag Data Format

2 1 .2 0 3 D 2 9 .1 6 E 8 B 8 .7 1 9 BA E 0 3 C Header • EPC version

number

• 8 bits

EPC Manager • Manufacturer • 28 bits • 268 million

companies

Object Class • Type of product

(Stock Keeping Unit)

• 24 bits

Serial Number • Unique identifier

for item

• 36 bits • 68 million serial

• 16 million

numbers

classes

Each item its own identifier The EPC Global Tag Data Format enables a product code structure in which each item can be individually identified and information about the manufacturer and type of product can be stored.

A Matter of Money If the technology has been around for such a long time already, why the enormous increase in attention for it in the past few years? Generally speaking, there are two main issues playing a part; price level and standardization.

In recent years, the cost of RFID tags has fallen significantly. The potential of many business applications is based on the price of the tag. This price depends on the volume of the order, the amount of memory on the tag and the packaging of the tag (e.g. in a plastic case or embedded in a label). Currently, the price level of a 96-bit passive RFID tag lies between € 0,15 and € 0,30 (The RFID Journal, October 2005). A further drop in tag prices will depend on progress in more efficient assembly machines and demand for higher volumes.

At the moment, reader prices range from € 100 for simple reading modules (which need to be placed in a computer system to be able to operate) to € 2 000 or more for advanced standalone readers. If you consider that companies would need thousands

of readers to cover all their factories, warehouses and stores, the costs of the readers are a large part of the overall RFID implementation cost for companies.

For some time, the general belief was that producers will be able to offer tags for € 0,05 in the future.

More and more companies are looking beyond this five-cent myth and are no longer basing their RFID adoption plans on this assumption, which may positively effect the development of the tag prices after all. So far, the tag market seems an excellent example of the ‘chicken-and-egg’ scenario; nobody is willing to adopt RFID before the prices come down, but if nobody does it, the prices will remain on the same level.

EPC: The Necessary Standard

Another reason why RFID has become so popular in the last years is the creation of worldwide standards for the technology. EPCglobal, launched on November 1st, 2003 as a neutral non-profit joint venture, used their standards process (previously used to develop the bar code standards) to develop the Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard; a globally unique serial number that that identifies an item in the supply chain. The actual development of the concept was done by the Auto-ID Centre, an academic research project, which has its headquarters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and several other research facilities around the globe.

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The Auto-ID Centre developed the so-called Class 1 and Class 0 specifications for RFID tags, which formed the first EPC standards. At the end of 2004, EPCglobal announced the development of a single new second generation standard (‘Gen 2’), which will eventually replace the Class 1 and Class 0 standards. The transition to Gen 2 as the uniform worldwide standard should create a breakthrough in tag and reader prices. Furthermore, it prevents readers from interfering with each other when used in close range.

Why ‘Generation 2’ tags? They…

• are expected to reduce cost by driving users to a single technology standard

• address frequency and power level problems that prevent global RFID usage

• can be read more quickly than the tags that are currently used

• include a ‘dense reader’ which minimises reading interference • are fully rewritable

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) is also working on standards for tracking goods in the supply chain using high- and ultra-high frequency tags. EPCglobal intends to submit their protocols to ISO, so they can become international standards. More about the EPC development process and the involvement of Procter & Gamble, one of the three founding sponsors of the Auto-ID Centre, can be found on page 26.

Challenges

As argued before, the price level of tags and readers will determine for a large part where the future of RFID lies. If the five-cent myth will prove itself reality after all, the door is open to application of RFID tags on individual items. With the current prices, tagging of individual items is only interesting for relatively high-priced products like electronics; after all, it wouldn’t make sense to apply a € 0,25 tag to a low-margin product like a bunch of banana’s worth € 1. Having a tag on each and every consumer

item would increase the number of possible applications exponentially, but until that time we will have to do it with projects like the METRO Group Future Store Initiative (page 28) to even catch a glimpse of the opportunities.

Altogether, one could conclude that the enormous potential of RFID is acknowledged by many, but comes with perhaps equally enormous challenges (implementation cost being just one of them).

Integration of RFID in ERP-systems, increase of compatibility between the various systems that are being offered on the market and convincing critics are some other points on the RFID agenda. The criticism surrounding RFID mostly concerns privacy matters, for example the ability to track a person in the possession of a tagged item, perhaps without the owner even being aware of the presence of the tag. Most companies applying RFID stress their high attention for privacy protection and the use of privacy-related guidelines that EPCglobal included in their standards. Other parties however argue that these guidelines are non-binding and are not able to fully protect consumer rights.

Luckily, many large industrial corporations are aware that extensive research and cooperation are vital to overcome all these challenges, and as a result, quite a few major companies are conducting research in partnership-based pilot and trial projects. As a case example, read about the efforts of Avery Dennison, a global company that has successfully established a division specialised in the development and production of RFID media, on page 22.

Whatever the future has in store for RFID, chances of today’s IEM students getting in touch with it sooner or later are almost certain. So don’t say we didn’t warn you… 

References • Accenture, “High Performance Enabled Through RFID” Accenture Research on Manufacturer Perspectives, 2004 • J. Landt, B. Catlin, “Shrouds of Time – The History of RFID” Pittsburgh, AIM, inc. 2001 • The RFID Journal, www.rfidjournal.com • C. Sliwa, “RFID Tag Prices Must Falll Fast for Users to Reap Rewards” Computerworld, 18 april 2005 • Symbol Technologies, inc. “Understanding the Key Issues in Radio Frequency Identification” Holtsville, 2004 • D.Verweij, R. van Hulzen, L. ten Zende, “Making Waves – RFID Adoption in Returnable Packaging” Logica CMG Benchmark study, 2004

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IVAN KARLOVIC Comparing the Primary Auto-ID technologies

Smart lab labels the best from two worlds In today’s complex and fast evolving business environment technology plays an important role in helping to improve business procedures and all-round performance.The process of automated identification of items has long been the holy grail of the logistics process.With the technological innovations in the last few decades with the use of bar codes and now with the emergence of RFID and similar solutions we have come close to tracking items with serialised data (so that every object in the supply chain has a unique identifying number) with increased data security, capturing information in real-time and increasing the throughput of supply chains, all with reduced human intervention.

In the past three decades the bar code has been the

foundation and foothold of Auto-ID technologies.

Just look around for yourself and you’ll probably see that bar codes are almost everywhere.The thirty years of its use just show the value of the technology. Although today RFID is emerging as a competitor for the bar code, every Auto-ID technology has its benefits and drawbacks.To understand the weaknesses and strengths of these technologies, in the following table, a comparison is given between bar codes (most-widely used AutoID technology today), passive RFID tags (cheaper and more common tags) and active RFID tags (more expensive with greater benefits) as they today represent the leaders in the Auto-ID technology.

Bar codes

Passive RFID

Active RFID

Modification of data

Unmodifiable

Modifiable

Modifiable

Security of data

Minimal security

Ranges from minimal to highly secure

Highly secure

Amount of data

Linear bar codes 8-30 Up to 64 KB characters, 2D barcodes up to 7 200 numbers

Up to 8 MB

Costs

Low (fraction of a cent)

Medium (less than 25 cents per item)

Very high ($10-100 per tag)

Standards

Stable and agreed

Evolving to agreed standard

Proprietary and evolving open standards

Life span

Short unless laser etched Indefinite into metal

3-5 year battery life

Reading distance

Line of sight (1-2 metres)

No contact or line of sight required, distance up to 15 metres

No contact or line of sight required, distance up to 100 metres and beyond

Potential interference

Optical barriers such as dirt or objects placed between tag and reader

Environments or fields that affect transmission of radio frequency

Limited barriers since the broadcast signal from the tag is so strong.

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Bar codes and RFID are complementary technologies. Many people just see RFID as a replacement technology which should completely rule out the use of bar codes. The reality is that the majority of today’s systems was designed and optimised for use of bar codes. However this technology is mainly limited by the fact that bar codes can be scanned only one at a time and only if there is a direct line of sight between the reader and the bar code. This is where RFID tags come in handy.

With RFID we can read hundreds of items nearly simultaneously and thus increase the throughput.

The least disruptive way to add RFID to operations is incorporating smart labels into existing processes.

Smart labels are labels with embedded ultra-thin RFID tags, which are often called inlays. Because smart labels can carry data in RFID, bar code, and human-readable formats, they provide a convenient way to back up data in case a part of the system or label doesn’t perform properly. Smart labels are called “smart” because of the flexible capabilities provided by the RFID tag embedded in the label.

The tag, in most cases, can be programmed and/or updated in the files, so the same label can be reused to serve multiple needs and disparate applications.

Hence, the label is no longer effectively static, as is a bar code label, but rather dynamic in its capability when equipped with RFID. Passive smart label RFID systems overcome the limitations of many existing bar code automatic data capture systems.

Passive smart label RFID systems...

• Provide error-free, wireless data transmission that is battery free and maintenance free • Do not require line-of-sight read-write devices for operation • Allow stored data to be altered during sorting or to capture workflow process information and • Work effectively even in harsh environments with excessive dirt, dust, moisture and temperature extremes.

In the short run we can expect the bar code and RFID to co-exist as complementary technologies, and a great way to do so is using passive RFID smart labels which are compatible with both systems.

Smart labels represent more of an evolution than a revolution and support an easier transition to using RFID. Similarly to other aspects of using RFID as an AutoID technology, the future use of smart labels depends on the developments of the technologies which are expected to bring cheaper active RFID tags in the upcoming years. These developments are based on help of or replacement by emerging technologies like conductive inks, polymer displays, printed microelectronics etc. 

References: • Anonymous. “RFID : The Next Generation of AIDC”, Application White Paper, Zebra Technologies, 2004 • Patrick J. Sweeney II. “RFID For Dummies”, Wiley Publishing

Smart label with the front side containing bar code and human readable text, the backside containing an RFID inlay.

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ThetheFuture is now dimensions of the RFID revolution The barriers to RFID are falling. Retailers are deploying RFID technology in their supply chains and asking their suppliers to do so as well. Industry consortiums are defining standards and protocols to ensure compatibility and limit adoption costs.

