Design and Planning of Manufacturing Networks for Mass Customisation and Personalisation: Challenges and Outlook

AbstractManufacturers and service providers are called to design, plan and operate globalized manufacturing networks, addressing to challenges such as ever-decreasing lifecycles and increased product complexity. These factors, caused primarily by mass customisation and demand volatility, generate a number of issues related to the design and planning of manufacturing systems and networks, which are not holistically tackled in industrial and academic practices. The mapping of production performance requirements to process and production planning requires automated closed-loop control systems, which current systems fail to deliver. Technology-based business approaches are an enabler for increased enterprise performance. Towards that end, the issues discussed in this paper focus on challenges in the design and planning of manufacturing networks in a mass customization and personalization landscape. The development of methods and tools for supporting the dynamic configuration and optimal routing of manufacturing networks and facilities under cost, time, complexity and environmental constraints to support product-service personalization are promoted

Business Case and Technology Analysis for 5G Low Latency Applications

A large number of new consumer and industrial applications are likely to change the classic operator's business models and provide a wide range of new markets to enter. This article analyses the most relevant 5G use cases that require ultra-low latency, from both technical and business perspectives. Low latency services pose challenging requirements to the network, and to fulfill them operators need to invest in costly changes in their network. In this sense, it is not clear whether such investments are going to be amortized with these new business models. In light of this, specific applications and requirements are described and the potential market benefits for operators are analysed. Conclusions show that operators have clear opportunities to add value and position themselves strongly with the increasing number of services to be provided by 5G.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure

From Industry 4.0 to Society 5.0: Digital manufacturing technologies and the role of workers

New enabling technologies are shaping the transformation of production activities, characterised by growing digitization and inter-connectivity. A transformed industry has a transformative impact on society as well. From Industry 4.0 to society 5.0, the path described in this thesis accentuates a clear change from mass automation to the process of enhancing the capabilities of human workers. However, the diffusion of new technologies is very uneven, and firms display different adoption behaviours. By using data provided by Istat on a large representative sample of Italian firms, the patterns and determinants of new digital technology adoption are assessed. Furthermore, it is provided econometric evidence on the positive effects of human capital and training, showing heterogeneous results between large and small and medium-size firms

Smart Systems Implementation in UK Food Manufacturing Companies:A Sustainability Perspective

The UK food industry faces significant challenges to remain sustainable. With major challenges, such as Brexit, on the horizon, companies can no longer rely on a low labour cost workforce to maintain low production costs and achieve economic sustainability. Smart Systems (SS) is being seen as an approach towards achieving significant improvements in both economic and environmental sustainability. However, there is little evidence to indicate whether UK food companies are prepared for the implementation of such systems. The purpose of this research is to explore the applicability of Smart Systems in UK food manufacturing companies, and to identify the key priority areas and improvement levers for the implementation of such systems. A triangulated primary research approach is adopted that includes a questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and visits to 32 food manufacturing companies in the UK. The questionnaire and interviews are guided by a unique measuring instrument that the authors developed that focusses upon SS technologies and systems. This paper makes an original contribution in that it is one of the few academic studies to explore the implementation of SS in the industry, and provides a new perspective on the key drivers and inhibitors of its implementation. The findings suggest that the current turbulence in the industry could be bringing food companies closer to the adoption of such systems; hence, it is a good time to define and develop the optimum SS implementation strategy

Implications of Virtual Reality on Environmental Sustainability in Manufacturing Industry: A Case Study

Research on Virtual Reality (VR) in manufacturing is rarely driven by environmental sustainability. This paper explores the feasibility of developing VR technologies to reduce environmental impact, drawing from a case study in an automotive company. We developed a VR demo to support the communication for design review between the technology centre in Sweden and the manufacturing site in China, thus reducing travel frequencies. This reduction was verified through user experience and feedback from focus group discussion and questionnaire. The results show a reduction of travel frequencies for design review, therefore contributing to environmental sustainability

SMEs and international business : finance, innovation, enterprise architecture and business education

