Aristomenis Antoniadis

Measuring and benchmarking the innovativeness of SMEs: A three-dimensional fuzzy logic approach

SMEs have been rather slow in adopting tools and techniques used in larger companies for improving their innovative performance, even if they are very well aware of the importance of innovation, due to difficulties in applying them in their practices. Furthermore, initiatives on improving the innovation within the SMEs in the past, have addressed ways of improving the product innovation process, through a wide spectrum of methods, techniques and tools without quantifying the degree of change of ‘innovativeness’. The approach presented in this paper, addresses both these issues. In the first part of this paper, the most commonly used measures of innovation are presented, and the difficulties in applying them to SMEs are described. In the second part a new methodology is presented, which is based on measuring and benchmarking innovation with fuzzy logic, through an innovation survey. This is achieved by addressing three inter-related, but separately measurable, aspects of a companys innovation process—the products developed; the innovation process utilized; the way the product innovation process is project managed. The approach aims at improving the iterative process of innovation in a SME, by assessing innovation and determining a product innovation profile. Finally an example based on data from 100 companies coming from the creative industries sector is presented.

Facial reconstruction of an 11-year-old female resident of 430 BC Athens

Although modern standards of ideal proportions and facial esthetics are based mostly on observations of human faces as depicted in Classical Greek masterpieces of art, the real faces of ordinary ancient Greeks have, until now, remained elusive and subject to the imagination. Objective forensic techniques of facial reconstruction have never been applied before, because human skeletal material from Classical Greece has been extremely scarce, since most decent burials of that time required cremation. Here, the authors show stage by stage the facial reconstruction of an 11-year-old girl whose skull was unearthed in excellent condition from a mass grave with victims of the Plague that struck Athens of 430 bc. The original skull was replicated via three-dimensional modeling and rapid prototyping techniques. The reconstruction followed the Manchester method, laying the facial tissues from the surface of the skull outward by using depth-marker pegs as thickness guides. The shape, size, and position of the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth were determined according to features of the underlying skeletal tissues, whereas the hairstyle followed the fashion of the time. This is the first case of facial reconstruction of a layperson residing in Athens of the Golden Age of Pericles. It is ironic, however, that this unfortunate girl who lived such a short life in ancient Athens, will now, 2500 years later, have the chance to travel and be universally recognizable in a world much bigger than anybody in ancient Athens could have ever imagined.

An analysis of European textile sector competitiveness

Purpose – The European Union (EU) clothing and textile industries are characterized by very intense international competition. EU producers face fierce competition from exports of new industrialized countries whose low wages and social charges give them a considerable competitive advantage. This paper seeks to present the results of an analysis of the European textile sector competitiveness.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on an industrial excellence (IE) model developed by INSEAD. This model has been used for the last ten years in an annual award (IEA), given out in France and Germany. This time the model was used not for giving an award, but for assessing and analyzing the current status of industrial excellence in the textile sector. For this reason a sample of textile companies from three European countries was used and results of the analysis are presented. The textile companies that participated in the analysis were benchmarked against the technologically advanced IEA sample consi...

Effect of impact angle and velocity in crater circularity in abrasive water jet machining by means of multi-particle impact simulation

The present study focuses on the erosion mechanism observed during abrasive water jet (AWJ) machining. An ANSYS/LS-Dyna 3D software-based finite element (FE) model is developed for the representation of the erosion process in a 3D configuration. The proposed FE model’s solution, which accounts for the effect of multiple particle impacts on a workpiece made of stainless steel (AISI 304), is obtained using a 16-node cluster system. The influence of impact angle and particle velocity is currently studied, while the material’s crater circularity is also evaluated. The results of the present study are found to be in very good agreement with their experimental counterparts.

