Special Session on Industry 4.0

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Design choices for agent-based control of AGVs in the dough making process

In this paper we consider a multi-agent system (MAS) for the logistics control of Automatic Guided Vehicles (AGVs) that are used in the dough making process at an industrial bakery. Here, logistics control refers to constructing robust schedules for all transportation jobs. The paper discusses how alternative MAS designs can be developed and compared using cost, frequency of messages between agents, and computation time for evaluating control rules as performance indicators. Qualitative design guidelines turn out to be insufficient to select the best agent architecture. Therefore, we also use simulation to support decision making, where we use real-life data from the bakery to evaluate several alternative designs. We find that architectures in which line agents initiate allocation of transportation jobs, and AGV agents schedule multiple jobs in advance, perform best. We conclude by discussing the benefits of our MAS systems design approach for real-life applications

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

Coordination approaches and systems - part I : a strategic perspective

This is the first part of a two-part paper presenting a fundamental review and summary of research of design coordination and cooperation technologies. The theme of this review is aimed at the research conducted within the decision management aspect of design coordination. The focus is therefore on the strategies involved in making decisions and how these strategies are used to satisfy design requirements. The paper reviews research within collaborative and coordinated design, project and workflow management, and, task and organization models. The research reviewed has attempted to identify fundamental coordination mechanisms from different domains, however it is concluded that domain independent mechanisms need to be augmented with domain specific mechanisms to facilitate coordination. Part II is a review of design coordination from an operational perspective

Smart manufacturing scheduling: A literature review

[EN] Within the scheduling framework, the potential of digital twin (DT) technology, based on virtualisation and intelligent algorithms to simulate and optimise manufacturing, enables an interaction with processes and modifies their course of action in time synchrony in the event of disruptive events. This is a valuable capability for automating scheduling and confers it autonomy. Automatic and autonomous scheduling management can be encouraged by promoting the elimination of disruptions due to the appearance of defects, regardless of their origin. Hence the zero-defect manufacturing (ZDM) management model oriented towards zero-disturbance and zero-disruption objectives has barely been studied. Both strategies combine the optimisation of production processes by implementing DTs and promoting ZDM objectives to facilitate the modelling of automatic and autonomous scheduling systems. In this context, this particular vision of the scheduling process is called smart manufacturing scheduling (SMS). The aim of this paper is to review the existing scientific literature on the scheduling problem that considers the DT technology approach and the ZDM model to achieve self-management and reduce or eliminate the need for human intervention. Specifically, 68 research articles were identified and analysed. The main results of this paper are to: (i) find methodological trends to approach SMS models, where three trends were identified; i.e. using DT technology and the ZDM model, utilising other enabling digital technologies and incorporating inherent SMS capabilities into scheduling; (ii) present the main SMS alignment axes of each methodological trend; (iii) provide a map to classify the literature that comes the closest to the SMS concept; (iv) discuss the main findings and research gaps identified by this study. Finally, managerial implications and opportunities for further research are identified.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities project entitled 'Optimisation of zero-defects production technologies enabling supply chains 4.0 (CADS4.0) ' (RTI2018-101344-B-I00) , the European Union H2020 research and innovation programme with grant agreement No. 825631 "Zero Defect Manufacturing Platform (ZDMP) " and the European Union H2020 research and innovation programme with agreement No. 958205 "In-dustrial Data Services for Quality Control in Smart Manufacturing (i4Q) ".Serrano-Ruiz, JC.; Mula, J.; Poler, R. (2021). Smart manufacturing scheduling: A literature review. Journal of Manufacturing Systems. 61:265-287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2021.09.0112652876

Intelligent systems in manufacturing: current developments and future prospects

Global competition and rapidly changing customer requirements are demanding increasing changes in manufacturing environments. Enterprises are required to constantly redesign their products and continuously reconfigure their manufacturing systems. Traditional approaches to manufacturing systems do not fully satisfy this new situation. Many authors have proposed that artificial intelligence will bring the flexibility and efficiency needed by manufacturing systems. This paper is a review of artificial intelligence techniques used in manufacturing systems. The paper first defines the components of a simplified intelligent manufacturing systems (IMS), the different Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques to be considered and then shows how these AI techniques are used for the components of IMS

4D comparative analysis of construction approaches towards industrialization: traditional versus total prefabrication

Dissertação de mestrado em Modelação de Informação na Construção de Edifícios BIM A+O objetivo desta investigação é encorajar uma maior produtividade na indústria AEC, representando e promovendo uma análise comparativa de abordagens de construção muito diferentes: construção tradicional versus pré-fabricação total rumo à industrialização. A construção de um edifício cujo projeto foi realizado em BIM, totalmente orientado para a industrialização, apresenta-se como uma oportunidade para realizar uma análise 4D abrangente que compara soluções tradicionais e industrializadas (abordagens de construção no local e fora do local). A investigação concentra-se na análise deste caco de estudo prático, baseado em BIM e está centrada na avaliação dos impactos no planeamento das várias fases de construção, e na exposição dos impactos detalhados da solução industrializada quando comparada com uma solução tradicional. A construção do edifício em estudo começou em 2022. A sustentabilidade e a circularidade estão implícitas. O estudo de caso sugerido é um hotel em Guimarães que ultimamente tem recebido a atenção dos meios de comunicação devido à sua inovadora metodologia de pré-fabricação. Os módulos pré-fabricados são utilizados para a construção do edifício. Esta abordagem será avaliada e comparada com as alternativas tradicionais existentes. Considerando isto, foi desenvolvido um quadro teórico propondo um quadro baseado numa análise comparativa BIM 4D para ambas as abordagens de construção: construção tradicional e pré-fabricação total. Quantificando as vantagens da utilização da pré-fabricação em relação à construção convencional, utilizando a grande extensão da tecnologia de modelação de informação de construção (BIM), e os benefícios potenciais da utilização de um motor de programação inteligente para a análise comparativa 4D.The purpose of this research is to encourage higher productivity in the AEC industry by promoting a comparative analysis between very different construction approaches: traditional construction versus total prefabrication towards industrialization. The construction of a building whose project was carried out in BIM, totally oriented towards industrialization, presents itself as an opportunity for a comprehensive 4D analysis that compares traditional and industrialized solutions (onsite and offsite construction approaches) in terms of time and needed resources. The research concentrates on proposing a BIM-based framework to quantify the 4D analysis of this practical case study. It is focused on assessing the impacts on the planning of the execution stage, both off-site and on-site, and on exposing the detailed impacts of the industrialized solution when compared to a traditional one. The effective construction of the building in the study began in 2022. Sustainability and circularity are implied. The suggested case study is a hotel in Guimarães that has lately received media attention due to its innovative pre-fabrication methodology. Prefabricated modules are used to construct the building. This approach will be evaluated and compared to existing traditional alternatives. Considering this, a theoretical framework was developed by proposing a framework based on a 4D BIM comparative analysis for both approaches of construction: traditional construction and total prefabrication. Quantifying the advantages of using prefabrication over conventional construction, By using the large extent of building information modelling (BIM) technology, and the potential benefits of using an intelligent schedule engine for the 4D comparative analysis.Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree Programme – ERASMUS