Avery Dennison is at the forefront of the industry, devising new manufacturing processes and RFID label designs that will not only enable the market to produce the high volume required an affordable cost, but also ensure label success in a variety of environments.

More and more major retailers around the world are adopting RFID and asking their suppliers to ship RFID-labeled cartons and pallets to enhance supply chain efficiency. Users will be able to find, track, secure and count items faster and more accurately without having to locate a barcode to scan. The RFID label consists of an inlay with an antenna and a microchip inserted into a traditional label construction, and communicates via radio frequency rather than optical scanning. RFID readers obtain information at key points in the supply chain by activating the label through its antenna. An Electronic Product Code (EPC) is often stored on an RFID label. This is a unique number that can be thought of as a UPC combined with a serial number.

In addition to merely complying with retailer requirements, some manufacturers are opting to implement RFID voluntarily for their own internal benefit. These benefits include increasing revenue by reducing out-of-stocks (“is it in the back room or is it on the store shelf?”), creating a competitive advantage by superior supply chain management, generating a knowledge base for the future roll-out of RFID throughout the manufacturer’s customer base.

The future is beginning to appear over the horizon of day-to-day reality as the number of retailer pilots and trials continues to grow. The METRO Group in Germany, the world’s third largest retailer, launched the first phase of their roll-out in November 2004. The declared aim of the RFID implementation is to localise the logistical unit and the trading unit within the supply chain by automatically verifying incoming and outgoing goods at distribution centres and the store’s warehouse and showroom and automatically updating the inventory accordingly. In phase one, defined Metro suppliers are required to deliver pallets labeled with an 869-MHz UHF tag, as per EPCglobal standard class 1, bearing an EPC code to identify the pallet and its contents. In 2006, the next phase will again step up the quantities needed considerably when sub-carton tagging is required of each of the major suppliers. Another project currently underway which will bring new dimensions to the RFID market was launched by the US retail giant Wal-Mart in January 2005.

Here, the first suppliers delivering to one regional distribution centre are required to UHF tag either the pallet or the carton. These are just two of many pilots and trials Avery Dennison is taking part in; projects that will drive the development of the market. In addition, companies like the French retailer Carrefour, Tesco in the UK, Target and Albertson in the USA have all announced their intention to assess the potential of RFID.

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As the market for RFID grows, the bottleneck will not be chip supply – adequate silicon foundry capacity already exists to satisfy potential RFID demands. The bottleneck will rather be in RFID label assembly. A revolution in the manufacturing technology for inlays is necessary to deliver the “billions” capacity that will soon be needed. The historical method of RFID label assembly will not be able to meet the emerging demand. Avery Dennison is developing a unique manufacturing process for efficient, high-capacity label assembly. It is based on our experience and expertise in label materials and web-based, roll-to-roll manufacturing, as well as on our heavy technology investment in RFID inlay assembly. Overall, the industry is working to meet the demands, but supplies are likely to be tight for some time to come.

But it is not only a matter of increasing the production capacity for tags; standards governing the technologies and protocols used need to converge, a process which is already underway with EPCglobal defining the EPC code at 96 bits. New legislation covering frequencies and power levels is also helping to establish technical standards for compatible RFID systems. All the RFID suppliers involved are integrating the new-generation standards into their components. End-users who were reluctant to invest in proprietary systems can now feel confident investing their budget in a lasting technology.

Make the RFID System Work A functioning RFID system requires full system compatibility. A printer/programmer must import data to the label. A reader must detect and communicate with the label, and hardware and software must be present and used to interpret the data and enable communication with other IT systems and/or people.

• RFID labels (include a chip that is attached to an antenna) • Printers/programmers (to programme the chip and/or print the label) • Readers

• Warehouse management system and middleware • Interface to ERP system • A business process and operating environment that

enables and makes use of the added information the RFID label provides.

The label must work in the in-house system and in the systems of the trading partners. Label selection usually starts with deciding on a particular frequency and protocol. Subject to this, the selected RFID label must minimise cost while offering a good performance margin. The two dominant factors in determining an RFID label’s performance are the chip used, and the design and construction of the antenna. Because chip compliance and capabilities vary, those implementing RFID should seek label suppliers that are able to work effectively with a variety of technologies. With new chip introductions expected, RFID label users should align with producers with strong in-house antenna/tag design teams that can keep up with industry developments.

Label performance is a complex issue and difficult to predict; labels which function perfectly well when they are initially applied can become unreadable due to the environment in which they have been operating. Avery Dennison was able to design an RFID label robust enough for tough environments, improving the read rate to a level approaching 100% while leaving the system and microchip unchanged.

The most fundamental measure of RFID label performance is the ability to read it at the necessary distance under a given set of circumstances. Several key factors impact read distance: Orientation The likelihood of the RFID label transmitting to the reader’s antenna is increased if the label is readable from any angle. This also avoids potential logistical costs, e.g. requiring a specific label placement on cartons. Whereas many current RFID labels have blind spots in their radiation patterns, Avery Dennison’s proprietary 3-dimensional antenna technology eliminates these blind spots.

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RFID Division Europe Miesbacher Str. 5 83626 Oberlaindern / Valley Germany +49 (0)8024 / 641 – 0 +49 (0)8024 / 641 – 1302 rfid@eu.averydennison.com

Product Environment RFID labels must be compatible with the products onto which they are applied. Metal, liquid and other carton contents can detune typical RFID labels.

Avery Dennison has devised proprietary autocompensating technology to address this problem as well.

retail carton and pallet applications and a secondary concentration on item-level pharmaceutical applications. We support these by leveraging our core competencies in high-volume, roll-to-roll manufacturing, pressure-sensitive materials science and RF antenna design. We also work closely with our global Roll Materials sister division who are already hard at work developing optimised pressure-

Size of the Antenna The antenna size impacts the read range significantly; when all other aspects are constant, the smaller the antenna, the shorter the read range. That said, some packaging requires a smaller label and therefore a smaller antenna.

Note that a smaller RFID label is not necessarily less expensive. The chip, not the label size, is the major cost driver.

sensitive label stocks that will maximise the RF performance of our products.

We offer our RFID media products through established, expert label converters. However, to ensure that we deliver robust RFID solutions, tuned to the needs of the marketplace, we maintain close working relationships with all members of the labeling value chain. 

RFID Label Durability Labels have to withstand different levels of physical abuse, depending on where and how they are applied. It is important to understand the environments that the label will see – and to work with RFID label vendors who understand the traditional failure modes of labels as well as the added complexities associated with the inclusion of RFID technology into the label.

Smart Labels from Smart People In response to this exciting opportunity and to ensure that we are well positioned to support all the key players in this new market, Avery Dennison RFID has been established as a new, separate division of Avery Dennison, dedicated to offer a marketbased portfolio of high-quality, high-yield, bestin-class RFID media. Our products will include 100 % good inlays and labels with a focus on EPC

Avery Dennison is a global Fortune 500 company, headquartered in Pasadena, California. It has operations throughout Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region.

• We are specialised in technologies that help businesses and consumers gather, manage and distribute information.

• We have been a pioneer in pressure-sensitive technology ever since Stan Avery invented the self-adhesive label in 1935.

• We have a track record of making billions of high-quality, high-performance labels for a variety of electronics, industrial, automotive and retail applications.

• We offer high-volume roll-form RFID inlays and labels, as well as service bureau solutions for in-house RFID labeling applications.

• We are an approved carton-label provider for Wal-Mart and an RFID solutions partner in the METRO Group Future Store Initiative and Innovation Centre.

Fancy a

Fraud

We already saw that RFID doesn’t come without its share of controversy. Consumers opposing the idea of being ‘tracked and monitored’ by RFID tags in their purchased goods have organised themselves in groups like CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), among others. Nevertheless, almost all retailers give consumers the option to deactivate the tags before leaving the store and 99% of us are already traceable through our mobile phones, so one could argue that this argument against application of RFID tags is out of place. But what about the technology’s level of security? Could fraud form a threat to widespread implementation?

Practically Impossible Theoretically, yes. And that’s where the doom scenarios end. Because if you look at what you have to do in order to be capable of manipulating RFID tags, you might as well pay the full price for that MP3-player.

First of all, you need to walk around in a store with both a pocket PC and an RFID reader, which is able to read all possible used frequencies. And you must be aware of the frequencies used in the particular store. Secondly, you need the time and privacy to stand in front of a shelf, find the right tag frequency and then use your pocket PC to adjust the price on the tag. Also, there will probably be no adjustable

product price on the tag, just a reference number linking to the store’s database containing the price information. But most importantly, the products will contain tags that can only be programmed once and are therefore not rewritable by any hacker.

RENÉ HEUNEN

Wouldn’t it be nice to walk around the store and simply drop the price of that expensive MP3-player with the touch of a button on your palmtop? Are RFID systems invulnerable for this kind of abuse, or could the store of the future also become a hacker’s heaven?

?

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Rewritable tags are only used on returnable assets like pallets, containers, crates and boxes. These can have different destinations and need to be programmed for each order. Again, technically these can be reprogrammed to have a new destination, but if someone wants to rob a distribution centre they will never use this method. As if nobody in a company would notice the goods being loaded on a completely unknown truck… Fraud with RFID is practically impossible!

Safer Tags on item level are not only used to track and trace products, but are also able protect retailers against theft a lot better than the currently applied anti-theft labels do. After paying at the checkout, the reference number of the article will get the property value ‘paid’ in the store’s database. Instead of only responding to a disturbance of the magnetic field, detection gates will ‘ask’ RFID tags if the product has been paid for. In the same way, gates at the exits of distribution centres can continuously check if the information on container tags is in accordance with their scheduled destination and prevent unauthorised movements of the goods.

Thieves and hackers, beware; RFID is on its way!

References • CASPIAN Homepage, www.nocards.org • Hachman, M. “RFID Hack Could Allow Retail Fraud” eWeek, 29 July 2004 • Nes, J. van de, “Kans op Fraude met RFID Verwaarloosbaar” AIMagazine, AIM Nederland, 2004

“Thou shalt not steal.”

