Technologies to develop technology: the impact of new technologies on the organisation of the innovation process.

Companies are under increasing pressure to develop new product more effectively and efficiently. In order to meet this challenge, the organisation of the new product development process has received ample attention both in the academic literature and in the practitioner literature. As a consequence, a myriad of methods to design new products has been developed. These methods aim at facilitating concurrent product design and engineering. However, it is only recently, through the advent of families of new design technologies, that concurrency really becomes possible. In this paper, research on the impact of new design technologies on the product development process is reported and discussed. It is demonstrated that these technologies can have a significant impact on the organisation of innovation processes.Processes;

Emergent Behaviors in a Resilient Logistics Supply Chain

This PhD dissertation addresses vulnerabilities in logistics supply chains, such as disruptions from pandemics, natural disasters, and geopolitical tensions. It underscores the complexity of supply chains, likening them to socio-technical systems where resilience is key for managing unexpected events and thriving amidst adversity. The focus is on leveraging smart business objects—exemplified by “smart pallets” with sensing and computational capabilities—to augment real-time decision-making and resilience in supply chains. When strategically positioned within the supply network, these smart pallets can provide key insights into the movement of goods, enabling a rapid response to disruptions through real-time monitoring and predictive analytics. The dissertation investigates centralized, decentralized, and hybrid approaches to decision-making within these networks. Centralized methods ensure uniformity but may neglect local specifics, while decentralized ones offer adaptability at the risk of inconsistency. A hybrid model seeks to balance these extremes, combining broad guidelines with local autonomy for optimal resilience. This research aims to explore how such smart objects can anticipate and react to emergent behaviors, thereby augmenting supply chain resilience beyond mere performance indicators to actively managing and adapting to disruptions. Through various chapters, the dissertation offers an exploration, from designing resilient architectures and evaluating business rules in real-time to mining these rules from data and adapting them to evolving circumstances. Overall, this work presents a nuanced view of resilience in supply chains, emphasizing the adaptability of business rules, the importance of technological evolution alongside organizational practices, and the potential of integrating novel techniques such as process mining with multi-agent systems for better decision-making and operational efficiency

A comparison of processing techniques for producing prototype injection moulding inserts.

This project involves the investigation of processing techniques for producing low-cost moulding inserts used in the particulate injection moulding (PIM) process. Prototype moulds were made from both additive and subtractive processes as well as a combination of the two. The general motivation for this was to reduce the entry cost of users when considering PIM. PIM cavity inserts were first made by conventional machining from a polymer block using the pocket NC desktop mill. PIM cavity inserts were also made by fused filament deposition modelling using the Tiertime UP plus 3D printer. The injection moulding trials manifested in surface finish and part removal defects. The feedstock was a titanium metal blend which is brittle in comparison to commodity polymers. That in combination with the mesoscale features, small cross-sections and complex geometries were considered the main problems. For both processing methods, fixes were identified and made to test the theory. These consisted of a blended approach that saw a combination of both the additive and subtractive processes being used. The parts produced from the three processing methods are investigated and their respective merits and issues are discussed

Digital transformation of peatland eco-innovations (‘Paludiculture’): Enabling a paradigm shift towards the real-time sustainable production of ‘green-friendly’ products and services

The world is heading in the wrong direction on carbon emissions where we are not on track to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C; Ireland is among the countries where overall emissions have continued to rise. The development of wettable peatland products and services (termed 'Paludiculture') present significant opportunities for enabling a transition away from peat-harvesting (fossil fuels) to developing 'green' eco-innovations. However, this must be balanced with sustainable carbon sequestration and environmental protection. This complex transition from 'brown to green' must be met in real time by enabling digital technologies across the full value chain. This will potentially necessitate creation of new green-business models with the potential to support disruptive innovation. This timely paper describes digital transformation of paludiculture-based eco-innovation that will potentially lead to a paradigm shift towards using smart digital technologies to address efficiency of products and services along with future-proofing for climate change. Digital transform of paludiculture also aligns with the 'Industry 5.0 -a human-centric solution'. However, companies supporting peatland innovation may lack necessary standards, data-sharing or capabilities that can also affect viable business model propositions that can jeopardize economic, political and social sustainability. Digital solutions may reduce costs, increase productivity, improve produce develop, and achieve faster time to market for paludiculture. Digitisation also enables information systems to be open, interoperable, and user-friendly. This constitutes the first study to describe the digital transformation of paludiculture, both vertically and horizontally, in order to inform sustainability that includes process automation via AI, machine learning, IoT-Cloud informed sensors and robotics, virtual and augmented reality, and blockchain for cyber-physical systems. Thus, the aim of this paper is to describe the applicability of digital transformation to actualize the benefits and opportunities of paludiculture activities and enterprises in the Irish midlands with a global orientation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reducing risk in pre-production investigations through undergraduate engineering projects.

