Biomimetics in Production Organization – A Literature Study and Framework

Biomimetics is an established field in research and industry. Current approaches focus on the use of biological principles in product development, while large potentials have also been identified for transferring organisational principles from nature to production organisation. This study gives a comprehensive overview of existing literature and illustrates that only fragmented research is being conducted at present. In order to enable systematic translation into methods that are available to practitioners, a framework is developed which allows the body of literature to be structured and potential fields not being researched at present to be identified. It also points out that some biological principles receive more attention in research approaches and practical implementation in production organisation than others. Furthermore, correlations between biological principles and principles in production are identified that there have already been successful translations of biomimetic approaches to production organisation. On the other hand, it suggests that there are numerous promising approaches only described in an initial paper that need further research before they can be implemented in practice.