Operationalising IoT for reverse supply: the development of use-visibility measures

© 2016, © Authors. Published by Emerald Group Publishing Limited. This work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 3.0) Licence Purpose – Improvement of reverse supply chains requires accurate and timely information about the patterns of consumption. In the consumer context, the ways to generate and access such use-visibility data are in their infancy. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how the Internet of Things (IoT) may be operationalised in the domestic setting to capture data on a consumer’s use of products and the implications for reverse supply chains. Design/methodology/approach – This study uses an explorative case approach drawing on data from studies of six UK households. “Horizontal” data, which reveals patterns in consumers’ use processes, is generated by combining “vertical” data from multiple sources. Use processes in the homes are mapped using IDEF0 and illustrated with the data. The quantitative data are generated using wireless sensors in the home, and qualitative data are drawn from online calendars, social media, interviews and ethnography. Findings – The study proposes four generic measurement categories for operationalising the concept of use-visibility: experience, consumption, interaction and depletion, which together address the use of different household resources. The explorative case demonstrates how these measures can be operationalised to achieve visibility of the context of use in the home. The potential of such use-visibility for reverse supply chains is discussed. Research limitations/implications – This explorative case study is based on an in-depth study of the bathroom which illustrates the application of use-visibility measures (UVMs) but provides a limited use context. Further research is needed from a wider set of homes and a wider set of use processes and contexts. Practical implications – The case demonstrates the operationalisation of the combination of data from different sources and helps answer questions of “why?”, “how?”, “when?” and “how much?”, which can inform reverse supply chains. The four UVMs can be operationalised in a way that can contribute to supply chain visibility, providing accurate and timely information of consumption, optimising resource use and eliminating waste. Originality/value – IDEF0 framework and case analysis is used to identify and validate four UVMs available through IoT data – that of experience, consumption, interaction and depletion. The UVMs characterise IoT data generated from a given process and inform the primary reverse flow in the future supply chain. They provide the basis for future data collection and development of theory around their effect on reverse supply chain efficiency

Innovation of the process-equipment system in a context of sustainability

Tesi sotmesa a condicions de confidencialitat, publiquem la versió encriptadaIn search to contribute to the current fight against climate change, the industrial sector is immersed in a transition to the Circular Economy (CE) to achieve resource efficiency through the redesign of products and production processes. However, the implementation of the CE closed loops is still in an initial phase and focuses mainly on the recycling of products. Early works on CE emphasized the need to implement an emissions reuse closed loops through technology, but this issue has not been addressed by scientific and industrial experts with a successful implementation in the industry. Equipment can play a critical role in the redesign of production processes through the implementation of emissions reuse closed loops, as it is in the operational phase of the equipment in which most environmental resources are consumed and most emissions are generated in production processes. The implementation of the emissions reuse closed loops through equipment will only be possible if the equipment consumes resources in production processes more efficiently, reduces waste and emissions and reuses them as a new primary material resource. The presented thesis proposes a conceptual model for the implementation of the CE emissions reuse closed loops in production processes through equipment as a way to accelerate the transition from industry to CE. The conceptual model integrates the concepts of reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery of emissions of the Cleaner Production (CP) and the transverse analysis of the diachronic and synchronous dimensions of the equipment. The implementation of the proposed conceptual model will only be possible through the redesign of production processes. In this sense, the presented thesis also proposes a process redesign methodology for its implementation. The redesign for emissions reuse (R4ER) methodology has been verified through application in an equipment manufacturing company and a research institute. The results of the presented thesis have demonstrated that the application of the methodology has allowed the reduction of the consumption of resources, the generation of emissions as well as the reduction of operating costs in a sterilization central and a grinding wheel production process.En busca de contribuir a la lucha actual contra el cambio climático, el sector industrial se encuentra inmerso en una transición hacia la Economía Circular (CE) para lograr la eficiencia de los recursos a través del rediseño de productos y procesos de producción. Sin embargo, la implementación de los bucles cerrados de la CE se encuentra aún en una fase inicial y se centra principalmente en el reciclaje de productos. Los primeros trabajos sobre CE enfatizaron la necesidad de implementar bucles cerrados para la reutilización de emisiones a través de la tecnología, pero este tema no ha sido abordado por expertos científicos e industriales con una implementación exitosa en la industria. Los equipos pueden jugar un papel crítico en el rediseño de los procesos de producción a través de la implementación de bucles cerrados para la reutilización de emisiones, ya que es en la fase operativa de los equipos en donde se consumen la mayor parte de los recursos ambientales y se generan la mayor parte de las emisiones en los procesos de producción. La implantación de los bucles cerrados para la reutilización de emisiones a través de los equipos sólo será posible si los equipos consumen recursos en los procesos de producción de forma más eficiente, reducen los residuos y las emisiones y los reutilizan como nueva materia prima. La tesis presentada propone un modelo conceptual para la implementación de los bucles cerrados de la CE para la reutilización de emisiones en los procesos de producción a través de los equipos como una forma de acelerar la transición de la industria a la CE. El modelo conceptual integra los conceptos de reducción, reutilización, reciclaje y recuperación de emisiones de la Producción más Limpia (CP) y el análisis transversal de las dimensiones diacrónicas y síncronas de los equipos. La implementación del modelo conceptual propuesto sólo será posible a través del rediseño de los procesos de producción. En este sentido, la tesis propone también una metodología de rediseño de procesos para su implementación. La metodología de rediseño para la reutilización de emisiones (R4ER) ha sido verificada mediante su aplicación en una empresa de fabricación de equipos y en un instituto de investigación. Los resultados de la tesis han demostrado que la aplicación de la metodología ha permitido la reducción del consumo de recursos, la generación de emisiones así como la reducción de los costes operativos en una central de esterilización y un proceso de producción de muelas abrasivas.Postprint (published version

