Overview

The Institute of Industrial Management and Innovation Research (IBL) was established in 1970. Prof. Hans Hinterhuber was the first head of the institute followed by Prof. Josef Wohinz in 1979. In 2005, Prof. Wohinz became head of the new institute of Production Science and Management (PSM) which was founded in cooperation with Magna International Inc. at Graz University of Technology.

Since 2011, Prof. Christian Ramsauer is the head of both institutes and has initiated an expansion in personnel and office space. The name of the institute was changed to Innovation and Industrial Management (IIM) in 2017 and at the same time, the Institute of Production Science and Management was fully integrated.

The IIM is one of 17 institutes of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Economic Sciences at Graz University of Technology. The institute offers more than 30 courses for Bachelor, Master and PhD students. Besides university staff, many external lecturers from industry teach our students. Currently, 90% of all courses are taught in English, which attracts many international students especially from the Erasmus+ program but also from outside of Europe.
The institute operates the IIM Seminar Room, the Schumpeter Laboratory and the LEAD Factory. The IIM Seminar Room, with a capacity of 39 seats, is a replica of the original Harvard Business School case study rooms and mainly used for case study teaching. The institute is organized in two working groups. The working group Innovation is located at Inffeldgasse 11 and operates the Schumpeter Laboratory including the FabLab. The working group Industrial Management is located at Kopernikusgasse 24 and runs the LEAD Factory.

Research and teaching focuses on topics related to the product creation process from the product idea to production covering four main areas: Agility, Digitalization, Product Design and Maker Movement.