Digitalization and Resilience Strategies in Italian Furniture Manufacturing Districts. Quarrata (Tuscany) Case Study

Furniture manufacturing in Italy is based on interconnected SMEs based on craftsmanship know-how. During the past decade, these companies presented significant transformations within the production chain integrating enabling technologies into high-quality craftsmanship. This change has been based on supports from European Commission and local institutions enhancing digitalization. The research focuses on furniture production clusters in Tuscany (Italy) and, in particular, on Quarrata district. Even if several international analysts report on a scarce diffusion of technological skills in Italian SMEs, Tuscany area includes significant case studies that present digital integrations to the supply chain, structuring resilience strategies. The paper presents a joint project Industry-Academia on Quarrata cluster, including researchers and students. The team analysed significant supply chains about the grade of digitalization among the companies of the same production network. Then, the study proposed specific reorganization guidelines through the introduction of digital systems both on production reorganization and new design directions

ADOPTION OF DIGITAL TWIN WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

Digital twins have the potential to support the decision-makers that design, build, operate, and maintain the platforms that the Department of the Navy (DON) relies upon to conduct naval operations. However, the thin body of knowledge on digital twins presents a challenge for the DON as the range of applications and risks associated with onboarding digital twins are still unclear. This thesis conducts a qualitative technology assessment to determine the effects that adopting digital twins has on the DON’s enterprise architecture. Analysis of an enterprise-wide adoption identifies opportunities and risks of digital twins within the context of the DON’s strategy, processes, people, technology, cyber security, and risk management. The business value provided by digital twins is principally dependent upon the aggregate risk value of the physical platform and the fidelity and frequency of the digital twin’s synchronizations.Captain, United States Marine CorpsCaptain, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Eco‐Holonic 4.0 Circular Business Model to Conceptualize Sustainable Value Chain Towards Digital Transition

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a circular business model based on an Eco-Holonic Architecture, through the integration of circular economy and holonic principles. A conceptual model is developed to manage the complexity of integrating circular economy principles, digital transformation, and tools and frameworks for sustainability into business models. The proposed architecture is multilevel and multiscale in order to achieve the instantiation of the sustainable value chain in any territory. The architecture promotes the incorporation of circular economy and holonic principles into new circular business models. This integrated perspective of business model can support the design and upgrade of the manufacturing companies in their respective industrial sectors. The conceptual model proposed is based on activity theory that considers the interactions between technical and social systems and allows the mitigation of the metabolic rift that exists between natural and social metabolism. This study contributes to the existing literature on circular economy, circular business models and activity theory by considering holonic paradigm concerns, which have not been explored yet. This research also offers a unique holonic architecture of circular business model by considering different levels, relationships, dynamism and contextualization (territory) aspects

System of Systems Lifecycle Management: A New Concept Based on Process Engineering Methodologies

In order to tackle interoperability issues of large-scale automation systems, SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) principles, where information exchange is manifested by systems providing and consuming services, have already been introduced. However, the deployment, operation, and maintenance of an extensive SoS (System of Systems) mean enormous challenges for system integrators as well as network and service operators. The existing lifecycle management approaches do not cover all aspects of SoS management; therefore, an integrated solution is required. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new lifecycle approach, namely the SoSLM (System of Systems Lifecycle Management). This paper first provides an in-depth description and comparison of the most relevant process engineering methodologies and ITSM (Information Technology Service Management) frameworks, and how they affect various lifecycle management strategies. The paper’s novelty strives to introduce an Industry 4.0-compatible PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) model and to extend it to cover SoS management-related issues on well-known process engineering methodologies. The presented methodologies are adapted to the PLM model, thus creating the recommended SoSLM model. This is supported by demonstrations of how the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) applications and services can be developed and handled. Accordingly, complete implementation and integration are presented based on the proposed SoSLM model, using the Arrowhead framework that is available for IIoT SoS. View Full-Tex

Digital Archive as a Creative Booster.Connecting Design Processes to Logistics and PLM Platforms

