1,721,075 research outputs found
Industry 4.0 and education: evolving content and learning experiences
Full text linkThe integration of information and communication technology (ICT) with industrial advancements, known as Industry 4.0, is set to revolutionize production processes, making them more efficient, green, and flexible. On the other hand, as academic institutions face a big challenge in finding ways to improve the learning experience and academic performance of future students, the technological innovations of Industry 4.0 can help in meeting this challenge. This research paper investigates the impact of Industry 4.0 on universities and their courses, analysing the skills and competencies needed to manage its systems. Technologies such as autonomous robots, simulation, the Industrial Internet of Things, additive manufacturing, augmented reality, Big Data and analytics are all considered essential components of Industry 4.0. Academic institutions may need to consider how these technologies can be applied in the educational field to improve learning experiences and academic performance of current and future students while providing students with up-to-date knowledge on this continuous transformation. This paper presents an analysis of scientific literature to map the state of the art on this topic and highlight challenges and opportunities for academic institutions to evolve content and experience in the context of Industry 4.0
Proposal of a methodology for the planning of a small wind turbine installation for a multi-site company based on a technical-economic analysis
No full textOver the years, the diffusion of wind technology has heavily increased as wind farms are steadily being implemented as government regulations towards the reduction of carbon footprint are being confirmed worldwide and attention is drawn to sustainable development. However, while regarded as a feasible and interesting renewable alternative for utility companies, at the industrial level, organizations have only recently begun to approach this technology with the aim of self-producing energy. In this context, the most favorable situation is the one regarding large companies with multiple sites located throughout the territory and with good investment capacity. For these companies, the primary issue is represented by the lack of proper knowledge about the actual technical and economic feasibility of the project. Thus, this work aims to propose a comprehensive and structured methodology for the planning of small wind turbine installation for multi-site companies, providing the organization with a preliminary assessment about which among the various sites available are the most suitable. The proposed methodology takes into account several factors, such as the logistical, territorial and social characteristics of the various available sites, enabling the organization to obtain a clear picture of the feasibility of this application. The methodology comprises two phases: in the first phase, three major criteria are used to perform a first exclusion of sites according to technological, regulatory and logistics restraints, while the second phase aims to classify the remaining sites through the application of a multi-criteria analysis to identify the sites with the highest installation priority. Finally, the proposed methodology has been applied to a multi-site company with over fifty sites over all of Italy in order to test its applicability
Strategic maintenance planning in the digital era: a hybrid approach merging Reliability-Centered Maintenance with digitalization opportunities
Full text linkIn the age of digital transformation, maintenance operations are crucial for leveraging the potential of Industry 4.0 and 5.0. Yet, this domain remains significantly under-optimized in terms of strategic maintenance planning and enhancing asset performance. The advent of smart technologies offers a myriad of innovative avenues; however, harnessing these effectively requires systematic planning that incorporates these new, various and quite diversified, smart practices. Thus, this paper proposes a new methodological approach to maintenance planning, based on the Reliability-Centered Maintenance method, aimed at providing an operative tool for organizations to foster the evolution of their maintenance plans towards the paradigm of digitalization. This novel method enables the identification of hidden opportunities of improvement not identifiable through the use of the traditional approach through the proposal of an Opportunity Index, to use together with the Criticality Index in asset selection, and a Digitalization Score to use during Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis. The proposed method is applied to transform the maintenance planning of a production line, thus identifying the opportunities of the approach and testing its feasibility
Energy budget control in manufacturing systems with on-site energy generation: an advanced methodology for analyzing specific cost variations
Full text linkIn light of the growing competitiveness in global economy and the raising energy prices, energy budget management is an increasingly critical aspect for manufacturing companies. However, the analysis of the energy budget variation over time can be challenging due to numerous parameters affecting specific energy cost and energy consumption. The present study falls within the context of various works in literature concerning energy budget control and has the purpose of focusing the analysis on complex manufacturing systems including an on-site energy generation plant. In this case, the contributions of energy produced on-site, purchased and sold will contribute to the definition of the specific energy cost, which will be in turn influenced by several factors such as market prices of the resources (electricity, fossil fuel), specific characteristics of consumption (quantity and load synchronization), efficiency of the production system. In order to implement a comprehensive control of the energy budget, the difference between the predicted values and the real ones (budget variations) should be broken down into various components. This work proposes a methodology to decompose budget variations, defining a series of indicators at different levels associated to the single components influencing the variation itself, thus enabling the identification of the specific causes. This methodology has been developed in response to the demand of a specific company but can also be applied to others with similar configurations, given the interest recently aroused in this topic. Its application in an industrial context is then presented. The result of this work is the definition of a system of indicators allowing the identification of the different causes of the budget variance. The clear attribution of such deviations to different responsibility centers is enabled by the identification of a set of parameters to keep under control, hence supporting the company in the definition of timely countermeasures
