Complexity Measures and Models in Supply Chain Networks

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The way from Lean Product Development (LPD) to Smart Product Development (SPD)

Abstract Lean Product Development (LPD) is the application of lean principles to product development, aiming to develop new or improved products that are successful in the market. LPD deals with the complete process from gathering and generating ideas, through assessing potential success, to developing concepts, evaluating them to create a best concept, detailing the product, testing/developing it and handing over to manufacture. With the beginning of the fourth Industrial Revolution (Industrial 4.0) and the rising efforts to realize a smart factory environment, also product development has to perform a substantial transformation. This paper firstly describes the concept of Lean Product Development as well as new requirements for an intelligent and Smart Product Development (SPD) through the introduction of modern Industry 4.0 related technologies. Based on Axiomatic Design methodology, a set of guidelines for the design of Lean Product Development Processes is presented. These guidelines are linked with concepts from Industry 4.0 in Engineering, showing how a lean and smart product development process can be achieved by the use of advanced and modern technologies and instruments

Critical Factors for Introducing Lean Product Development to Small and Medium sized Enterprises in Italy

Abstract Small and medium sized enterprises are the backbone of many economies. Especially in Italy SME's play a major role in the economic system. In the last years many lean methods and approaches were introduced successfully also in small and medium sized enterprises. After a successful introduction in manufacturing the lean approach swapped also on other indirect areas such as engineering and product development. Actually in research we can find only few research on the application of Lean in the R&D departments of SME's. The novelty of this paper is to provide a survey based evaluation of applicability, benefits as well as critical factors of Lean in SME product development. In the survey 54 Italian SME's were asked for their opinion. Further, respondents gave a statement on the introduction of emerging Industry 4.0 techniques in product development and how they can influence the effect of Lean in product development. The main results are that numerous Lean methods can be introduced very quickly promising high potential for improvements and that Lean methods combined with Industry 4.0 technologies act like a booster for efficiency optimization in product development

Assessing the Design Innovation Potential of Timber Prefabricated Housing Through Axiomatic Design

Despite the current building sector slowdown in Italy, timber housing industry market is growing. But its growth has been limited mainly by the high costs of ad-hoc full-customized buildings and the lack of customer appreciation for mass-produced buildings. In order to satisfy the current demand for affordable customized housing, building industry should focus on solutions based on the combination of personalized and mass-produced parts. In this way, clients would have the chance to personalize crucial parts, and building industry can limit costs by the mass-production of the others. This combination between mass production and customization involves artefact flexibility and robustness with regard to the designer’s viewpoint. These requirements are set in the conceptual design phase, but in this stage architect’s decision making is not adequately supported. Since Axiomatic Design (AD) is able to support the analysis of designs with respect to the specified requirements, AD is applied to the review of prefabricated housing archetypes and current timber construction systems. This study shows the effectiveness of applying AD to prefabricated building design: crucial design decisions that affect the specified requirements are identified; inputs limiting their fulfilment in the timber building prefabrication are highlighted, and recommendations for developing adequate systems are provided

Study of the impact of projection-based assistance systems for improving the learning curve in assembly processes

Abstract With the introduction of Industry 4.0 the use of worker assistance systems is getting more and more important. Assistance systems should support operators to increase efficiency and to reduce physical and mental stress and thus increase ergonomics of the work. In this paper, we investigate the impact of a projection-based worker assistance system conducting lab experiments simulating a ramp-up situation of a new product in assembly. The specific aim is the investigation of the impact of such systems in assembly for improving the learning curve, when products are changing. The study shows the results of a comparison between the assembly process with traditional worker instructions and the use of cognitive assistance systems to project instructions on the workplace

Urban production – A socially sustainable factory concept to overcome shortcomings of qualified workers in smart SMEs

Abstract Many of the Industry 4.0 approaches are of a technical nature, and by developing new intelligent technologies and adapting and transferring existing techniques, they will help increase productivity in industry. However, human resources will play a central role also in future factories, thus they are a key factor for implementing Industry 4.0. The role and job profile of employees in the smart factories will change in the future and it will be increasingly challenging for SMEs to compete with large corporations in the fight for skilled workers. In the smart city of tomorrow, production sites will be integrated in the sense of an 'urban production' in a city-friendly way becoming more interesting for talents and qualified work force. Thus, this paper discusses the imminent shortage of skilled workers with a focus on SMEs. The proposed concept of urban production gives an overview of measures to overcome the shortage of qualified workers. The paper aims to show that urban production is a concept to achieve a socially sustainable symbiosis between companies and the city of the future

an evaluation methodology for the conversion of manual assembly systems into human robot collaborative workcells

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A deployment-friendly decentralized scheduling approach for cooperative multi-agent systems in production systems

Abstract Decentralized control paradigms are becoming more and more attractive in an ever-changing commercial environment, where there is a strong trend towards smaller production lot sizes. Whereas centralized scheduling might find a global throughput optimum (even at high computational and implementation cost), decentralized scheduling decisions in a multi-agent system are much more manageable and agents are more robust to handle any interruptions that might take place on the production floor. Compared to a centralised architecture, the development, testing and commissioning is definitely more complex, as it requires the availability of the physical units. Yet these aspects are not visited frequently by research activities. This paper details a novel implementation approach of a multi-agent based production control, that was developed for a lab-contained production environment that serves as test-bed for decentralized scheduling algorithms, with both a nominal operational mode and a simulation mode. The latter one is introduced to ease up the deployment process of the system. The description of the new approach is illustrated with different examples

Simulation Based Validation of Supply Chain Effects through ICT enabled Real-time-capability in ETO Production Planning

Abstract According to Industry 4.0, real-time information in production planning and control, shows a high potential for optimizing the whole supply chain. The paper considers the plant building industry, especially the off-site fabrication and on-site installation. Traditionally, production planning is centralized following a Master Schedule that rarely is up to date, ignoring deviations on-site. As a result, components are delivered in advance or too late, which create non-value adding activities and high inventory levels. The paper proposes an ICT-supported nearly real-time capable production planning approach, which by means of a simulation, shows a drastically reduction of the inventory level on-site