1,720,980 research outputs found
Manufacturing Value Modelling, Flexibility, and Sustainability: from theoretical definition to empirical validation
No full textThe aim of this PhD thesis is to investigate the relevance of flexibility and sustainability within the smart manufacturing environment and understand if they could be adopted as emerging competitive dimensions and help firms to take decisions and delivering value
Augmented and virtual reality applications in industrial systems: A qualitative review towards the industry 4.0 era
No full textOver the last few years, manufacturing companies have been facing various challenges particularly related to volatile demand and changing requirements from customers and suppliers, requiring new technological roadmaps and interventions in manufacturing systems. In this proactive context, innovative technologies support the creation of information processes aimed at workers. With this in mind, augmented and virtual (A/V) reality can be adopted for workforce training; they should interact with a human workforce in an efficient way. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to conduct a qualitative literature review in order to investigate the current state of these innovative technologies and their practical application in industrial systems defining their core characteristics
Investigating sustainability as a performance dimension of a novel Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM): From sustainability business drivers to relevant metrics and performance indicators
No full textThe world and society are now constantly evolving through scenarios of global change and development having direct and indirect impact on manufacturing companies. The related manufacturing value chains require different assessment and evaluation of strategic dimensions such as Quality, Innovation, Flexibility and Sustainability. In order to capture and evaluate these dimensions, value modeling methodologies are currently used. Since sustainability is gaining attention as a close future business driver, in this paper an existing and specific Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM) is firstly shortly described to focus then on the analysis and development of sustainability dimension. Implementing manufacturing sustainability into the MVMM requires the setting of a structured information set (named catalogue) that presents an overview of sustainable challenges and opportunities in order to identify a correct structure of metrics (and relevant key performance indicators) for assessment and evaluation, which translate business goals into consistent manufacturing strategy, and allows to improve operational performance by suggesting, and then adopting, a set of best practices. To this end, a qualitative literature review on industrial sustainability performance management has been performed with the aim of analyzing the existing body of literature, re-organizing these data accordingly to a hierarchy of structured KPIs, identifying poor analyzed areas, and finally providing a first comprehensive database of metrics to build up and structure the aforementioned catalogue
A Novel Methodology for Manufacturing Firms Value Modeling and Mapping to Improve Operational Performance in the Industry 4.0 Era
No full textIn recent years there has been appreciable academic activity in manufacturing value creation resulting in that the ability to create value is based on the competence to make decisions and implement strategies; even though this evidence it is still difficult to understand where the company's weak points are located so value modeling approaching is arising. In this study Authors first report a qualitative review on value creation and modeling based on the identification, selection and analysis of about 100 papers, then specify the value concept within manufacturing companies. Within this context the Authors describe a novel methodology for manufacturing value modeling from strategic level down to operational improvements. The methodology and the related mapping and analysis tools have been co-developed with Siemens MES division within Industry 4.0 context. The Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM) is based on 5 steps: Value Map, Maturity Model, Gap and Process Analysis, Validation and Improvement Areas Definition. Through this methodological approach, a series of structured interviews allowing to construct the value map accordingly to the current company maturity model and the relationships between the strategic objectives and operational practices, capabilities, and methods. Combining the assessments interview with the Company' resources, infrastructure and IT structures, it is possible to establish a current level of the company. The mapping step is followed by a gap and process analysis, assessing most relevant areas for the creation of value aiming at constructing an interventions roadmap, setting out priorities and activities to be improved. The selection of the improvement areas defines process initiatives, KPIs and interventions to improve business alignment. To provide a practical view of the methodology a sample of the Value Modeler tool is presented and discussed
A Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM): A Value Mapping and Assessment Framework for Sustainable Manufacturing
No full textSustainable manufacturing is becoming increasingly important. This requires sustainable industrial system different to todayâs global industry with different business models, creating different products and services requiring new strategies, frameworks, and tools. The evolution towards a âsustainableâ industrial production systems requires a holistic approach, with a fundamental reassessment of the value creation. In order to achieve this target a system design approach is required. In this paper an existing and specific Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM) is used as a value mapping framework to help firms in creating value propositions better suited for sustainability considering economic, environmental and social perspectives. Concerning sustainability, implementing it into the MVMM requires the setting of a catalogue that presents an overview of sustainable external and internal impact factors and a mapping between them in order to translate business goals into manufacturing strategy, and allows to improve operational performance by adopting a set of sustainable industrial practices
Investigating Flexibility as a Performance Dimension of a Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM): A Framework for Identifying Flexibility Types in Manufacturing Systems
