Cybersecurity for Industry 4.0 in the current literature: A reference framework

The cybersecurity issues represent a complex challenge for all companies committing to Industry 4.0 paradigm. On the other hand, the characterization of cybersecurity concept within Industry 4.0 contexts proved to be an emerging and relevant topic in the recent literature. The paper proposes to analyse, through a systematic literature review approach, the way in which the existing state of art deals with the cybersecurity issues in Industry 4.0 contexts. In particular, the focus will be on the investigation of the main elements associated with cybersecurity theme (i.e. asset involved into cyber-attacks, system vulnerabilities, cyber threats, risks and countermeasures) within those industrial contexts where physical systems (machines, shop floors, plants) are connected each other via the Internet. Four areas of analysis are defined: definitions of cybersecurity and Industry 4.0 concepts, the industrial focus of the analysed studies, the cybersecurity characterization and the management attempts of cybersecurity issues. Through the literature review analysis, a framework of the main features characterizing each area is discussed, providing interesting evidences for future research and applications

09/21/1988 - Rita Nielsen

Organizations need to share and acquire new information to sustain competitive advantage in complex environment. They communicate through IT-based integrated systems to fasten communication and knowledge sharing for the creation of innovative products. Firms are, thus, extending their operations to integrate strategic knowledge from partners in the product development process. In this paper, we present a case study related to process innovation in an aerospace firm integrating its information systems with one of its partners to facilitate the design of the models of a complex product. We investigate on the strategy followed to integrate the information systems, the types of these latter, on their success factors and their impact on the product development. The case study provides important insights on the integration of information systems for product design outsourcing

Progettare in settori ad alta tecnologia: il mondo aerospace

La complessità del settore aerospaziale e dei suoi prodotti caratterizzano un ciclo di vita del prodotto altamente integrato sia fra le diverse fasi all’interno di una stessa azienda e sia fra diverse aziende con cui si collabora alla realizzazione del prodotto, condividendo talvolta rischi e investimenti. La progettazione è un processo fondamentale che integra diversi aspetti del ciclo di vita di un prodotto e in cui diverse discipline e funzioni devono collaborare insieme per soddisfare le specifiche performance richieste ai prodotti di questo settore. Tale processo è svolto utilizzando potenti tecnologie dell’informazione e comunicazione che ne abilitano le diverse attività e ne permettono la progettazione dei prodotti più performanti. L’articolo si pone l’obiettivo di illustrare le caratteristiche del processo di progettazione nelle aziende aerospaziali come elemento core per tutto il ciclo di vita di un prodotto e di illustrare alcune best practices osservate nel contesto aerospaziale italiano

The Aerospace “Networked” Business Model: evidences and suggestions

The aerospace industry is characterized by intensive collaborations among firms that work for the realization of complex aerospace products that require high risks and costs. Collaboration and risk sharing are needed at each supply chain level. For companies working in networks, in this period of market changes and crisis, it is needed to think and re-think about a networked business model highlighting the relevance of each collaborating actor in the value generation for new products. The paper aims to explore the business model features of companies working in aerospace networks and to highlight improvements actions. Evidences are collected through a survey and a case study. The research results suggest two new elements for business model frameworks: the value exchange strategy and the value enablers both necessary for an extended collaboration among all nodes of a business network. The introduction of these two elements is discussed and justified in the paper

Process Mining and Industrial Applications a Systematic Literature Review

Currently, the process mining aims at an automatic extraction of process knowledge from the event logs recorded by information systems and, therefore, using these techniques it becomes possible to grasp the complex nature of industrial processes. In fact, most of the industrial processes change over time and through the process mining techniques it is possible to analyze these processes as if they were in a steady state. Starting to this concept, in this paper we provide a systematic literature review that analyzes the applications of process mining techniques in relation to the industrial context in order to highlight the importance of these new techniques in this scenario. To do the systematic literature review (SLR) we use the Tranfiled approach (2003) and we identify the most interesting papers in the sector under analysis. After that, an in-depth analysis of the selected papers was carried out

A Process Based Methodology to Evaluate the Use of PLM Tools in the Product Design

Part 3: PLM MaturityInternational audienceThe product design requires the interaction of several disciplines and the use of a wide set of PLM tools. They are used both to design the product elements and also, to manage product data and information that are generated. For company working as ETO (Engineering To Order), the complexity increases. Generally, customers requires a certification of the design process and a clear and formalized workflow of approval and validation. The paper describes a methodology for evaluating the use of PLM tools in the design process of products. The proposed methodology aims to be an objective tool able to catch information of the impact of ICT directly from the processes using them. Techniques specific of the Business Process Management discipline have been used. Phases and indicators of the methodology can be applied to analyze the product design process in different context

Inter-organisational Knowledge integration in collaborative NPD projects: evidence from the aerospace industry

