Mechanical Engineering Companies Research Articles

RE-ENGINEERING OF BUSINESS PROCESSES OF MACHINE-BUILDING ENTERPRISES: INCREASING THE EFFICIENCY OF COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES

The main purpose of the article is a theoretical and methodological substantiation of the choice of the optimal form of re-engineering for machine-building enterprises in modern conditions of a changing external environment. The object of the study is the business processes, commercial activities and financial potential of machine-building enterprises. The scientific task is to present a modern methodological approach to choosing the form of re-engineering that is better for a mechanical engineering company in the context of its current state. For this purpose, methods of financial analysis, matrix analysis and ranking were used. In addition, such auxiliary methods as graphical and abstract-logical were used. As a result of the research and calculations, a ranking of key indicators of the financial potential of machine-building enterprises was determined and carried out. An approach to determining the level of efficiency of business processes is presented. The author's vision of the matrix for choosing the optimal form of re-engineering is proposed. The practical value of the results obtained is revealed in the possibility of applying the proposed approach in the activities of machine-building enterprises in Ukraine. The study is limited by taking into account the specifics of the activities of machine-building enterprises exclusively when selecting indicators and ranking them. Prospects for further research are considered through the prism of applying the developed methodological approach to other industrial enterprises in Ukraine.

Development of an Assessment Model for Measuring Mechanical Engineering Companies’ Circularity and Maturity Levels

The circular economy has gained significance in recent years due to its potential to achieve economic benefits and address ecological challenges. Mechanical engineering companies face the challenge of transitioning to a circular economy, which offers advantages like improved resource utilisation, reduced dependence on external suppliers, and enhanced production and supply chain efficiency. However, implementing circular economy principles proves difficult for manufacturing firms. Measuring circularity poses significant challenges, necessitating assessing methods' development, application, and validation. Industry-specific key indicators and data quality assurance are crucial in this regard. Existing models struggle to adapt to diverse contexts and industries. The outcome of this paper is the C-METRIC (Circular Manufacturing Evaluation and Rating for Industrial Circularity), an industry-specific method for assessing mechanical engineering companies' circularity and maturity level, developed using the Design-Science-Research Methodology. Based on the circular value chain, the method evaluates the maturity and circularity levels of the focused sector through 66 specific questions in 33 different areas of the company. The results are divided into the maturity and circularity levels of value-adding and strategic processes and are visualised using spider diagrams. The purpose of this model is to survey the circularity and circular economy maturity of mechanical engineering companies of specific regions and sectors.

Workshop production management methods

The contribution is devoted to a mechanical engineering company, then the methods of workshop production management and the systems that are used in this management are discussed in detail. At the beginning of the practical part, the current state of workshop management is identified using a questionnaire. In the second part, there is an analysis of workshop management in the company and a proposal for improving the given management

ОСОБЕННОСТИ ДИНАМИКИ И СТРУКТУРЫ ПРОФЕССИОНАЛЬНОЙ ЗАБОЛЕВАЕМОСТИ В РЕСПУБЛИКЕ ТАТАРСТАН

Introduction. In their labor activities, employees are exposed to some hazardous and harmful factors of the working environment, of which the key ones are physical factors, such as noise or local/general vibration; physical and functional overloads of the musculoskeletal system; aerosols of predominantly fibrogenic action; and dust. The core indicator characterizing the occupational risk of a health problems is occupational morbidity. Aim. Studying the time profile and structure of occupational morbidity in employees of the Republic of Tatarstan. Material and methods. Occupational morbidity over the years 2007-2021 was analyzed. Over the period under research, occupational illnesses were diagnosed in 2,546 employees of 130 occupational categories. Results and discussion. The highest rates of occupational morbidity were recorded among employees of agricultural and mechanical engineering enterprises and companies. About 60% of occupational diseases were diagnosed in those pursuing 7 professions. What stands out is the similarity of occupational pathologies in assembly workers and riveters, fettlers, and farm-machine operators, who were diagnosed with vibration syndrome and occupational deafness. Occupational diseases of respiratory and musculoskeletal systems were additionally diagnosed in fettlers. In milkmaids, the occupational diseases of musculoskeletal system take the leading place. Polymorbidity of occupational pathology is most pronounced in machine milking operators followed by tractor drivers and fettlers. Conclusion. It is necessary to ensure early occupational pathology diagnoses in routine health screenings and timely referrals to the occupational pathology center in order to perform causal relationship assessments between disease and occupation.

