Implementation Of Lean Process Management Through Enhanced Problem Solving Capabilities.

All Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) organizations in Aerospace, Automotive and Electronics industries had to upgrade their functions. These organizations including suppliers and solutions providers are duty bound to improve their functions through strategic initiatives. One such initiative is Lean Process Management. Lean Process Management has proven to aid organizations in developing manufacturing and administrative management solutions and make the organization a leaner at the same time a 'fitter' one, achieving World Class standards in terms of production, quality, marketing, etc, etc. The issue or problem is, although a number of authors, experts, researchers have discussed the lean process management as part organization centric issues, they failed to provide an effective lean process management system. Besides the need to formulate an effective lean process as suggested by some authors, another important reason suggested is the employee's development aspect regarding how to unlock the infinite potential of their workforce. This employee's development is basically the problem solving capabilities of the employees while implementing the Lean through clear cutting protocols or processes of Lean Process Management

An integrated SDN architecture for application driven networking

The target of our effort is the definition of a dynamic network architecture meeting the requirements of applications competing for reliable high performance network resources. These applications have different requirements regarding reli- ability, bandwidth, latency, predictability, quality, reliable lead time and allocatability. At a designated instance in time a virtual network has to be defined automatically for a limited period of time, based on an existing physical network infrastructure, which implements the requirements of an application. We suggest an integrated Software Defined Network (SDN) architecture providing highly customizable functionalities required for efficient data transfer. It consists of a service interface towards the application and an open network interface towards the physical infrastruc- ture. Control and forwarding plane are separated for better scalability. This type of architecture allows to negotiate the reser- vation of network resources involving multiple applications with different requirement profiles within multi-domain environments

Inventory management strategies propensity toward supply chain management in the aerospace industry in Malaysia : the moderating effect of financial risk consideration

This thesis examined the relationship between inventory management strategies (IMS) and supply chain management (SCM) performance in the aerospace industry, an advanced and high technology industry that is characterized by a high working capital with potential huge losses if something goes wrong. The IMS dimensions of stock holding, safety stock, storage policy and inventory risk were tested against the SCM performance dimensions of on-time delivery (OTD), balance score card (BSC), inventory turn and factors related to inventory-financial risks. The quantitative research methodology was opted for this study. Data collection was performed from January to May 2016, involving 81 respondents related to the aerospace industry in Malaysia. This accounted for 40.5% of the population in the country. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to assist in the analysis. The findings indicated that only two dimensions of the IMS are used as predictors for the SCM performance. It also revealed that every dimension of the SCM performance is significant with only one dimension of the IMS. The most important dimension of SCM performance is the inventory risk dimension. Contrary to the initial expectation, storage policy is found to be insignificant for the theoretical relationship in this industry and the financial risk factor is found to be a weak moderator in the proposed relationship. The findings also suggested the need to examine financial risk consideration as the independent variable when examining the SCM performance in the aerospace industry. Moreover, these findings can be considered unique as they offer different contributing dimensions to the SCM performance and these should be the eye-opener to the organizations that have different attributes, in particular the high technology industry that involves high working capital

A pattern-based framework for the design of secure and dependable SDN/NFV-enabled networks

As the world becomes an interconnected network where objects and humans interact, cyber and physical networks appear to play an important role in smart ecosystems due to their increasing use on critical infrastructure and smart cities. Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) are a promising combination for programmable connectivity, rapid service provisioning and service chaining as they offer the necessary end-to-end optimisations. However, with the actual exponential growth of connected devices, future networks, such as SDN and NFV, require open architectures, facilitated by standards and a strong ecosystem.In this thesis, a model-based approach is proposed to support the design and verification of secure and dependable SDN/NFV-enabled networks. The model is based on the development of a pattern-based approach to design executable patterns as solutions for reusable designs and interactions of objects, encoded in a rule based reasoning system, able to guarantee security and dependability (S&D) properties in SDN/NFV enabled networks. To execute S&D patterns, a pattern based framework is implemented for the insertion of patterns at design and at runtime level. The developed pattern framework highlights also the benefit of leveraging the flexibility of SDN/NFV-enabled networks to deploy enhanced reactive security mechanisms for the protection of the industrial network via the use of service function chaining (SFC). To prove the importance of this approach and the functionality of the pattern framework, different pattern instances are implemented to guarantee S&D in network infrastructures. The developed design patterns are able to design network topologies, guarantee network properties and offer security service provisioning and chaining. Finally, in order to evaluate the developed patterns in the pattern framework, three different use cases are described, where a number of usage scenarios are deployed and evaluated experimentally

Peculiarities of calculating stationary heating of windings оperating in complex forced control systems

