A Fuzzy – Based Methodology for Aggregative Waste Minimization in the Wine Industry

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Product Planning techniques: investigating the differences between research trajectories and industry expectations

According to several literature sources, Product Planning is acknowledged as a primary driver of future commercial success for new designed products, and it is schematically constituted by the identification of business opportunities and the selection of most promising alternatives. Despite the recalled relevance of Product Planning, it emerges that a marginal quantity of companies have adopted formal methods to carry out this task. The paper attempts to provide a major understanding about such a limited implementation of Product Planning techniques and other open issues emerging from the analysis of the literature concerning the initial phases of engineering design cycles. The presented study investigates the claimed benefits of methods described in the literature, the level to which such tools are diffused through educational programs in Technical Institutes, the expectations and the demands of a sample of enterprises with respect to new tools supporting Product Planning. It emerges that, whereas existing methods strive to fulfil relevant properties according to the perception of the companies, limitations come out in terms of the transfer of the proposed techniques and their perceived reliability

Processo de seleção de ideias em empresas inovadoras

Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia e Gestão do Conhecimento, Florianópolis, 2017A capacidade de inovar é essencial para as empresas no contextual atual, pois é um fator que permite manterem-se competitivas no mercado. A inovação pode ser entendida como um processo, possível de ser gerenciado, que exige a combinação de novos conhecimentos e a transformação de ideias em negócios. Esse processo tem como primeira parte, o Front End, o qual é responsável, dentre outras tarefas, em selecionar ideias que poderão tornar-se possíveis produtos. Essa tarefa é considerada crítica, pois, o resultado desta, influenciará o sucesso final da inovação. A escolha de quais ideias seguirão adiante, é uma tomada de decisão importante que está envolta em incertezas e as empresas devem estar atentas a isso, trabalhando de forma que não torne esse processo subjetivo ou racional. Desse modo o objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar como ocorre o processo de seleção de ideias em organizações inovadoras. Para isso foi conduzida uma pesquisa qualitativa, com pesquisa de campo em três empresas de Santa Catarina, de portes médio e grande. Os dados foram coletados em entrevistas semiestruturadas junto aos membros das empresas envolvidos diretamente no processo de inovação. Como resultado, ao se comparar as etapas do processo de seleção de ideias encontrados na literatura com os da pesquisa de campo, bem como os critérios, conclui-se que o processo de seleção de ideias ocorre de forma definida em duas e não estruturada em outra, porém, as três baseiam a sua seleção em critérios pré-definidos. Esses critérios são correspondentes em alguns aspectos ao que a literatura apresenta e estão divididos entre aspectos técnicos e tecnológicos, econômicos e estratégicos. Entretanto, além de ter esses critérios definidos, as empresas ainda carecem de métodos mais estruturados tanto para tomar a decisão final quanto para tratar o grande volume de ideias. A pesquisa pode contribuir para o campo teórico e prático, primeiro a partir do estudo e compreensão de como acorre o processo de seleção e assim acrescer de novos conhecimentos e o segundo, para as organizações aprimorarem o processo e desenvolverem novas soluções, ainda que o estudo apresente como limitação principal o fato dos resultados não poderem ser generalizados.Abstract: The ability to innovate is essential for companies in the current context, as it is a factor that allows them to remain competitive in the market. Innovation can be understood as a process that can be managed, which requires the combination of new knowledge and the transformation of ideas into business. This process has as its first part, the Front End, which is responsible, among other tasks, to select ideas that may become possible products. This task is considered critical, because it will influence the ultimate success of the innovation. The choice of which ideas will move forward is an important decision-making that is shrouded by uncertainties, and companies should be aware of this by working in a way that this process do not become subjective or rational. In this way the objective of this research is to analyze how the process of selection of ideas in innovative organizations occurs. For this, a qualitative research was conducted, with three medium and large size companies as field research, all from Santa Catarina.The data were collected in semi-structured interviews with the members of the companies directly involved in the innovation process. As a result, when comparing the stages of the process of selection of ideas found in the literature with those of the field research, as well as the criteria, it is concluded that the process of idea selection occurs in a defined way in two companies and unstructured in the another. However, all three base their selection on predefined criteria. These criteria correspond in some respects to what the literature presents and are divided between technical and technological, economic and strategic aspects. However, in addition to having these criteria defined, companies still lack more structured methods both to make the final decision and to handle the large volume of ideas. The research can contribute to the theoretical and practical field, in the first one in the study and understanding of how the selection process takes place and thus to add new knowledge and in the second one, for the organizations to improve the process and to develop new solutions. Although the main limitation of the study is that the results can not be generalized