Similarity learning of product descriptions and images using multimodal neural networks

Multimodal deep learning is an emerging research topic in machine learning and involves the parallel processing of different modalities of data such as texts, images and audiovisual data. Well-known application areas are multimodal image and video processing as well as speech recognition. In this paper, we propose a multimodal neural network that measures the similarity of text-written product descriptions and images and has applications in inventory reconciliation and search engine optimization. We develop two models. The first takes image and text data, each processed by convolutional neural networks, and combines the two modalities. The second is based on a bidirectional triplet loss function. We conduct experiments using ABO! (ABO!) dataset and an industry-related dataset used for the inventory reconciliation of a mechanical engineering company. Our first model achieves an accuracy of 92.37% with ResNet152 on the ABO! dataset and 99.11% with MobileNetV3_Large on our industry-related dataset. By extending this model to a model with three inputs, two text inputs and one image input, we greatly improve the performance and achieve an accuracy of 97.57% on the ABO! dataset and 99.83% with our industry related inventory dataset. Our second model based on the triplet loss achieves only an accuracy of 73.85% on the ABO! dataset. However, our experiments demonstrate that multimodal networks consistently perform better when measuring the similarity of products, even in situations where one modality lacks sufficient data, because it is complemented with the other modality. Our proposed approaches open up several possibilities for further optimization of search engines.

Business Model Innovation in the German Industry: Case Studies from the Railway, Manufacturing and Construction Sectors

For a long time, the business activities of industrial companies in mechanical engineering, plant construction or the automotive industry focused on products and product-related services. Digital pioneers have refined these products such as machinery, equipment, and devices with data-driven services, which they make available worldwide via digital platforms. This emerging trend influences existing and future business models of all companies. This transition from product-related, single-sided markets to platform markets is characteristic of the digital age. The speed at which business models must change continues to be underestimated by many market participants, especially when order books are well filled and the pressure to change appears to be low. Industrial and service companies need to adapt to the changes induced by new market players to secure future business success and remain competitive in the digital age. The aim of this article is to intensify the debate on digital business models in the industry by providing practical examples of business model innovations in three industries.

Human biomonitoring and personal air monitoring. An integrated approach to assess exposure of stainless-steel welders to metal-oxide nanoparticles

In welding, there is a potential risk due to metal-oxide nanoparticles (MONPs) exposure of workers. To investigate this possibility, the diameter and number particles concentration of MONPs were evaluated in different biological matrices and in personal air samples collected from 18 stainless-steel welders and 15 unexposed administrative employees engaged in two Italian mechanical engineering Companies. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) and urine were sampled at pre-shift on 1st day and post-shift on 5th day of the workweek, while plasma and inhalable particulate matter (IPM) at post-shift on 5th day and analysed using the Single Particle Mass Spectrometry (SP-ICP-MS) technique to assess possible exposure to Cr2O3, Mn3O4 and NiO nanoparticles (NPs) in welders. The NPs in IPM at both Companies presented a multi-oxide composition consisting of Cr2O3 (median, 871,574 particles/m3; 70 nm), Mn3O4 (median, 713,481 particles/m3; 92 nm) and NiO (median, 369,324 particles/m3; 55 nm). The EBC of welders at both Companies showed Cr2O3 NPs median concentration significantly higher at post-shift (64,645 particles/mL; 55 nm) than at pre-shift (15,836 particles/mL; 58 nm). Significantly lower Cr2O3 NPs median concentration and size (7762 particles/mL; 44 nm) were observed in plasma compared to EBC of welders. At one Company, NiO NPs median concentration in EBC (22,000 particles/mL; 65 nm) and plasma (8248 particles/mL; 37 nm) were detected only at post-shift. No particles of Cr2O3, Mn3O4 and NiO were detected in urine of welders at both Companies. The combined analyses of biological matrices and air samples were a valid approach to investigate both internal and external exposure of welding workers to MONPs. Overall, results may inform suitable risk assessment and management procedures in welding operations.

Understanding unforeseen production downtimes in manufacturing processes using log data-driven causal reasoning

In discrete manufacturing, the knowledge about causal relationships makes it possible to avoid unforeseen production downtimes by identifying their root causes. Learning causal structures from real-world settings remains challenging due to high-dimensional data, a mix of discrete and continuous variables, and requirements for preprocessing log data under the causal perspective. In our work, we address these challenges proposing a process for causal reasoning based on raw machine log data from production monitoring. Within this process, we define a set of transformation rules to extract independent and identically distributed observations. Further, we incorporate a variable selection step to handle high-dimensionality and a discretization step to include continuous variables. We enrich a commonly used causal structure learning algorithm with domain-related orientation rules, which provides a basis for causal reasoning. We demonstrate the process on a real-world dataset from a globally operating precision mechanical engineering company. The dataset contains over 40 million log data entries from production monitoring of a single machine. In this context, we determine the causal structures embedded in operational processes. Further, we examine causal effects to support machine operators in avoiding unforeseen production stops, i.e., by detaining machine operators from drawing false conclusions on impacting factors of unforeseen production stops based on experience.