General description of the research topic. A technique and an algorithm for calculating the thermal field of electromagnets operating in complex forced systems proposed by authors are considered. The widespread use of such devices in electromechanical switching devices allows not only to increase their speed but also significantly reduce the size, mass and energy losses, which indicates the relevance of this topic. The mathematical model of heating the windings of forced electromagnets proposed by the authors is a system of 1D differential equations of stationary heat transfer in a cylindrical coordinate system, supplemented by equations of electrical and magnetic circuits. This model allows to take into account the ripple of the currents in the windings and the losses in the magnetic core due tothese ripples, contains certain signs of scientific noveltyand represents thegoal of the paper. The algorithm developed by the authors for calculating the thermal field of electromagnets operating in forced control systems is a complex iterative cycle. Its implementation is greatly simplified by using the Maple computing environment which allows to realize complicated and cumbersome mathematical transformations, automates the process of computations, and obtain results of numerical simulation in a convenient tabular and/or graphic form, which indicates the practical significanceof this works. The results of comparison of computation results with experimental data presented in the paper indicate the adequacy of the model and algorithm proposed.Загальний опис теми дослідження. Розглядаються запропоновані авторами методика і алгоритм розрахунку теплового поля електромагнітів, що працюють в складних форсованих системах. Широке застосування в електромеханічних комутаційних апаратах подібних пристроїв дозволяє не тільки підвищити їх швидкодію, але також істотно зменшити розміри, масу і втрати енергії, що свідчить про актуальність даної теми. Запропонована авторами математична модель нагріву обмоток форсованих електромагнітів являє собою систему одновимірних диференціальних рівнянь стаціонарної теплопровідності в циліндричній системі координат, доповнену рівняннями електричного та магнітного кіл. Ця модель дозволяє врахувати пульсації струмів в обмотках, а також втрати в магнітопроводі, обумовлені цими пульсаціями, містить певні ознаки наукової новизни і є метою статті. Розроблений авторами алгоритм розрахунку теплового поля електромагнітів, що працюють в системах форсованого керування, являє собою складний ітераційний цикл, програмування якого істотно спрощується за рахунок застосування математичного пакету Maple, що дозволяє здійснювати складні і громіздкі математичні перетворення, автоматизувати процес розрахункових досліджень, отримувати результати комп'ютерного моделювання в зручній табличній та/ або графічній формі, що свідчить про практичну значимість даної роботи. Наведені в статті результати зіставлення розрахунків з експериментальними даними, свідчать про адекватність запропонованих моделі та алгоритму

Modular architecture providing convergent and ubiquitous intelligent connectivity for networks beyond 2030

The transition of the networks to support forthcoming beyond 5G (B5G) and 6G services introduces a number of important architectural challenges that force an evolution of existing operational frameworks. Current networks have introduced technical paradigms such as network virtualization, programmability and slicing, being a trend known as network softwarization. Forthcoming B5G and 6G services imposing stringent requirements will motivate a new radical change, augmenting those paradigms with the idea of smartness, pursuing an overall optimization on the usage of network and compute resources in a zero-trust environment. This paper presents a modular architecture under the concept of Convergent and UBiquitous Intelligent Connectivity (CUBIC), conceived to facilitate the aforementioned transition. CUBIC intends to investigate and innovate on the usage, combination and development of novel technologies to accompany the migration of existing networks towards Convergent and Ubiquitous Intelligent Connectivity (CUBIC) solutions, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) mechanisms and Machine Learning (ML) tools in a totally secure environment

On the Rollout of Network Slicing in Carrier Networks: A Technology Radar

Network slicing is a powerful paradigm for network operators to support use cases with widely diverse requirements atop a common infrastructure. As 5G standards are completed, and commercial solutions mature, operators need to start thinking about how to integrate network slicing capabilities in their assets, so that customer-facing solutions can be made available in their portfolio. This integration is, however, not an easy task, due to the heterogeneity of assets that typically exist in carrier networks. In this regard, 5G commercial networks may consist of a number of domains, each with a different technological pace, and built out of products from multiple vendors, including legacy network devices and functions. These multi-technology, multi-vendor and brownfield features constitute a challenge for the operator, which is required to deploy and operate slices across all these domains in order to satisfy the end-to-end nature of the services hosted by these slices. In this context, the only realistic option for operators is to introduce slicing capabilities progressively, following a phased approach in their roll-out. The purpose of this paper is to precisely help designing this kind of plan, by means of a technology radar. The radar identifies a set of solutions enabling network slicing on the individual domains, and classifies these solutions into four rings, each corresponding to a different timeline: (i) as-is ring, covering today’s slicing solutions; (ii) deploy ring, corresponding to solutions available in the short term; (iii) test ring, considering medium-term solutions; and (iv) explore ring, with solutions expected in the long run. This classification is done based on the technical availability of the solutions, together with the foreseen market demands. The value of this radar lies in its ability to provide a complete view of the slicing landscape with one single snapshot, by linking solutions to information that operators may use for decision making in their individual go-to-market strategies.H2020 European Projects 5G-VINNI (grant agreement No. 815279) and 5G-CLARITY (grant agreement No. 871428)Spanish national project TRUE-5G (PID2019-108713RB-C53