Mass customization of teaching and learning in organizations

In search of methods that improve the efficiency of teaching and training in organizations, several authors point out that mass customization (MC) is a principle that covers individual needs of knowledge and skills and, at the same time, limits the development costs of customized training to those of mass training. MC is proven and established in the economic sector, and shows high potential for continuing education, too. The paper explores this potential and proposes a multidisciplinary, pragmatic approach to teaching and training in organizations. The first section of the paper formulates four design principles of MC deduced from an examination of economics literature. The second section presents amit™, a frame for mass customized training, designed according to the principles presented in the first section. The evaluation results encourage the further development and use of mass customized training in continuing education, and offer suggestions for future research

Effect of Industry 4.0 on Education Systems: An Outlook

Congreso Universitario de Innovación Educativa En las Enseñanzas Técnicas, CUIEET (26º. 2018. Gijón

A survey of simulation techniques in commerce and defence

Despite the developments in Modelling and Simulation (M&S) tools and techniques over the past years, there has been a gap in the M&S research and practice in healthcare on developing a toolkit to assist the modellers and simulation practitioners with selecting an appropriate set of techniques. This study is a preliminary step towards this goal. This paper presents some results from a systematic literature survey on applications of M&S in the commerce and defence domains that could inspire some improvements in the healthcare. Interim results show that in the commercial sector Discrete-Event Simulation (DES) has been the most widely used technique with System Dynamics (SD) in second place. However in the defence sector, SD has gained relatively more attention. SD has been found quite useful for qualitative and soft factors analysis. From both the surveys it becomes clear that there is a growing trend towards using hybrid M&S approaches

Sustainable development strategies for product provision and manufacturing approaches

Manufacturing firms are under many pressures both financially and competitive which focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this paper the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches which support sustainability in two aspects are proposed, firstly, the provision of products to the users in ways which extend the product life and secondly, manufacturing approaches which reduce resource usage. The provision and manufacture of products in ways that are truly sustainable are inhibited by three issues: firstly, decisions are predominantly made solely from the perspective of the “vendor” (and do not consider the wider perspective); secondly, that generally the scope of business planning is still rooted in production/manufacturing costs (and not consumption costs) and thirdly, the current performance measures (e.g. KPIs) mainly focus on profitability. The rationale for this conference paper is the argument that there is a need to raise the awareness during the earliest stages of business planning that there may be alternative approaches which are more sustainable. The concepts presented here will underpin further research into performance measures which encompass sustainability and resulting business planning implications

Innovative Service-Based Business Concepts for the Machine Tool Building Industry

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityDuring the last decade, machine tool building companies have been forced to put innovative offers on the market. Due to the technical features of their products and the prevailing organizational structures in this sector, especially product-service systems are a promising way of creating a unique selling point. In this paper, potential new business concepts for machine tool builders will be presented which aim at fulfilling basic customer needs like the increase in quality, flexibility, productivity and the reduction of lead times, costs and risks. For the implementation of these product-service systems, practical examples are given.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Service Implementation Framework in Manufacturing Firms: A Case Study

The culture and the operational methods of service management have become a formidable competitive weapon even for manufacturing firms. The term "service factory" has been proposed for identifying that particular integration of products and services, achieved by the excellent manufacturing firm, where "service is a multidimensional concept". The creation of a service factory necessarily implies a radical change in the operational and organizational characteristics of the firm. In order to support manufacturing firms in adopting a service strategy, it is relevant on the one hand to identify the bundle of services which have to be provided for the customers and, on the other hand, to understand the implications for firm management model. As regards the first point, the paper proposes a framework which classifies the services along with two dimensions: Timedimension and target-dimension. The proposed framework is of interest for manufacturing firms because it allows a better recognition of services that are more perceptible for the customers. In the second part of the paper, authors discuss the implications of a service strategy adoption on the management model of manufacturing firms. In order to carry out this analysis, authors propose a model that combines four service dimensions with three decision-making categories (Organization, Methodologies and Technologies). In the end, the proposed framework has been applied in a sample of Italian hot water heater manufacturers and a case study analysis has been carried out

A Classification Model for Sensing Human Trust in Machines Using EEG and GSR

Today, intelligent machines \emph{interact and collaborate} with humans in a way that demands a greater level of trust between human and machine. A first step towards building intelligent machines that are capable of building and maintaining trust with humans is the design of a sensor that will enable machines to estimate human trust level in real-time. In this paper, two approaches for developing classifier-based empirical trust sensor models are presented that specifically use electroencephalography (EEG) and galvanic skin response (GSR) measurements. Human subject data collected from 45 participants is used for feature extraction, feature selection, classifier training, and model validation. The first approach considers a general set of psychophysiological features across all participants as the input variables and trains a classifier-based model for each participant, resulting in a trust sensor model based on the general feature set (i.e., a "general trust sensor model"). The second approach considers a customized feature set for each individual and trains a classifier-based model using that feature set, resulting in improved mean accuracy but at the expense of an increase in training time. This work represents the first use of real-time psychophysiological measurements for the development of a human trust sensor. Implications of the work, in the context of trust management algorithm design for intelligent machines, are also discussed.Comment: 20 page

A Multi-Robot Cooperation Framework for Sewing Personalized Stent Grafts

This paper presents a multi-robot system for manufacturing personalized medical stent grafts. The proposed system adopts a modular design, which includes: a (personalized) mandrel module, a bimanual sewing module, and a vision module. The mandrel module incorporates the personalized geometry of patients, while the bimanual sewing module adopts a learning-by-demonstration approach to transfer human hand-sewing skills to the robots. The human demonstrations were firstly observed by the vision module and then encoded using a statistical model to generate the reference motion trajectories. During autonomous robot sewing, the vision module plays the role of coordinating multi-robot collaboration. Experiment results show that the robots can adapt to generalized stent designs. The proposed system can also be used for other manipulation tasks, especially for flexible production of customized products and where bimanual or multi-robot cooperation is required.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Key words: modularity, medical device customization, multi-robot system, robot learning, visual servoing, robot sewin

A Multi-Robot Cooperation Framework for Sewing Personalized Stent Grafts

This paper presents a multi-robot system for manufacturing personalized medical stent grafts. The proposed system adopts a modular design, which includes: a (personalized) mandrel module, a bimanual sewing module, and a vision module. The mandrel module incorporates the personalized geometry of patients, while the bimanual sewing module adopts a learning-by-demonstration approach to transfer human hand-sewing skills to the robots. The human demonstrations were firstly observed by the vision module and then encoded using a statistical model to generate the reference motion trajectories. During autonomous robot sewing, the vision module plays the role of coordinating multi-robot collaboration. Experiment results show that the robots can adapt to generalized stent designs. The proposed system can also be used for other manipulation tasks, especially for flexible production of customized products and where bimanual or multi-robot cooperation is required.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, Key words: modularity, medical device customization, multi-robot system, robot learning, visual servoing, robot sewin

By Design: Engaging Employers in Workforce Development Organizations

Workforce development practitioners and policymakers have come to recognize the importance of employers as customers. Too often, however, not enough time is devoted to considering (much less implementing) the organizational and programmatic changes necessary to truly engage employers. By Design describes strategies used by three organizations to effectively engage employers in workforce development efforts. Jewish Vocational Service, San Francisco; Training, Inc., Boston and WIRE-Net, Cleveland, have successfully involved employers in a variety of different waysfrom including them on the Board of Directors to having them teach training classes. By Design outlines employer-engagement strategies in detail to help other organizations substantively involve employers in daily activities and services