Konstantinos Georgoulias

Digital manufacturing: History, perspectives, and outlook

Abstract Digital manufacturing has been considered, over the last decade, as a highly promising set of technologies for reducing product development times and cost as well as for addressing the need for customization, increased product quality, and faster response to the market. This paper describes the evolution of information technology systems in manufacturing, outlining their characteristics and the challenges to be addressed in the future. Together with the digital manufacturing and factory concepts, the technologies considered in this paper include computer-aided design, engineering, process planning and manufacturing, product data and life-cycle management, simulation and virtual reality, automation, process control, shopfloor scheduling, decision support, decision making, manufacturing resource planning, enterprise resource planning, logistics, supply chain management, and e-commerce systems. These technologies are discussed in the context of the digital factory and manufacturing concepts.

On the Configuration and Planning of Dynamic Manufacturing Networks

Manufacturing organizations have been attempting to improve the operation of supply networks through efficient supply chain management. Dynamic manufacturing networks (DMNs) constitute chains of diverse partners, whose operation and interaction may change in a rapid and often not predictable way. While the existing supply chain models are quite static and examine transportation modes, product changeover and production facility options with fixed suppliers and over a long period of time, the DMNs address operations and risks on a daily basis. In this paper, a novel decision-making approach is proposed for supporting the process of configuring a DMN from a holistic perspective, taking into account production, transportation and time constraints as well as multiple criteria such as time and cost.

Flexibility evaluation: A toolbox approach

Flexibility is an important aspect of modern manufacturing systems. Although a systems capability to monitor, predict and improve flexibility has long been considered as a major competitive advantage, the development of methods and algorithms for the measurement of manufacturing flexibility remains an open issue both from an academic and an industrial point of view. The purpose of this work is to propose a holistic approach for short, mid- and long-term flexibility performance measuring and monitoring in industrial practice. In the core of the suggested approach stands a flexibility evaluation toolbox, which can be utilised for real-life industrial cases.

Organisation and operation of dynamic manufacturing networks

The dynamic manufacturing networks (DMNs) offer a modern approach to managing risks and increasing benefits in the manufacturing sector. The DMNs offer a solution to rapidly and efficiently designing and operating a new manufacturing network, or to reconfiguring an existing one, in order for specific objectives in each situation to be accomplished. This is a study of the evolution of such networks which highlights the main prerequisites to their success and presents a comprehensive approach to the organisation and operation of DMNs. The proposed approach is applied to an industrial pilot case and the results are critically reviewed.

The Use of Conceptual Maps for Competencies Mapping and Knowledge Formalization in a Virtual Lab

In this work we address the need to formalize knowledge in a systematic way in order to productively explore it. We present a methodology on how to capture and archive information and then transform this plain information into valuable knowledge. In a specific case study, the competencies of each node/organization of a networked Virtual Laboratory have been identified. Conceptual maps aiming to host the identified competencies are structured based on specific rules; the population of the conceptual maps and the mapping of the competencies give a user-friendly overview of the Virtual Lab’s overall knowledge and expertise, considering both internal and cross-organizational aspects. The benefits of this work are described and guidelines for the implementation and introduction of the proposed work to multi-stakeholders environments are provided. The results of this work are expected to be of value to both industrial and academic audience with interests on topics such as knowledge mapping, knowledge formalization, competencies mapping, conceptual maps, tacit knowledge, and ontologies.

Prerequisites and Conditions for Socially Sustainable Manufacturing in Europe’s Future Factories – results overview from the SO SMART Project

This paper provides an overview of the EU project SO SMART (Socially Sustainable Manufacturing for the Factories of the Future), a coordinated support action (CSA) project. SO SMART examined the conditions in Europe for creating socially sustainable workplaces in the manufacturing sector, where factories flourish along with their social environment. The project was international (with partners from five countries), multidisciplinary and participatory, involving participation of several science domain experts and a wider community of academic and industry beneficiaries who participated in panels, workshops, conference events and an online forum created specifically for the project.

A shoe design support module towards mass customization

The transition from mass production to mass customization has brought new “facts” in the way the different actors of the supply chain do business together. On this context, new business models are being developed and introduced. This work presents a shoe design support module addressing the requirements of the new models for involving more actors such as product and production engineers, suppliers, customers, retailers etc. in the shoe development process. This module fosters the early integration and close collaboration of these Groups of Interest. Furthermore, a novel performance calculation tool is introduced which supports the iterative, collaborative shoe design process by automatically deriving the cost and time values for the new developed shoe model based on the envisioned production processes and the current situation at the production site.

Novel business models formanufacturing firms

In this work, a series of novel business models, employed in modern manufacturing firms, are investigated. Their structure and operation are presented and analyzed. Traditional business models have been pursued with minor variations for a long time. The economic recession, however, has now intrigued stakeholders to think over some of the elements found in the current business models. Flexibility on manufacturing, pricing, research and development, supply and marketing are reconsidered. In order to evaluate the applicability of the proposed business models, they are studied in the shoe manufacturing sector, where both automated machining and labour intensive manufacturing activities are present.