The pandemic and its impact on occupational health and safety among mechanical engineering industries in India

Workplace health and safety has been of paramount importance for any nation and the stakeholders- authorities, employers and workers – must have reasonable sensitization for the same. During the COVID 19 pandemic, lots of policy formulations and regulations had to incorporate within the industries for the health and welfare of the workers. The “new normal” will take some time for adjustments, challenges and implications to be implemented effectively and consistently. Certain processes in the workplace, especially in the mechanical engineering companies, are likely for high close contact incidences. Special situations pertaining to workers’’ health, like crowded accommodations, travel risks as well common canteens, all need to be reconsidered for providing safer environment to the workers, as far as the current pandemic is concerned. This requires coordinated efforts from all the stakeholders within the mechanical field through subconscious acceptance of the norms of safety and hygiene at all levels.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ АНАЛИЗА ФИНАНСОВОЙ ОТЧЕТНОСТИ ВЫСОКОТЕХНОЛОГИЧНЫХ КОМПАНИЙ МАШИНОСТРОИТЕЛЬНОЙ ОТРАСЛИ

Natalia A. Ivanova, Irina I. Arkhipova, Saint-Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, St. Petersburg, Russia Abstract The article reveals the features of the analysis of financial statements of high-tech companies. The relevance of the research topic lies in the fact that each enterprise presents its financial condition as a combination of several indicators: types of financial resources, potential opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation with the state and national economy entities, stable solvency, stability in the market among competitors. The authors propose a classification of high-tech companies on the basis of their generalized distinctive characteristics, which contribute to an express analysis of the indicators of the financial condition of such campaigns. The review of financial statements of high-tech companies in mechanical engineering is based on investment analysis, the study of financial results and takes into account the assessment of financial stability. Analysis of these factors allows you to best investigate the financial statements.

Systematic derivation of customized development sprints for an agile development of wind turbines

To account for the increasing volatility and uncertainty of external requirements, mechanical and plant engineering companies are facing growing demands for increased flexibility and adaptability within product development. The wind turbine industry in particular, which is characterized by low unit numbers, long development time and high development costs, is especially affected by this trend. Companies are forced to implement processes that allow for short-term adaptation to changing requirements. Plan-driven approaches typically presume that requirements are defined in the early stages of product development and remain static throughout the process. Companies are increasingly resorting to agile approaches, which rely on an incremental and highly iterative development process divided into short sprints. However, the main challenge for them is moving from plan-driven to agile due to the lack of a comprehensive method of incorporating and transforming their current development activities into an agile approach. This allows for the configuration of agile sprints on a short-term, results-oriented basis from process modules identified in the current development. A five step method for this purpose is being presented. The five steps are as follows: (1) Process analysis to record the status as-is; (2) Identification of recurring process modules throughout the development process; (3) Identification of development objects that are used or generated by the process modules; (4) Bottom-up classification and consolidation of these development objects; (5) Configuration of development sprints as a sequence of process modules linked via development objects. The respective steps were validated in cooperation with a company from the wind turbine industry.

ФОРМУВАННЯ ЦІНОВОЇ СТРАТЕГІЇ В СИСТЕМІ МАРКЕТИНГУ МАШИНОБУДІВНОГО ПІДПРИЄМСТВА

Abstract. Objective. The research problem for this study is to analyze the mechanism of the price strategy development of a mechanical engineering company in a competitive environment. To achieve the goal, it is necessary to generalize theoretical approaches to determining the strategic direction of the company's price policy and analyze the main factors of the market situation in the field of domestic mechanical engineering. Methods. The issues of evolution and analysis of the strategic direction of the price policy of a mechanical engineering company were analyzed in the works of such researchers as Bozhkov D., Zhegus O., Koriniev V., Pererva P., Sus L., Shevchuk N. and many others. In their studies, considerable attention is also paid to issues of strategic management and increasing the competitiveness of industrial companies in modern economic conditions. Results. The main task when setting the price strategy for mechanical engineering products is to determine the consumer value of the product, which is calculated as the difference between the benefits received by the buyer and his costs. When analyzing a company's competitive advantage, it is necessary to compare its own costs with the costs of its main competitors. In some cases, it is necessary to determine the costs of competitors on the basis of data on the amount of wages, the cost of materials and production equipment, as well as other indirect information. The strategic form of the price policy can include different implementation options depending on the marketing strategy carried out by the company. It is also important to consider the level of business environmental turbulence and its impact on the strategic planning. It is recommended to allocate all costs for equipment maintenance in proportion to the quantitative composition of production and technical equipment used for each type of activity, and only then calculate the total amount of maintenance costs for each unit of equipment throughout the useful life of its operation. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the obtained results is in the improvement of the methodical approach to marketing pricing, which is based on a comparison of the level of production costs of the manufacturer, the level of prices and value orientations of consumers. Practical significans. The author's conclusions can be used in the practical activity of manufacturers and trade companies as well as be put into the basis for further scientific developments in improving the processes of marketing pricing of domestic business entities. Key words: marketing pricing, pricing factors, pricing methods, pricing policy of the company, pricing strategy, marketing activity of the company, production capacity of the mechanical engineering company, production costs, price elasticity, target pricing.

