Agility and Industry 4.0 implementation strategy in a Quebec manufacturing SME

The emergence of new information technologies, market globalization, climate change, labor shortages, and changing consumer habits have led to dynamic demand and the need for customized mass production systems. This has forced companies, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), to rethink their product design, production, and marketing models to remain competitive by increasing their agility in the face of growing and changing demand. It becomes relevant to investigate how to move efficiently towards customized mass production in an Industry 4.0 (I4.0) environment. The objective of this research is to develop a strategy for implementing I4.0 in manufacturing SME, based on lean, agility, and intelligent modular product design. A literature review made it possible to target the following performance measures: reducing inventory, minimizing makespan, and reducing time to consumer (reaction time). A case study was conducted in an SME in the agri-food sector to validate the proposed strategy. Inventory levels were reduced by more than 70% and time was cut by almost 65%

Strategy using modularity tools to operationalize mass customization in manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises

Abstract With the rise of technology, increasing competitiveness, market globalization and the fourth industrial revolution, companies are forced to rethink the way they do business to create or maintain a competitive advantage. Consumers, who are increasingly informed, demanding and concerned about sustainable development, are forcing companies to adapt to their needs to respond adequately to personalized demand. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector must adjust to this new context. The move towards mass customization is one way of meeting customer requirements. However, no strategy for making this shift currently exists in the literature. The aim of this article is to present a strategy for operationalizing mass customization using modular tools. Action research is used to test the proposed strategy. The paper proposes 4 transformation axes to migrate towards mass customization: Modular product design, Modular process design, Technology use, Collaboration network. This article also highlights the need to tackle modular product design first to migrate to mass customization, by proposing a 3-stage strategy: modular product architecture, standardization of interfaces and definition of configuration rules. A case study is used to test the proposed strategy

Cellular manufacturing system evolution from group technology to a reconfigurable manufacturing system: A case study of a dynamic cellular manufacturing system (DCMS) in an electromechanical assembly industry

This chapter defines some characteristics of the Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS), and explores the most important features from the literature and the practices that can be used to develop a Dynamic Cellular Manufacturing System (DCMS). The possibility of system reconfiguration makes those new systems the most efficient in the presence of a dynamic environment. The main objective of this study is to assist decision makers and/or designers in choosing one of the most appropriate layouts using the DCMS. This task becomes more difficult because it is usually associated with many other decisions like production planning and resource allocation. By the end of this chapter, a case study related to the implementation of a DCMS in the electromechanical assembly industry will be presented. © 2018 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved

Étude du potentiel de l’Industrie 4.0 quant à la transformation de la PME manufacturière québécoise : une analyse littéraire et expérimentale = Study of the potential of Industry 4.0 for the transformation of the Quebec manufacturing SME: A literary and experimental analysis

Le besoin des entreprises de se démarquer sur le marché mondial devient de plus en plus important avec le manque croissant de main d’oeuvre et la croissance de la concurrence accentuée par l’arrivée des technologies numériques dans l’environnement industriel, logistique et commercial. Les entreprises de toute taille tendent vers l’Industrie 4.0. Les PME manufacturières québécoises semblent toutefois en retard quant à la transformation numérique de leur organisation et de leurs processus. Ce projet de recherche a pour objectif de présenter l’état des PME manufacturières québécoises au niveau du numérique et d’identifier une méthode pertinente et les outils les plus appropriés pour encourager les PME manufacturières québécoises à évoluer efficacement vers un environnement 4.0. Une analyse de la revue de littérature et d’expériences en terrain québécois montrent que malgré le manque de ressources, la flexibilité, l’agilité et la proximité avec les clients représentent les caractéristiques principales des PME manufacturières québécoises. L’utilisation d’outils qui accélèrent la prise de décisions efficace et qui améliorent la relation avec les clients semblent donc à privilégier dans ce type d’environnement

Implementation of Industry 4.0 principles and tools: Simulation and case study in a manufacturing SME

Small and medium enterprises (SME) face various challenges in order to remain competitive in a global market. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is increasingly presented as the new paradigm for improving productivity, ensuring economic growth, and guaranteeing the sustainability of manufacturing companies. However, SMEs are ill equipped and lack resources to undertake this digital shift. This paper presents the digital shift process of an SME in a personalized mass production context. Our work provides a better understanding of the interaction between Lean and I4.0. It contributes to the development of Lean 4.0 implementation strategies that are better adapted to manufacturing SMEs in a personalized mass production context. We also demonstrate the usefulness of simulation as a decision-making assistance tool when implementing I4.0. A practical case is documented to fill a gap in the scientific literature identified by several researchers

Recommended isolated-line profile for representing high-resolution spectroscopic transitions (IUPAC Technical Report)

The report of an IUPAC Task Group, formed in 2011 on "Intensities and line shapes in high-resolution spectra of water isotopologues from experiment and theory" (Project No. 2011-022-2-100), on line profiles of isolated high-resolution rotational-vibrational transitions perturbed by neutral gas-phase molecules is presented. The well-documented inadequacies of the Voigt profile (VP), used almost universally by databases and radiative-transfer codes, to represent pressure effects and Doppler broadening in isolated vibrational-rotational and pure rotational transitions of the water molecule have resulted in the development of a variety of alternative line-profile models. These models capture more of the physics of the influence of pressure on line shapes but, in general, at the price of greater complexity. The Task Group recommends that the partially Correlated quadratic-Speed-Dependent Hard-Collision profile should be adopted as the appropriate model for high-resolution spectroscopy. For simplicity this should be called the Hartmann--Tran profile (HTP). The HTP is sophisticated enough to capture the various collisional contributions to the isolated line shape, can be computed in a straightforward and rapid manner, and reduces to simpler profiles, including the Voigt profile, under certain simplifying assumptions.Comment: Accepted for publication in Pure and Applied Chemistr

