hospital factory for manufacturing customised patient specific 3d anatomo functional models and prostheses

The fabrication of personalised prostheses tailored on each patient is one of the major needs and key issues for the future of several surgical specialties. Moreover, the production of patient-specific anatomo-functional models for preoperative planning is an important requirement in the presence of tailored prostheses, as also the surgical treatment must be optimised for each patient. The presence of a prototyping service inside the hospital would be a benefit for the clinical activity, as its location would allow a closer interaction with clinicians, leading to significant time and cost reductions. However, at present, these services are extremely rare worldwide. Based on these considerations, we investigate enhanced methods and technologies for implementing such a service. Moreover, we analyse the sustainability of the service and, thanks to the development of two prototypes, we show the feasibility of the production inside the hospital

Using Serious Game in Sustainable Global Manufacturing Education

Having multi-skilled engineers who can master the complexity associated to sustainable manufacturing is a strategic requirement for manufacturing companies wanting to compete in the global market. The current approaches to manufacturing education and training, both at university and at industry, need to be revisited to improve the learning effectiveness of manufacturing engineers. An important factor in the learning effectiveness is the delivery mechanism and recently Serious Game (SG) is a promising suitable supplementary method to enhance the learning experience in engineering schools and industry

Serious Games in Manufacturing Education: Evaluation of Learners’ Engagement

Presently industries need new generation of knowledge workers who are adept with the dynamics of manufacturing systems. Consequently, application of serious games as a promising learning method has emerged in manufacturing education. Serious game is aimed at learning rather than pure entertainment. Thus, evaluating the effectiveness of a serious game in improving the learning outcome is a paramount issue. In this paper, after reviewing efforts which have been made in serious games’ evaluation, the level of learners’ engagement that played the Set Based Concurrent Engineering (SBCE) game is examined. The game is designed at Politecnico di Milano, Italy to bring a hand-on experience on lean product development for practitioners and academia. The study is based on one company case in Italy. The results show that a high level of engagement among learners is exhibited based on the evaluation framework adopted

Status and Trends of Serious Game Application in Engineering and Manufacturing Education

The application of serious game arising from their capability to present learning and entertainment simultaneously has been emerging as a popular learning tool in various domains, although they have not reached to the highest potential yet at least in the manufacturing and engineering domain. One of the main reasons could be an extensive fragmentation among stakeholders including designers, users, teachers, students, players and facilitators. GaLA aims to establish a virtual research center in a scientific way where all research and activities on serious games are gathered, organized, integrated and harmonized to be promoted at the international level. Engineering and manufacturing is one of the special interest groups in GaLA. In this paper the result of our efforts are described and the planned practices aiming to diffuse the understanding of how to design serious games well and also to produce the maximum benefit of serious games’ application in engineering and manufacturing is discussed

A Logistics Management Game for Actors of a Geographically Distributed Supply Chain

Management games are a common method for training employees in production and logistics, both in expert knowledge and in soft skills. Typically, all participants are located in one room while playing the game, which allows for a face-to-face interaction among the participants and between the participants and the trainer. This facilitates the typical learning loop of a management game: play, analyze and improve. For companies with supply chains covering faraway geographical locations and different time zones, the approach of having a management game seminar with all relevant participants (actors from different locations of the supply chain) in one room leads to high costs due to traveling and lost time for traveling. Multiplayer computer games played through the Internet could enable companies to conduct management games with actors of geographically distributed supply chains without spending money and time on travelling. The paper conceptually compares board games, multiplayer computer games played distributed over the internet and multiplayer VR games. Furthermore, the paper describes a prototype implementation of a computer game on supply chain management suitable for actors of a geographically distributed supply chain

Serious games in mechanical engineering education

The aim of this paper is to explore the possibilities and limits of using serious computer games in mechanical engineering education. Mechanical engineering has long struggled around the world due to a shortage of students, so it is necessary to constantly look for opportunities to make learning more attractive. Contemporary students are equipped with sufficient competences and technical equipment for effective learning in the virtual environment of computer games, so a whole range of sub-projects in the field of gaming education are being carried out throughout the world. A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment, most likely for education. A reference serious game called ‘Manager Simulator’ was developed over three years. The technical means of development were verified through this. In addition, another serious game, ‘Workshop’, was developed, that guides the student through a virtual production process. The student has to produce machine parts according to the specified production processes and blueprints. Machines and tools are available for the purpose. Some of the machine equipment have commentary within the interactive tutorial. The student then tries their own production. The game responds to their activities and actions (for example, if the product is forgotten when turning or milling, then the part may be rendered unusable, etc.)

Digitales Unternehmen im Gesundheitswesen – Harmonisierung von Markt- und Technologieprioritäten

Einhergehend mit der Digitalisierung des Gesundheitswesens stehen die involvierten Akteure und Institutionen vor der Herausforderung, diesem Handlungsimperativ unternehmerisch zu begegnen. Waren es in der Vergangenheit häufig pfadbestätigende Innovationen, die im Gesundheitswesen zu einer Verstetigung des kuratorischen Versorgungsparadigmas geführt haben, so ist für die Zukunft ein disruptiver Pfadbruch durch digitales Unternehmertum zu erwarten. Eine grundsolide Bestandsverwaltung führt im dynamischen Gesundheitswesen ebenso zu Wettbewerbsnachnachteilen wie die akribische Befolgung „erfolgsbewährter“ Managementroutinen. Vielmehr gefragt sind innovative Formen eines digitalen Unternehmertums, das Markt- und Technologieprioritäten vorteilschaffend synchronisiert. Therapien und Technologien sind in dieser Diktion als Mittel zum Zweck einer patientenzentrierten Nutzenstiftung zu sehen. Umgekehrt aber fehlt es Markt und Nachfragern oft am Urteilsvermögen und Vorstellungskraft, um unternehmerische Gestaltungspotenziale im Gesundheitswesen zu antizipieren