Reusable Space Vehicle Ground Operations Baseline Conceptual Model

Modeling efforts for future space operation vehicles at the United States Air Force Research Labs Air Vehicles Directorate have been focused towards the in-flight mission. To better serve the research and development effort, a simulation of the ground operations is required allowing for trade-offs within turnaround operations and between the components that drive those procedures. However, before a simulation can be developed a conceptual model must be generated to guide the model building process. This research provides a baseline conceptual model for reusable space vehicles based on the space shuttle as the only operational vehicle of its kind. The model is built utilizing the Integrated Definition (IDEF) methodology, specifically IDEF3. IDEF3 is focused towards process-viewpoint diagramming and layout. The model is developed using the hierarchical development capabilities of the IDEF3 methodology and is broken into modules allowing for greater reuse and usability. This model captures the scheduled maintenance performed to turnaround the space shuttle for the next launch but does not contain every activity. The idea was to capture the baseline activities that may be found in future Reusable Space Vehicles and provide a description of what happens at Kennedy Space Center when preparing the space shuttle for the next launch

Regenerative life support system research

Sections on modeling, experimental activities during the grant period, and topics under consideration for the future are contained. The sessions contain discussions of: four concurrent modeling approaches that were being integrated near the end of the period (knowledge-based modeling support infrastructure and data base management, object-oriented steady state simulations for three concepts, steady state mass-balance engineering tradeoff studies, and object-oriented time-step, quasidynamic simulations of generic concepts); interdisciplinary research activities, beginning with a discussion of RECON lab development and use, and followed with discussions of waste processing research, algae studies and subsystem modeling, low pressure growth testing of plants, subsystem modeling of plants, control of plant growth using lighting and CO2 supply as variables, search for and development of lunar soil simulants, preliminary design parameters for a lunar base life support system, and research considerations for food processing in space; and appendix materials, including a discussion of the CELSS Conference, detailed analytical equations for mass-balance modeling, plant modeling equations, and parametric data on existing life support systems for use in modeling

HAWAII ALGAL BIOFUEL

This report investigates the feasibility and affordability of producing algae-derived biofuel in Hawaii for military aviation. The authors evaluated methods for cultivation of algae, investigated the processes necessary to locally refine bio-oil into bio-kerosene, researched the environmental impacts of cultivation and refinement facilities in Hawaii, and studied the resultant cost per gallon of bio-kerosene production. Based on the current state of technology and the proposed system of systems architecture, this report estimates that bio-kerosene can be produced for $8.00 - 22.87/gal, indicating that although this system is technically feasible, it is unlikely to be affordable at current fuel prices without ongoing subsidy or further technical innovation.http://archive.org/details/hawaiialgalbiofu109453289