Approach for stakeholder identification in Manufacturing Change Management

Resilience, agility, and flexibility are considered key factors in maintaining the long-term competitiveness of manufacturing companies. In addition to assembly and production systems that offer a high degree of reconfigurability, the intelligent design and implementation of the change management process is an important prerequisite for this. In this context, the identification of the affected employees and departments during change initiation, planning, and implementation is necessary to ensure the consideration of all relevant perspectives on the intended change, e.g. concerning the resulting change effects. Especially in medium-sized and large companies, this is complicated by a multidimensional division of tasks and responsibilities. Therefore, this paper presents a methodological support for stakeholder identification in Manufacturing Change Management. Through an extensive literature research and several expert interviews, relevant dimensions for the description of technical changes and the responsibilities of employees are defined. Based on this, the entire approach is described from the initial modeling of the company’s internal organizational structures to the application and interpretation of the results. The evaluation and validation were carried out in cooperation with a globally operating mechanical engineering company in southern Germany. Five different use cases, including the redesign of several assembly workplaces, were analyzed and evaluated through expert interviews.

Archetypes of Digital Twins

Currently, Digital Twins receive considerable attention from practitioners and in research. A Digital Twin describes a concept that connects physical and virtual objects through a data linkage. However, Digital Twins are highly dependent on their individual use case, which leads to a plethora of Digital Twin configurations. Based on a thorough literature analysis and two interview series with experts from various electrical and mechanical engineering companies, this paper proposes a set of archetypes of Digital Twins for individual use cases. It delimits the Digital Twins from related concepts, e.g., Digital Threads. The paper delivers profound insights into the domain of Digital Twins and, thus, helps the reader to identify the different archetypical patterns.

AUTOMATED STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM AN ALTERNATIVE FOR LOGISTIC TRANSFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: A CASE STUDY

This research was taken at one of the mechanical engineering companies produces customize spare parts, special purposed machinery, automation system integrator and robotic installation. The company has problem high cost operation warehouse, need space expanding production line, stockopname problem, picking failure, high cycle time operation, logistic efficiency, and inventory cost. These problems have impact to company performance which need cost down, increase efficiency and productivity with minimum defect. The data has shown company needs additional 157m2 to expanding new line, has 4% picking defect, there is 200 million operational cost over, 150sec cycle time, 7% lost part and risk cyber data security. Due to the importance of the problem, the company needs to evaluate and solve the problem which has impact to company performance, especially in the warehouse. DMAIC (Define Measure Analyze Improve and Control) approach is applied to comprehensively explore the problem and comes out with alternatives solution. Two alternatives were developed. The criteria for selection used were i.e. cost; accuracy, security, safety, productivity, cycle time, and minimize defect It was concluded that the application of automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS) was selected as it dominates in many aspects compare to expanding the current one. This implementation of ASRS approved that this new system answers the current warehouse problem

Prospects for the use of IT for the selection and assessment of suppliers of materials and components

The purpose of this work is to use information technology to help management decisions. The crux of the problem is the choice of suppliers of materials and components for mechanical engineering companies. Periodically, in the procurement process, suppliers should be assessed on a number of criteria. The importance of rating is due to the fact that in today's market there are a large number of suppliers of the same material resources. Purchase is made from the most competitive suppliers, constantly confirming their status as a reliable business partner. The company developed a method of evaluating suppliers based on the system of management of the bases of the bath Microsoft Office Access. MS Access works in the Windows operating environment and allows users to organize a local database (DB). The local Access database has its own tables, forms, reports and other DB facilities of the organization with a relatively small amount of data. With the help of the scoring method, suppliers are ranked by their level of reliability. The relationship is terminated with a supplier that does not meet the required level of reliability. In this way, management solutions for logistics of supply receive a tool to hang the efficiency and get good results of the enterprise, to achieve its market stability.

