Global Manufacturing Environment Research Articles

How Metaverse will influence Industrial Innovation (Extended Abstract SID2022)

Abstract This paper will explore how Metaverse will facilitate the acceleration of industrial innovation and help the industry digitalize their global high-volume manufacturing environment. The authors conducted a live workshop (with around 30 participants) as part of the international conference Sibiu Innovation Days 2022. The workshop’s proceedings and output is described here below.

A MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION ANALYSIS APPROACH TO PALLET SELECTION: DEVELOPMENT OF A MATERIAL-OF-CONSTRUCTION EVALUATION MODEL

Although pallets have traditionally been constructed from wood, there has been a shift towards making them from plastic and other composite materials. Subsequently, the storage and transportation industry has been inundated with questions about ‘the best’ pallet material type in relation to a supply chain. In addition, in a rapidly changing global manufacturing and storage environment, industry players have difficulty justifying the high capital cost of adopting new state-of-the-art pallets. This paper seeks to build a model to identify the best pallet material-of-construction (MOC) as perceived by the end consumer. The approach used for this was based on different stages of building an assistive multi-criteria decision model. This included modelling the decision framework using the analytic hierarchy process and undertaking an independent case study as the baseline for the modelling.

Performance measurement metrics in TPM: A contextual view to training and development

In today’s global competitive manufacturing environment for survival of any firm it is necessary to provide quality goods to its customers at competitive prices. It is possible only if the firm is running at its highest level of productivity. That is why the firms are focused on productivity improvement tasks. The Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a key tool to improve productivity exercising its various pillars. Whole hearted implementation of training and development pillar of Total Productive Maintenance is of utmost importance in improving skills of the operators and other employee of the company. Measuring performance is vital for its improvement. The objective of this paper is to identify the performance measurement metrics to measure and verify effect of the pillar. A conceptual framework has also been presented that outlines the selection and effective application of performance measurement metrics aligning manufacturing performance and maintenance objective through effective training and skill development.

Do CSR Activities Increase Firm Value? Evidence from the Korean Market

Corporate social responsibility has recently become a new metric of corporate performance. Some argue that corporate social responsibility should be used not only for corporate image improvement, but also as a major competitive strategy. Given this perspective, this study considers the effect of corporate social responsibility on firm value using data from all firms listed on the Korea Exchange from 2005 to 2015 that provide corporate social responsibility information. Specifically, we use the Korea Economic Justice Institution Index, which is an important metric for corporate social responsibility in Korea, to empirically analyze the relation between corporate social responsibility and firm value. Further, given the growing attention to the Korean manufacturing environment and the significant influence of the global manufacturing environment, we aim to determine the differential characteristics of manufacturing corporations using the relation between corporate social responsibility and firm value. The results strongly support a positive relation between corporate social responsibility and firm value. Furthermore, our detailed analysis of the manufacturing industry indicates some differential characteristics with respect to this relation. Overall, we find that every corporation should adopt corporate social responsibility as an active competitive strategy, taking the corporate condition into account.

‘Make in India’ Campaign: Labour Law Reform Strategy and Its Impact on Job Creation Opportunities in India

The need of employment generation has never been more pressing than now when youth is occupying larger share in the pie of demographic profile of the country. There are several employment challenges such as adequate skill requirement and large-scale employment generation, flexibility of employer to cope up with turbulent global manufacturing environment and social security programme to cater to the need of employees. Development of manufacturing sector is always at the centre irrespective of NDA (National Democratic Alliance) led government or UPA (United Progressive Alliance) led government. To create jobs for the manufacturing sector is always a challenging task. This article throws some light on the manufacturing employment scenario in the pre-reform and post-reform era. This article also tries to explore the impact of recent proposed labour law reforms on the job creation opportunities. It follows exploratory—secondary data—research design. The scope of this research is limited to two major laws, namely, Factories Act, 1948 and Apprenticeship Act, 1961, and other law reforms in the country. With the support of the recent 26th Quarterly Employment Survey by labour ministry and the analysis of the labour law reforms, this article leads to the conclusion that these reforms have not had any significant impact on the job creation opportunities.

