From Invention to Innovation: teaching business models to manufacturing researchers

This work presents the constructively aligned design and implementation of the doctoral course “business driven production development” at KTH in Stockholm. The educational unit was launched in 2016: evaluation suggests that learners perceive the content as a much-required complement to their technical education towards an increase of their contribution´s impact.  &nbsp

The digital transformation of Engineering curricula: the categories that preserve Constructive Alignment

Scientific publications discussing online/distance learning have significantly increased throughout the last decade. The COVID-19 pandemic represented an unexpected condition that significantly changed people´s lifestyle along with the education domain boosting even further its digitalization, mostly at higher levels. In this work, we assume that Teaching Learning Activities (TLA) and Assessment Tasks (AT) should be adjusted to achieve the same Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO) set before distance learning. In view of the above, this paper assesses two courses selected from the Industrial Engineering study program offered in two prominent European higher education institutions. The Constructive Alignment (CA) approach is the baseline of this work and is used to analyse how the TLA and AT of the selected courses are adjusted to maintain alignment with the ILO defined before the digital transition. The main contribution is defining a set of categories to guide the digital transaction in engineering and beyond by maintaining the alignment on ILO-TLA-AT

Automatic definition of engineer archetypes: A text mining approach

With the rapid and continuous advancements in technology, as well as the constantly evolving competences required in the field of engineering, there is a critical need for the harmonization and unification of engineering professional figures or archetypes. The current limitations in tymely defining and updating engineers' archetypes are attributed to the absence of a structured and automated approach for processing educational and occupational data sources that evolve over time. This study aims to enhance the definition of professional figures in engineering by automating archetype definitions through text mining and adopting a more objective and structured methodology based on topic modeling. This will expand the use of archetypes as a common language, bridging the gap between educational and occupational frameworks by providing a unified and up-to-date engineering professional figure tailored to a specific period, specialization type, and level. We validate the automatically defined industrial engineer archetype against our previously manually defined profile

Mapping Industry 4.0 Enabling Technologies into United Nations Sustainability Development Goals

The emerging of the fourth industrial revolution, also known as Industry 4.0 (I4.0), from the advancement in several technologies is viewed not only to promote economic growth, but also to enable a greener future. The 2030 Agenda of the United Nations for sustainable development sets out clear goals for the industry to foster the economy, while preserving social well-being and ecological validity. However, the influence of I4.0 technologies on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) has not been conclusively or systematically investigated. By understanding the link between the I4.0 technologies and the SDGs, researchers can better support policymakers to consider the technological advancement in updating and harmonizing policies and strategies in different sectors (i.e., education, industry, and governmental) with the SDGs. To address this gap, academic experts in this paper have investigated the influence of I4.0 technologies on the sustainability targets identified by the UN. Key I4.0 element technologies have been classified to enable a quantitative mapping with the 17 SDGs. The results indicate that the majority of the I4.0 technologies can contribute positively to achieving the UN agenda. It was also found that the effects of the technologies on individual goals varies between direct and strong, and indirect and weak influences. The main insights and lessons learned from the mapping are provided to support future policy

Development and application of an Integrated Business Model framework to describe the digital transformation of manufacturing - a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACTThe digitalisation trend is affecting the manufacturing industry by adopting several emerging technologies that can increase the efficiency and output of production processes and operations. A growing body of literature shows that this trend demands a structural rethink of how companies do business. However, there is a lack of holistic contributions describing how aspects of manufacturing digitalisation align with the Business Model Innovation process. This study uses a bibliometric mapping approach to analyse the literature on manufacturing digital transformation through the Integrated Business Model (IBM) lens. The results identify the major research topics discussed in the analysed domain and propose an enriched IBM framework with specific descriptions and connections among the components and their relative strengths. Holistically, the resulting enhanced model may ultimately assist practitioners in understanding the innovation process of the BM triggered by technological shifts in their manufacturing, enabling an alignment of the manufacturing strategy with IBM’s components

