Automotive Stirling Engine Development Program

The background and history of the Stirling engine, the technology, materials, components, controls, and systems, and a technical assessment of automotive stirling engines are presented

Structure Functions are not Parton Probabilities

We explain why contrary to common belief, the deep inelastic scattering structure functions are not related to parton probabilities in the target.Comment: 4 pages. Invited talk presented during the `International Light-Cone Workshop', Trento, ECT, September 3-11, 2001. Updated Report-Number

Open Business Models and Closed-Loop Value Chains: Redefining the Firm-Consumer Relationship

Driven by recent socio-economic developments, manufacturing firms increasingly adapt their business models along two dimensions. Apart from vertically integrating the entire product life cycle, traditionally separated tasks are re-allocated into new forms of horizontal stakeholder collaborations. Incorporating these two dimensions, this article develops a framework of nine business model archetypes that holistically capture the increasing openness of business models towards consumers in the emerging closed-loop value chain. Using illustrative examples, it demonstrates their broad applicability in different industries and derives important managerial implications for firm-consumer relationships, the relevance of consumer communities, new product development activities, and the sustainability of business models

Sustainable product development strategies: Business planning and performance implications

Copyright © 2012 by Institution of Mechanical Engineers. This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below.Manufacturing firms are under many financial and competitive pressures which focus attention on the performance of their manufacturing processes. In this paper the opportunities for improving the environmental impact of products within the constraints of existing manufacturing infrastructure are examined. Approaches which support sustainability in two aspects are proposed, firstly, the provision of products to the users in ways which extend the product life and secondly, manufacturing approaches which reduce resource usage. This paper outlines three different sustainable development strategies for different product types and describes the cost implications for manufacturers across the life-cycle. The performance measures affected by these strategies are examined drawing on product development case studies from a number of high technology sectors to highlight the different approaches taken. The results are intended to aid manufacturers during the earliest stages of business planning to consider alternative product development approaches which are more sustainable

Minimisation du Content par une méthode d'active set pour les équations d'équilibrage hydraulique conduites par la pression

International audienceA new content-based, box-constrained, active-set projected Newton method is presented that solves for the heads, the pipe flows, and the nodal outflows of a water distribution system in which nodal outflows are pressure dependent. The new method is attractive because, by comparison with the previously published weighted least-squares energy and mass residuals (EMR) damped Newton method, (1) it typically takes fewer iterations, (2) it does not require damping, (3) it takes less wall-clock time, (4) it does not require the addition of any virtual elements, and (5) it is algorithmically easier to deal with. Various pressure-outflow relationships (PORs), which model nodal outflows, were considered and two new PORs are presented. The new method is shown, by application to eight previously published case study networks with up to about 20,000 pipes and 18,000 nodes, to be up to five times faster than the EMR method and to take between 34% and 70% fewer iterations than the EMR method

Living lab methodology as an assessment tool for mass customization

Mass customization has been regularly used as a growth strategy during the last decades. The strength of this approach stems from offering products adjusted to customers' individual needs, resulting in added value. The latter resides in the word 'custom,' implying unique and utilitarian products allowing for self-expression of the consumer. Researchers and practitioners however predominantly focused on the company's internal processes to optimize mass customization, often resulting in market failure. As a response, a framework with five factors determining the success of mass customization was developed. Additionally, Living Lab methodologies have been used to improve innovation contexts that were too closed. This paper will fill a gap in the literature by demonstrating that the integration of the five-factor framework in the Living Lab methodology is well suited to determine the possible success or failure of a mass-customized product in the market by means of a single case study

Growing with smart products:Why customization capabilities matter for manufacturing firms

Manufacturing firms that engage in digital transformation develop increasingly smarter versions of their tangible products to reinvigorate growth in shrinking markets. However, they often struggle with translating their investments in digitalization capabilities into actual returns in the form of sales growth. The associated technological advantages often remain unexploited, and digital product innovations frequently fail. Building on the resource-based view of the firm and the demand-side perspective, we theorize that there is a need for complementary capabilities that integrate heterogeneous customer demands, thus, allowing firms to capture more value from smart products. We empirically investigate the mediating role of smart customization capability on the relationship between digitalization capabilities and sales growth. Moreover, we argue that this relationship is further strengthened by integrating information and data across sales and service channels (i.e., channel integration). We test and find support for our hypotheses based on a dataset comprising survey and archival data of 136 smart product manufacturers in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. In doing so, we enhance the theoretical understanding of resource and capability configurations needed for digital transformation in general and smart product success in particular. We further update the traditional concept of mass customization by showing how customization with smart products helps manufacturing firms provide personalized solutions at scale

Structure Functions are not Parton Probabilities

The common view that structure functions measured in deep inelastic lepton scattering are determined by the probability of finding quarks and gluons in the target is not correct in gauge theory. We show that gluon exchange between the fast, outgoing partons and target spectators, which is usually assumed to be an irrelevant gauge artifact, affects the leading twist structure functions in a profound way. This observation removes the apparent contradiction between the projectile (eikonal) and target (parton model) views of diffractive and small x_{Bjorken} phenomena. The diffractive scattering of the fast outgoing quarks on spectators in the target causes shadowing in the DIS cross section. Thus the depletion of the nuclear structure functions is not intrinsic to the wave function of the nucleus, but is a coherent effect arising from the destructive interference of diffractive channels induced by final state interactions. This is consistent with the Glauber-Gribov interpretation of shadowing as a rescattering effect.Comment: 35 pages, 8 figures. Discussion of physical consequences of final state interactions amplified. Material on light-cone gauge choices adde