A Collaborative Requirement Mining Framework to Support OEMs

With the fastidiously ever-increasing complexity of systems, the relentless, massive customisation of products and the mushrooming accumulation of legal documents (standards, policies and laws), we can observe a significant increase in requirements. We consider the tremendous volume of requirements as big data with which companies struggle to make strategic decisions early on. This paper proposes a collaborative requirement mining framework to enable the decision-makers of an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to gain insight and discover opportunities in a massive set of requirements so as to make early effective strategic decisions. The framework supports OEMs willing to uncover a subset of key requirements by distilling large unstructured and semistructured specifications.Keonys, Toulouse, Franc

Improving root cause analysis through the integration of PLM systems with cross supply chain maintenance data

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a system architecture for integrating Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems with cross supply chain maintenance information to support root-cause analysis. By integrating product-data from PLM systems with warranty claims, vehicle diagnostics and technical publications, engineers were able to improve the root-cause analysis and close the information gaps. Data collection was achieved via in-depth semi-structured interviews and workshops with experts from the automotive sector. Unified Modelling Language (UML) diagrams were used to design the system architecture proposed. A user scenario is also presented to demonstrate the functionality of the system

Metals, Machinery, and Mining Equipment Industries in South Africa: The Relationship between Power, Governance, and Technological Capabilities

The metals, machinery, and mining equipment industries have been at the heart of South Africa’s industrial ecosystem. Their central position is associated with the long-term importance of mining, with which there are extensive demand- and supply-side linkages. This chapter reviews key turning points in the development and restructuring of these value chains in post-apartheid South Africa, from 1994 to 2019. The overall record is of a basic steel industry that performed better in terms of value added relative to the more diversified downstream industries, despite government industrial policy targeting more labour-intensive downstream industries. The downstream machinery and equipment industry struggled to compete with imports in the 2000s and 2010s and only partially engaged with digitalization. In explaining these developments the grand bargains struck by the state with the main company producing basic steel and the use of procurement as a demand-side industrial policy are critically examined. The chapter also provides micro-level evidence of the evolving relationships between mining houses; engineering, procurement, and construction management services companies; and input suppliers along the value chain. Overall, it is argued that the relatively poor performance of this industry grouping in South Africa has been due to power asymmetries along the value chains, upstream concentration, high levels of fragmentation in the domestic ecosystem, the lack of key institutional ingredients, and poor policy design. Lessons for resource-endowed middle-income countries are discussed, and policy challenges for upgrading and diversification are presented

The application of product service systems for hydraulic excavators

The concept of Product Service Systems (PSS) was introduced as an alternative business model for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), who are motivated to shift their traditional manufacturing focus towards the after-sale service, to meet the market demand and gain additional profit and market share. A PSS is a system that integrates product and service as one package at the point of sale. It is increasingly popular because customers are demanding more supplier involvement to prolong and maintain the life of products they purchase and keep them functioning at maximum performance levels. Furthermore, it is also widely accepted within the community that the PSS concepts enhance competitiveness and promote the shift towards sustainable practices and society simultaneously. The flexibility of different PSS models allows OEMs to open new opportunities to improve relationships between customers and suppliers, or better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their own business strategy and products. [Continues.

How is the South African state promoting investiments that increase local content in the production of automobiles? : a critical evaluation of investment promotion and industrial policy (1994-2014)

M.Com in Development Theory & Policy, University of the WitwatersrandSouth Africa’s industrial policy is fundamentally aimed at transforming the domestic economy into a labour-intensive growth path in order to create jobs (the dti, 2013a, p. 10). In pursuit of this aim the industrial policy takes a transversal approach to promote particular types of economic activity or particular economic sectors (the dti, 2013a, pp. 15-17; Zalk, 2014, p. 335). Using the case of the automotive sector, this study analyses the role played by the state and how institutional aspects of the industrial policy and investment promotion affected policymaking and the outcomes. The findings were that, due to incoherent institutional support and informational asymmetry, industrial policy has supported export growth in spite of the continued dependence on imports; and did not support employment, because it was biased towards OEMs and did not differentiate between the different categories of components according to job-creation potential. Institutional aspects of industrial policy-making and implementation then – not the ownership power of multinational corporations – has entrenched unequal power relations within the automotive value-chain, which undermines the broader socio-economic goals of industrial policy. Hence, due to both the policy measures and the institutional design South Africa’s industrial policy has not been oriented towards more labour-absorbing activities, especially in the impact on local components manufacturing. The result has been growth in exports with limited integration of local producers into the global value-chains of multinational OEMs, except in the case of vertically integrated multinational component producers, at the expense of local value-addition and job-creation.MT201

Smart and strategic procurement, use and maintenance partnerships in engineering equipment for sustainable development and training in Sub-Saharan Africa using a systems thinking approach