Development of a novel cloud-based multi-tenant model creation service for automatic virtual metrology

AVM (Automatic Virtual Metrology) is the highest-level technology for VM (Virtual Metrology) applications from the perspective of automation. Its various automatic capabilities could facilitate fast factory-wide deployment and operations of VM systems. AVM systems have been successfully applied to the semiconductor, TFT-LCD, solar-cell, and machining industries for on-line monitoring the production quality of workpieces. However, in its past industrial applications, the model creation (MC) functionality of the existing AVM system encountered several limitations, such as being a standalone application and confined to be used in situ in a factory, no support for multiuser model creation, wasting computing resources, etc., which could diminish the applicability of the existing AVM system in current global and distributed manufacturing environments. Thus, this paper is dedicated to tackling the problem of how to systematically and effectively overcome MC-related limitations of the existing AVM system so that it can robustly support multiple users across factories to create their VM models simultaneously in distributed manufacturing settings. By leveraging the advantages of cloud computing and several IT technologies (including virtualization software, XML, Web Service, Multi-tenancy technique, and HTML5), this paper proposes a novel cloud-based multi-tenant model creation service (i.e., CMMCS) for AVM. The proposed CMMCS contains a cloud-based system architecture, functional frameworks of its key components, several functional mechanisms, and HTML5-based Web GUIs. Testing results in an industrial case study that creates VM models using the CMMCS for CNC machine tools in machining wheel rims of automobiles in a factory in Taiwan demonstrate that the CMMCS can allow multiple users from different tenants to simultaneously create their VM models, while enabling the MC cloud services to be more robust for processing MC requests, having higher CPU-usage rates in the underlying virtual machines, and achieving better cross-platform usage, compared to the original MC functionality. This paper has provided a feasible solution to systematically and effectively remedying the MC-related limitations of the existing AVM system. The existing VM-related literature mainly focused on the development of VM models. To our knowledge, no papers have coped with issues addressed in this paper by leveraging cloud computing. The results of this paper can be a useful reference for industrial practitioners to construct AVM systems which support multi-tenant or multiuser model creation. A novel cloud-based multi-tenant model creation service (CMMCS) for automatic virtual metrology (AVM) has been proposed.Designs of key components and mechanisms have been presented to effectively address the existing AVM's MC limitations.CMMCS can support multi-tenant/user model creation for AVM, being applicable to the distributed manufacturing context.A case study of creating VM models for machine tools in machining wheel rims of autos demonstrates the efficacy of CMMCS.Results can be useful references for industrial practitioners to construct AVM systems supporting multi-tenant MC.

IMBES Model Leverages Sustainability in Manufacturing Industry-An Integrated Theoretical Approach

Success in manufacturing industry largely depends upon fulfilling the expectations of the customers. The present day customers are more aware of environmental impacts on lives and very much interested in adapting the changes in the business environment for survival. Therefore, the industry has the prime responsibility to produce quality environmental-friendly products to achieve success in business. Sustainability is a challenging strategy in leveraging manufacturing presence in fierce competitions. The core of sustainability is very much based on environmental adaptability. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated manufacturing business excellence system for attaining sustainability in the manufacturing industry. In this regard, the authors identified ten important intervening critical success factors (CSFs) by reviewing various literatures, getting opinions of academicians and industry experts, under the proposed Integrated Manufacturing Business Excellence System (IMBES) model. The proposed IMBES model is a comprehensive one blended with the global manufacturing management concepts namely ISO 9000: 2008 QMS, ISO 14001: 2000 EMS, OHSMS 18001: 2007, knowledge management, total quality management, total productivity management, Six-Sigma, lean manufacturing, agile manufacturing and sustainable manufacturing. The above mentioned concepts are universally practiced individually and not as a comprehensive one in manufacturing industries. Hence the authors felt the proposed model may give a fillip to customer satisfaction and support positive impact on environment and can easily be adopted internationally without any complexity due to its adaptability to any global manufacturing environment.

Global Production Planning Process considering the Supply Risk of Overseas Manufacturing Sites

Although global manufacturers can produce most of their final products in local plants, they need to source components or parts from desirable overseas manufacturing partners at low cost in order to fulfill customer orders. In this global manufacturing environment, capacity information for planning is usually imprecise owing to the various risks of overseas plants (e.g., foreign governments’ policies and labor stability). It is therefore not easy for decision-makers to generate a global production plan showing the production amounts at local plants and overseas manufacturing facilities operated by manufacturing partners. In this paper, we present a new global production planning process considering the supply risk of overseas manufacturing sites. First, local experts estimate the supply capacity of an overseas plant using their judgment to determine when the risk could occur and how large the risk impact would be. Next, we run a global production planning model with the estimated supply capacities. The proposed process systematically adopts the qualitative judgments of local experts in the global production planning process and thus can provide companies with a realistic global production plan. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed process with a real world case.

