Knowledge Reuse for Customization: Metamodels in an Open Design Community for 3d Printing

Theories of knowledge reuse posit two distinct processes: reuse for replication and reuse for innovation. We identify another distinct process, reuse for customization. Reuse for customization is a process in which designers manipulate the parameters of metamodels to produce models that fulfill their personal needs. We test hypotheses about reuse for customization in Thingiverse, a community of designers that shares files for three-dimensional printing. 3D metamodels are reused more often than the 3D models they generate. The reuse of metamodels is amplified when the metamodels are created by designers with greater community experience. Metamodels make the community's design knowledge available for reuse for customization-or further extension of the metamodels, a kind of reuse for innovation

Linking production paradigms and organizational approaches to production systems

Manufacturing system design and operation is critical to achieve strategic company objectives. This must aim fitting manufacturing systems capabilities to the different demand market environments, having in consideration the different approaches and strategies that should be used. In this paper we develop a framework for characterizing production system conceptual models and linking them to both production paradigms and organizational approaches to production, such as lean and agile manufacturing. The conceptual models identified are useful for aiding to implement organizational approaches and fit manufacturing systems to manufacturing requirements determined by different product demand patterns.(undefined

Co-design and mass customization in the Portuguese footwear cluster: an exploratory study

In the present, consumers tend to be more knowledgeable and interventive, requiring an active role in the way how they relate to brands and products. To meet this need, several sectors of the fashion industry saw this as a market opportunity and adopted approaches of Collaborative Design and Mass Customization. The footwear sector was not indifferent to this new paradigm of creation, production, distribution, and consumption, and several worldwide brands adopted innovative strategies. In Portugal, despite footwear being a mature industry with a strong tradition and worldwide recognition, it is necessary to continuously invest in innovation-based competitiveness, exploring the opportunities of Industry 4.0. Thus, the study seeks to analyse this important sector of the Portuguese economy, in order to perceive the acceptance, vision, and expectations regarding the approaches of Co-design and Mass Customization. In this way, seven companies with national relevance were studied based on a questionnaire survey. Findings show the industry's interest in Co-design and customization, despite the concern about the effort and risk associated to the transition and implementation of the productive approach. Relevant data for the development of collaborative models of footwear customization are gathered in this study.This work is supported by Project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T – Centre for Textile Science and Technology, funded by National Founds through FCT/MCTES and by FAMEST Project (projeto de IDT em co-promoção mobilizador n. 24529, 2017-2020)

Exploring the supply chain agility attributes in fast moving consumer goods industry: A case study in the Middle East

During the 1990s, supply chain management and agility have both received great attention. This is due to the fact that the business market place is characterized by being highly dynamic and complex. This paper aims to explore the need and the attributes of supply chain agility in FMCG business industry working in the Middle East markets. A case study of a multinational company working in the Middle East was chosen, where it faces the challenges of its business environment and its rapid changes in its markets. The findings show the case study supply chain working within such type of industry needs to be agile and that the attributes required for achieving agility within FMCGs supply chain includes: responsiveness; Customer service; flexibility; innovation; speed; quality; efficiency; and responsible people thinking

The role of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for individualisation and service quality of a PSS

Nowadays, product manufacturers are compelled to increasingly becoming Product Service System (PSS) providers for surviving and managing the increased global competition. 20% of the enterprises have already integrated services in their product offerings. Meanwhile, the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to grow significantly in the next years. Smart products are growing fast and are expected to reach 212 billion entities at the end of 2020. From an economic point of view, it is estimated that the impact of IoT is in a range of $2.7 to$6.2 trillion by 2025. IoT is surely an enabler of PSSs, allowing the collection and sharing of vast quantities of information along the whole solution life. This article aims to evaluate the impact that IoT technologies can have on the PSS provision when aiming at the satisfaction of highly diverting customer needs. Particularly, the analysis considers three dimensions: the typology of services enabled, the customization approach enabled, and the service quality gaps disclosed by IoT. By means of multiple use cases, the authors found out that IoT technologies have a huge impact on the different phases of the whole PSS lifecycle. Several advantages were detected for the different stakeholders involved in terms of both service efficiency and effectiveness. Based on these results, the strategic contact points to cope with possible trade-offs between the PSS individualization approach and its service quality are proposed