Cadre conceptuel pour l'éco-conception intégrée de systèmes produit-service

Classical business economy is based on the sale of products. However, during the last decades, the increasing competition in the globalized economy and the resources rarefaction has led manufacturing companies in developed countries to re-orient their business towards integration of services in their product offers.The Product-Service System (PSS) concept is used to depict the resulting marketable set of products and services capable of jointly fulfilling a user’s need. PSS raise many interests for the reduction of the environmental pressure because they evolve the classical paradigm of mass production and consumption towards new mechanisms of value creation.In the PSS research field, a strong emphasis is put on their “potential” for decreasing the environmental impacts and on the necessity to design PSS as “integrated” sets of products and services. However, there is an important lack of effective support for PSS design and eco-design.This thesis aims at filling this gap by proposing a conceptual framework for PSS integrated eco-design. Its role is to support integration of products and services during PSS design until the most detailed phases by allowing communication between product engineers and service designers.A framework for PSS integrated design is proposed based on a system-based approach and allowing multi-views system modelling. An environmental evaluation framework is coupled to evaluate during design the environmental impacts generated over the PSS life cycle. The applicability of the conceptual framework is tested on an industrial case of a pneumatic energy delivery PSS.L’économie de marché est classiquement basée sur la vente de produits. Pourtant, au cours des dernières décennies, la compétitivité accrue dans une économie mondialisée et la raréfaction des ressources a conduit les entreprises industrielles des pays développés à réorienter leurs offres de produits par l’intégration de services. Le concept de Système Produit-Service (SPS) fait référence à cet ensemble commercialisable de produits et services, capables de répondre ensemble à un besoin utilisateur. Les SPS soulèvent beaucoup d’intérêt pour la réduction des pressions environnementales parce qu’ils font évoluer le paradigme classique de production et consommation de masse vers de nouveaux mécanismes de création de valeur. La recherche sur les SPS accorde beaucoup d’importance à leur « potentiel » pour la réduction des impacts environnementaux ainsi qu’à la nécessité de concevoir les SPS comme des ensembles « intégrés » de produits et services. Néanmoins, un important manque de réel support à la conception et à l’éco-conception de SPS est à noter. Cette thèse cherche à combler ce manque en proposant un cadre conceptuel pour la conception intégrée de SPS. Son rôle est d’assister l’intégration de produits et de services durant la conception de SPS jusqu’aux phases les plus détaillées en permettant la communication entre les ingénieurs produits et les concepteurs de services. Un cadre pour la conception intégrée de SPS est proposé, basé sur une approche système et permettant sa modélisation multi-vues. Un cadre d’évaluation environnemental lui est couplé pour évaluer, au cours de la conception, les impacts environnementaux générés durant le cycle de vie du SPS. L’applicabilité du cadre conceptuel est testée sur un cas industriel de SPS pour la fourniture d’énergie pneumatique

An early-stage decision-support framework for the implementation of intelligent automation

The constant pressure on manufacturing companies to improve productivity, reduce the lead time and progress in quality requires new technological developments and adoption.The rapid development of smart technology and robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) technology has a profound impact on manufacturing automation and might determine winners and losers of the next generation’s manufacturing competition. Simultaneously, recent smart technology developments in the areas enable an automation response to new production paradigms such as mass customisation and product-lifecycle considerations in the context of Industry 4.0. New paradigms, like mass customisation, increased both the complexity of the tasks and the risk due to smart technology integration. From a manufacturing automation perspective, intelligent automation has been identified as a possible response to arising demands. The presented research aims to support the industrial uptake of intelligent automation into manufacturing businesses by quantifying risks at the early design stage and business case development. An early-stage decision-support framework for the implementation of intelligent automation in manufacturing businesses is presented in this thesis.The framework is informed by an extensive literature review, updated and verified with surveys and workshops to add to the knowledge base due to the rapid development of the associated technologies. A paradigm shift from cost to a risk-modelling perspective is proposed to provide a more flexible and generic approach applicable throughout the current technology landscape. The proposed probabilistic decision-support framework consists of three parts:• A clustering algorithm to identify the manufacturing functions in manual processes from task analysis to mitigate early-stage design uncertainties• A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) informed by an expert elicitation via the DELPHI method, where the identified functions become the unit of analysis.• A Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo method modelling the effects of uncertainties on the critical success factors to address issues of factor interdependencies after expert elicitation.Based on the overall decision framework a toolbox was developed in Microsoft Excel. Five different case studies are used to test and validate the framework. Evaluation of the results derived from the toolbox from the industrial feedback suggests a positive validation for commercial use. The main contributions to knowledge in the presented thesis arise from the following four points:• Early-stage decision-support framework for business case evaluation of intelligent automation.• Translating manual tasks to automation function via a novel clustering approach• Application of a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo Method to simulate correlation between decision criteria• Causal relationship among Critical Success Factors has been established from business and technical perspectives.The implications on practise might be promising. The feedback arising from the created tool was promising from the industry, and a practical realisation of the decision-support tool seems to be desired from an industrial point of view.With respect to further work, the decision-support tool might have established a ground to analyse a human task automatically for automation purposes. The established clustering mechanisms and the related attributes could be connected to sensorial data and analyse a manufacturing task autonomously without the subjective input of task analysis experts. To enable such an autonomous process, however, the psychophysiological understanding must be increased in the future.</div

Cost modelling of rapid manufacturing based mass customisation system for fabrication of custom foot orthoses