Exodus 20:15

26

P&G Continues to Test & Learn with EPC MILAN TURK Managing Director, Global Customer eCollaboration, and Leader of P&G’s RFID Programme

The Procter & Gamble Company has been involved in the development of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) global standard for RFID technology since its inception. As one of three founding sponsors of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Auto-ID Centre in 1999, we have been and remain in “test and learn” mode for this promising new technology for several years. Ultimately, we believe EPC has the potential to advance the supply network and allow manufacturers like P&G to better meet the needs of our retail customers and the consumers we both serve.

P&G’s supply chain operating strategy is the Consumer-Driven Supply Network (CDSN).

It’s grounded in our belief that “the consumer is boss” and that the “first moment of truth” in winning consumer loyalty is at the store shelf, when consumers make a product choice. With the Consumer-Driven Supply Network, we are redesigning our supply systems from the shelf back to optimise the first moment of truth and create joint value with retailers. EPC could be an important tool in accelerating our CDSN strategy and results.

A Three-Pronged Approach P&G’s “test and learn” approach has three action areas: business case development, internal and external testing and work with industry partners to build sound adoption plans and standards-based capability.

We are steadily improving our understanding of EPC business value and potential implementation approaches through select pilot activities. Together with a handful of retail customers in Western Europe and North America, we are deeply exploring the most promising business benefits, such as reduction in out of stocks, increase in overall demand visibility and better new-product tracking. Based on initial pilots over the last couple of years, we’re now working with retailers to improve testing environments so that the impact of EPC is clear relative to other changes in test and control stores.

Retailers continue to look for ways to improve EPC reading at key interfaces and to subsequently use that data to positively impact their business operations.

Within our own operations, P&G continues to test options for automating EPC tag application and encoding. We’re also identifying which categories and products are most suited to EPC – both physically and from the standpoint of delivering the best business case. Several P&G manufacturing sites in North America are developing EPC application and encoding solutions that flow within their existing work processes, including first-oftheir-kind processes that show potential to lower P&G’s applied tagged costs, a key barrier to broad EPC implementation. We’ll continue to develop these solutions and monitor cost effectiveness and reliability.

P&G is also developing a centralised testing lab to analyse and validate technologies that will support

27

EPC within our supply network. This facility consists of pallet and case conveyors, label printers/ encoders/applicators, EPC readers, software and servers. Solutions are being assessed based on speed, label placement accuracy, machine reliability and systems interfaces, as well as customer service and responsiveness. Insights gained from this lab will allow us to test and deploy a standard pilot EPC platform within our existing pilot sites, and will be applied at future pilot expansion sites.

On the industry front, P&G is an active member of EPCglobal, an industry standards group that grew out of the Auto-ID Centre’s initial work. EPCglobal continues to make significant progress in defining and ratifying standards that will enable effective implementation of “EPC Networks” within and across enterprises like P&G. Success of EPC depends on collaboration, global standards and affordable technology (as well as continued testing), and EPCglobal is leading the way.

Continuing to Build the Business Case Although EPC holds the potential to be an important tool in redesigning the supply network to better meet consumer needs, there is still work to be done.

First, EPC must become the single global standard.

EPCglobal and its members are making this vision a reality, which will speed the benefits of EPC for the entire consumer goods industry.

Second, EPC technology needs to be affordable.

Readers and tag costs must continue to decline to deliver the right value proposition.

Finally, the industry must continue to address consumer questions about RFID and EPC. P&G actively supports EPCglobal guidelines on the use of EPC on consumer products. We want consumers to know that EPC has the potential to create a better shopping experience by helping companies like P&G deliver the right product in the right place at the right time and price. 

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RENÉ HEUNEN

METRO Group Future Store Initiative the new reality in retailing?

Supply chain optimisation, improvement of inventory management, item tracking and tracing… It all sounds very nice, but what does it have in store for the average consumer? In the German town of Rheinberg, the METRO Group transformed a supermarket into a socalled Future Store to demonstrate how RFID can contribute to making your everyday quest for food and groceries more efficient and enjoyable.

“Individual, informative, and intelligent”. Those are the three keywords the METRO Group uses to summarise its Future Store Initiative. The METRO

Group was founded in 1996 in a merger of several important German retail companies, and is now one of the worldwide largest trading groups. The Future Store Initiative is a cooperation project between the METRO Group and about 60 partner companies from the information technology and the consumer goods industries (SAP, IBM, P&G, Avery Dennison a.o.). Common goal is to promote innovation in retailing and work out visions for the future in order to better meet the customers’ individual needs. In the Future Store in Rheinberg, new technologies to achieve these goals are integrated for the first time and tested under real-life conditions. Although RFID is not the only innovative element present in the Future Store, it is considered the “basis for optimised retail processes.”

In Practice So that’s what it looks like on paper, now over to the real thing. To what extent can RFID realise the ambitious goals stated?

Well, the promotion part seems to work out just fine. At the entrance of the store, a small team of tour guides is ready to show you around and tell you all about the innovative applications on and around the shelves, scales and shopping carts. Afterwards, extensive documentation will be provided, so no need to waste time taking notes during the tour.

The adventure starts with the Personal Shopping Assistant, or PSA, a touch screen computer to be placed on the trolley at the entrance of the store.

You simply scan your Future Card and the PSA greets you by name. In case you took the time to send your shopping list through the internet before you headed for the store, it is now displayed on the PSA’s screen at the push of a button. Furthermore

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it can display product information and prices and it draws attention to special offers and promotion. The most useful application by far though is that is keeps track of the shopping bill and makes checking out a lot faster. Before you place a product in your cart, you scan it with the reading device. It is added to the list of cart contents on the screen and you see a subtotal of all the products placed in the cart so far; no more unpleasant surprises at the checkout! When you’ve collected everything you need to assemble this delicious pasta creation (just like in the picture), you go to the checkout, leave your ingredients in the cart and simply hand your PSA to the cashier. This friendly lady no longer needs to scan every product one-byone, but can immediately start to print the receipt (which creates more time for a chat…), after which you pay, pack and walk away. Simple as that!

Of course you wouldn’t be a typical student if you weren’t thinking: “But what if I just don’t scan some products and hide them somewhere in the bottom of my cart?” The checkout system randomly selects customers to be checked on the actual contents of the cart, so if you want to make a profit out of it you must be willing to run the serious risk of getting caught. As it turns out so far, very few customers are...

So where is RFID in this procedure? By now, tags are still too costly to apply on individual item level for all products. Right now tags on item level are mostly to be found on higher priced products, like electronic media, razor blades and shampoo. But if all items in a store have a tag placed on them and the carts are equipped with a reader, they automatically scan products when they are placed in the cart. For obvious economic reasons, this is at the moment even too futuristic for the Future Store. Time will tell if application on individual item level will eventually pay off for every single product.

Efficient? Yes! Of course there’s much more than just the PSA. Other elements customising your shopping experience are for example information terminals providing (printed) recipes and wine recommendations all around the store, fit to your preferences.

OK, so what about the ‘efficiency’ part of the goals mentioned before? Once you’ve found a wine of your liking using the info terminal at the wine department,

a beamer projects its location on the floor. A ‘smart scale’ makes the search for the right button while weighing your fruits or vegetables unnecessary; a camera automatically recognises the product on the scale and prints the barcode label without having to touch a single button. If the system is not 100% certain about the product on the scale, it gives you at most a handful of options to choose from. After which the system improves its ability to recognise the product involved. And if the checkout procedure using the PSA is not fast enough for you, there’s always the option of checking out yourself; swipe your items across the scanner, place them in a bag and pay with cash or card at the payment terminal.

Efficiency is all around…

Behind the Scenes So far, most of these applications directly beneficial to the customer have rather little to do with RFID. They are all useful, but to achieve the maximum benefit, RFID tags need to be present on individual item level in the future (e.g. pushing your cart through a gate could be sufficient for self-checkout). Currently the real improvements based on RFID are to be found behind the scenes and are not much different from applications we see in warehouses and distribution centres. It makes the logistics process simpler and more transparent. Gates at the entrance of the store warehouse record incoming goods by reading the tag on the pallet or carton. During transport to the store itself, the tags are read again, so there’s always an exact picture of the type and amount of goods in the warehouse.

‘Smart shelves’ containing readers can inform employees as soon as the last product has been taken off the shelf, improving product availability. But again, individual product level tagging is required.

Promising Although lots of them require a decrease in tag and reader costs, the Future Store harbours many ideas and concepts that will definitely be fruitful in the near future. A study by the Boston Consultancy Group showed a clear majority of the customers using and appreciating the new technologies. And not unimportant: those who use the new technologies also spend more money… 

References: • METRO AG, “Welcome to the Future Store – A successful start for the future of retailing”, 2005 • www.future-store.org

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EVENTS

ANNA BONET

Council Meeting Lyon would host the 30th CM in one year time! As well as a Post CM in Paris!! So much to do within a year!!

So this is how we brought the most special gift back to INSA: the trust of the Council. A Council that had put high expectations in a young but highly dynamic LG, and it was our duty not to let ESTIEMers down.

CM Lyon Partners:

Twice per year, ESTIEMers gather during a week in a European city. Organising a Council Meeting is one of the biggest honours that a Local Group can receive.

Back to Spring 2004 It was in Sofia that Lyon presented itself as candidate for the Spring 2005 Council Meeting. It was a very stressful week, as the votes were going to be really tight. Although Gilles was confident and cheered me up the whole week, we could not believe it when we saw the vote results projected on the screen! Lyon

The Kick-Off The first step was to define the project structure, the objectives that we wanted to reach and the calendar.

We decided that every single person who wanted to participate in the organisation should be able to see the results of their own work and feel responsible for a part of the project. Committee Responsibles and the Project Leader were in charge of coordinating the different projects, structuring the guidelines of the whole week and making sure that every single member of our LG felt proud of his achievements.

For a whole year, almost 50 persons worked on the project. We went through hard times, when coping with negative answers, struggling to find money in the beginning; but we went through very special moments as well: the positive answer for the Gala Dinner in the City Hall, the Région Rhône-Alpes grant, Avery Dennison’s partnership… and as time went by, a big family was created, really excited as the event approached.

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The Week Before The entire IEM department (professors, students and the Direction Team) very kindly put up with our excitement: for more than a week, we were the ones opening the department early in the morning and the ones closing the doors very late at night… So that in the end we decided to sleep in our headquarters!

