A framework of justification criteria for advanced manufacturing technology implementation in small and medium enterprises

Today in order to stay in businesses and prosper, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are seeking higher electiveness and competitiveness across the entire cycle of marketing, product design, manufacture, test and sales. SMEs play an increasingly important role in all aspects of competitiveness: both products and production techniques, but also management methods, the organization of the firm and human resources training. One of the ways by which SMEs can achieve a competitive advantage in manufacturing is through the implementation of Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT). An increasing number of them have chosen and are choosing various levels of AMT as the solution. Realizing the importance of SMEs, an attempt has been made in this paper to review the application of AMT in SMEs. Also, a framework has been offered for the implementation of AMT in SMEs. Finally, a summary of findings and conclusions are presented

Supply chain control: Trade-offs and system requirements

The official published version can be accessed from the link below.A paper describes the underlying forces which drive change in manufacturing enterprises and supply chains. It sets out the complexities in modern capitalism and global economics and illustrates the trade-offs that can be made. IT systems which are required to assist improvements to both customer service and enterprise manufacturing performance are explained, alluding to the special case for the semiconductor industry. Arguments are presented showing how the new tools being developed with the ESPRIT project 20544, X-CITTIC, will satisfy the control needs for a virtual enterprise. This paper describes the underlying forces which drive change in manufacturing enterprises and supply chains. It sets out the complexities in modem capitalism and global economics and illustrates the trade-offs that can be made. IT systems which are required to assist improvements to both customer service and enterprise manufacturing performance are explained alluding to the special case for the semiconductor industry. Finally it shows how the new tools being developed with the ESPRIT project 20544, XCITTIC, will satisfy the control needs for a virtual enterprise

Dynamic analysis of friction stir welding joints in dissimilar material plate structure

Friction stir welding (FSW) is a welding process that widely used as a solid state joining process for producing welded structure of similar and dissimilar materials such as aluminum alloy, magnesium etc. FSW process has expanded rapidly in industries including aerospace, automotive and maritime due to several advantages compared to other fusion welding. In this paper, experimental modal analysis (EMA) and normal mode finite element analysis (FEA) of the FSW welded joint structure of materials AA6061 and AA7075 will be carried out to identify dynamic properties. Rigid Body Element (RBE2) in MSC NASTRAN/PATRAN is used to model the welds and their compatibility for representing FSW welded structure also being identified. Model updating is performed to minimize the discrepancy between EMA and FEA. Model updating will be acted as an optimization method and is being presented using the structural optimization capability. Finite model updating could be done in individual components and welded structure. RBE2 connecting element can be used to represent friction stir welding with good accuracy

Mining Event Logs to Support Workflow Resource Allocation

Workflow technology is widely used to facilitate the business process in enterprise information systems (EIS), and it has the potential to reduce design time, enhance product quality and decrease product cost. However, significant limitations still exist: as an important task in the context of workflow, many present resource allocation operations are still performed manually, which are time-consuming. This paper presents a data mining approach to address the resource allocation problem (RAP) and improve the productivity of workflow resource management. Specifically, an Apriori-like algorithm is used to find the frequent patterns from the event log, and association rules are generated according to predefined resource allocation constraints. Subsequently, a correlation measure named lift is utilized to annotate the negatively correlated resource allocation rules for resource reservation. Finally, the rules are ranked using the confidence measures as resource allocation rules. Comparative experiments are performed using C4.5, SVM, ID3, Na\"ive Bayes and the presented approach, and the results show that the presented approach is effective in both accuracy and candidate resource recommendations.Comment: T. Liu et al., Mining event logs to support workflow resource allocation, Knowl. Based Syst. (2012), http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/j.knosys.2012.05.01

Technology implementation barriers in the Malaysian herbal industry: A case study

Technology is an essential component in all types of organisations and most organisations have reasons to implement new technology. The most fundamental justification for new technology implementation is that the technology must be able to contribute to strong competitive advantages and also increase or create long-term profit. In most small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there are barriers or obstacles in implementing these technologies. This article report a study aimed in investigating barriers faced by the Malaysian herbal industry in implementing technologies in their factory. Most of the local herbal manufacturing firms are categorised as SMEs which are usually considered to be lagged behind larger companies in technology usage. As this was an exploratory research, a case study method was used as it gave in-depth explanation of the main barriers of technology implementation. The results suggested that the main constraint in implementing technologies are lack of technical specialists and financial, aid commitment from top management, low wage rate, and future demand uncertainties