PhD ThesisSolid freeform fabrication (SFF) or Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques have emerged in recent years as advanced manufacturing techniques. These techniques have demonstrated advantages particularly in situations where the demands for unique geometrical structured customer-specific products are high and the time to market is very short. Applications of these techniques in the medical sector in combination with the latest medical digital imaging technologies are growing quickly. The techniques have inherent advantages of compatibility with the output information of medical digitising techniques. Foot orthoses are medical devices used as shoe inserts in the treatment of foot disorders, injuries and diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, congenital defects and other foot related injuries. Currently custom foot orthoses are fabricated through manufacturing techniques which involve costly and based on lengthy trial and error manufacturing process. These techniques have limitations in terms of fabricating required geometries and incorporating complex design features in the custom-made orthoses. The novelty of this research is to explore the commercial scale application of rapid manufacturing techniques and to assess a rapid manufacturing based design and fabrication system for production of custom foot orthoses. The developed system is aimed at delivering the custom made orthoses at mass scale with improved fit, consistency, accuracy and increased product quality. The traditional design and fabrication process for production of custom foot orthoses was investigated and modelled with IDEF0 modelling methodology. The developed IDEF0 model was re-modelled and then the rapid manufacturing approach was integrated in the design and fabrication process. The main functions of foot geometry capture, orthoses design and manufacture of orthoses were modelled and evaluated individually with respect to time and cost and quality of the final product. Different well-established rapid manufacturing techniques were integrated in the current design and fabrication process. The results showed that the techniques have significant impacts on the overall design and fabrication process in terms of increased process efficiency, low lead-time, increased productivity and improved quality of the final product. An orthosis model was fabricated on an experimental basis using different well established rapid manufacturing techniques. The techniques were separately investigated and analysed in terms of orthoses fabrication cost and build time. The cost and lead-time in different techniques were modelled, analysed and evaluated for evaluation of commercial scale applications. The analysis and evaluation of the cost and lead-time modelled for different rapid manufacturing techniques showed that selective laser sintering technique is the better option for integrating the technique in fabrication of custom foot orthoses and that it has the potential to compete with conventional techniques

A Semantic Similarity Method for Products and Processes

豊橋技術科学大

A framework to support automation in manufacturing through the study of process variability

In manufacturing, automation has replaced many dangerous, mundane, arduous and routine manual operations, for example, transportation of heavy parts, stamping of large parts, repetitive welding and bolt fastening. However, skilled operators still carry out critical manual processes in various industries such as aerospace, automotive and heavy-machinery. As automation technology progresses through more flexible and intelligent systems, the potential for these processes to be automated increases. However, the decision to undertake automation is a complex one, involving consideration of many factors such as return of investment, health and safety, life cycle impact, competitive advantage, and resources and technology availability. A key challenge to manufacturing automation is the ability to adapt to process variability. In manufacturing processes, human operators apply their skills to adapt to variability, in order to meet the product and process specifications or requirements. This thesis is focussed on understanding the ‎variability involved in these manual processes, and how it may influence the automation solution. ‎ Two manual industrial processes in polishing and de-burring of high-value components were observed to evaluate the extent of the variability and how the operators applied their skills to overcome it. Based on the findings from the literature and process studies, a framework was developed to categorise variability in manual manufacturing processes and to suggest a level of automation for the tasks in the processes, based on scores and weights given to the parameters by the user. The novelty of this research lies in the creation of a framework to categorise and evaluate process variability, suggesting an appropriate level of automation. The framework uses five attributes of processes; inputs, outputs, strategy, time and requirements and twelve parameters (quantity, range or interval of variability, interdependency, diversification, number of alternatives, number of actions, patterned actions, concurrency, time restriction, sensorial domain, cognitive requisite and physical requisites) to evaluate variability inherent in the process. The level of automation suggested is obtained through a system of scores and weights for each parameter. The weights were calculated using Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) with the help of three experts in manufacturing processes. Finally, this framework was validated through its application to two processes consisting of a lab-based peg-in-a-hole manual process and an industrial process on welding. In addition, the framework was further applied to three processes (two industrial processes and one process simulated in the laboratory) by two subjects for each process to verify the consistency of the results obtained. The results suggest that the framework is robust when applied by different subjects, presenting high similarity in outputs. Moreover, the framework was found to be effective when characterising variability present in the processes where it was applied. The framework was developed and tested in manufacturing of high value components, with high potential to be applied to processes in other industries, for instance, automotive, heavy machinery, pharmaceutical or electronic components, although this would need further investigation. Thus, future work would include the application of the framework in processes in other industries, hence enhancing its robustness and widening its scope of applicability. Additionally, a database would be created to assess the correlation between process variability and the level of automation