Checking and re-checking names on badges, room distribution, information on the programme, visas, airport pick-up appointments... we hardly found the time to pack ourselves and move to the hotel!!

(many thanks to Danone and Tropico) and parties were crucial to keep us in a good shape! Dinner at the fancy Brasseries Georges, party at the Road 66 where we could enjoy playing pool, the Cuba Libre, the Repas Terroir where our cooking team showed their skills by preparing a typical French meal, the Down&Under and the cowboy party…

All ESTIEMers with smiles on their faces, tiredness reflected in their eyes, and an organising team exhausted but happy and proud to see the event taking place.

The fast course of the events took us to the Gala And Finally, Day 1 Arrived Dinner. The city hosted us in the most sumptuous After a really short night of sleep in our room of the City Hall, and we had the pleasure to headquarters, we were ready just in time to welcome have with us Mr Pierre Lareal (counsellor of High our participants. It was April 11th, when the doors Education) as personal delegate of the Major himself. of our headquarters opened and we welcomed After a delicious meal, all ESTIEMers dressed really ESTIEMers to the 30th Council Meeting. It was smart, we went to La Voile for the final party. No great to see the faces of all those with whom we need to behave, no more meetings the morning after, had been in contact by email. Some had really tired just one shared goal for all of us: enjoy ourselves faces (especially if they came from the pre-CM in until the morning, make the most of that last night Grenoble!), but all 174 of them had one thing in all together… before the next Council Meeting or common: a big smile. For the organising team , this before catching the first train on the morning to was one of the magic moments we won’t forget.

Paris!

Mr Jean-Claude Bureau (INSA’s International Responsible) and Mr Martin Raynaud (INSA’s dean) gave the opening speeches. The public enjoyed Mr Bureau’s humour, and once more, the organising team felt thankful to all the support given by university. After the speeches, INSA de Lyon welcomed ESTIEMers by offering a cocktail.

Afterwards we head to our first party : the 30th Council Meeting had started !

And from that moment, I must confess, we did not see time going by… General Assemblies, Working Groups, Local Responsible Meetings, Applicant Meetings, the very interesting Avery Dennison presentation and its GOLD Programme for young engineers… there were ESTIEMers everywhere in the department. All IEM students were quite enjoyed with this little invasion, and the Board and Working Group Leaders seemed really pleased with work results. We all worked hard, but still coffee breaks

Six Months Later Six months later we still have not finished cleaning up the confetti in the hotel corridor… Just joking!

Six months after, all this little adventure now seems like a dream. We hope that week from April 11th to April 16th taught you more about the French culture, and yet that French are more than frog and snail eaters. We hope you appreciated Lyon, and that you won’t hesitate to contact us if you ever come around!

And specially, that you all know now how to ask for stamps in French… 

What did YOU think?

Sara Götesson, LG Linköping:

“Great organisation, fruitful work and very nice people in a lovely country with nice and much food and wine, but a bit too rainy.”

Bertrand Dayer, LG Zurich:

“The best week for partying with the biggest amount of crazy ESTIEMers ever, tasting French food... but also serious working in a relaxed atmosphere!”

Serhan Altintas, LG Ankara-METU:

“Getting to know the whole organisation of ESTIEM, being a real part of its think tank, making friends from all across Europe, enjoying the moments every single night and tasting wonderful wines in its homeland, France!! Still asking for reasons to participate in a CM..?!You have got to be kidding...”

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PIERRE-LOUIS FRAUDET

pre

Grenoble

Thursday morning 9:23 am. The organising team is attending a course in economy when suddenly, the phone is ringing : “Marko and Slavko have just arrived.” It is the beginning of our pre-CM Grenoble 2005!

Sunday was “Chartreuse day”. Chartreuse is both a group of mountains and a very famous alcohol made by monks in a town close to Grenoble. Our first stop was obviously at the Chartreuse cellar. The tour included 3D videos about the secret recipe (which consists of more than 40 different herbs) and of Friday evening. Most ESTIEMers have just arrived course a “degustation” of various types of Chartreuse and are thinking about having a rest but they are alcohol. wrong! A welcome speech later, we are singing in the Warmed by the sun (and maybe the old green tramway, ready to go to an “open bar party” in “Le Chartreuse) we went deeper in the mountains.

Sono”. Many of us will not forget this party which Unfortunately, half a metre of fresh snow had covered ended late in the morning. the green mountains during the night. As the roads were closed, we finally stopped in a ski resort and Saturday morning. The weather is the worst ever hiking was replaced by sledge, snowballs and snowseen in Grenoble (rainy, windy and cold) and it is volleyball. At the end of the afternoon everybody difficult to wake up, too. After a lunch at school with ended up in the nearby warm coffeehouse! some games, we decided to change our plans and We quickly changed our gloves and scarves for to go ice-skating! So many ESTIEMers having fun dresses and evening-suits, as a gala-dinner was and singing the ESTIEM song on the ice was a good waiting for us in the city centre. Many ESTIEM compensation to the windy mountains. A small flood songs, presents and bottles of wine later, we went to and a break later, here we are! Ready to discover the a pub on the border of the river, where this long day pleasure of the “raclette”, a typical cheese dinner ended smoothly. from Grenoble with bottles of white Bordeaux, served with international songs and fun!

On Monday we took the cable-car to the Bastille We continued this healthy day in the London Pub mountain, happy to see postcard-like views of sunny (French ESTIEMers are not chauvinistic, are they?). Grenoble surrounded by snowy mountains.

One floor was not too much for ESTIEMers and none On behalf of Local Group Grenoble, thanks to the of us were disappointed by the English cocktails… great participants of this pre-CM. We had a lot of We finished the night in “Le Vieux Manoir” where fun and are looking forward to seeing you again, in ESTIEMers showed their dancing skills. Few hours to Grenoble or abroad.  sleep before the tasty Sunday!

Summer Academy Workshop Istanbul Boğaziçi Management in the marvelous campus of Boğaziçi. With the tasteful snacks at the coffee breaks, the second workshop day brought lots of valuable lessons about leadership and a listening exercise. The day was concluded with a soothing rock party at a pub in Taksim.

As two days were passing with a fulfillment of knowledge and philosophy, there was just a bit of sand left in the workshop hourglass. Professor Platts dedicated the last day of this academic ESTIEM event to talk about philosophers on leadership, followed by a feedback session. The The event started with the arrivals of the first final day finished with the promise to meet again participants, but the official kick-off was the at another ESTIEM event.Every participant’s dinner that had the task of acquainting each other. understanding of leadership and even life was After the delicious meal, Jim Platts started the changed by Jim Platts’ three-day workshop. It first lecture about a general introduction of the was not only about manufacturing and leadership, topic and especially the values. Following the first it included valuable lessons about life as well; it day’s lecture the ESTIEMers appreciated the taste was not only about being a leader, it was about of a nargile (water pipe). being a human. This workshop also brought the well-known ESTIEM values to its participants: After a short sleep at the dormitory next to the network, development and fun! Special thanks Black Sea, the second day began with a lecture goes out to Local Group Istanbul Boğaziçi for their great hospitality and to Jim Platts for this about “Managing Knowing” with the footnote unforgettable and special weekend.  of expressing the difference with Knowledge

AYKUT DUMAN

As the most academic event of ESTIEM, Summer Academy has a different place among all ESTIEM events. After last years’ successful organisations and before the intensive days of Summer Academies in Turkey and Hungary, Local Group Istanbul Boğaziçi hosted the warm-up study, the Summer Academy Workshop under the academic leadership of Professor Jim Platts from Cambridge, UK. Local Group Istanbul Boğaziçi hosted 25 participants for this unforgettable and valuable event with the topic “Manufacturing Leadership” from April 22nd to 24th.

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34

ESTIEM Summer Academy Enriching experiences that might just change your life...

2005

STEFFEN FRANKE

The ESTIEM Summer Academy (SAC) is a project with significantly high academic content and it has been developed to give students of ESTIEM new ideas and thoughts outside their traditional universitybased experiences, whilst maintaining a standard of excellence. Also this year, 21 students came together during two events in Hungary and Turkey. The project was a great success for all the people involved, both

participants and organisers. The participants had two wonderful weeks with new experiences, improved their leadership skills and made new deep friendships with other students from Europe. The two following articles demonstrate what an amazing time everybody had and after reading it I hope nobody can wait to participate in this awesome event next year.

Summer Academy Hungary

BALAZS ROMHANYI

During the first two weeks of August, the Summer Academy moved to the ancient land of Hungary. The location of the event was Balatonalmádi, a small town along Lake Balaton, in the heart of one of the best vinery regions of Hungary. We had a big house – just five minutes on foot from the lake and the city centre.

With his great experience, Professor Dietrich Brandt from the Aachen University of Technology introduced us very well to the topic “HumanCentred System Design – People, Organisation and Technology” and prepared us for our task: a workshop at Valeo, one of the biggest automotive suppliers in the world.

we presented our innovative ideas and concepts to the product manager of Valeo who was quite impressed by our solution. After the final presentation on the last day of the workshop, we used our time in Veszprém, one of the oldest cities of Hungary, to do a little sightseeing tour.

On the first weekend we took the early train to Budapest to show the participants of the Summer Academy this beautiful metropolis full of life and history by visiting the castle, the parliament, the Hero’s Square and the Margaret Island on the River Danube. We spent an amazing day in this city, even though it was a bit hasty sometimes.

Writing our theses and improving our personal skills as speakers and leaders in a lot of The managers at Valeo expected us with curiosity presentations and group discussions, always with What did YOU think? on the one hand, but on the other hand also different leaders, dominated the second week.

Ellen Roelofs, LG Eindhoven: wanted us to come up with useful results for their Of course we were not working all the time; “I think this Summer production. Therefore, in the second part of the fun was also part of the schedule! We enjoyed Academy was very first week, we found our way to the old historical the beaches of the big Lake Balaton and the wine educational, not only town of Veszprém, where the French automotive festival of Balatonalmádi, where we could taste on the ‘theoretical’ supplier is located. Here we showed Valeo the most delicious wines of Hungary, was also a level, but also on the what fresh ideas and solutions a mixed group nice moment in these two great weeks. more social level by for instance the of motivated European students with different experience of working in intercultural cultures and ideas can bring.