Abstract: Most engineering institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa generally suffer from the persistent shortage and lack of accessibility to modern engineering equipment for the training of engineers. The old and obsolete equipment available, invariably pose challenges on the caliber of engineers being churned out to run industries in these developing countries. Based on research carried out at four engineering institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa through data collection and analysis, a smart procurement, use and maintenance strategy in the form of strategic partnerships with industry was formulated using a systems thinking approach. This paper looks at the development of this strategy and how the proposed partnerships can help in sustainable development, capacity building and ultimately bridging the gap between industry and academia. The implementation of this novel approach at the University of Zimbabwe has brought immense benefits such as students and staff access to modern equipment and technology

A requirement mining framework to support complex sub-systems suppliers

The design of engineered socio-technical systems relies on a value chain within which suppliers must cope with larger and larger sets of requirements. Although 70 % of the total life cycle cost is committed during the concept phase and most industrial projects originally fail due to poor requirements engineering [1], very few methods and tools exist to support suppliers. In this paper, we propose to methodologically integrate data science techniques into a collaborative requirement mining framework so as to enable suppliers to gain insight and discover opportunities in a massive set of requirements. The proposed workflow is a five-phase process including: (1) the extraction of requirements from documents and (2) the analysis of their quality by using natural language processing techniques; (3) the segmentation of requirements into communities using text mining and graph theory; (4) the collaborative and multidisciplinary estimation of decision making criteria; and (5) the reporting of estimations via an analytical dashboard of statistical indicators. We conclude that the methodological integration of data science techniques is an effective way to gain insight from hundreds or thousands of requirements before making informed decisions early on. The software prototype that supports our workflow is a JAVA web application developed on top of a graph-oriented data model implemented with the NoSQL NEO4J graph database. As a future work, the semi-structured as-required baseline could be a sound input to feed a formal approach, such as model- and simulation-based systems engineering

Metals, Machinery, and Mining Equipment Industries in South Africa: The Relationship between Power, Governance, and Technological Capabilities

The metals, machinery, and mining equipment industries have been at the heart of South Africa’s industrial ecosystem. Their central position is associated with the long-term importance of mining, with which there are extensive demand- and supply-side linkages. This chapter reviews key turning points in the development and restructuring of these value chains in post-apartheid South Africa, from 1994 to 2019. The overall record is of a basic steel industry that performed better in terms of value added relative to the more diversified downstream industries, despite government industrial policy targeting more labour-intensive downstream industries. The downstream machinery and equipment industry struggled to compete with imports in the 2000s and 2010s and only partially engaged with digitalization. In explaining these developments the grand bargains struck by the state with the main company producing basic steel and the use of procurement as a demand-side industrial policy are critically examined. The chapter also provides micro-level evidence of the evolving relationships between mining houses; engineering, procurement, and construction management services companies; and input suppliers along the value chain. Overall, it is argued that the relatively poor performance of this industry grouping in South Africa has been due to power asymmetries along the value chains, upstream concentration, high levels of fragmentation in the domestic ecosystem, the lack of key institutional ingredients, and poor policy design. Lessons for resource-endowed middle-income countries are discussed, and policy challenges for upgrading and diversification are presented

A knowledge based approach to integration of products, processes and reconfigurable automation resources

The success of next generation automotive companies will depend upon their ability to adapt to ever changing market trends thus becoming highly responsive. In the automotive sector, the assembly line design and reconfiguration is an especially critical and extremely complex job. The current research addresses some of the aspects of this activity under the umbrella of a larger ongoing research project called Business Driven Automation (BDA) project. The BDA project aims to carry out complete virtual 3D modeling-based verifications of the assembly line for new or revised products in contrast to the prevalent practice of manual evaluation of effects of product change on physical resources. [Continues.

Circular lean product-service systems design: A literature review, framework proposal and case studies

In recent years, the Service Sector has received an increasing attention from both academics and practitioners. The transition from traditional manufacturing to service-oriented integrated systems has given rise to the such called: “Servitisation Revolution”, which today is a relevant revenue generator. The definition of “Product-Service Systems (PSS)” calls for an expanded value creation system through the addition of competitive advantages based on value-added services to previous companies\u27 pure product offerings. These product-services bundled solutions have been recognized as being one of the most efficient techniques towards the achievement of resource-efficient and sustainable economies. PSS paradigm has grown beyond expectations, becoming a common term among publications of the most recognized academic journals and international conferences, and a highly discussed topic across a broad range of industrial sectors. However, recent trends based on scientific and grey literature suggest analysing the compatibility of PSS with other principles, methods and tools such as “circular” and “lean” thinking, which may help to enhance the intrinsic environmentally sustainability advantage that is refer at the first PSS definitions, but that has, unfortunately, faded through time. This paper analyses how the PSS paradigm can benefit from the “circular economy” and “lean” principles. The followed research methodology included a literature review, which aims to identify those principles, methods and tools which can help to modify each stage of a traditional PSS towards a Circular Lean PSS. Furthermore, a first Circular Lean PSS Design Framework is proposed and described. This framework is validated empirically through two case studies supported by two vessel-building companies. Further research is suggested to validate the proposed framework in different industries