The potential of additive manufacturing in the smart factory industrial 4.0: A review

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing has introduced a novel production method in design, manufacturing, and distribution to end-users. This technology has provided great freedom in design for creating complex components, highly customizable products, and efficient waste minimization. The last industrial revolution, namely industry 4.0, employs the integration of smart manufacturing systems and developed information technologies. Accordingly, AM plays a principal role in industry 4.0 thanks to numerous benefits, such as time and material saving, rapid prototyping, high efficiency, and decentralized production methods. This review paper is to organize a comprehensive study on AM technology and present the latest achievements and industrial applications. Besides that, this paper investigates the sustainability dimensions of the AM process and the added values in economic, social, and environment sections. Finally, the paper concludes by pointing out the future trend of AM in technology, applications, and materials aspects that have the potential to come up with new ideas for the future of AM explorations

On Integrating Student Empirical Software Engineering Studies with Research and Teaching Goals

Background: Many empirical software engineering studies use students as subjects and are conducted as part of university courses. Aim: We aim at reporting our experiences with using guidelines for integrating empirical studies with our research and teaching goals. Method: We document our experience from conducting three studies with graduate students in two software architecture courses. Results: Our results show some problems that we faced when following the guidelines and deviations we made from the original guidelines. Conclusions: Based on our results we propose recommendations for empirical software engineering studies that are integrated in university courses.

NASA SBIR abstracts of 1991 phase 1 projects

The objectives of 301 projects placed under contract by the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are described. These projects were selected competitively from among proposals submitted to NASA in response to the 1991 SBIR Program Solicitation. The basic document consists of edited, non-proprietary abstracts of the winning proposals submitted by small businesses. The abstracts are presented under the 15 technical topics within which Phase 1 proposals were solicited. Each project was assigned a sequential identifying number from 001 to 301, in order of its appearance in the body of the report. Appendixes to provide additional information about the SBIR program and permit cross-reference of the 1991 Phase 1 projects by company name, location by state, principal investigator, NASA Field Center responsible for management of each project, and NASA contract number are included

A requirements engineering framework for integrated systems development for the construction industry

Computer Integrated Construction (CIC) systems are computer environments through which collaborative working can be undertaken. Although many CIC systems have been developed to demonstrate the communication and collaboration within the construction projects, the uptake of CICs by the industry is still inadequate. This is mainly due to the fact that research methodologies of the CIC development projects are incomplete to bridge the technology transfer gap. Therefore, defining comprehensive methodologies for the development of these systems and their effective implementation on real construction projects is vital. Requirements Engineering (RE) can contribute to the effective uptake of these systems because it drives the systems development for the targeted audience. This paper proposes a requirements engineering approach for industry driven CIC systems development. While some CIC systems are investigated to build a broad and deep contextual knowledge in the area, the EU funded research project, DIVERCITY (Distributed Virtual Workspace for Enhancing Communication within the Construction Industry), is analysed as the main case study project because its requirements engineering approach has the potential to determine a framework for the adaptation of requirements engineering in order to contribute towards the uptake of CIC systems

RAMSSES – Realisation and Demonstration of Advanced Material Solutions for Sustainable and Efficient Ships

The RAMSSES project aims to show the benefits of advanced materials in maritime applications by implementing 13 market driven demo cases. The entire process chain and a wide range of applications (structural components, equipment, ship integration, repair) are covered. Installation and assessment of demonstrators on shore or on board will reveal the high technology readiness. The test program, based on risk assessment and supervised by rule making bodies, targets on ensuring relevance for commercial approval beyond the project. While demonstrators will support commercialisation of specific products, RAMSSES is also engaged strategically in enabling more rapid and agile material innovation in the European Maritime industry. The first key element is a knowledge repository for test data and best practice procedures, allowing reuse of such information for similar future cases. Secondly, standardised risk scenarios will help easing approval processes in the future, and finally a new materials innovation platform will enhance continuous technology transfer within the maritime sector and beyond

Towards a Light-weight Enterprise Architecture Approach for Building Transformational Preparedness

The need for business agility in order to cope with the increasing rate of changes brought by disruptive technologies and paradigms is more stringent than ever; unfortunately however, it also encounters many hurdles. To start with, typical strategic transformation planning featuring successive specify-design-implement phases is no longer suitable, as the resulting sequentially staged processes can no longer catch up with the changes in internal structure and external environment. The blurring of top organisational role boundaries in regards to the allocation of management and architecture skillsets is another issue significantly affecting agility. Finally, the lack of structure and integration of business transformation and architecting methodologies offered by various disciplines and vendors affects the ability to use them for specific endeavours. This paper elaborates on and illustrates the above-mentioned problems through a case study and proposes a way to solve them in a holistic, lifecycle-aware manner using a ‘lightweight’ architectural framework approach