Altogether we had a wonderful time during these groups.”

We had a really interesting and challenging task two weeks, gained a lot of experience, made to manage: the design of a production plant for new friends and got a great impression of the Erlangga Arfan, LG Gothenburg: a new and top-secret product. During these Hungarian culture. It was a fantastic event and we “Every time I interact three days, we worked very hard and gained a strongly recommend everybody to apply for the with other people, I lot of experience. At the end of the workshop Summer Academy next year! always remember the Summer Academy as an event having a great contribution for developing my interpersonal skills.”

Summer Academy Turkey

Are there times when you feel annoyed by other people’s behaviour? Are you blaming them for the results of their behaviour? At that moment, do you think about the fact that it is you who is not able to accept the others’ behaviour?

Sometimes it is much easier to change your own behaviour then to blame others for their flaws. Forgiving solves a lot of disagreements. Using the word mistake instead of fault indicates that the mistake didn’t have obvious effects, thus you are willing to forgive.

Have you ever truly thought about yourself? About your own behaviour? About your own wonderful characteristics, but also about your bad ones? Have you ever tried to actively listen to somebody? And actively does not mean saying “uhuh” and “yes”, and also doesn’t mean that you only have to listen to the parts which are interesting. Have you ever realised what the benefits are of speaking authentically? Which means: have you ever felt your emotions blocking you from saying something difficult?

Moreover, have you ever stayed 30 kilometres out of civilization together with a group of 10 tremendous people?

Have you ever had two weeks of traineeship 2 000 metres above sea level? Have you had a real Turkish chef cooking for you for two weeks? Have you ever woken up seeing a metropolis lying in the valley below your hotel? Have you ever visited an old Ottoman village? And last but not least, have you ever had a four-day guided tour through a city with about 15 million citizens?

Did these questions trigger your curiosity? Then you really should participate in the most wonderful ESTIEM event I’ve ever experienced next year. I can say that it truly changed my life, and it will also change yours if you participate!

Jan Spruijt JAN SPRUIJT

Have you ever thought about what you are truly committed to? What you are really willing to give your life for?

Is the answer going out with your friends? Or is it playing football? Could it maybe be a person who is close to you? Or are you committed to helping people who need help?

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36

MALGORZATA KUCHARSKA

Vision Warsaw

The beginning of May, a lot of sun in the capital of Poland, cheery and light-spirited students from different European countries, a great time, interesting seminars, modern factories, unforgettable parties…This is the shortest way to describe the Vision of Change seminar that took place in Warsaw from May 4th to May 8th.

Unfortunately we did not have a lot of time to sleep, because another hard-working day was waiting for us. We visited two factories, of Danfoss and Faurecia. The former is a global organisation which manufactures regulatingand control-measurement equipment for many sectors of the economy. The latter is currently the second largest producer of car equipment The entire morning and afternoon of the first in Europe. During the presentations we learned day, ESTIEMers from LG Warsaw were waiting what kind of various technologies and equipment for the guests arriving from different places all are used in the production process. We heard over the Europe. When we all finally gathered, we had a nice walk through the Old Town and ate about machinery such as mechanical and supper at the Warsaw University of Technology; a hydraulic transfer presses, welding robots, point welding machines, robots for cutting and loading good occasion to get to know each other. ball-bearings, and equipment for lubrication and assembly.

The following days were full of attractions.

After the first breakfast in the hostel, we visited After having received a lot of information and a very modern and progressive factory of having visited all parts of the production facility, AVIA. This enterprise offers a wide range of we set out to a mysterious village in a suburb of vertical machining centres, manual and CNC Warsaw where a surprise party took place. An milling machines, CNC lathes and ball screws. old castle, fighting knights, and a fireplace were All machines and automations presented a waiting for us. We stayed in the old castle for the very high level of technology. Later we entire night without electricity or hot water. But participated in lectures in NOT. NOT is a we didn’t need it, after all. public organisation with almost 160 years of history. This first Polish Engineering On Saturday we came back to Warsaw, took Association was founded in1835 in Paris a short nap, and at about noon we started but moved to Warsaw 60 years later. The sightseeing. Everybody had the possibility to day was really exhausting, but after a admire a wonderful view from the top of the short break all ESTIEMers had a good Palace of Culture. In the afternoon we organised time in the most popular students’ the last (but not least) party – Happy Tramway! club in the centre of the For two hours we were riding through the city city. The music in a special tram, which formed the second part was really nice, of the tour. After the ride we went to a club and so we were enjoyed ourselves for the last time. dancing until the morning sun I’d like to thank all participants and I hope that not only you learned a lot during the Vision of accompanied Change in Warsaw, but also met our culture and us back to the had a glance at the Polish students’ way of life.  hostel.

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Vision Lund

Ukrainian supplier or not. Most teams did not support this idea because the given environment (e.g. 40% unemployment and massive ecological problems) suggested bad circumstances.

However, IKEA’s solution was to go ahead and produce in the Ukraine. The prizes for the winning team were some very stylish stools (made by IKEA, of course).

The vision organisers were very good at making us go to bed reasonably early the first few days so that we could concentrate on the lectures. It was only towards the end of the week that we were shown what Lund student life really has to offer.

35% of Lund’s population are students. All the students are part of a so called “student nation” The first lecture was given by a history professor which organise meals and parties for students. sketching the development of the European Lund has 13 of these “student nations”, therefore Union. Next was a representative from the there is no need to go out to some club – you Chamber of Commerce, who showed us how the simply party at a student nation. And so we did!

Chamber assists entrepreneurs planning to do business in Eastern Europe. Moreover we got a On the last day, we went to Copenhagen to visit quick presentation on the IEM studies in Lund by the Copenhagen-Malmö port, one of Europe’s a professor from the IEM department. largest ports and we also did some shopping and sightseeing. A gala dinner in the evening was the Another highlight was a company visit at perfect ending to this wonderful event.

Gambro, a major dialysis treatment machines manufacturer from Lund – there we learnt a Thank you LG Lund for an lot about internal logistics and the company’s awesome Vision of Change strategy and also had a really nice lunch..

2005! The topic of this seminar was “Eastern Europe – The Hub of Change”. At the start, all the participants were given a bike to get around the city during the seminar, which made transportation issues very easy.

Finally, what would Sweden be without IKEA? The large furniture company provided us with an interesting case study in which we had to evaluate whether IKEA should do business with a

KNUD LASSE LÜTH

72 degrees Celsius, cold beer, loud rock music and 30 crazy students –this is a sauna party, Lund style.The ESTIEMers from Graz, Grenoble, Istanbul, Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Linköping and Trondheim rocked the house and experienced a wonderful event. But the sauna party was not the only highlight which ESTIEM’s newest member, Local Group Lund, was able to offer to its 20 Vision participants.

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ZOYA IVANOVA “Other than previous Alumni Meetings,

this time, Local Group Sofia organised everything

without any local alumni in charge – and they did

a very good job!

Thank you very much!”

Mirko Tomforde, LG Hamburg

Alumni Meeting Sofia

Have you finished your education? Haven’t made up your mind about what to do afterwards yet? Organise an Alumni Meeting – something new, adventurous and useful!

of sightseeing, it was time for us to have dinner together. And, last but not least, a party was looming ahead…

For the last day we had planned a hiking trip onto Vitosha Mountain, to take place right after the This very year, Local Group Sofia grasped the final General Assembly and the lunch. It was one opportunity to host such an event. Well, it turned of those not-so-sunny-and-suitable-for-hikingout to be quite a challenge for all of us due to days, but our friends didn’t get scared at all… the fact that there was no previous experience quite the opposite I may say – it looked as if they available to turn to; but in my opinion, we felt challenged. managed without. The ‘ESTIEM spirit’ didn’t let The guide,Yanitsa Ilieva, was eager to acquaint us down during two days full of emotions. them with everything she knew about Bulgaria An Alumni Meeting is an event on its own. and during the bus trip, the hikers became aware Conversations, both serious and interesting, were of most of the Bulgarian customs, typical habits helping us to derive conclusions: how to act and of the natives, and of course short bits of history. respond to hindrances and tricky situations, how Not only did they hear the stories, but they also to search for training programmes and to find put some newfound knowledge into practice where exactly you fit best. For it is your life, so during the hiking itself. They got aware how the make it better! young men and women got engaged in Bulgaria The Alumni Meeting itself started with the arrival during the second half of the 19th century and of our dear ESTIEM Alumni guests, which was liked the part where the girl places a flower over quite amusing. The moment they first set foot her ear – the moment she allows a man to take it, in Bulgaria, they started scanning through the she swears an oath to marry the one who took the participants list to assure themselves whether or flower. As expected all the guys decided to pick not they had met the others before. After taking flowers... care of accommodation and dinner, we indulged ourselves in a party at which the ESTIEM spirit The hikers were hindered by heavy rain, so we was felt every single minute! made our way back to the bus. In a nutshell: Not before long, it was time for the General everyone was equally satisfied with the Sunday Assembly early in the morning – yes, ESTIEM afternoon activities. All were ready to go back to Alumni also hold General Assemblies. But we the hotel, where new adventures were awaiting were shown graphs, figures, and presentations us the same day. We had a traditional Bulgarian different from what we are used to see in General dinner, with a lot of delicious specialties, Assemblies at Council Meetings. Discussions Bulgarian music and many laughs. took place in order to learn some more about The most difficult part – as we might have one another. The next event on our daily guessed – was the farewell. Pleasant things turn schedule was eagerly awaited: City maps were out to be short, but we keep these moments deep brought and individual routes made according to in our hearts.  personal interests and hobbies. After four hours

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A long break had interrupted the tradition of Activity Weeks of LG Hamburg, but if you thought they were forgotten, you were totally wrong!

took them to the Reeperbahn. Starting at the China Lounge Club we explored this famous party area of Hamburg. This night was to become a very, very long one…

The Hanseatic Days came back in 2005 and maintained the high standards set by our predecessors! Together with our head sponsor Arkwright Consulting AG, we developed an outstanding programme for the six-day event that made ESTIEMers from all over Europe apply for it.

The lucky ones that finally got a place came from Finland, Poland, Turkey, Ukraine, and Germany.

