Next generation smart manufacturing and service systems using big data analytics

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd This special issue explores advancements in the next generation manufacturing and service systems by examining the novel methods, practical challenges and opportunities in the use of big data analytics. The selected articles analyse a range of scenarios where big data analytics and its applications were used for improving decision making in manufacturing and services sector such as online data analytics, sourcing decisions with considerations for big data analytics, barriers in the adoption of big data analytics, maintenance planning, and multi-sensor data for fault pattern extraction. The paper summarises the discussions on the use of big data analytics in manufacturing and service sectors

Enabling explainable artificial intelligence capabilities in supply chain decision support making

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) has been instrumental in enabling the process of making informed decisions. The emergence of various supply chain (SC) platforms in modern times has altered the nature of SC interactions, resulting in a notable degree of uncertainty. This study aims to conduct a thorough analysis of the existing literature on decision support systems (DSSs) and their incorporation of XAI functionalities within the domain of SC. Our analysis has revealed the influence of XAI on the decision-making process in the field of SC. This study utilizes the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) technique to analysis the online data using Python machine learning (ML) process. Explanatory algorithms are specifically crafted to augment the lucidity of ML models by furnishing rationales for the prognostications they produce. The present study aims to establish measurable standards for identifying the constituents of XAI and DSSs that augment decision-making in the context of SC. This study assessed prior research with regards to their ability to make predictions, utilization of online dataset, number of variables examined, development of learning capability, and validation within the context of decision-making, emphasizes the research domains that necessitate additional exploration concerning intelligent decision-making under conditions of uncertainty

Factors Influencing Blockchain-based Mobile Banking Adoption: Evidence from a Developing Country

This study attempts to explain the factors influencing blockchain-based mobile banking acceptance in Bangladesh. Based on a technology acceptance framework termed UTAUT2 (unified theory of acceptance and use of technology 2), an enhanced model with a mediating variable is built for this research. Data were collected from the first-ever blockchain-based mobile banking stakeholders in Bangladesh called 'UPAY' by applying a structured questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was then processed using Smart-PLS. There are eight direct hypotheses and one mediating hypothesis in this research. The findings reveal that all of the direct hypotheses except the impact of social influence on the behavioural intention (BI) to use blockchain are statistically significant. The mediating role of BI in the connection between facilitating conditions (FC) and actual blockchain use is also supported. The combination of FC and BI contributes to 88.8% of the variation in blockchain usage behaviour for mobile banking adoption. The findings of this study can help banking regulators devise a strategy for engaging a significant number of banks to create a blockchain-based mobile banking platform Keywords: Blockchain use behaviour; Mobile banking, PLS-SEM; UPAY; UTAUT

Enabling explainable artificial intelligence capabilities in supply chain decision support making

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) has been instrumental in enabling the process of making informed decisions. The emergence of various supply chain (SC) platforms in modern times has altered the nature of SC interactions, resulting in a notable degree of uncertainty. This study aims to conduct a thorough analysis of the existing literature on decision support systems (DSSs) and their incorporation of XAI functionalities within the domain of SC. Our analysis has revealed the influence of XAI on the decision-making process in the field of SC. This study utilizes the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) technique to analysis the online data using Python machine learning (ML) process. Explanatory algorithms are specifically crafted to augment the lucidity of ML models by furnishing rationales for the prognostications they produce. The present study aims to establish measurable standards for identifying the constituents of XAI and DSSs that augment decision-making in the context of SC. This study assessed prior research with regards to their ability to make predictions, utilization of online dataset, number of variables examined, development of learning capability, and validation within the context of decision-making, emphasizes the research domains that necessitate additional exploration concerning intelligent decision-making under conditions of uncertainty

An ontology model to represent aquaponics 4.0 system’s knowledge

Aquaponics, one of the vertical farming methods, is a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics. To enhance the production capabilities of the aquaponics system and maximize crop yield on a commercial level, integration of Industry 4.0 technologies is needed. Industry 4.0 is a strategic initiative characterized by the fusion of emerging technologies such as big data and analytics, internet of things, robotics, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. The realization of aquaponics 4.0, however, requires an efficient flow and integration of data due to the presence of complex biological processes. A key challenge in this essence is to deal with the semantic heterogeneity of multiple data resources. An ontology that is regarded as one of the normative tools solves the semantic interoperation problem by describing, extracting, and sharing the domains’ knowledge. In the field of agriculture, several ontologies are developed for the soil-based farming methods, but so far, no attempt has been made to represent the knowledge of the aquaponics 4.0 system in the form of an ontology model. Therefore, this study proposes a unified ontology model, AquaONT, to represent and store the essential knowledge of an aquaponics 4.0 system. This ontology provides a mechanism for sharing and reusing the aquaponics 4.0 system’s knowledge to solve the semantic interoperation problem. AquaONT is built from indoor vertical farming terminologies and is validated and implemented by considering experimental test cases related to environmental parameters, design configuration, and product quality. The proposed ontology model will help vertical farm practitioners with more transparent decision-making regarding crop production, product quality, and facility layout of the aquaponics farm. For future work, a decision support system will be developed using this ontology model and artificial intelligence techniques for autonomous data-driven decisions

A decision support system based on ontology and data mining to improve design using warranty data

This paper is in closed access until 21st October 2019.Analysis of warranty based big data has gained considerable attention due to its potential for improving the quality of products whilst minimizing warranty costs. Similarly, customer feedback information and warranty claims, which are commonly stored in warranty databases might be analyzed to improve quality and reliability and reduce costs in areas, including product development processes, advanced product design, and manufacturing. However, three challenges exist, firstly to accurately identify manufacturing faults from these multiple sources of heterogeneous textual data. Secondly, accurately mapping the identified manufacturing faults with the appropriate design information and thirdly, using these mappings to simultaneously optimize costs, design parameters and tolerances. This paper proposes a Decision Support System (DSS) based on novel integrated stepwise methodologies including ontology-based text mining, self-organizing maps, reliability and cost optimization for identifying manufacturing faults, mapping them to design information and finally optimizing design parameters for maximum reliability and minimum cost respectively. The DSS analyses warranty databases, which collect the warranty failure information from the customers in a textual format. To extract the hidden knowledge from this, an ontology-based text mining based approach is adopted. A data mining based approach using Self Organizing Maps (SOM) has been proposed to draw information from the warranty database and to relate it to the manufacturing data. The clusters obtained using SOM are analyzed to identify the critical regions, i.e., sections of the map where maximum defects occur. Finally, to facilitate the correct implementation of design parameter changes, the frequency and type of defects analyzed from warranty data are used to identify areas where improvements have resulted in the greatest reliability for the lowest cost