The research is based on different projects carried out by Sciences for Made in Italy laboratory and REI Design lab (reverse engineering and interaction design) at the University of Florence, in contact with the high-end manufacturing system of Tuscany (Italy). This relation aims at developing design innovation processes in manufacturing, particularly in fashion and high-end production. The research shows how logistics innovation in supply chain processes involving digital archives of semi-finished products, traceability systems and time to market optimization, may represent a real booster for design culture and trans-disciplinary design actions. The research concerns about collaborations in between University of Florence/REI lab and SMEs, in particular Unomaglia spa leading manufacturer of clothing in jersey fabrics. The company stands as a leader supplier for important Italian and French fashion brands. The research set a digital archive of the manufactured items of clothing based on categories of dress shapes, materials and applied decorations. Digital archiving of items of clothing starts with a photoshooting in a professional photography set, developing 3 several shoots of the item in three different positions. Digital storage system allows to keep under control all the production composition elements, all the different materials and decorations incorporated on the artifact (i.e. embroidery) or applied (i.e. patch systems). Managing these elements we can easily develop design variants, improve the B2B services and product development processes. The project aims at creating an archive system and logistics management of the supply that represent not only an timing improvement for the supply chain, but above all a way to 'suggest' through the archive items design inspirations and guidelines to designers – i.e. to make their variants on existing semi-finished products or having creative ideas from them. Above all, the research aims at structuring an advanced visualization platform of Product Lifecycle Management, making the artifact in its creative and productive path able to interact to different company departments

Value Generation in the Product Lifecycle with Digital Twins: Status Quo in Swiss Companies

Value generation with digital twins along the phases of the product lifecycle affects different processes from a company's internal perspective. The present study investigated in which phases of the product lifecycle and processes swiss companies seek to generate what value contribution. The results of the survey of 103 companies show that only 47% of the companies surveyed are applying or planning to apply digital twins. The motivation primarily lies in increasing efficiency (79%) or in building competitive advantage (63%). These companies clearly recognize the potential of digital twins to create value in the Beginning-of-Life-phase (79%) and in the Middle-of-Life-phase (60%). In contrest, the use in the End-of-Life-phase (15%) is subordinate. The companies seek to generate value with digital twins by offering qualitatively better products and services in a shorter time or with higher availability. Cost savings seem secondary and overestimated by companies before they apply digital twins

Museum augmented interface for historical scale models: towards a new way for cultural heritage promotion

International audienceIn this paper, we describe an interactive museum application dedicated to historical scale models. This comes from a joint work between multidisciplinary teams: industrial engineering researchers, historians, museum curators and interactive interface designers. We present here theresult of the project, based on scientific methodology. Results include system architecture, hardware and software, some use cases and user evaluation figures. This paper also underlines some methodology issues that illustrate future possibilities

A plm implementation for aerospace systems engineering-conceptual rotorcraft design

The thesis will discuss the Systems Engineering phase of an original Conceptual Design Engineering Methodology for Aerospace Engineering-Vehicle Synthesis. This iterative phase is shown to benefit from digitization of Integrated Product&Process Design (IPPD) activities, through the application of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technologies. Requirements analysis through the use of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and 7 MaP tools is explored as an illustration. A "Requirements Data Manager" (RDM) is used to show the ability to reduce the time and cost to design for both new and legacy/derivative designs. Here the COTS tool Teamcenter Systems Engineering (TCSE) is used as the RDM. The utility of the new methodology is explored through consideration of a legacy RFP based vehicle design proposal and associated aerospace engineering. The 2001 American Helicopter Society (AHS) 18th Student Design Competition RFP is considered as a starting point for the Systems Engineering phase. A Conceptual Design Engineering activity was conducted in 2000/2001 by Graduate students (including the author) in Rotorcraft Engineering at the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta GA. This resulted in the "Kingfisher" vehicle design, an advanced search and rescue rotorcraft capable of performing the "Perfect Storm" mission, from the movie of the same name. The associated requirements, architectures, and work breakdown structure data sets for the Kingfisher are used to relate the capabilities of the proposed Integrated Digital Environment (IDE). The IDE is discussed as a repository for legacy knowledge capture, management, and design template creation. A primary thesis theme is to promote the automation of the up-front conceptual definition of complex systems, specifically aerospace vehicles, while anticipating downstream preliminary and full spectrum lifecycle design activities. The thesis forms a basis for additional discussions of PLM tool integration across the engineering, manufacturing, MRO and EOL lifecycle phases to support business management processes.M.S.Committee Chair: Schrage, Daniel P.; Committee Member: Costello, Mark; Committee Member: Wilhite, Alan, W