Managing design variety, process variety and engineering change: a case study of two capital good firms

Many capital good firms deliver products that are not strictly one-off, but instead share a certain degree of similarity with other deliveries. In the delivery of the product, they aim to balance stability and variety in their product design and processes. The issue of engineering change plays an important in how they manage to do so. Our aim is to gain more understanding into how capital good firms manage engineering change, design variety and process variety, and into the role of the product delivery strategies they thereby use. Product delivery strategies are defined as the type of engineering work that is done independent of an order and the specification freedom the customer has in the remaining part of the design. Based on the within-case and cross-case analysis of two capital good firms several mechanisms for managing engineering change, design variety and process variety are distilled. It was found that there exist different ways of (1) managing generic design information, (2) isolating large engineering changes, (3) managing process variety, (4) designing and executing engineering change processes. Together with different product delivery strategies these mechanisms can be placed within an archetypes framework of engineering change management. On one side of the spectrum capital good firms operate according to open product delivery strategies, have some practices in place to investigate design reuse potential, isolate discontinuous engineering changes into the first deliveries of the product, employ ‘probe and learn’ process management principles in order to allow evolving insights to be accurately executed and have informal engineering change processes. On the other side of the spectrum capital good firms operate according to a closed product delivery strategy, focus on prevention of engineering changes based on design standards, need no isolation mechanisms for discontinuous engineering changes, have formal process management practices in place and make use of closed and formal engineering change procedures. The framework should help managers to (1) analyze existing configurations of product delivery strategies, product and process designs and engineering change management and (2) reconfigure any of these elements according to a ‘misfit’ derived from the framework. Since this is one of the few in-depth empirical studies into engineering change management in the capital good sector, our work adds to the understanding on the various ways in which engineering change can be dealt with

LEGACY and DWELLING: The Role of Manufactured Housing in Central Appalachia

This thesis explores the power of architecture to raise the standards of dwelling in a region where housing conditions, economic stability, and environmental consciousness is considerably lower than the rest of the United States. Historically, many towns and cities in Central Appalachia were developed by coal companies as ‘coal towns’. Considering the diversity of workers in these communities, the coal industry is largely the platform for the cultural identity of Central Appalachia. As a result of coal depletion in the US, and increased regulations of pollution by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), coal companies across the region are closing mining sites and firing plants, leaving behind a trail of scarred landscapes and a fractured workforce. The failure of this mono-economy has caused the quality of living in Central Appalachia to plummet further. This Thesis focuses on the current regional typology of manufactured houses and the use of prefabricated systems in building construction. Due to the social economic state, substandard living conditions have plagued Central Appalachia, but as a solution the industrial process of manufactured housing has provided basic affordable housing. The popularity of these manufactured houses in Central Appalachia has created a new vernacular. Unfortunately, the legacy of the traditional home in Appalachia is lost as housing has become less site-specific, less hand-crafted and more standardized equivalents to the purchase of an automobile. The stigma of these housing types is that the more expensive manufactured houses are adorned with a local vernacular of peaked roofs, dormers, and porches as an applique, but low-cost housing that supports a majority of the population is indistinguishable from manufactured houses throughout the United States. This thesis challenges the stigma of manufactured housing and attempts to reintroduce the legacy of housing in Appalachia

Fundamental Modes of Operation for Mass Customization

The concept of Mass Customization (MC) - producing customised goods for a mass market - has received considerable attention in the research literature in recent years. However the literature is limited in providing an understanding of the content of MC strategies (the organizational structures, process technologies, etc., that are best in a particular environment) and the process of MC strategies (the sub-strategy that an enterprise should select and how they should go about implementing an MC strategy). In this paper six published classification schemes of relevance to Mass Customization are reviewed. The classification schemes are applied to five case studies of enterprises operating in an MC environment. The limitations of the schemes are analysed and their failure to distinguish key characteristics is highlighted. Analysis of the findings leads to the development of a taxonomy of operational modes for MC. Five fundamental modes of operation for Mass Customization are identified. These modes are described and justified and their application is illustrated by contrasting the information requirements of two modes. The potential of these modes to provide the foundations for detailed configurations models is discussed