The Focus-activity Framework for Evaluating PSS Cooperation Readiness of Manufacturing Firms

For manufacturing companies venturing the first steps on the Servitization roadmap, it may be difficult to imagine how an integrated approach of Product and Service elements could support the strategic goals efficiently. If Service tasks, roles, units and organizational structure are still developing and emerging from the Product business activities, the design of Product-Service cooperation as well is promising, as the way is unclear. For these companies, it seems to be important to understand their current status of Product-Service cooperation at first, before starting to design integration activities. Therefore, this paper presents a framework which is designed to help companies identify their current status – and strategic objectives later on – at two dimensions: a) the Structural Focus of Product and Service business within the company, and b) the Cooperation Activities which are undertaken by Product and Service representatives. By the means of a case study in the Italian luxury textile sector, a first validation of the model is conducted, assessing the static and dynamic characteristics of Product and Service business with involvement of an Italian textile company

Experiences and preliminary results of geophysical methods on historical statues

In recent years, geophysical applications have been significantly grown in rock mechanics field due to their versatility and reliability as diagnostic and/or monitoring tools. Since these methodologies are mainly non-invasive, they can be used for the investigation and characterization of the internal structure of historical artworks or for the monitoring of built cultural heritage, where the non-destructive feature is an indispensable prerequisite. Commonly, the artworks material properties are unknown or strongly altered due to time and physical/chemical agents. Moreover, their nature (mineralogic and petrographic) and origin (in terms of places where the material was exploited) is uncertain and difficult to allocate. Among the available geophysical techniques, seismic methods are useful for detecting the thickness or position of weathered layers, for estimating the physical properties of different materials and for providing information about cracking and degree of fracturing. In this paper, we present some experiences and preliminary results of geophysical characterization of two Tritons statues, discovered in the garden of the Royal Palace of Venaria (Piedmont Region, Italy). The statues were originally part of the Fountain of Hercules, destroyed in the 18th century during the redevelopment works of the Palace. Ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements were performed on each portion of the statues and 3D-imaging of the apparent P-wave velocity were carried out. The performed geophysical investigations were aimed at defining the overall material quality and detecting possible sectors with low resistance properties that might interfere with the coring operations, necessary for the reassembly of the statues. Results of these surveys were also useful for setting up a 3D-FEM model for simulating the material behaviour through an analysis of the forces and loads involved

Effective medium optical modelling of indium tin oxide nanocrystal films

: Doped semiconductor nanocrystal-based thin films are widely used for many applications, such as screens, electrochromic windows, light emitting diodes, and solar cells. Herein, we have employed spectroscopic ellipsometry to measure and model the complex dielectric response of indium tin oxide films fabricated by nanocrystal deposition and sintering. The films could be modelled as Bruggemann effective media, allowing estimation of the nanoscale interstitial porosity of the structure. The effective dielectric constants show the possibility of tuning the plasma frequency and the epsilon-near zero condition of the film

ISURF: RFID Enabled Collaborative Supply Chain Planning Environment

To be able to cope with the requirements of today’s competitive and demanding digital world of business, companies, especially SMEs, need to be more agile, and be ready to react to the changing requirements of the sector. This requires a better view and a more comprehensive analysis of the whole marketplace which can be achieved through a knowledge oriented collaborative supply chain planning initiative. The parties also need to be capable of monitoring the supply chain visibility in a real time fashion, which can be enabled through the use of RFID devices. RFID enabled collaborative supply chain planning has been achieved by big industry players in well defined restricted business circumstances through some selected standard message schemes. However, SMEs are still far behind in this process due to their small IT budgets. In iSURF Project we address this problem by providing a set of open source tools to enable seamless collection of supply chain visibility, synchronizing this with master data, exchanging supply chain visibility and other planning data with each other through a service oriented supply chain planning environment which also handles the interoperability of the messages exchanged

Transparent conductive oxide-based architectures for the electrical modulation of the optical response: A spectroscopic ellipsometry study

Transparent conductive oxides are a class of materials that combine high optical transparency with high electrical conductivity. This property makes them uniquely appealing as transparent conductive electrodes in solar cells and interesting for optoelectronic and infrared-plasmonic applications. One of the new challenges that researchers and engineers are facing is merging optical and electrical control in a single device for developing next-generation photovoltaic, optoelectronic devices and energy-efficient solid-state lighting. In this work, the authors investigated the possible variations in the dielectric properties of aluminum-doped ZnO (AZO) upon gating by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The authors investigated the electrical-bias-dependent optical response of thin AZO films fabricated by magnetron sputtering within a parallel-plane capacitor configuration. The authors address the possibility to control their optical and electric performances by applying bias, monitoring the effect of charge injection/depletion in the AZO layer by means of in operando SE versus applied gate voltage

The Boost 4.0 Experience

In the last few years, the potential impact of big data on the manufacturing industry has received enormous attention. This chapter details two large-scale trials that have been implemented in the context of the lighthouse project Boost 4.0. The chapter introduces the Boost 4.0 Reference Model, which adapts the more generic BDVA big data reference architectures to the needs of Industry 4.0. The Boost 4.0 reference model includes a reference architecture for the design and implementation of advanced big data pipelines and the digital factory service development reference architecture. The engineering and management of business network track and trace processes in high-end textile supply are explored with a focus on the assurance of Preferential Certification of Origin (PCO). Finally, the main findings from these two large-scale piloting activities in the area of service engineering are discussed.publishersversionpublishe

Electronic properties of single-layer tungsten disulfide on epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide

This work reports an electronic and micro-structural study of an appealing system for optoelectronics: tungsten disulphide (WS2) on epitaxial graphene (EG) on SiC(0001)