Costel Emil Cotet

Internet/Intranet/Extranet-Based Systems in the CESICED Platform for Virtual Product Development Environment

Development teams involved in the product development are often geographically and temporally distributed. There is a high level of outsourcing in the actual product development efforts. In order to achieve a market objective that otherwise could be out of reach, enterprises, which do not have the complete knowledge for developing all the components needed for their products, need to outsource the development of specific parts; in this way a cooperation with other enterprises working in the same industrial sector starts. It is then possible to say that enterprises give rise to a special type of virtual enterprise(VE), in which each company maintains the greatest flexibility and business independence. This paper presents a vision of next generation engineering working environments and describes a core information technology which future systems can be built on. This paper gives an overview of the new Web Services technology based of the IBM Rational Software solutions, discusses the critical issues of the virtual product development, presents the roles of the virtual teams, and build a general architecture of a CESICED experimental platform for training, research and consulting in the new digital economy, located in the PREMINV center at the University Politehnica of Bucharest.

Professional Risk Assessment Using Virtual Enterprise Network Support for Knowledge Bases Development

The paper presents some recent researches results based on the concept of collaborative infrastructure, in order to unify existing standards for supply chain management and to provide the support in various decision making process in manufacturing supply networks. Intended to facilitate and enhance the required knowledge management processes the proposed collaborative infrastructure, based on a virtual enterprise network, is expected to promote the development of the business services sector using a new product lifecycle paradigm according with the greater need for software tools for risk estimation. We focus on the professional risk assessment (PRA) as part of risk management process (RMP) and how the risk level can be established in collaborative infrastructures depending on probability and severity of consequences. A case study is presented to show PRA at the SMEs level.

The Preminv Platform for Training in Management and Engineering for Virtual Enterprise

In the paper we define a hardware-software structure named “Platform for Training in Management and Engineering for Industrial Virtual Enterprises (PREMINV)”, needed to train students, the future engineers, who must be able to work in the virtual enterprise (VE), imposed by the globalization of the manufacturing and competition. We emphasis on special skills requirements by the new VE environment. For this purpose is used the portal concept, referred to as Enterprise Information Portal (EIP) because provides the infrastructure for a much more active and personalized interactions with the user than a typical web site. There are presented the components of an EIP and the products that provides a portal framework for registration and integration of applications and data stores, using Internet/Extranet/Intranet infrastructures.

Virtual Model in Monitoring and Optimization of a Selective Waste Collection Integrated System

This paper presents some results of a research project aiming to increase the usage degree, productivity and storage capacity of a selective waste collection system and the integration of the system in the smart city infrastructure. Companies that have waste collection and recycling as their target activity are looking for solutions in order to increase the collection levels for all types of waste. In our project we plan to modernize a waste collection system that will considerably increase the waste collection level, that will meet the requirements and the needs identified by the economic agent and that will adapt to the new technologies so that it will be integrated in the infrastructure of the smart city. The first objective of the project is to increase the use of the system, improve its productivity and its collected waste storage capacity. The second objective is to integrate the system in the infrastructure of the smart city. For the activities planned in order to meet these objectives, the paper proposes a material flow management optimizing algorithm based on a virtual model of the selecting and processing architecture of the system. The material flow management of this system will be based on its virtual model in order to identify and eliminate material flow concentrators and increase productivity. Simulation will be used to diagnose the initial performance of the system structural elements as well as to validate the optimized system performances after eliminating the bottlenecks.

Modelling, Simulation and Optimization of a Packaging and Palletizing System

This paper presents a material flow management case study based on our research in modelling, simulation and optimization for a packaging and palletizing system. The studied system allows packaging, palletizing, wrapping and storage of several types of products within a food company. For each type of product to be packaged and stored a material flow system simulation is necessary in order to identify and eliminate the bottlenecks and to obtain an optimized system in terms of productivity. Because the optimization algorithm is the same for different kind of products we will illustrate our research using a single type of product. We will focus the case study on packaging coffee bags in boxes. The boxes are positioned on pallets in order to create a stack that will be wrapped for storage. We used Flexim 7 simulation software for modelling, simulation and optimization of the packaging and palletizing system.

Knowledge Applications Development for SMEs Business Management System Improvement

This paper presents some research results based on the concept of collaborative infrastructure (as virtual enterprise business network), in order to unify existing standards for supply chain management and to provide support in various decision making manufacturing supply networks processes. It intends to facilitate and enhance the required knowledge management processes linked with the business process management. The virtual enterprise business network expected to improve small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involvement in new product manufacturing networking efforts, enables better and faster decision processes and promotes the development of the business services. As the new product development paradigm requires evaluated software tools, a knowledge base method built and used for the human resources (HR) selection as part of the business management process is proposed.