On the Design of Constructively Aligned Educational Unit

Modern pedagogy is moving away from traditional transmissive approaches, and it is extensively embracing constructive theory of learning. A prominent practical embodiment of this paradigm shift is a method called Constructive Alignment (CA). This approach focuses on learners’ actions and starts from a clear communication of the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) of the focal unit. ILOs are made of content, a context, and an Educational Goal Verb (EGV). According to the Bloom Taxonomy, the EGV is the core of an ILO and refers to the action the learners are expected to be able to master after completing the educational unit. The ILO is then aligned to the course activity using the EGV (i.e., EGVs are enacted through Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) and verified through Assessment Tasks (ATs)). Despite the ILO definition being extensively investigated and described, the extant literature has poorly explored how to devise suitable TLAs and ATs, lacking comprehensive contributions that identify and describe the different kinds of TLAs and ATs available to course designers. In view of the above gap, the authors searched and reviewed the literature (scientific papers (i.e., top-down, deductive approach)) and practices in higher education (university websites and blogs (i.e., bottom-up, inductive approach)) to identify all the possible sources of TLA and AT descriptions available. The results propose standardized templates that support the course design process, providing extensive descriptions of TLA and AT based on the best practices identified. The proposed templates include the core dimensions that proved to be suitable for designing traditional and remote-learning activities. Finally, the examples provided in the paper show how to use these templates on a few kinds of selected on-campus and digital TLAs and ATs from the educational units identified in the Erasmus+ MAESTRO project, which is based on Industry 4.0 technological enablers and their application in support of manufacturing sustainability

On the Design of Constructively Aligned Educational Unit

Modern pedagogy is moving away from traditional transmissive approaches, and it is extensively embracing constructive theory of learning. A prominent practical embodiment of this paradigm shift is a method called Constructive Alignment (CA). This approach focuses on learners’ actions and starts from a clear communication of the Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) of the focal unit. ILOs are made of content, a context, and an Educational Goal Verb (EGV). According to the Bloom Taxonomy, the EGV is the core of an ILO and refers to the action the learners are expected to be able to master after completing the educational unit. The ILO is then aligned to the course activity using the EGV (i.e., EGVs are enacted through Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) and verified through Assessment Tasks (ATs)). Despite the ILO definition being extensively investigated and described, the extant literature has poorly explored how to devise suitable TLAs and ATs, lacking comprehensive contributions that identify and describe the different kinds of TLAs and ATs available to course designers. In view of the above gap, the authors searched and reviewed the literature (scientific papers (i.e., top-down, deductive approach)) and practices in higher education (university websites and blogs (i.e., bottom-up, inductive approach)) to identify all the possible sources of TLA and AT descriptions available. The results propose standardized templates that support the course design process, providing extensive descriptions of TLA and AT based on the best practices identified. The proposed templates include the core dimensions that proved to be suitable for designing traditional and remote-learning activities. Finally, the examples provided in the paper show how to use these templates on a few kinds of selected on-campus and digital TLAs and ATs from the educational units identified in the Erasmus+ MAESTRO project, which is based on Industry 4.0 technological enablers and their application in support of manufacturing sustainability

The Impact of Learning Factories on Teaching Lean Principles in an Assembly Environment

Learning factories are realistic manufacturing environments built for education; many universities have recently introduced learning factories in engineering programs to tackle real industrial problems; however, statistical studies on its effectiveness are still scarce. This paper presents a statistical study on the impact of learning factories on the students’ learning process, when teaching the lean manufacturing concepts in an assembly environment. The analysis is carried out through the Lean Manufacturing Lab at KTH, a learning factory supporting the traditional educational activities. In the lab, the students assemble a product on an assembly line; during three rounds, they identify problems on the line, apply the appropriate lean tools to overcome the problems, and try to achieve a higher productivity. The study is based on the analysis of the times recorded during the sessions of the lab. A questionnaire submitted to the students after the course evaluates the level of knowledge of lean production principles that the students achieved. The results are twofold: the improvement of the assembly times through the implementation of the lean tools and the positive effect of a hands-on experience on the students’ understanding of the lean principles, highlighted by the answers to the questionnaire. The main contributions are that applying the lean tools on an assembly line improves the productivity even with inexperienced operators, implementing a learning factory is effective in enhancing the learning process, and, lastly, that a first-hand experience applying the lean tools in a real assembly environment is an added value to the students’ education.QC 20221123Part of proceedings: ISBN 978-3-031-18325-6</p