This volume combines eleven chapters written by sixteen academics from six countries namely Austria, Germany, Hungary, India, Latvia, and Turkey. They are the outputs of the WIBF’s annual International Business Conferences.Acknowledgement -- Contents -- List of Contributors -- 1. SMEs and International Business: Introduction -- Emin Akçaoğlu and Rainer Wehner -- 2. Internationalization of Indian MSMEs with reference to the Post-Covid Era -- Sonia Mukherjee and Reeta Tomar -- 3. Innovation Centres in the Contribution of SMEs to the Economy -- Halit Targan Ünal, Elif Y. Başaran and Hakan Bektaş -- 4. Global Trade and Political Risk for SMEs: A Case Study on Supplier Selection -- A. Murat Köseoğlu -- 5. Internal Factors and Networking – Critical for Success of SMEs in International Markets: Practical Implications in a Reference SME -- Tanja Evrosimovska -- 6. The importance of performance and credit access of SMEs in their internationalization process -- Mehmet Civelek -- 7. Access to Finance of MSMEs in Turkey -- Halit Targan Ünal and Neslihan Özdemir -- 8. Export Credit Agencies and Small Firm Internationalization -- Emin Akçaoğlu and Rainer Wehner -- 9. Demonstration of the Impact of Enterprise Architecture Management in a Company by Using Frameworks -- Ronja Höpfner and Bjarne Erik Roscher -- 10. Teaching International Business via Labs: Business Skills Development by Virtual and Augmented Reality –the BBS FIMB Case Study -- Gábor Andrási, Katalin Csekő and László Budai -- 11. Designing a Performance Measurement System Based on a Simplified Strategy Process – An Action Research Case Study -- Björn Baltzer -- Editor

Integration of e-business strategy for multi-lifecycle production systems

Internet use has grown exponentially on the last few years becoming a global communication and business resource. Internet-based business, or e-Business will truly affect every sector of the economy in ways that today we can only imagine. The manufacturing sector will be at the forefront of this change. This doctoral dissertation provides a scientific framework and a set of novel decision support tools for evaluating, modeling, and optimizing the overall performance of e-Business integrated multi-lifecycle production systems. The characteristics of this framework include environmental lifecycle study, environmental performance metrics, hyper-network model of integrated e-supply chain networks, fuzzy multi-objective optimization method, discrete-event simulation approach, and scalable enterprise environmental management system design. The dissertation research reveals that integration of e-Business strategy into production systems can alter current industry practices along a pathway towards sustainability, enhancing resource productivity, improving cost efficiencies and reducing lifecycle environmental impacts. The following research challenges and scholarly accomplishments have been addressed in this dissertation: Identification and analysis of environmental impacts of e-Business. A pioneering environmental lifecycle study on the impact of e-Business is conducted, and fuzzy decision theory is further applied to evaluate e-Business scenarios in order to overcome data uncertainty and information gaps; Understanding, evaluation, and development of environmental performance metrics. Major environmental performance metrics are compared and evaluated. A universal target-based performance metric, developed jointly with a team of industry and university researchers, is evaluated, implemented, and utilized in the methodology framework; Generic framework of integrated e-supply chain network. The framework is based on the most recent research on large complex supply chain network model, but extended to integrate demanufacturers, recyclers, and resellers as supply chain partners. Moreover, The e-Business information network is modeled as a overlaid hypernetwork layer for the supply chain; Fuzzy multi-objective optimization theory and discrete-event simulation methods. The solution methods deal with overall system parameter trade-offs, partner selections, and sustainable decision-making; Architecture design for scalable enterprise environmental management system. This novel system is designed and deployed using knowledge-based ontology theory, and XML techniques within an agent-based structure. The implementation model and system prototype are also provided. The new methodology and framework have the potential of being widely used in system analysis, design and implementation of e-Business enabled engineering systems

Application of digital twin technologies for the optimization of the energy consumption for a wood clattering panels manufacturer

This thesis describes applications of digital twin technology for the optimization of the energy consumption profile. It is based on the electricity consumption data from a Finnish wood clattering panels manufacturer – Puucomp. The data consists of hourly records for the duration of 36 months. Production simulation was used to identify the bottleneck process with the highest energy consumption, which is perforation. The Energy Value Stream Mapping (EVSM) method may be enriched with the digital twin (DT) models and electricity data, enabling energy flow tracking at the current time. It has been determined that the highest energy consumption occurs during the morning hours, with an overall increase in consumption during the cold period. The data has not shown significant dependency on humidity, wind speed, or air pressure. The base load has been considered with the floor heating and the gap required to fulfill is 60kWh. Proposed solutions are the utilization of renewable energy sources, technological improvement of the systems, and production rerouting. The most viable solution is the energy mix, which includes renewable energy sources used with the combination of energy storage systems (ESS) in the form of batteries. The first scenario consists of the utilization of rooftop space for the solar panels, which are expected to support floor heating, while ESS is used to support the grid during peak hours. The second possible scenario includes rooftop leasing, geothermal heat pump utilization for the floor heating, and ESS as a support to the grid. Utilization of DT technologies has been seen as a viable approach to reduce energy consumption profile. However, the application of DT is limited by the availability of the data