This article describes a laser tracking system (LTS) that can be used to determine the position and orientation of a robot's end effector with high accuracy during arbitrary robot motions. The position is measured using a polar configuration employing one laser beam and two rotary axes. A retroreflector in the robot end effector reflects the laser beam and constitutes the only part the robot has to carry for the contactless measurement. The orientation is determined by analyzing the intensity profile of the reflected laser beam with a vision system. The intensity profile carries diffraction patterns of the retroreflector edges that uniquely define orientation. The tracking unit allows the system to follow arbitrary movements of the robot. With these characteristics a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) real-time robot measurement system is provided that can dynamically track robot motions.

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Represents a more popularized adaptation of the complete report written as documentation of the benchmarking activity in the project SMArTMAN SME. Uses benchmarking in the SMArTMAN SME project to increase the knowledge about the supply chain management process and to enable the industrial partners to learn from best practice. Identifies other enterprises in Europe and their processes. A set of flow charts portrays what is considered to be a best practice process spanning the areas of procurement and supply chain management. This process has been designed by merging the best elements from each of the benchmarking partners’ processes into one generic process. Describes practices observed at the benchmarking partners that seem to be of “best practice” level and which were not suited for inclusion in the flow charts.

This study is based on the case of BMW, and aims to improve the determination of perceived consumer satisfaction in the automotive industry by transferring existing knowledge from the health care sector. A literature analysis of the health care sector and the automotive industry was conducted to identify the common concepts of determining satisfaction. These were the service encounter, situational factors, and sociodemographics. The practical application was tested by analyzing a contemporary survey from BMW. Based on the findings, managers responsible for customer satisfaction in after-sales services in the automotive industry could improve measurement of customer satisfaction.