This paper aims at analyze the practice of knowledge integration in Collaborative New Product Development (Co-NPD) projects involving multiple partners in aerospace network. Based on a pragmatic approach, a multiple case study focusing on two Italian aerospace companies involved into a research project aimed to define methodologies and technologies for knowledge collaboration in NPD, is developed. Data are gathered with a triangulation techniques merging both official documents, open ended and close end interviews administered in the companies sites and involving managers, engineers and employees. Findings propose a systematic treatment of the knowledge integration practice describing the types of knowledge, strategies, barriers and intellectual property policies for knowledge integration at inter-organizational level. Findings provide insights to address NPD models for aerospace networks where the complexity and value of codified knowledge coming from external sources requires adequate treatments and security standard

An Integrated Stack-Up Analysis Tool

The development of a product requires the definition of its architecture and of its physical and functional elements that have to be assembled together to realize the new product. Functional elements are the set of operations and transformations necessary to reach the product performance while physical elements are related to parts, components and subassemblies and are established from the product concept or defined in the detailed design of the product. Functional elements are associated to one or more physical elements and together define the product architecture. [Ulrich and Eppinger 2008]. The design of the product architecture and of each physical elements is very critical in the development of a new product since a worst design will impact also on the product manufacturing and changes and stops in that phase requires higher costs for the companies. Therefore, accurately design the product, its physical elements and how to assembly them in the architecture, it’s a critical activity for the company. The product model including its architecture and physical elements, is realized in computer aided design (CAD) systems but also other systems (i.e. Computer Aided Technologies, CAX) are used to define engineering, manufacturing or testing data. In many companies, all the data generating by the CAD systems together with others product data (e.g. the bill of material - BOM) are integrated and available in PDM systems that store data and information about the product and its elements. They can be simple repository of information and the users manually search and access to the information required or can provide workflows and other tools to manage the product data. [Grieves 2006]. In the design of each physical element of a product, geometrical and dimensional values are established and for each value, the tolerance limits are forecasted and fixed. Tolerance limit are the upper and lower variation that a dimensional value can assume guarantying, however, a correct assembly of all the elements in the whole product. The tolerance limits depends from the type of materials or from the machines used to realize the product. Changes in a tolerance value have effect in the whole assembly generating a chain of changes. Therefore, the need to correctly define the tolerance limits is very high to guarantee yet in the design a correct assembly. The stack-up analysis is the technique used to evaluate the tolerance chain created joining the physical elements and it is used to verify if there are problems to realize the final assembly and therefore, if the elements could be joined in the desired product architecture. The geometrical and dimensional information are available on the product engineering drawings or in the model based definition (MBD) dataset of the product. The engineering drawings provide a 2D vision of the product with dimensional and geometrical information. MBD datasets have been developed to integrate in the 3D model the information available in the engineering drawings providing a complete file with both information. 400 DESIGN SUPPORT TOOLS The paper aims to describe the case of an Italian aerospace company, Avio S.p.A., and the stack-up tool realized to improve the whole tolerance analysis process. The company has met some problems in the management of the stack-up analysis due to the use of IT tools that have led to human errors in the calculus and further time for reaching the results. Based on ten-month activities of a team of university researchers and company engineers, a new stack-up tool has been developed, it is integrated in the company CAD (Siemens Nx) and PDM (Teamcenter Engineering) systems and it is currently used by the company designers. It has solved the company problems in the stack-up analysis providing a solution for the calculus of the stack-up analysis both from engineering drawings and MBD datasets. In the next section of the paper, some remarks from the literature in the tolerance analysis field are described to guide the comprehsion of the concepts used in the paper. A further section treats the research design and provides the scenario in which has been developed the stack-up tool that is described in a successive section where technological choices and functionalities that have guided the tool development are discussed and an example of application of the tool enriches the view in the research results. A final section concludes the paper providing discussion and insights

Using ICT in the Collaborations for Aerospace Products Design: A Case Study

The case study explores the use of ICT in the external and internal collaborations to design or re-design a product in an Italian aerospace company. The data have been analyzed with the content analysis and. triangulation techniques are also used. The main role of collaborations among organizational units and with the customers/partners is highlighted and insights in the managerial practice are based on the evaluation of the collaborations types during the product design

Virtual Reality for Product Development in Manufacturing Industries

Currently, Virtual Reality (VR) systems give industries in different domains the possibility to interact with and work into a simulated environment in order to improve their processes, efficiency and effectiveness, fast introducing new products in the market in a cost effective way. The fundamental idea is to identify the main applications of Virtual Reality in the manufacturing domain and provide valuable insights for future research and trends concern the application of this technology along the whole product development process. This paper aims to propose a set of new emerging scenarios, composed of Virtual Reality technologies, tools and systems used in manufacturing industries with a focus on the aerospace sector. The proposed scenarios are based on projects and initiatives carried out for applying the VR to industries in order to optimize internal processes and the overall supply chain