Conceção e desenvolvimento de um novo produto : Projeto Yourfest

A crescente utilização de dispositivos móveis, e em particular os tablets e smartphones, veio revolucionar a forma como as pessoas vivem atualmente. Para além desta área tecnológica ter alcançado uma enorme popularidade nos últimos anos, em grande parte devido à sua versatilidade e multifuncionalidade, tornou-se também mais acessível ao cidadão comum. Este fator leva a que a utilização de aplicações móveis se torne mais fácil e ganhe assim um destaque no nosso dia-a-dia, seja a nível pessoal como profissional. Agregando este crescimento ao aumento recente de festivais de música que se realizam não só em Portugal como no resto do mundo, torna-se importante inovar toda a oferta que existe atualmente no mercado para que seja possível continuar a cativar os consumidores e responder às suas necessidades, que são cada vez mais exigentes. Neste sentido, o principal objetivo desta dissertação é desenvolver uma aplicação móvel que permita ao utilizador, através do smartphone e de uma forma fácil e rápida, aceder a toda a informação e serviços do seu festival de música. Não dirigido apenas para o mercado nacional, pretende-se ainda com esta aplicação a captação de públicos internacionais uma vez que permitirá o fácil acesso e a seleção de informação apenas para o período em que o turista se encontra no nosso país. Como tal, e de forma a sustentar a necessidade da criação deste produto, foram realizados inquéritos por questionário a 123 indivíduos, que nos permitiram também identificar as necessidades do mercado face aos produtos já existentes destinados aos festivais de música no nosso país. Todas as funcionalidades da aplicação móvel proposta foram, desta forma, adaptadas de acordo com as necessidades identificadas pelos inquiridos. Foi através dos resultados do estudo, bem como da observação do panorama nacional e internacional no que diz respeito às aplicações móveis já existentes no mercado e atuais necessidades face a estes produtos, que foi possível criar uma aplicação móvel que viesse inovar as demais já existentes e compreender que existe, efetivamente, a necessidade da criação deste novo produto.The growing use of mobile devices, and in particular tablets and smartphones, has revolutionized the way people live today. In addition, this technological area has achieved tremendous popularity in recent years, largely due to its versatility and multifunctionality, and has also become more accessible to the ordinary citizen. This factor makes the use of mobile applications easier and gain a prominence in our daily lives, both personally and professionally. Adding this growth to the recent increase in music festivals taking place not only in Portugal but also in the rest of the world, it is important to innovate all the offer that currently exists in the market so that it is possible to continue to captivate consumers and respond to their needs, which are increasingly demanding. Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation is to develop a mobile application that allows the user, through the smartphone and in an easy and fast way, to access all the information and services of his music festival. Not only aimed at the national market, it is also intended with this application to attract international audiences for these events since it will allow easy access and selection of information only for the period in which the tourist is in our country. In order to support the need of this product in the market, questionnaire surveys were made to 123 persons, which also allowed us to identify market needs for existing products for music festivals in our country. All functionalities of the proposed mobile application were thus adapted according to the needs identified by respondents. It was through the results of the study, as well as national and international observation, that concerns mobile applications already existing in the market and, currently, the requirements faced by these products, that it was possible to create a mobile application that would innovate like others. already exist and understand that there is indeed a need to create this new product

Decision Support Systems

Decision support systems (DSS) have evolved over the past four decades from theoretical concepts into real world computerized applications. DSS architecture contains three key components: knowledge base, computerized model, and user interface. DSS simulate cognitive decision-making functions of humans based on artificial intelligence methodologies (including expert systems, data mining, machine learning, connectionism, logistical reasoning, etc.) in order to perform decision support functions. The applications of DSS cover many domains, ranging from aviation monitoring, transportation safety, clinical diagnosis, weather forecast, business management to internet search strategy. By combining knowledge bases with inference rules, DSS are able to provide suggestions to end users to improve decisions and outcomes. This book is written as a textbook so that it can be used in formal courses examining decision support systems. It may be used by both undergraduate and graduate students from diverse computer-related fields. It will also be of value to established professionals as a text for self-study or for reference

Multiple Damage Identification of Beam Structure Using Vibration Analysis and Artificial Intelligence Techniques

This thesis investigates the problem of multiple damage detection in vibrating structural members using the dynamic response of the system. Changes in the loading patterns, weakening/degeneration of structures with time and influence of environment may cause cracks in the structure, especially in engineering structures which are developed for prolonged life. Hence, early detection of presence of damage can prevent the catastrophic failure of the structures by appropriately monitoring the response of the system. In recent times, condition monitoring of structural systems have attracted scientists and researchers to develop on line damage diagnostic tool. Primarily, the structural health monitoring technique utilizes the methodology for damage assessment using the monitored vibration parameters. In the current analysis, special attention has been focused on those methods capable of detecting multiple cracks present in system by comparing the information for damaged and undamaged state of the structure. In the current research, methodologies have been developed for damage detection of a cracked cantilever beam with multiple cracks using analytical, Finite Element Analysis (FEA), fuzzy logic, neural network, fuzzy neuro, MANFIS, Genetic Algorithm and hybrid techniques such as GA-fuzzy, GA-neural, GA-neuro- fuzzy. Analytical study has been performed on the cantilever beam with multiple cracks to obtain the vibration characteristics of the beam member by using the expressions of strain energy release rate and stress intensity factor. The presence of cracks in a structural member introduces local flexibility that affects its dynamic response. The local stiffness matrices have been measured using the inverse of local dimensionless compliance matrix for finding out the deviation in the vibrating signatures of the cracked cantilever beam from that of the intact beam. Finite Element Analysis has been carried out to derive the vibration indices of the cracked structure using the overall flexibility matrix, total flexibility matrix, flexibility matrix of the intact beam. From the research done here, it is concluded that the performance of the damage assessment methods depends on several factors for example, the number of cracks, the number of sensors used for acquiring the dynamic response, location and severity of damages. Different artificial intelligent model based on fuzzy logic, neural network, genetic algorithm, MANFIS and hybrid techniques have been designed using the computed vibration signatures for multiple crack diagnosis in cantilever beam structures with higher accuracy and considerably low computational time