Design of an innovation platform for manufacturing SMES

This paper reports on the conception of a collaborative, internet-based innovation platform with semantic capabilities, which implements a new methodology for the adoption of a systematic innovation process in globally-acting networked SMEs. The main objective of the innovation platform is to stimulate the generation of ideas, the selection of good ideas and their ultimate implementation. The platform will support SMEs to manage and implement the complex innovation processes arisen in a networked environment, taking into account their internal and external links, by enabling an open multi-agent focused innovation system, facilitating customer, provider, supplier and employee- focused innovation. The solution is specifically focused on the needs of manufacturing SMEs and will observe product, process and management innovation. The paper presents the key elements of the innovation model and makes references to a novel approach concerning the development of a robust and flexible Central Knowledge Repository for the innovation platform

Evolution of the Lean Enterprise System: A Critical Synthesis and Agenda for the Future

Many aerospace enterprises and other organizations have adopted a variety of management approaches to achieve continuous process improvement, enterprise change and transformation, such as the lean enterprise system, total quality management (TQM), theory of constraints (TOC), agile manufacturing, and business process reengineering (BPR). Among them, the lean enterprise system, with its origins in the Toyota Production System (TPS), comes closest to providing a holistic view of enterprises as complex socio-technical systems embodying a mutually supportive set of precepts and practices driving enterprise operations at all levels (i.e., strategic, tactical, operational) and throughout the enterprise value stream encompassing both upstream supplier networks and downstream customerfocused activities. Lean enterprise principles and practices have evolved over many decades through a process of experimentation, learning and adaptation. A distinction is made between the basic lean enterprise system (BLES), capturing salient developments over the period between the late 1940s and mid-1990s, and the contemporary lean enterprise system (CLES), capturing major conceptual and implementation-related extensions of the basic model since the mid-1990s. The lean enterprise system, as a viable framework for explaining the structure and dynamics of modern networked enterprises, for managing them, and for improving their performance through either continuous process improvement or planned systemic change and transformation, remains a work-in-progress

Modeling of RFID-Enabled Real-Time Manufacturing Execution System in Mixed-Model Assembly Lines

To quickly respond to the diverse product demands, mixed-model assembly lines are well adopted in discrete manufacturing industries. Besides the complexity in material distribution, mixed-model assembly involves a variety of components, different process plans and fast production changes, which greatly increase the difficulty for agile production management. Aiming at breaking through the bottlenecks in existing production management, a novel RFID-enabled manufacturing execution system (MES), which is featured with real-time and wireless information interaction capability, is proposed to identify various manufacturing objects including WIPs, tools, and operators, etc., and to trace their movements throughout the production processes. However, being subject to the constraints in terms of safety stock, machine assignment, setup, and scheduling requirements, the optimization of RFID-enabled MES model for production planning and scheduling issues is a NP-hard problem. A new heuristical generalized Lagrangian decomposition approach has been proposed for model optimization, which decomposes the model into three subproblems: computation of optimal configuration of RFID senor networks, optimization of production planning subjected to machine setup cost and safety stock constraints, and optimization of scheduling for minimized overtime. RFID signal processing methods that could solve unreliable, redundant, and missing tag events are also described in detail. The model validity is discussed through algorithm analysis and verified through numerical simulation. The proposed design scheme has important reference value for the applications of RFID in multiple manufacturing fields, and also lays a vital research foundation to leverage digital and networked manufacturing system towards intelligence

The Global Networked Value Circle: A new model for best-in-class manufacturing

As companies face deflation, slowing production and declining prices, they will need to assess their entire value chain as they look for ways to keep costs low and improve efficiencies while continuing to innovate. To help address this challenge, this report reflects fresh research undertaken by Capgemini in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh into the ?Best-in-Class Global Manufacturing Value Chain?

Connected innovation: an international comparative study that identifies mixed modes of innovation

This paper offers a new angle on innovation modalities by adopting a recently emerging approach towards identifying innovation typologies via exploratory data analysis techniques with the aim to tease out some underlying latent variables that represent coherent innovation strategies for groups of firms. Mixed modes of innovation include aspects of both user and open innovation, and are employed to inform on such concepts. The modes of innovation are developed by exploring micro-level innovation survey data across 18 countries. The contributions of the paper lie in (a) the identification of five core innovation modes that are found in almost all countries; and (b) examining – via regression analysis – the role of different modes in firm performance