372 research outputs found

    Aristotle on Reason, Practical Reason, and Living Well

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    Entropy Based versus Combinatorial Product Configuration Complexity in Mass Customized Manufacturing

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    AbstractIncreased product differentiation in the context of mass-customized production causes significant changes in complexity of manufacturing and assembly systems. There are several approaches to defining product variety induced complexity. Our focus in this paper is to describe procedure to calculate product configuration complexity based on the Boltzmann's entropy theory. Proposed approach is applied on a realistic example of mass customized manufacture of washing machines. Subsequently, we compare obtained measures with product configuration measures based on a combinatorial method. On the basis of the computational experiments, strong correlation between the two mentioned approaches has been observed. Finally, obtained findings are commented

    Harnessing the Power of Many: Extensible Toolkit for Scalable Ensemble Applications

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    Many scientific problems require multiple distinct computational tasks to be executed in order to achieve a desired solution. We introduce the Ensemble Toolkit (EnTK) to address the challenges of scale, diversity and reliability they pose. We describe the design and implementation of EnTK, characterize its performance and integrate it with two distinct exemplar use cases: seismic inversion and adaptive analog ensembles. We perform nine experiments, characterizing EnTK overheads, strong and weak scalability, and the performance of two use case implementations, at scale and on production infrastructures. We show how EnTK meets the following general requirements: (i) implementing dedicated abstractions to support the description and execution of ensemble applications; (ii) support for execution on heterogeneous computing infrastructures; (iii) efficient scalability up to O(10^4) tasks; and (iv) fault tolerance. We discuss novel computational capabilities that EnTK enables and the scientific advantages arising thereof. We propose EnTK as an important addition to the suite of tools in support of production scientific computing

    Intelligent collaborative decision-making models, methods, and tools

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    [Excerpt] Problems in engineering are usually hard to be modeled and solved through mathematical approaches, due to the complex nature of these problems and the need for specifying efective, efcient, and proper models to consider and approach reallife or empirical and emulated problem scenarios. Many proposals are constantly being put forward, based on diferent kind of models, specially referring to mathematical models, and formalization approaches, in the context of this journal, ranging from purely linear programming models, algebra or diferential equations based models to artifcial intelligent (AI) oriented models or based on agents or neural networks. These include a great number of AI tools, such as fuzzy theory, grey theory, neural network model, Genetic Algorithms, and expert systems. [...

    PROMOTION OF EMPLOYMENT AMONG YOUTH – REMARKS FOR NEXT INITIATIVES

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    In the paper authors presets experience of Czestochowa University of Technology within collaboration with Czestochowa Business Incubator (CBI). In 2010, chosen staff of Czestochowa UT have been working within brand new Phare project “Promotion of employment among youth”. Because relatively high unemployment level among young people in Czestochowa city and region, the project has been implemented in order to help graduates to find their strengths and to advise in planning individual job track, to extend their job skills adequate to present and foreseen market needs, prepare them to the job interviews, prepare and help in starting own business. Authors also describes CBI’s other initiatives undertaken to increase number of new business set up by young people, especially

    Robustness- and complexity-oriented characterization of supply networks’ structures

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    In the past period the efficiency aspects of production were emphasized, sometimes even overemphasized. As a result, the vulnerability of production structures was put in the background, and consequently, by now, it is usually beyond its acceptable degree. The frequently changing and uncertain environment which manufacturing companies are facing in our days requires robustness on every level of the production hierarchy from the process / machine level, through the system and enterprise levels, up to the level of supply chains and networks. As to the supply networks, the question may arise, what level of complexity is required for achieving a certain degree of robustness while, naturally, keeping the efficiency aspects in mind as well. In order to be able to give appropriate answers to this question, it is indispensable to quantify the robustness and complexity of supply chains and networks. Structural (static) and operational (dynamic) robustness and complexity are distinguished in the paper, which focuses on the structural aspects. A complex network approach is used for this purpose, namely the structural - both robustness and complexity - nature of the networks is described by applying graph theoretical concepts. Appropriate, quantitative graph measures are introduced and their applicability for characterizing the robustness and complexity of supply chains and networks is investigated by using structures of three types, namely real and artificially generated ones, and structures taken from the literature. Finally, it is illustrated how a decision support system based on the approach described in the paper can contribute to the design and redesign of supply chains and networks striving for an appropriate balance between the robustness, complexity and efficiency aspects of the problem

    Improving visibility using RFID – the case of a company in the automotive sector

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    The purpose of this paper is to present some results of an ongoing project that intends to improve internal logistics visibility using RFID at an electronics company of the automotive sector. The first step of this project was to identify the traceability problems of raw materials at the company and to design an RFID–based solution to solve such problems. Additionally, the main challenges related to the implementation of that solution were identified and discussed. Through interviews, documental analysis, and observation, the current internal logistic processes are described and the main traceability problems identified. This paper is, mainly, concerned with presenting the problems and the difficulties found by the project team. Additionally, the RFID based solution is proposed (prototype description) as also the key challenges, expected results and advantages (e.g. more increased control of raw materials and automatization of handling and storing processes).This work has been financially supported by the Portugal Incentive System for Research and Technological Development in scope of the projects in co-promotion nº 002814/2015 (iFACTORY 2015-2018).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Comparison of complexity indicators for assessing general process structures

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    Rad se bavi usporedbom različitih pokazatelja pri procjeni složenosti odabranih općih struktura procesa. Glavni cilj istraživanja je ispitivanje sposobnosti tih pokazatelja u otkrivanju očekivanih razlika u strukturnoj složenosti među promatranim općim strukturama procesa. Rezultati ovog teorijskog istraživanja pokazuju da svi predloženi pokazatelji mogu biti učinkovito upotrijebljeni pri analizi strukturne složenosti općih struktura procesa.This paper focuses on the comparison of different complexity indicators for complexity assessment of selected general process structures. The main objective in this study is to test their ability to uncover assumed differences in structural complexity among observed general process structures. The obtained results of this theoretical study show that all proposed indicators can be effectively used for analyzing structural complexity of general process structures

    tiphys an open networked platform for higher education on industry 4 0

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    Abstract Objective of Tiphys project is building an Open Networked Platform for the learning of Industry 4.0 themes. The project will create a Virtual Reality (VR) platform, where users will be able to design and create a VR based environment for training and simulating industrial processes but they will be able to study and select among a set of models in order to standardize the learning and physical processes as a virtual representation of the real industrial world and the required interactions so that to acquire learning and training capabilities. The models will be structured in a modular approach to promote the integration in the existing mechanisms as well as for future necessary adaptations. The students will be able to co-create their learning track and the learning contents by collaborative working in a dynamic environment. The paper presents the development and validation of the learning model, built on CONALI learning ontology. The concepts of the ontology will be detailed and the platform functions will be demonstrated on selected use cases
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