Management of internal reserves of reducing product cost (on the example of JSC “Plant of Drilling Equipment”)

Due to tough competition and economic sanctions domestic mechanical engineering enterprises are in a permanent search of sources of increasing their performance efficiency. One of such sources is the internal potential of a company. Engineering enterprises possess a large stock of internal reserves and their exploitation provides the businesses with competitive advantages in the global market. Internal reserves are the source of a company’s investment. Reduction of production costs at the expense of internal reserves is an important direction of increasing an engineering company’s performance efficiency. Currently, there are no universal methodical tools to manage internal reserves of reducing production costs at the mechanical engineering enterprises. The study is aimed at describing the process of management of internal reserves of reducing production costs which is applied at one of engineering plants. The author outlines the experience of an mechanical engineering company on managing internal reserves of reducing production costs. It is based on the marginal analysis method which makes it possible to find a product with high margin profitability. The author adduces the sequence of all stages of the management process and the calculations on certain types of products, and reveals reserves for reducing production costs according to the directions of search for them. The experience presented in the article will be a good example for the other engineering enterprises and will provide them with the opportunity to reduce production costs and increase their performance efficiency avoiding any borrowed funds.

Integration of Agile Approaches in SME’s Product Development: Demand Analysis and Concept Development

In times of a complex, uncertain and dynamic world with increasingly faster product life cycles agile approaches in the early phase of product development are demanded in small and medium sized enterprises (SME’s). Despite the high demand, there is still no generally valid and need-specific solution concept for the integration of agile approaches due to different company specific requirements such as the level of maturity, experience and application purposes. Within this research, the question about the actual needs as well as the corresponding design of a concept for integrating agile approaches in product development for SME requirements is tackled. In order to identify existing challenges in the field of agile product development an empirical study with eleven mechanical engineering companies is conducted and analyzed. By using agglomerative-hierarchical clustering, three distinct types of SME’s with similar needs are structured. As a result, this research proposes a systematic procedure, enabling SME’s to be clustered by their needs and enable the integration of agile approaches through a problem-oriented roadmap with specified recommendation of actions. Enhancing the integration and application of agile approaches effectively in product development projects, the level of agility appropriate to the situation and needs must be identified and introduced. Therefore, the potential that arises from the process-oriented support of the product development teams in the early phase of innovation projects will be outlined. Keywords: agile approaches, needs analysis, small and medium sized enterprises, clustering, product development, mechanical engineering

Economic Security Formation of Enterprise Under the Conditions of Steady Development

The most relevant aspects of achieving economic security of enterprises are determined in the article. The assessment of the level of economic security was conducted using the method of analysis of the functioning environment. The focal points of the assessment are interests, threats and resources. The possibility of economic security strengthening of business entities is traced using analysis of economic activity of mechanical engineering companies of Vinnytsia region of Ukraine as an example. At the same time, businesses that cannot cover the cost of resources with the income from goods sale in the current year were singled out. Businesses entities positioning in the functioning environment in the context of economic security motivation (interests - increase in enterprise income, threats - growth of current and long-term liabilities, resources - use of fixed assets and employees), allowed to find opportunities to increase the efficiency of enterprises that to the greater extent are related to the manufacturing of machinery and equipment.

Identification of dependencies between product parameters and process stakeholders

In today’s mechanical engineering companies, the rising interdisciplinarity of processes and development teams as well as distributed company locations leads to increased production times and more complex product development processes (PDP), although shorter development times are requested. Especially changes, e.g. component optimization or changed customer requirements, as well as parallel sub-processes, require increased planning to make dependencies visible and estimate expenses.When requesting a change to e.g. a component property, it is difficult to identify on the one hand which processes and technical parameters are affected and on the other hand which stakeholders have to be included in the decision making. It is not yet state-of-the art that stakeholders affected by a change in the PDP are identified and notified automatically by the IT-system. Furthermore, it is challenging to identify indirectly connected stakeholders, which are not linked to changing properties or processes, concerning the changes made.In this paper, a methodological approach is presented, that links the technical parameters with the processes and the different stakeholders, using the example of a PDP for light weight composite components.The procedure comprises the implementation of the PDP for light weight composite, including the process-dependent roles, in a product data management (PDM) system. The process structure is then linked to a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tool. By building a system model, the product parameters are linked to the processes and roles. Using the established system model, the direct and indirect dependencies between the technical parameters and the stakeholders are visualized.