Mapping product innovation profile to product development activities - the I-DSM tool

The quality of the decisions during the design phase of a product development process is strongly connected with the assessment of the product, process and organizational innovation dimensions. The developed methodology addresses the three dimensions, using 3D innovation attributes, in order to obtain a product innovation profile through an innovation survey. An innovation design structure matrix tool (I-DSM tool) is used for mapping and analyzing the dependencies between the innovation attributes. Furthermore an innovation improvement impact value for each attribute is introduced and an optimal improvement strategy is defined. Next the product innovation profile is mapped with the product development activities, in order to evaluate the effect of the proposed strategy to the activities cost and durations.

Surface topomorphy and roughness prediction in micro-ball-end milling using a CAD-based simulation

Ball-end milling is a widely used finishing process in metal cutting. The small size and the complex of metal machining components are the main reasons for implementing milling in microscale. The surface profile and the dimensional accuracy are key factors on the quality of surface of a product. The selection of optimal cutting conditions can be accomplished by utilising simulation models which can involve the kinematics and the strategies of milling processes. Therefore, the analytical prediction of the produced surface quality (topomorphy and roughness) can be reached. The present study indicates a 3D simulation model of ball-end micro-milling process developed in commercial CAD software and its optical and computing results. Micro-milling experiments of Al7075-T6 were carried out in different conditions by the use of a high speed spindle. A computer application was developed to calculate the roughness out of the controlled points of a plane that intersects with the 3D workpiece. The calculated roughness was compared with the measured surface roughness and the surface topomorphy was captured through a stereo microscope.

A Novel Approach to Product Innovation Profiling Assessment: The I-DSM Tool

Innovation is a major driving force for the economic growth and expansion of companies and the need to innovate has become clear by now. The quality of the decisions during the design phase of a product development process is strongly connected with the assessment of the product, process and organisational innovation dimensions. The developed methodology addresses these three axes, using 30 innovation attributes, in order to obtain a product innovation profile through an innovation survey. This way a range of industry standard Innovation scores called PIP-SCORES (Product Innovation Profile scores -or innovation benchmarks) have been established. So far more than 600 companies coming from a range of industrial sectors that include creative industries, electrical/electronic, fire and safety, footwear, plastics, ceramics and textiles, have participated in this survey and their innovation profiles have been included in the database. The proposed tool benchmarks the product innovation profile of a company with the corresponding innovation scores from companies coming from the same sector. Next, the tool utilises a Design Structure Matrix, for mapping the dependencies between the Innovation Attributes. Furthermore an Innovation Improvement Impact Value for each Attribute is introduced. In order to improve the innovative profile of a company, a considerable amount of resources is needed. Provided that resources are usually limited to most companies, an optimal improvement strategy, based on the Innovation Improvement Impact values is proposed. The proposed tool (I-DSM, Innovation – Design Structure Matrix) aims at improving the innovative performance of a company, by minimizing the product development cycle and by improving the performance of the product development process.

Designing Bottle Products using Environmental Criteria

Abstract The aim of this work is to evaluate the quality of a proposed product design using environmental criteria. This paper reports on the development of a methodology for designing bottles using specific features related to them and on a procedure for evaluating the environmental impact of the design, by suggesting forms which leads to the reduction of their material and therefore to a lower impact on the environment during their life cycle. The shape of the bottle is formed by separating it into a number of parts such as necks, bodies, bases and handles. A number of parametrically defined forms are provided by the system enabling the automatic configuration of the product. The system automatically generates the fmal shape and assigns the appropriate dimensions and relations. Using the Bottle Material Volume Evaluation Tool the system calculates two factors to evaluate the material volume of each bottle part and compare it to the minimal one for the specific volume and to quantify the effect of the modification of the parts dimensions on the volume of the packaging material. This design method can provide us a quantification of the effect of increasing (or decreasing) a dimension on the amount of part material, which is being saved, a defmition of the profile that the part should have in order to reduce the material and a methodology for specifying height to width ratio, which leads to the biggest reduction of the material volume of a part. The proposed product has been implemented on a commercial parametric feature based solid modeling system.