Marzio Sorlini

A cost evaluation approach for trucks maintenance planning

This article proposes a decision support system to improve the management of the middle-of-life phase according to product life cycle (LC) cost evaluation. A new maintenance approach integrates information gathered from different actors in order to obtain data which may impact on the whole value chain. A specific algorithm calculating residual LC costs is used for the optimisation of maintenance interventions of a fleet of trucks. The proposed system enables to create new value-transforming information into knowledge available for all LC phases and meant to support improvements in product and service quality, efficiency and sustainability. The solution described here goes in the direction of predictive maintenance for trucks aiming to reduce the number of unexpected stops and minimise product LC costs, avoiding component breakdowns.

Sustainability Assessment and Advisory in Mould&Die: Implementation Challenges and Solutions

The paper describes a possible but concrete implementation pattern that is currently used to introduce and apply a sustainability-centered strategy in a mould&die company (INTERROLL SA). Focus of the analysis, implementation requirements, designed procedures and a draft software architecture are here outlined, forming the conceptual basis for a value-adding and easily adoptable approach intended to promote the implementation of a so widely-speculated strategic theory. The described path could be easily adapted to other mould&die companies and further extended to different industrial sectors.

Anthropocentric Workplaces of the Future Approached through a New Holistic Vision

The human dimension is growing in importance in the cul- tural and scientific debate surrounding the arising of workplace and fac- tory of the future visions. Having people at the centre of the factory is already recognized as a main enabler for making the most out of their skills and capacities while at the same time achieving an environment that can both motivate employed workers and attract new skilled ones. The present paper proposes a novel concept aimed at defining new so- cially sustainable workplaces that adapt to workers’ anthropometric di- mensions within worker-aware production systems that are designed and operated to capitalize on workers’ skills and experience while at the same time promoting their development. Moreover it envisions the integration of the factory in the social and environmental context by promoting the creation and provision of worker-centric services that turn the factory from a society-affecting entity into an integration-promotion body.

Sustainability Assessment Model

The concept of sustainability, in the way we understand the term now, first appeared in 1987, within the Brundtland Report, defined as “to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Later, as the concept gained popularity, hundreds of definitions were proposed, in academic debates and business arenas, referring to a more ethical, more green, and more transparent way of doing business. Today, the label of “sustainable” is a bottom-line requirement: as a matter of fact, Sustainability has become a common basic goal for many national and international organizations including industries, governments, NGOs, and universities. However, in spite of the nearly universal recognition that Sustainability has received, companies still struggle with the full understanding of the concept and with its financial viability.

Mass Customization Theory and Implementation Framework

The term “mass customization,” abridged with MC, was anticipated by Stan Davis in the book, “Future Perfect,” in 1987: “the same large number of customers can be reached as in mass markets… and simultaneously they can be treated individually as in the customized markets of pre-industrial economies.”

An advisory tool for sustainability-driven maintenance. A real case in mould and die industry

Maintenance impacts on environmental, economical and social performances of a product are often overlooked or underestimated. Especially for durable goods, maintenance should positively influence the product sustainability profile extending its lifespan, but, negatively, it also adds operations and materials usage. Available sustainability (mostly environmental) assessment tools either do not consider maintenance impacts, or compute them just for already produced products, this extremely limiting (or even inhibiting) the capability to improve the sustainability profile of under-design products. The here presented tool, based on a Naïve Bayes Classifier, real-timely computes the sustainability performances of under-design moulds, thus advising the mould designer towards better performing design choices. The paper presents the tool development process and achieved results, exploiting the advantages of the selected target product: a long-lasting, frequently maintained capital good.

An integrative approach improves sustainability impacts of innovation. An empirical study

A review of recent literature in the field indicates there is an increasing interest in improving sustainability performances of manufacturing. The integrated innovation of product, process and supply chain can be a promising way to improve economic, social and environmental performances of manufacturing enterprises, but there is still a lack of empirical evidence on the topic. This paper compares the sustainability-related performances of three different states, which a unique business context went through. The final state, a small-sized mini-factory for the local transformation of sheep wool, outperforms the other (more traditional) configurations in terms of social end economic impacts, with just partial advantages in terms of environmental performances.

Empowering widespread shoe personalization via a 3D foot scanning App

Unceasing market request for personalization of consumer goods calls for more and more flexible production technologies, and for increasingly reliable means to gather precise pictures of what each customer desires. Fitting is especially crucial to accomplish personalization in footwear, where the prevailing of manual operations makes production flexibility quite easy, but the close interaction between shoe and foot requires extremely precise knowledge of the body part which is being gloved. In a still ongoing research project, the authors are developing a powerful smartphone App to perform a 3D scanning of a foot, whose preliminarily registered performances are here presented and discussed. The solution is expected to establish a new standpoint in the trade-off between the level of precision of the gathered data and the ubiquity and accessibility of the scanning functionality, thus empowering a widespread best-matched fit personalization in the footwear market.

Hic Sunt Dracones: Here Be Dragons

Mass Customization refers to customer co-design process of products and services, which meets the needs of each individual customer with regard to certain product features. All operations are performed within a fixed solution space, characterized by stable but still flexible and responsive processes.

Ideas and Trends from Research Activities

Several different research initiatives have been funded by the European Commission in order to provide solutions to the challenges proposed in this work.