Dynamic Mixed Reality Assembly Guidance Using Optical Recognition Methods

Augmented (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) technologies are enablers of the Industry 4.0 paradigm and are spreading at high speed in production. Main applications include design, training, and assembly guidance. The latter is a pressing concern, because assembly is the process that accounts for the biggest portion of total cost within production. Teaching and guiding operators to assemble with minimal effort and error rates is pivotal. This work presents the development of a comprehensive MR application for guiding novice operators in following simple assembly instructions. The app follows innovative programming logic and component tracking in a dynamic environment, providing an immersive experience that includes different guidance aids. The application was tested by experienced and novice users, data were drawn from the performed experiments, and a questionnaire was submitted to collect the users’ perception. Results indicate that the MR application was easy to follow and even gave confidence to inexperienced subjects. The guidance support was perceived as useful by the users, though at times invasive in the field of view. Further development effort is required to draw from this work a complete and usable architecture for MR application in assembly, but this research forms the basis to achieve better, more consistent instructions for assembly guidance based on component tracking

URINALYSIS IN DOGS WITH ACUTE PANCREATITIS

In acute pancreatitis (AP), kidney injury (KI) could occur via hypovolemia, cytokine-induced ischemia, inflammation and oxidative stress [1]. In people, urinalysis and some urinary biomarkers have been proposed as useful prognostic tools in AP [2]. At the best of our knowledge, there are no studies evaluating urinalysis in canine AP. The aim of the study was to evaluate urinalysis parameters and urinary GGT-to-urinary creatinine (uGGT/uCr) in canine AP and their association with the outcome. AP diagnosis was made if there were compatible clinical (≥2 of the following: abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting or hyporexia) and laboratory parameters (acute inflammation), abnormal SNAP® cPL test and abdominal ultrasound abnormalities supporting a diagnosis of AP. Dogs with preexisting diagnosis of chronic kidney disease and/or managed by hemodialysis were excluded. Urine samples were collected and analyzed within 12h from AP diagnosis. For uGGT/uCr, a cut off value of 105 U/g was used [3]. KI was defined if dogs had urinary casts and/or proteinuria. Sediments were classified as active if there were one or more of the following findings: bacteriuria, moderate number of casts and &gt;5 RBCs, WBCs, or epithelial cells/HPF. Dogs were divided into 2 groups (survivors and non-survivors) according to outcome at 15 days from their admission. Normal distribution was assessed using D’Agostino-Pearson test. Specific gravity (SG), urinary protein-to-creatinine ratio (UP/UC) and uGGT/uCr were evaluated in association to the outcome using Mann-Whitney U-test. pH was compared between outcome groups using ttest. Chi square test was used to evaluate dipstick parameters in association with the outcome. Fisher’s exact test was used to compare the severity of UP/UC (≥2) and the presence of kidney injury to the outcome. Odds ratio (OR) was calculated. Seventy clientowned dogs with owners’ consent were retrospectively included. Twenty-four dogs (34%) died. Seven out of 24 dogs were euthanized due to poor clinical condition or to progressive disease. Urine samples were collected by free catch (n=43), cystocentesis (n=19) or catheterization (n=8). Forty dogs showed active sediment (57%). KI was detected in thirty-six dogs (37%) and was associated with mortality (p=0.01 OR 3.9 95% CI 1.3-11.56). Nonsurvivor dogs showed higher dipstick bilirubin levels compared to surviving dogs (p=0.005). By excluding dogs with active sediment, UP/UC ratio ≥2 was associated with mortality (p=0.001 OR 47.5 95% CI 4-571.9). SG, pH and the other dipstick parameters were similar between groups. uGGT/uCr was available in 40 dogs (57%). Twenty-one dogs (53%) had uGGT/uCr over the cut off level and it was not associated with the outcome. No statistical differences were found in uGGT/uCr values between survivor and non-survivor dogs. In our study, UP/UC ≥2 seems to be a negative prognostic factor in dogs with AP. Further studies on uGGT/uCr during canine AP are warrante