Did you think the Hanseatic Days were supposed to be fun? You were wrong… Early the next day, the best city guide in town – Hamburg ESTIEMer Björn Brandt – showed the participants everything they had to see in this Hanseatic city in a five-hour tour. At night, everybody could watch the firework over the “Alstervergnügen” festival, taking place around Hamburg’s inner city lake.

On the arrival day BBQ party it became clear quickly that we had about 25 very cool international people which would be a real fun group during the days ahead. So we went on to a pub after the BBQ, leading to a shorter night than originally planned.

Finally the weekend: Saturday was packed with fun and sport events in the central park. Hot weather and cool games, the best mix to prepare for the most anticipated event: the notorious “Arkwright Boat Party”. No ordinary party, but a big five-hour celebration on a ship cruising the river Elbe at night, giving you the chance to observe a magnificent view of the spectacular, night-lit harbour.

But it was not over when we were back on steady ground: the Kiez is very close by! So the majority partied on until five in the morning – this is when the fish market in the harbour starts. A fish roll and a beer for breakfast, which was finally the end.

More or less on time, since everybody traveled out on Sunday.

But as you know: it is an ESTIEM event, so don’t even think about sleeping! The next day started pretty early with a visit of the famous St. Michaelis church.

That was enough time to relax. An interesting tour at the Holsten brewery, followed by tasting the Holsten products was the next point on the agenda.

Afterwards most participants chose to relax on the beach of the Elbe river to recharge their batteries for the party at a student house in the evening.

The HEW-Vattenfall power plant Tiefstack was the first part of Wednesday’s programme. To complete the “business day”, we went directly on to a very interesting Workshop about negotiation handling, provided by Arkwright.

The day was already packed enough and our guests had earned themselves some party time, so we

The Local Group Hamburg would like to say “Thank you very much” to all participants – we hope you had at least as much fun as we had. We are already looking forward to seeing you again at the next Hanseatic Days. Summer of 2006, so stay tuned!

MATTHIAS ARNDT

Comeback of the year: Hanseatic Days 2005

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PROFESSIONAL BIRGIT ANGELE

P&G offers a new challenge every day

Product Supply Recruiting Germany

Two billion times a day, brands from The Procter & Gamble Company touch the lives of people around the world. P&G has one of the largest and strongest portfolios of trusted, quality brands, including Pampers, Tide, Ariel, Always, Whisper, Pantene, Bounty, Pringles, Charmin, Downy, Lenor, Iams, Crest, Actonel and Olay. Nearly 110,000 P&G people working in 80 countries make sure P&G brands live up to their promise to make everyday life a little better.

The screening process is very selective. The first “foot in the door” is always an online application and questionnaire. Successful applicants then proceed to multiple interviews.

P&G is a promote-from-within company, so university recruitment is very important. P&G recruits from a specific set of colleges and universities and prefers to hire through internships, which it offers in every area of the company, including engineering and industrial management.

P&G believes its people are the most important asset. For more information about P&G careers, visit www.pg.com. 

P&G promises new hires a challenge every day. The company is serious about developing employees, beginning on day one with a specific work plan. New hires in engineering and industrial management can expect to focus on improvement of equipment and technologies and optimization of the supply chain.

P&G was founded in 1837 when William Procter, They will rotate from online to offline jobs, will have a candle maker, and James Gamble, an apprentice responsibility for teams and the only limit for their soap maker, married sisters. As a testament to P&G’s career will be themselves. P&G sees in each new commitment to grow from its core business, much hire a potential plant manager or a global leader in of the company’s current product portfolio can be engineering, logistics or customer service. traced back to the raw ingredients and processes in soap- and candle-making.

As employees grow in their careers, they earn assignments that best meet their development Today, P&G is a growing, fast-moving global goals and passion areas. P&G people are expected enterprise. In January 2005, P&G announced plans to contribute ideas and the company believes to acquire The Gillette Company and become one of innovation is everyone’s responsibility. Because P&G the world’s largest consumer products companies. is global, employees have the benefit of working with Together, P&G and Gillette have 22 brands with exceptional and diverse colleagues from different sales over $1 billion and a global workforce of countries and cultures, and many take assignments approximately 140,000 employees. that allow them to live in other parts of the world.

41

A thesis in Portugal I have studied in Portugal at University of Porto Engineering Faculty for six months, within the framework of Erasmus project. What I have found really different if compared with my country is the spread and strong will to give Portugal a more suitable place in the world economy.

The relations among people are oriented to develop synergies to enrich the entire country and to reform the present-day contradictions: inhomogeneous distribution of wealth, migration from the inlands to the coast, unemployment among non-specialised workers. The ruling class is betting on the young people formation, giving them a new entrepreneurial outlook.

With the invaluable support of prof. J.A.Barros Basto, the local coordinator during my stay in Portugal, I decided to develop my final work, concerning the function of the public interface institutes in spreading knowledge among firms.

In a knowledge driven economy, the social network theory characterises the central function of these institutes. In fact, one of the bigger problems usually found is how to allow a regular and profitable information flow from universities and research centres to the small and medium companies, that can use it to develop processes and product innovations. A lot of work has to be done in backward areas to improve actual systems, but is important to have already recognised the right direction to follow.

The Lisbon Conference in 2000 and the plans for the future are very clear in this sense: innovation was individuated as the key factor for global

competition, Innovation Management Techniques (IMTs) as the instrument to help firms in this hard challenge. Local area development came up as the solution to spread progress in the whole community and the interface institutes as the best means to get good results quickly.

The aim of my work was to analyze these three elements to determine a good solution for the south of Italy, where there are many opportunities that could be exploited by Italians and could attract funds from abroad. Tourism, agriculture, the alimentary sector, Information and Communication Technologies and New Technologies Development are only some of the fields in which we already have advanced clusters, able to compete with companies from all over the world, but unfortunately there is not yet coordinating action to get good achievements.

In Portugal, one of the bigger institutes active in the field of knowledge transfer is the Instituto de Engenharia Mêcanica e Gestão Industrial (INEGI). The availability of the vice president prof. F.J.Lino Alves gave me the opportunity to spend three months there to study its functioning.

I found a very comfortable place to work and very kind people; both are effects of the spirit of the country and of the policy of helping students to realise theses with new points of view. For me it was very important to understand what that kind of institution could potentially do for a country, supporting the companies management and the knowledge spreading.

INEGI was born in January 1986, founded by

ALESSANDRO PELLICCIA

the interface institutes as a key for innovation

42

the University of Porto (UP), the Association of Metallurgical and Mechanical and Related Industries of Northern Portugal (AIMMAP), the Portuguese Society of Industrial Engineering and Management (APGEI) and the Society of the Alumni of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (ADEMEC).

The institute mission is “to contribute towards the increase of competitiveness of Portuguese industry through research and development, demonstration and transfer of technology in the areas of design, materials, production, energy, maintenance, management and environment”.

Actually, twenty different subjects are full members of the institution which is involved in all the fields of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management, among which experimental stress analysis, nondestructive tests, environment, product design and development, wind energy, testing of materials and products, professional training, rapid prototyping and tooling, structural analysis, production technologies, simulation of manufacturing processes. It has also been selected for the EUROLAB programme together with 49 other centres. INEGI has many partners all over the world, because the advanced technologies they have got are very competitive with all the best R&D centres. They also have a very sophisticated laboratory to study fire effects on composite materials that is used by NASA to realise tests.

During my stay I have studied how the centre is organised, to compare it with some Italian centres and to elaborate some key points for the success of the interface institutes. The main element that I have found is the strong collaboration with the university. An agreement with the chancellor permits a professor-and-doctor-collaboration with the institute: they take part in projects in the role of consultant, bringing in their knowledge to find new solutions. The second point is the financial independence: the public resources are important because these institutes have a social function.

But bureaucracy and political interests are not in harmony with research and flexibility; firms have

money to be invested, but in this case they want to have the control on the solutions found. The best option is to find an equilibrium between public and private subsidies. Another very important element is the personnel formation: it is a strategic resource for which it is necessary to invest a lot, such as the UE suggests in the ICP 2007–2013. An adequate Human Resource policy is necessary to foster the arrival of new personnel, to guarantee an high turnover and to bring in new knowledge.

I have no doubt that this experience has been great: to live abroad with people from all over Europe and to have the chance to learn so many things in a R&D centre is an opportunity that an ESTIEMer should grab with both hands! In my opinion the bonds of friendship creation, the opportunity to learn a new language and to visit unforgettable places are priceless. To do these things means to use the opportunity of being a student, whose aim is not only to be a good engineer, but above all a better person, in an optimal way. To realise your final work abroad is hard but very satisfactory; a challenge which your European spirit can not renounce! 

43

INTERVIEW

WITH A CONSULTANT

Ulf Spitzer is a Project Manager at Roland Berger’s Munich office. He has been with Roland Berger for four years now. Before that he worked for ABB and studied IEM at the University of Technology, Berlin, and the University of Linköping.

Mr. Spitzer, when you think back to your IEM studies, what aspects of those studies help you in your job as a consultant today?

Looking back at my time at university, what appears to be most important are the basic topics I covered in the first few years, especially accounting. I guess I found it very boring at the time, but now it is really crucial to know the fundamentals of finance and accounting because in the end it always comes down to the numbers.

From a broader point of view, I would say that my experiences during my exchange year helped me a lot, too. Experiencing a different environment (university or workplace) and achieving something with people you have only known for a short time is pretty much what happens now in consulting projects when you enter into the “environment” and culture of a new company.

Working in successful teams is essential in consulting. What does it take to be a good team player?

I think it is important not to expect results too soon.

As a Project Manager responsible for your team’s success, it is all too easy to rush ahead with your own ideas about structures or solutions. But team members then end up just carrying out instructions.

To really make the most of the whole team’s creativity you need the courage to let things happen of their own accord and focus more on moderating the process.

You are a Project Manager. What sort of things do you do?

I lead teams on client projects; the teams sometimes include client staff. I also play a major role in preparing consulting projects, i.e. developing project proposals for our clients, defining the structure and deciding on staffing. And finally I am responsible for the project budget, a topic which really puts you into the position of the entrepreneur.

What sort of projects do you actually work on?

Can you give an example?