This poster is the culmination of final year Bachelor of Engineering Technology (B.Eng.Tech) student projects in 2017 and 2018. The B.Eng.Tech is a level seven qualification that aligns with the Sydney accord for a three-year engineering degree and hence is internationally benchmarked. The enabling mechanism of these projects is the industry connectivity that creates real-world projects and highlights the benefits of the investigation of process at the technologist level. The methodologies we use are basic and transparent, with enough depth of technical knowledge to ensure the industry partners gain from the collaboration process. The process we use minimizes the disconnect between the student and the industry supervisor while maintaining the academic freedom of the student and the commercial sensitivities of the supervisor. The general motivation for this approach is the reduction of the entry cost of the industry to enable consideration of new technologies and thereby reducing risk to core business and shareholder profits. The poster presents several images and interpretive dialogue to explain the positive and negative aspects of the student process

Design as a source of innovation to establish circular business models: how to prevent the single-use of plastic?

The current economy context moving from linear to circular models is establishing extraordinary parallelism between with design principles. Design solutions can support the transition of business to one which creates monetary and environmental benefits, increases resource efficiency, and maintains the value of products, materials, and waste. Recycling has been signaled as the main strategy for the plastics circular economy, but it presents itself as controversial since the industry’s demand is significantly lower than the recycled amount. The overall objective of this study is to explore when design principles, related to circular-economy concepts, become a source of innovation, in order to answer to the research question: “How can design be a source of innovation to transform businesses models accordingly to circular economy principles?”. The primary objective of this investigation is to develop our model resulting from reverse design and which is guided by the definition of a circular model strategy (System-Centered Circular-Design, SCCD) and the secondary objectives involve expanding the knowledge related to the various aspects of this model. A qualitative approach was chosen, to analyse the impact of the packaging design concepts along the definition of the business models and its circular loops. From the literature review ethnographic research is thus well suited to providing circular systems designers and companies decision-makers, with rich insights. WisePack design solution was selected to analyse the slowing and closing loop. The relevant insights to retain from the exploratory phase is that WisePack may have changed some of the assumptions made by the different stakeholders of the value chain. A SCCD toolbox is presented, to support designers identifying the requirements, constraints and opportunities of the circular approach. To prevent the single-use of plastic, scenarios were developed, taking into consideration users’ behaviour towards repair or reuse, taking-back products and their levels of engagement. Based on the results, it was concluded that the circular model strategy definition model (SCCD) is a valid tool. Confirming the primary and secondary objectives of this study. Showing that design principles, related to circular-economy concepts, become a source of innovation, and the SCCD model and toolbox, support the businesses models transformation.A relação entre o design e o aumento da competitividade económica pela criação de valor já tem sido abordada. Não obstante, no contexto atual em que a economia transita de modelos lineares para circulares está a estabelecer um paralelismo extraordinário entre os modelos económicos e os princípios de design. Novas soluções de design podem apoiar a transição de produtos, processos e modelos de negócios para um modelo que potencie a criação de benefícios monetários e ambientais,aumentea eficiência dos recursos pela minimização de desperdícios e recuperação de resíduos e, estimule de uma forma sustentável a cadeia de valor de produtos e serviços, matérias-primas e materiais. A reciclagem tem sido apontada como a principal estratégia para a economia circular do plástico, mas não deixa de ser um paradoxo, uma vez que a procura do setor é significativamente inferior à quantidade reciclada de acordo com a literatura analisada. O objetivo geral deste estudo, é explorar o modo como os princípios de design aplicados aosconceitos de economia circular fomentam a inovação e a transição de um modelo linear de gestão para um modelo económico regenerativo e restaurador. Donde, a seguinte pergunta de investigação: “Como pode o design ser uma fonte de inovação para transformar modelos de negócios de acordo com princípios da economia circular?”. O objetivo específico desta investigação é desenvolver o nosso modelo resultante do reverse design e que se pauta pela definição de uma estratégia de modelo circular (System-Centered Circular-Design, SCCD) e, em paralelo, aferir o conhecimento relacionado com as suas diferentes variáveis. Metodologicamente optou-se por uma abordagem qualitativa, para analisar o impacto dos conceitos de design de embalagens ao longo da definição dos modelos de negócio e dos seus ciclos. Neste âmbito, começou primeiramente, por se selecionar como caso de estudo, a solução de design WisePack para analisar o ciclo de desaceleração e fecho (slowing and closing loops). Esta solução de design para as embalagens plásticas, maximiza a funcionalidade do produto e do material, resultante do processo de design e manufatura.Apresentam-se os pressupostos dos modelos de negócios circulares WisePack, seguidos das entrevistas realizados às partes interessadas que orientam a análise do estudo de caso. O estudo de caso da WisePack descreve as questões mais importantes a ponderar