Recommended Isolated-Line Profile for Representing High-Resolution Spectroscopic Transitions (IUPAC Technical Report)

The report of an IUPAC Task Group, formed in 2011 on Intensities and line shapes in high-resolution spectra of water isotopologues from experiment and theory (Project No. 2011-022-2-100), on line profiles of isolated high-resolution rotational-vibrational transitions perturbed by neutral gas-phase molecules is presented. The well-documented inadequacies of the Voigt profile (VP), used almost universally by databases and radiative-transfer codes, to represent pressure effects and Doppler broadening in isolated vibrational-rotational and pure rotational transitions of the water molecule have resulted in the development of a variety alternative line-profile models. These models capture more of the physics of the influence of pressure on line shapes but, in general, at the price of greater complexity. The Task Group recommends that the partially Correlated quadratic-Speed-Dependent Hard-Collision profile (pCqSD-HCP) should be adopted as the appropriate model for high-resolution spectroscopy. For simplicity this should be called the Hartmann-Tran profile (HTP). The HTP is sophisticated enough to capture the various collisional contributions to the isolated line shape, can be computed in a straightforward and rapid manner, and reduces to simpler profiles, including the Voigt profile, under certain simplifying assumptions. © 2014 IUPAC & De Gruyte

IUPAC Critical Evaluation of the Rotational-Vibrational Spectra of Water Vapor, Part III: Energy Levels and Transition Wavenumbers for H216O

This is the third of a series of articles reporting critically evaluated rotational-vibrational line positions, transition intensities, and energy levels, with associated critically reviewed labels and uncertainties, for all the main isotopologues of water. This paper presents experimental line positions, experimental-quality energy levels, and validated labels for rotational-vibrational transitions of the most abundant isotopologue of water, H216O. The latest version of the MARVEL (Measured Active Rotational-Vibrational Energy Levels) line-inversion procedure is used to determine the rovibrational energy levels of the electronic ground state of H216O from experimentally measured lines, together with their self-consistent uncertainties, for the spectral region up to the first dissociation limit. The spectroscopic network of H216O contains two components, an ortho (o) and a para (p) one. For o-H216O and p-H216O, experimentally measured, assigned, and labeled transitions were analyzed from more than 100 sources. The measured lines come from one-photon spectra recorded at room temperature in absorption, from hot samples with temperatures up to 3000K recorded in emission, and from multiresonance excitation spectra which sample levels up to dissociation. The total number of transitions considered is 184667 of which 182156 are validated: 68027 between para states and 114129 ortho ones. These transitions give rise to 18486 validated energy levels, of which 10446 and 8040 belong to o-H216O and p-H216O, respectively. The energy levels, including their labeling with approximate normal-mode and rigid-rotor quantum numbers, have been checked against ones determined from accurate variational nuclear motion computations employing exact kinetic energy operators as well as against previous compilations of energy levels. The extensive list of MARVEL lines and levels obtained are deposited in the supplementary data of this paper, as well as in a distributed information system applied to water, W@DIS, where they can easily be retrieved

IUPAC Critical Evaluation of the Rotational-Vibrational Spectra of Water Vapor, Part III: Energy Levels and Transition Wavenumbers for H216O

This is the third of a series of articles reporting critically evaluated rotational-vibrational line positions, transition intensities, and energy levels, with associated critically reviewed labels and uncertainties, for all the main isotopologues of water. This paper presents experimental line positions, experimental-quality energy levels, and validated labels for rotational-vibrational transitions of the most abundant isotopologue of water, H216O. The latest version of the MARVEL (Measured Active Rotational-Vibrational Energy Levels) line-inversion procedure is used to determine the rovibrational energy levels of the electronic ground state of H216O from experimentally measured lines, together with their self-consistent uncertainties, for the spectral region up to the first dissociation limit. The spectroscopic network of H216O contains two components, an ortho (o) and a para (p) one. For o-H216O and p-H216O, experimentally measured, assigned, and labeled transitions were analyzed from more than 100 sources. The measured lines come from one-photon spectra recorded at room temperature in absorption, from hot samples with temperatures up to 3000K recorded in emission, and from multiresonance excitation spectra which sample levels up to dissociation. The total number of transitions considered is 184667 of which 182156 are validated: 68027 between para states and 114129 ortho ones. These transitions give rise to 18486 validated energy levels, of which 10446 and 8040 belong to o-H216O and p-H216O, respectively. The energy levels, including their labeling with approximate normal-mode and rigid-rotor quantum numbers, have been checked against ones determined from accurate variational nuclear motion computations employing exact kinetic energy operators as well as against previous compilations of energy levels. The extensive list of MARVEL lines and levels obtained are deposited in the supplementary data of this paper, as well as in a distributed information system applied to water, W@DIS, where they can easily be retrieved