The last two projects I worked on were fortunately both strategic, market-oriented topics. This may be a sign that German business is considering new directions. One of the projects focused on setting up a new business segment at a highly successful provider of industrial automation technology. Asian markets – China in particular – and partnerships with players there are of course very important.

KNUD LASSE LÜTH

We met Ulf Spitzer of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants in Munich and talked about life as a consultant and recent challenges

44

Are all the projects you consult successful?

Or have there been any cases in which your strategy was a complete failure?

I would be exaggerating if I said everything we do is 100% successful. What does occasionally happen is that a carefully worked out approach is not, or not fully, implemented by the client. But ultimately it is the client who is responsible for his business and there can be various reasons for his decision – as a consultant, you either accept that or change sides.

What is it that you like about being a consultant?

Well, I think it sounds like the obvious things: I like the variety of challenges I face and can gain experience in a wide range of different companies.

Above all, it is inspiring to work with my welleducated and motivated colleagues. And I think it is a really good experience to see how much you can achieve in a short time in most companies if you only try.

of its sheer size alone, but it is not always the best option because there are some common pitfalls to avoid.

For example, China offers considerable sales opportunities in many areas, but understandably wants to benefit from the development itself and not merely provide a market for others to sell their wares. It is therefore often essential to form joint ventures or involve Chinese partners in projects.

What about cultural differences when you go to China? Is that a big thing?

There are certainly differences – as in every country.

It is hard to categorise cultural differences as being more or less important. Even the cultural differences between the Germans and the Swiss or between two companies in the same country can determine the success of a merger, for instance.

Do you have any solutions to these sorts of problems?

We have a tool called “cultural survey”. It records On the other hand you work 60 hours a week. and highlights the different ways of working and Could you have imagined that as a student? expectations. Just knowing about these mutual You do work longer hours in a consultancy than in expectations and judgments brings the parties other professions because the deadlines are often together and reduces misunderstandings.You very tight. But even in other industries, when you should also establish processes which take into want to achieve something I do not think you can do account these different cultures and talk to each that in a 40-hour week. I think I realised that when I other accordingly. However, what I think is most was still a student. important is to be open to how different other cultures can be.You should be aware that in other One of your projects was a market entry countries some things are done differently than you strategy into an Asian market. Let’s say a are used to or than you would do them yourself. But company approaches you about wanting to go goals can be reached in many different ways. to China to set up their business there. What factors do you look at to get your strategy That is interesting. Now that we have gained going? some insights from you, can you give us an idea First we look at the business segments the company what a student should focus on to become a is strong in and which could be relevant to the successful consultant? particular market. Then we estimate the probable There is no laundry list of ideal qualities. Obviously success of market entry with the prioritised the quality of education plays a role, but relevant products or segments. Market development, internships and a general interest in day-tocompetitive positioning and alternative development day business matters are vital. If you are fairly opportunities all play a role here. For instance, in well informed in such matters, you can avoid one project we recommended that a client expand embarrassing situations in your job interview. And into a completely different target market than he had the icing on the cake is of course that you know how been planning to – the client is currently putting this to have fun. Because if we just talk about facts all the recommendation into practice. time, our intensive project work would be terribly Of course, the Chinese market is of interest because dull… 

Introducing Microsoft’s Academic Programmes 45

Microsoft does more than just develop software.

Microsoft develops software that enables people and businesses around the world to reach their full potential.We have a keen interest in how people use our software for their own personal success.

In fact, we have a whole department dedicated to academia with numerous academic programmes designed to help prepare the technology leaders of tomorrow.

Our programmes are aimed at all different levels of education from primary schools to universities.

There are three key academic programmes that every The Spoke The Spoke is a digital lifestyle club for students and university student with a passion for technology young technology enthusiasts. It allows students to should be aware of: blog, share ideas and meet other students with the same passion for technology whilst The Spoke TV The Imagine Cup and Articles have updates on upcoming events. Those This is a yearly programming competition. There members who sign up for The Spoke premium will are a number of invitationals, from Software also have access to free Microsoft Software through Development over Visual Gaming to Algorithm. their membership. Visit www.thespoke.net.

Many of the invitationals are online, however there are a number that are offline. Prize money ranges from $5,000 US to $25,000 US for the Software Design invitational. Each invitational is governed by MSDN AA its own set of rules.

The Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance is a program that universities can sign up to and that This is an amazing opportunity for technology students. The intellectual property rights remain that entitles all students affiliated to the departments of the developers. Finalists are given the opportunity in that university with MSDN AA membership to download Microsoft Software for free. That’s right, to showcase their software to some of the biggest MSDN AA enables students to download and use names in technology, with judges consisting of Microsoft software at absolutely no cost at all. This university lecturers, venture capitalists, business service also provides a community for lecturers leaders, and Microsoft employees. This competition around the world to share their learning experiences, opens a world of opportunity for entrants; a team helping to develop Academic Curricula through easy could enter just to see how far they could get in the information sharing. For more information contact competition and end with a new business backed by your department at University to see if they are venture capitalist. registered. Visit www.msdnaa.net.  For more information see www.imaginecup.com. This year’s finals will be in India.

Other academic programmes that may be of interest: Microsoft European Science Initiative - http://research.microsoft.com/ero/, Shared Source initiative - http://www.microsoft.com/sharedsource Partners In Learning - http://www.microsoft.com/Education/PartnersinLearning.aspx Microsoft IT Academy - http://www.microsoft.com/education/msitacademy/default.aspx Microsoft European Microsoft Innovation Centre - http://www.microsoft.com/emea/emic/default.mspx

46

INSIDE ESTIEM

“Cool as a Finn?”

RENÉ HEUNEN

One of the things that is often said of the Finns is that they prefer listening above talking. They’re not easy to get acquainted with, they are often associated with a sense of melancholy and their personalities can be labelled as ‘cool’.

Do all these generalizations really form a good reflection of the ‘typical Finnish’ character elements? Let’s take a look at some statements…

Finns are quiet Take a look around on an average ESTIEM event; of course there are exceptions, but generally speaking the Finnish participants don’t have the biggest mouth (who do, by the way?).

Finns don’t like to brag Another important cornerstone of the Finnish society is equality. Nobody is supposed to be better off than others, and the extensive governmental social security program is the perfect reflection of this philosophy. Another example is that it’s not uncommon to dislike artists making a career abroad (“The success really got to him”). ‘Success’ or what may be seen as a deliberate attempt to distinguish oneself from others may be viewed with a certain hostility.

Finns are hard-working Generally speaking, the Finnish really commit to the things they like. If they work on something, they go for the best possible result and are proud once they managed to achieve it. Failure on the Finns are reserved other hand is not easily accepted and is a sign Spontaneity is not the first thing that pops up in of weakness. Finns prefer to accomplish things people’s minds when they think about Finns; they on their own, so the chances of running into a don’t tend to step up to strangers easily. But what Finnish tourist asking you for directions are quite others perceive as reservedness might simply be slim. They have a high sense of self-criticism and explained by a preference for tend to take things personal when something goes Facts: efficient communication; if wrong.

• Finns drink more coffee than any other nation you have nothing useful to • Finland’s annual wife-carrying championship is held say, don’t say anything! But Finns respect tradition every July in a village called Sonkajarvi • 69% of the land is covered with forest; the highest if you have something to say, One of the other aspects that is more or less say it straight and truthful, proportion in the world related to striving for equality, faithfulness and • The sauna is Finland’s hottest export product whatever it is. hard work is the respect for a traditional way of • The national sport is Finnish rules baseball, or life. For many Finns, a nice job, house and family pesapallo Finns are introvert • Finland tops the World Press Freedom Index as the are first priority. country with the highest degree of press freedom for Does being not very talkative two years in a row, together with the Netherlands, imply that Finns are not used Finns are sporty Iceland and Norway to share their thoughts and If you have loads of beautiful lakes, forests and emotions with others? The answer is a clear ‘no’. rivers, why not go out and enjoy them in an active It might take a long time for a Finn to become way? Many Finns are fond of jogging, walking or familiar with others, but as a result relationships doing different kinds of sports, preferably in the are often deep and lasting. Compassion is open air. So keep that in mind the next time you absolutely present. Trust and faithfulness are challenge a Fin to put a box of Lapin Kulta on considered very important and if a person asks whoever makes it to the sauna first...  you how you are doing, he or she is actually interested in the answer and is not just asking it out of politeness.

Cupre ltural Judice

References: • Newmark, C. “Newmarks Door” August 8, 2005 • The Wikipedia Encyclopedia • Several Finnish ESTIEMers • Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Ranking, October 2004

ESTIEMers Beyond Europe 47

I particularly liked the trip I made with my girlfriend in Japan. Including but not limited to: Christmas dinner in a sublime restaurant in a Japanese garden with (artificial) snow. A weekend the craziness of Tokyo. Skiing in the Japanese alps, staying in a traditional Japanese wooden Inn with natural hot spring, traditional New Year with my Could you give a short description of your host family and much, much more... whereabouts and activities during the past My worst experience was I guess the first day I year? came to Japan. I realised that it was going to be I was in Osaka, the second biggest metropolitan quite a tough year for me. Nobody spoke English, area in Japan; studying at Osaka University, my dorm was rather substandard and for the first studying a set of electives, conducting research on time in my life I was really alone.

IT to support integration initiatives in decentreed supply chains and doing a language (deciphering) Do you see any market opportunities for course.

ESTIEM in Japan/South-East Asia? Have you bumped into any similar organisations?

What was your motivation to go to Japan?

I think there is a huge opportunity for ESTIEMI wanted and had to study abroad. For the like organisations all over Asia. Not only from decision where to go, I figured three criteria the individual point of view, but maybe in the important: Technology, Management, Culture. first place to integrate societies. Neighbour Japan is famous for cutting-edge technological relationships between countries are very bad, research and fascinating management principles. racism prevails. According to me mainly because Culture wise, I figured the more different the of lack of interaction between the people of these culture would be, the more I would learn from countries. it. It was hard to find a place, but after some disappointments I finally was successful.

What were your expectations and were they met?

Many of my expectations were exceeded. This year has been especially good for my personal development and intercultural experience.