A joint application of design for six sigma and taguchi-response surface method in supply chain process design
Full text linkIn the current competitive context, the effective design of the supply chain process is even more important for businesses. Practitioners need to design robust and efficient processes that are at the same time focalized on business needs. In the present work we propose to combine two different methods: metamodel based design optimization (MBDO) and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS). The approach proposed, take advantage from DFSS structure to reduce the metamodel input variables. Most of MBDO techniques are complex and requires huge quantity of simulation. Therefore among the MBDO techniques, we have chosen to implement Taguchi and Response surface method (T-RSM). DFSS is a structured method, therefore easy to merge with other techniques and easily integrable with MBDO. In this paper we use T-RSM to obtain a robust metamodel performing a small number of simulations, therefore resulted less complex to apply than other MBDO techniques. The DFSS’s Method used in this paper was: DIDOV. The first two phases of DIDOV have been focalized on business goal and needs. In those phases degrees of freedom of the metamodel input variables were reduced. Merging DIDOV and T-RSM we got a reduced and focalized on business experiment plan. In this paper we show that the joint implementation of DFSS and T-RSM allows to obtain a design process focalized on business goal and leaner than other application of MBDO techniques in process design. A Case study of applying DFSS and MBDO is provided to show the implementation of this approach in a Supply chain process design. The presented approach results implementable in various context like product development and service process design
Anomaly detection in energy consumption for Condition-Based maintenance of Compressed Air Generation systems: an approach based on artificial neural networks
No full textThe topic of early detection of faults has great relevance for the implementation of more rational and efficient management in industrial plants. Since most energy systems and machines show a degradation in energy performance when a failure is starting to develop, monitoring this parameter can result in early behavioral anomalies identification and consequently in the implementation of more timely countermeasures. As the presence of energy consumption monitoring systems is becoming increasingly more widespread, the use of energy consumption monitoring as a way to detect failures is quite interesting because it can enable the introduction of early detection methods for a broad spectrum of failures without the need of specific instrumentation. Furthermore, the promotion of energy performance is also useful as a quality indicator of the process itself. Thus, this paper describes a methodology to monitor the energy consumption performance of a compressed air generation system in an industrial plant to detect anomalies using artificial neural networks. The use of ANNs allows an accurate characterization of the system in a healthy state. Then, by comparing the model prediction and the actual energy consumption, residuals are calculated and plotted in a control chart. The setting of limits and frequency of control enables the management to decide the sensitivity of the control system itself
Lean implementation in different countries: A literature review
No full textFrom the second half of the last century the Lean Thinking has spread all over the world. Companies have adopted this philosophy and have dropped it in the activities of the several functions creating specific lean practices. Literature recognizes Lean as an integrated system composed of different elements, identifies a lot of practices and tools, but there is a lack of standard Lean implementation process/framework and a comprehensive analysis of the influence of the implementation context (people, duties, logistics, etc.). This paper examines the existing literature about Lean implementation in different countries, focalising on how Lean is operationalised. The aim is to identify if there are differences in the application of Lean according to the different geographical contexts. The methodology applied consists on a review of international peer-reviewed journals and conference paper published from 2000, to identify what authors wrote about lean implementation, in different countries. The research classifies the articles according to the lean practices and the geographical belonging of authors. This research displays that the existing literature classifies different declinations of lean but does not present any contributions that explicitly suggests the analysis of characteristics of the place (people, duties, logistics, etc.) as a preliminary activity for the implementation of lean. The research show also a lack of standard framework for lean implementation. Although literature does not consider the relationship between enabling factors and territory, geopolitical conditions affect this factors and as consequence the lean implementation. This paper is the first literature review focalized on lean operationalization in different countries with regard to different practices
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