Creative trans-border cooperation in the field of operations research and sustainable development in civil engineering

The paper presents an overview of the history and achievements of trans-border cooperation in the Lithuania-Germany-Poland triangle in planning instruments in Construction Management, decision-making theory, application of Operational Research, and Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods in Civil Engineering and sustainable development. The cooperation and results of the Colloquiums with 35 years of tradition, their multidimensional nature is underlined. The research instruments, methods, studied phenomena are reviewed and characteristic applications in engineering and economics are presented. The knowledge and combined efforts of three academic centers have created a synergy which set in motion many original methods and spectacular implementations. The Colloquium calendar and the evolution of organizational forms are presented along with the inclusion of the informal EURO Working Group on Operations Research in Sustainable Development and Civil Engineering

Proposal of a Methodology for the Continuous Improvement of Product-Service Development Process

This thesis aims to widen a Methodology, based on the principles and techniques of Lean Thinking, which allows Companies to improve their Product Development processes into a methodology that also improves the service development process. It tries to give an answer to the Companies need to review and optimize their Product-Service development processes affected by constantly changing markets and increasingly complex customers. The Methodology proposal is a result of the work of previous colleagues that was originated from the Lean Thinking techniques and their application in Product Development field. Afterwards, it has been adapted and tested by carrying on some “on the field” experiences with business subjects who have provided key knowledge to its refinement. The Methodology seeks at continuous improvement of the Product-Service Development processes which are consonant with the context in which Companies operate. This means that when a corrective action is carried out it cannot be exclude from future analysis because maybe in those future analysis the change is a waste. This also fits with the Lean perspective that put the constant research for perfection as one of its pillar. For the same reason it is a recursive Methodology compound by five steps, that go from the systematic identification of waste in PSD process, to their removal, until the introduction of targeted corrective actions. Those steps are: 1. Waste Identification & Evaluation. The starting point to develop this phase is an existing list of waste likely to be found in NPSD processes and a Priority Index (PI) to evaluate them. This phase is the one widened so as to include and include the service into the product development analysis. 2. Waste Prioritization. On the basis of the PI, in this phase wastes are put in a priority order and the first to be removed are chosen. Beside this, in association to them also potential detection ways and corrective actions are defined. 3. Sub process identification. It consists in the determination of the sub process affected by the main wastes and so to be improved. 4. Sub process analysis. This phase deals with the sub process analysis to find the critical and eliminate them. Also in this phase several alternative methods have been proposed, with a deepening on Value Stream Analysis and Map. 5. Corrective Actions. In this phase, the correctives actions to be implemented are chosen according to the effort required and the effect that they produce, PICK matrix as a tool is suggested. 2 To test the previous steps listed and also to acquire some feedback about the rightness of the methodology, two cases were conducted. On the one hand, the 5 steps were applied in the car sharing company Car2go which is a very clear example of a product-service. On the other hand, the Politecnico di Milano involvement in Manutelligence consortium gave the opportunity to be in touch with Fundació CIM (based in Barcelona) which manages several Ateneus of Digital Fabrication. These ADFs are places where everyone can go with an idea and transform it into a prototype. Thanks to this collaboration, it was provided another case study with different level of servitization (compared to de Car2go one) on which to perform the first full application of the Methodology. As a result, these activities have highlighted the forces of the Methodology that are its intuitiveness, short implementation time and easy to implement by people without experience, after a brief introduction to Lean Thinking and its techniques. At the same time, several limits have been found and accepted as starting points for future researches and insights. The thesis is structured in the following Chapters: Chapter 1, Product-Service Systems: This is the opening Chapter, it provides an overview of the context in which the work has been developed, focusing in particular on the current importance of Product-Service Systems. In addition, it explains the objectives and the structure of the thesis are stated. Chapter 2, Tools and Methodologies for LPSD process: State of the Art: This Chapter is a deep analysis of literature on Lean, by exploring its principles and technique and it shows the state of the art as regards to their application in Product-Service Development context. Chapter 3, The proposed methodology: In this Chapter is shown the initial methodology in which is based the new one and a guide to its implementation is provided. Then, the additions to it are explained and the process to get to them is detailed. Chapter 4, Business Case Application: It exposes the business cases of Car2go and ADF giving complete examples of Methodology implementation. Chapter 5, Conclusions: This is the final Chapter where a summary of the methodology analysis is given and suggests future researches and investigations

The development of factory templates for the integrated virtual factory framework

Páginas numeradas: I-XVI, 17-123Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Major Automação). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

The development of factory templates for the integrated virtual factory framework

Páginas numeradas: I-XVI, 17-123Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores (Major Automação). Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Digital technology for quality management in construction:A review and future research directions

Significant developments in digital technologies can potentially provide managers and engineers with the ability to improve the quality of the construction industry. Acknowledging the current and future use of digital technologies in construction quality management (CQM), we address the following research question: What developments in digital technologies can be used to improve quality in the construction industry? In addressing this research question, a systematic review approach is used to examine the studies that have been used for the management of quality in the construction industry. This review indicates that there is a need for digital technology-based quality management to be: (1) enhance defect management for concealed work, (2) enhance pre-construction defects prevention as well as post-completion product function testing, and (3) research on construction compliance inspection as a direction. We suggest that future research focus on quality culture development, advanced data analytics, and behavioral quality assessment

The Fuzzy Project Scheduling Problem with Minimal Generalized Precedence Relations

In scheduling, estimations are affected by the imprecision of limited information on future events, and the reduction in the number and level of detail of activities. Overlapping of processes and activities requires the study of their continuity, along with analysis of the risks associated with imprecision. In this line, this paper proposes a fuzzy heuristic model for the Project Scheduling Problem with flows and minimal feeding, time and work Generalized Precedence Relations with a realistic approach to overlapping, in which the continuity of processes and activities is allowed in a discretionary way. This fuzzy algorithm handles the balance of process flows, and computes the optimal fragmentation of tasks, avoiding the interruption of the critical path and reverse criticality. 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Supplier Ranking System and Its Effect on the Reliability of the Supply Chain

Today, due to the growing use of social media and an increase in the number of A HITS with a solution in PageRank (Massimo, 2011) sharing their opinions globally, customers can review products and services in many novel ways. However, since most reviewers lack in-depth technical knowledge, the true picture concerning product quality remains unclear. Furthermore, although product defects may come from the supplier side, making it responsible for repair cost, it is ultimately the manufacturer whose name is damaged when such defects are revealed. In this context, we need to revisit the cost vs. quality equations. Observations of customer behavior towards brand name and reputation suggest that, contrary to the currently dominant model in production where manufacturers are expected to control only Tier 1 supplier and make it responsible for all higher tiers, manufacturers should also have a better hold on the entire supply chain. Said differently, while the current system considers all parts in Tier 1 as equally important, it underestimates the importance of the impact of each piece on the final product. Another flaw of the current system is that, by commonizing the pieces in several different products, such as different care models of the same manufacturer to reduce the cost, only the supplier of the most common parts will be considered essential and thus get the most attention during quality control. To address the aforementioned concerns, in the present study, we created a parts/supplier ranking algorithm and implemented it into our supply chain system. Upon ranking all suppliers and parts, we calculated the minimum number of the elements, from Tier 1 to Tier 4, that have to be checked in our supply chain. In doing so, we prioritized keeping the cost as low as possible with most inferior possible defects