na seleção dessas estratégias de design e define os modelos de negócios circulares num estágio inicial de design de produto e serviço. A natureza qualitativa da investigação visa obter informações de diferentes ângulos para compreender as restrições e os objetivos dos principais agentes envolvidos na cadeia de valor. Com base nos resultados das entrevistas semiestruturadas destacam-se quatro fatores com potencial de fomentar a transição de uma abordagem linear para uma circular, a saber: i) o design tem uma relação relevante com os seus modelos de negócio; ii) barreiras à implementação do design, podem impactar a geração de valor; iii) o design pode influenciar e alterar a apetência para a inovar; iv) a captura de valor do negócio está relacionada com a cultura de inovação nos modelos lineares de negócios em prática. De todo o modo, há a reter desta fase exploratória da investigação que a solução de design de embalagem apresentada durante as entrevistas - WisePack - pode ter alterado algumas das premissas feitas pelos representantes das diferentes partes interessadas da cadeia de valor. Posto isto, e com base na revisão da literatura e na experiência profissional, constatou-se que a investigação etnográfica revela ser adequada para fornecer aos designers de sistemas circulares e aos decisores das empresas, perceções valiosas. Em segundo lugar, e sob o intuito de testar o modelo System-Centered Circular-Design (SCCD) procurou-se compreender se o design pode condicionar os modelos de negócio das partes interessadas de toda a cadeia de valor. Daí, ser proposto um método com o objetivo de permitir que designers e gestores definam possíveis modelos de negócios circulares ajustados por princípios de design mais circulares - o SCCD. Expõe-se a ferramenta SCCD e da sua sistematização decorrem vários conceitos para a construção de novas e mais complexas colaborações na cadeia de valor. Essa relação no processo circular é definida em termos de atributos. Os atributos, características geométricas e funções são utilizados para facilitar a instrumentação deste processo inovador. Todas essas caracterizações de notação de SCCD parecem ser viáveis para a especificação do processo e fase de projeto. Este, suporta refinamento e abstração, tornando a estrutura SCCD fácil de entender e usar. As tabelas de diagnóstico do modelo, visam apoiar os designers na identificação dos requisitos, restrições e oportunidades da abordagem circular. No entanto, também orienta a comunicação entre o designer e os representantes de cada departamento envolvido no processo de transição do modelo de negócio linear para o circular. Com o objetivo de testar o modelo SCCD, cenários futuros foram desenvolvidos nesta investigação para poder ser estabelecida uma área de exploração e discussão sobre a adaptação do processo de design ao paradigma da economia circular. O foco tem por intuito facilitar a geração de ideias compartilhadas sobre a direção a tomar e as escolhas a fazer e promover soluções de design para a economia circular. Nesse sentido, é de extrema importância apresentar as tendências de contexto relevantes. Para o caso de prevenção do plástico de uso único, os cenários deverão levar em consideração as tendências futuras no comportamento dos utilizadores em relação ao reparo ou reutilização e devolução de produtos. Esses cenários também distinguem entre dois níveis diferentes de envolvimentodesses utilizadores. Como é expectável, algumas partes interessadas terão que atender a necessidades diferentes de outras em menos tempo, ou com diferentes níveis de risco e investimento. A finalizar, admite-se que novos testes piloto e trabalho de campo são recomendados para poderem ser validados os cenários futuros. Com efeito, e no decurso desta investigação, a complexidade da parceria e o investimento financeiro necessário, não possibilitaram a implementação do modelo. Daí que, se tenham construído duas narrativas a ilustrar os cenários futuros de prevenção à utilização do plástico de uso único, por meio do design. Por fim, e com base nos resultados, constata-se que o modelo de definição de estratégia de modelo circular (SCCD) constitui uma ferramenta válida na senda dos objetivos desta investigação. Pode assim concluir-se que, os princípios do design quando aplicados aos conceitos da economia circular, conseguem tornar-se fonte de inovação e, que o modelo SCCD consegue suportar a transição dos modelos de negócios

Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

Start-ups as technology life cycle indicator for the early stage of application: An analysis of the battery value chain

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Insights from battery research and development (R&D) need to be transferred into industrial application to create innovations and thus foster e.g. electro mobility. In terms of battery technology transfer, the early phase of application is particularly challenging due to the close intertwining between R&D and application. Therefore, the present study introduces start-ups as an additional indicator to capture the transition from science to industry within the technology life cycle. The findings show that despite highly dynamic R&D activities, technology transfer is only taking place on a very limited level. Surprisingly, start-ups focus on incremental improvements of existing technologies instead of introducing radical breakthrough-technologies. An analysis of the battery value chain reveals that opportunities for start-ups are rather located downstream in the value chain when integrating cells to battery systems and developing applications relying on innovative battery technologies. The findings contribute to the area of technology life cycle analysis explicitly using start-up companies as additional indicator for the critical transfer step from R&D to application. In a similar vein, technology forecasting literature, which is to date mainly focused on R&D, is expanded by a more application-centred perspective that allows identifying transfer opportunities along the technology value chain