No full textIn recent years manufacturing companies have been faced with various challenges related to volatile demand and changing requirements from customer as well as suppliers. This trend is now even accelerating with a direct impact on the value chain. New technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems try to solve these challenges and solutions such as the German high tech strategy "Industrie 4.0" or the Italian cluster "Fabbrica Intelligente" which often aimed at enhancing the flexibility of manufacturing systems among many other competitive dimensions. However, these approaches often do not provide a detailed definition of flexibility and its different manifestations. Therefore, the question rises if different types of flexibility, that have an impact on the complete manufacturing system, can be better identified with the existing Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM). This question becomes even more important when considering the potential that smart machines interacting with humans, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), and the possibility to increase connectivity and data access through technologies, such as the internet of things (IoT), offer for increasing flexibility. Especially due to the various possibilities it becomes even more important to understand, which kind of flexibility is needed for a given problem. Implementing flexibility into the MVMM requires a 'catalog' that makes use of the MVMM framework presenting an overview of internal and external influence factors in order to support the identification of correct solutions and improvements related to functional areas in the manufacturing environment. Starting from a qualitative literature review on manufacturing flexibility, a 'flexibility catalog' is designed, which provides a structural definition of existing flexibility types and their composition as well as providing decision support. In conclusion, the scope of the 'flexibility catalog' is to verify that the flexibility demand fits into the market trends and is aligned to the manufacturing and company strategy, in order to help firms to take decisions and delivering value
Soft Drink Supply Chain Sustainability: A Case Based Approach to Identify and Explain Best Practices and Key Performance Indicators
No full textEnvironmental regulations and sustainable developments are forcing industries to assess, optimize and improve their processes to minimize costs and increase the efficiency of industrial sustainability dimension. This effect is more evident in the food industries due to the high impact that this sector has on environmental and economical sustainability, considering the primary role of packaging systems, the huge water consumption both for the production and the cleaning processes or the energy utilization related to the treatment plant or to the raw material production. Thus, the aim of this study was to review the current state of soft drink supply chains with respect to industrial sustainability issues. For this reason, a comprehensive literature review was performed to understand what sustainable best practices and key performance indicators are largely applied to soft drink supply chains and then a comparison with two soft drink case studies was proposed to identify if there is a positive correlation between the literature and practical activities. The proposed case studies were thoroughly analyzed highlighting how the production process impacts on sustainability and pointing out potential best practices and key performance indicators. The key conclusion of this study is, on the one hand, to depict the current set of sustainable best practices and key performance indicators which companies performed according to the literature review and, therefore, revise the actual body of the literature, and, on the other hand, to figure out which of these best (or proper) practices and key performance indicators are also implemented in the real world, helping companies to make decisions
A Multi-Stage Algorithm for a Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Constraints
No full textThe Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) is one of the most optimized tasks studied and it is implemented in a huge variety of industrial applications. The objective is to design a set of minimum cost paths for each vehicle in order to serve a given set of customers. Our attention is focused on a variant of VRP, the capacitated vehicle routing problem when applied to natural gas distribution networks. Managing natural gas distribution networks includes facing a variety of decisions ranging from human resources and material resources to facilities, infrastructures, and carriers. Despite the numerous papers available on vehicle routing problem, there are only a few that study and analyze the problems occurring in capillary distribution operations such as those found in a metropolitan area. Therefore, this work introduces a new algorithm based on the Saving Algorithm heuristic approach which aims to solve a Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem with time and distance constraints. This joint algorithm minimizes the transportation costs and maximizes the workload according to customer demand within the constraints of a time window. Results from a real case study in a natural gas distribution network demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach
How Soft Drink Supply Chains drive sustainability: Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) identification
Full text linkEven if sustainability is a relatively new research area, it has already shown an interesting number of measures and metrics mainly de-structured and at very different levels. Furthermore, a specific framework of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) has not yet been developed for soft drink supply chains (SDSC). This variety is creating confusion among industries when they attempt to select a set of indicators for assessing sustainability in manufacturing in practical terms. A company should be able to analyze each element of its strategy and business model in order to understand which factors influence sustainability. Therefore, to address this challenge, Authors have collected sustainability KPIs SDSCs. KPIs helps soft drinks companies to have a more complete vision concerning their sustainability impact and to point out potential best practices. Finally, in order to provide a practical view of the methodology, a sample is presented and discussed
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