Initially, the ‘culture shock’ hit me pretty hard, being totally alone in a country full of very strange strangers. I noticed that I was not as tough as I thought I was and was wondering where I had gotten myself into. However, I was surprised with the speed with which I got settled, slowly integrating into the society and starting to understand cultural values. I didn’t study as much IEM as I wanted to but I learned a lot about the Do you have any advice world, cultures, my background and myself. for ESTIEMers with similar travelling plans?

What you know is important, but whom you What was your most memorable positive know is more important. It’s not easy to go to experience during your time abroad? And Japan, but it’s very worthwhile! Contact me the most negative? before you go! As a real ESTIEMer I enjoyed travelling a lot.

EDWIN VAN REST

One of the most interesting characteristics of ESTIEMers is that they tend to travel.

Quite often, their adventures are not only limited to European soil... An interview with Eindhoven’s Edwin van Rest , who spent a year in Japan.

48

So What’s Happening In….

CARLA MARQUEZ

Lisbon: A window to the Atlantic Ocean. That was the way we defined our city when we entered ESTIEM as a Local Group. A city with lots of history in every monument, each square, always sunny and warm; it shows how nice it is to live there. Marked with different kinds of styles, many things are old and have something to tell. With the new polo, we also can visit the near surroundings, with the magical atmosphere of castles and monasteries; the fun of nautical sports, coffee in the sun or relaxing beaches ten minutes away from our university.

That was what ESTIEMers had seen during our Vision of Change event, the first after a period without international events. We hope that you will see it again next spring during the preCouncil Meeting.

To new or inactive Local Groups I can say that it hasn’t always been easy. In the very beginning, without any presentable work done, we had some problems finding sponsors and getting support from professors, but organising local events successfully was a way to strengthen the relation between students and academics. Professors could see how responsible we are and started to open some doors, so

we got an office, a computer and some help. We also tried to get newcomers involved, organised interesting events for them and welcomed them to our IEM studies. Our group of active members grew from five to eleven people, which makes me think that Lisbon will continue to have something to offer other ESTIEMers in the future. I sincerely hope that activities continue and everyone here understands how much ESTIEM has to give to each European student: finding new goals in a varying range of friendship, education or business.

Pleased in the way that our Local Group has grown up, we want to thank everyone who put effort in this big project, to all the people that worked hard locally with the only goal of making something grown and start to run with it own legs.

We believe Lisbon has a bright future in ESTIEM!

49

But now we thought we should take it to next level, and introduce ourselves to that wonderful organisation called ESTIEM. It was quite easy to get people involved, and that got even better after the CM in Lyon. We have an ESTIEM committee within Lugus, consisting of six people who will organise everything regarding ESTIEM. Furthermore, we invited people to join a travel list, so they will keep updated on activities, both in Groningen and abroad. As we got quite a few visitors (Eindhoven, Brussels and Bremen have visited us lately), our members are more and more getting an impression of the true ESTIEM spirit.

And this ESTIEM spirit is exactly what we want! You have the risk of meeting some overenthusiastic members of LG Groningen right now! Be warned!

Hi ESTIEMers! Some of you might still not know what LG Dortmund is all about.

We, Stefan and Jan, argued whether we are an ambitious upcoming LG with interesting company contacts and tough seminars or if we are just a bunch of 25 crazy people partying and having fun. We decided that both are true.

Founded in 2004 as VWI-Dortmund, we were right away not only interested in national but also international experiences. That is when ESTIEM got into our lives. We were invited as guests to the Council Meeting in Istanbul. After one tiring but great week we decided that we do want to join ESTIEM. One step leads to the next: after our participation in TIMES in Siegen and the joyful K2K Vision Seminar, we consequently applied for observership at the Council Meeting

in Lyon. The perfect hosting and the successful application made us become even more involved in ESTIEM. Three members of our LG went to the Vision Seminar in Warsaw, which seemed to be great fun according to their stories.

In the beginning of June we proudly presented our first event in Dortmund, the Vision Coordination Meeting. As far as Stefan and me could judge from the reactions, the ESTIEMers who visited us had just as much fun as our members. Now, our group is even more willing to be an active member in the ESTIEM network by participating in ESTIEM events and offering those as well. That is why we want to apply for membership at the first possible date. 

new observer groups STEFAN LIER

Dortmund

Groningen SEBASTIAAN FRIJLING

Together with Dortmund we are the newest observer group in ESTIEM. So there is plenty of reason to shortly introduce LG Groningen in a few words.

Groningen is a great student city in the North of the Netherlands. In its relatively isolated geographical location, the city has everything the most demanding student can ask for. Since it is not that large, one will not drown in the city’s hugeness. It is this charming atmosphere we all love.

Since the IEM studies in Groningen have been started in 2002, we are still in the pioneering phase of developing the studies. In the same year we founded the new student organisation called Lugus. In the past three years we achieved quite a few things for the IEM students, as we set up book sales, introduction camp, a magazine etc.

AGENDA

50

Check the latest updated event information at www.estiem.org and register for your favourite

05

events through the ESTIEM portal. See you somewhere in Europe!

NOVEMBER

30 Oct – 6 Nov 31st ESTIEM Council Meeting | Kaiserslautern & Karlsruhe 16 – 20 Nov Vision of Cycles Seminar | Berlin “Cycles in Technology” 18 – 20 Nov Regional Coordination Meeting | Grenoble 23 – 27 Nov Vision of Cycles Seminar | Darmstadt “Impact of Trade Cycles on Finance” 29 Nov – 4 Dec Vision of Cycles Seminar | Bremen “Sustainability Management”

DECEMBER

5 – 6 Dec Bosch Workshop | Reutlingen 6 – 10 Dec Vision of Cycles Seminar | Vienna “Product Life Cycle Management – Building and Testing Phase” 10 – 16 Dec Vision of Cycles Seminar | Zurich “Opportunities and Risks at Different Stages of the Life Cycle”

JANUARY

9 – 12 Jan TIMES Semi-Final | Cambridge 12 – 17 Jan Vision of Cycles Seminar | Cambridge “Reengineering for the Future – Material and Component Repair and Re-use” 25 – 29 Jan Vision of Cycles Seminar | Lyon “New Trends in Product Life Cycle Management” 30 Jan – 4 Feb Vision of Cycles Seminar | Luleå & Oulu “Long Run Projects in Nordic Industries”

MARCH

2 – 5 Mar TIMES Semi-Final | Berlin 6 – 10 Mar Vision of Cycles Seminar | Enschede “Introduction Stage of Innovative Products” 15 – 18 Mar TIMES Semi-Final | Lyon 15 – 19 Mar Vision of Cycles Seminar | Grenoble “One Company, Several Products, Several Life Cycles” 19 – 26 Mar TIMES Final | Brussels 20 – 24 Mar Vision of Cycles Seminar | St. Petersburg

FEBRUARY

3 – 6 Feb TIMES Semi-Final | Gothenburg 3 – 7 Feb TIMES Semi-Final | Istanbul-ITU 7 – 12 Feb Vision of Cycles Seminar | Helsinki & Tampere “Managing Innovation Cycles” 15 – 19 Feb Vision of Cycles Seminar | Trondheim “Environmental Approach to Life Cycle Management” 21 – 24 Feb TIMES Semi-Final | Warsaw 27 Feb – 5 Mar Vision of Cycles Seminar | Istanbul-Yıldız & Ankara-Bilkent “Logistics Cycles”

APRIL

2 – 6 Apr Vision of Cycles Seminar | Skopje “Learning from Cycles – Learning for Future” 6 – 10 Apr Vision of Cycles Seminar | Bitola “Japanese Principles in Manufacturing Cycles” 17 – 22 Apr 32nd ESTIEM Council Meeting | Porto 23 – 27 Apr Vision of Cycles Seminar | Ilmenau “Late Stage of a Product – the End or a New Beginning”

Helsinki University of Technology

Up

Lappeenranta University of Technology University of Vaasa

State University of Engineering and Economics, St. Petersburg

Luleå Tekniska Universitet

for the

?

University of Oulu

challenge

Tampere University of Technology Talinn University of Technology Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Trondheim Linköpings Universitet Chalmers Tekniska Högskola, Göteborg Lunds Tekniska Högskola University of Nottingham University of Cambridge 23

1 Solvay Business School, Bruxelles Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zürich Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros de Gijón Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilha

3 2

4

5 9 13

8 6 7 10 11

14 16

15

17

INSA Lyon 27

21

Is your university on

12

18 19

INPG Grenoble

22

the map? Then this is

20 24

National Technical University, Kiev

25 26

Technical University of Sofia Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul

Universidade do Porto

Universidad de Sevilla

Università degli Studi di Napoli Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta Middle Eastern Technical University,Ankara

Ss. Cyril & Methodius Univerzitet, Skopje Bogazici Üniversitesi, Istanbul Istanbul Technical University

Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi, Izmir

Poland 21

Politechnika Warszawska

9

Universität Dortmund

22

Politechnika Poznanska

Observing members

10

Technische Universität Cottbus

23

Politechnika Gdanska

11

Technische Universität Dresden

12

Technische Universität Ilmenau

13

Universität Paderborn

14

Universität Siegen

15

Technische Universität Darmstadt

16

Technische Universität Kaiserslautern

17

Universität Karlsruhe

18

HAW München

1

Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

2

Twente Universiteit, Enschede Universiteit Groningen

3

Germany (cont'd)

Bilkent Üniversitesi,Ankara

Full members

The Netherlands

Germany 4

Technische Universität Hamburg-Harburg

5

Universität Bremen

6

Technische Universität Clausthal

7

Technische Universität Braunschweig

the only Europe wide Prepare yourself for a

Università della Calabria, Cosenza

St. Kliment Ohridski Univerzitet, Bitola

ESTIEM Local Groups

Form a team and join IEM case-competition.

Universidade de Aveiro Universidade Técnica de Lisboa

your chance to excel!

8 Technische Universität Berlin

Hungary 24

Budapest University of Technology and Economics

challenge and join your T.I.M.E.S Local Qualification. Who knows, you might go all the way to the Final in Brussels and claim the title ‘IEM Students of the Year’...

Italy 25

Università degli Studi di Brescia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia 27 Politecnico di Torino

26

Austria 19 20

Technische Universität Graz Technische Universität Wien

www.times.estiem.org