Review the influence of lean tools and its performance against the index of manufacturing sustainability

Lean production is known as a social-technical management philosophy that encompasses multiple disciplines that focus on increasing the manufacturing productivity by emphasising on the elimination of waste, and increasing the value-added activities. Recognising the internal influences brought by lean in manufacturing practices, this article focuses on how the convergences in lean philosophies are able to contribute in establishing a sustainable manufacturing practice. Based on three performance of sustainability, namely the competency accomplishment performance, economic achievement performance and the environmental responsiveness performance, the discussion is focused on exploring how performance of lean implementation contributes in increasing the development performance of sustainable manufacturing. The findings in this study are able to be used for future researches in formulating new strategies in managing the manufacturing operations. This eventually brings an enormous benefit for further research in improving the operational efficiency, in order to remain competitive in dealing with the intense competition in a global manufacturing environment.

Depicting additive manufacturing from a global perspective; using Cloud manufacturing paradigm for integration and collaboration

Globalization is one of the widely considered factors in today’s manufacturing industries. This paradigm may be adopted for new technologies such as additive manufacturing. Additive manufacturing has been identified as an innovative manufacturing technology in recent years. The characteristics of this manufacturing technology, especially its support for quick design to manufacturing, have dominated it as an efficient generation of manufacturing techniques for today’s global manufacturing paradigm. This article discusses the requirements and necessities of additive manufacturing with respect to a globalized perspective. Considering the two major requirements studied as integration of manufacturing operations and enabling collaboration in distributed manufacturing networks, this article proposes an idea as an enabler of additive manufacturing in the global paradigm. This idea proposes the application of Cloud manufacturing paradigm as one of the recent researches for global manufacturing environments. The capabilities of the Cloud manufacturing to fulfill the requirements and necessities of additive manufacturing in global paradigm are discussed and elaborated through a comprehensive case study. The case study uses the recent researches of the authors for an integrated and collaborative distributed Cloud manufacturing platform named XMLAYMOD platform. This article discusses the different aspects of the Cloud manufacturing–based solution for additive manufacturing systems.

Reconfiguring machines to achieve system adaptability and sustainability: A practical case study

The fierce competition in the global manufacturing environment is forcing enterprises to seek competitiveness beyond traditional aspects such as functions, quality, cost, and lead time. An emerging strategy is to develop sustainable manufacturing systems. An ideal sustainable system has the characteristics of remanufacturing, redesigning, recovering, reusing, recycling, and reducing. However, this type of sustainability mainly refers to the products rather than to the manufacturing system itself. When the design and operation of a manufacturing system are concerned, the criterion of sustainability often conflicts with other requirements such as cost and lead time. Instead of establishing a total new system paradigm, it is more realistic that the concept of sustainable manufacturing is used as a guidance to evolve existing systems to an advanced level. In this article, a case study is introduced to recycle an obsolete test machine to meet new functional requirements; it has shown a significant economic benefit. The presented case study provides a new perspective of economically evolving dedicated machines or manufacturing systems into sustainable systems.

Supply Chain: Next generation issues and concerns

Article history: Received September 10, 2013 Received in revised format 10 December 2013 Accepted December 12 2013 Available online December 14 2013 Supply chain is a complicated networking of suppliers, manufacturers, warehouses, distributors and end customers. Through this network, we can easily see the flow of raw materials, information and money. In the modern global manufacturing environment, change has become a constant phenomenon. Change occurs due to fluctuation in technology, environmental requirements, regulatory policies, societal needs and the last but economy is the most important thing. Uncertainties in supply and demand, globalization of the market, shorter product life cycle, the increasing use of manufacturing product, fast development of information technology, diversified demand of customer for products distribution and logistics partners are responsible for making more complex supply chain network. Because of all these phenomena emergence of Next–Generation of supply chain management is inevitable. Therefore, in this article we try to incorporate several issues and concerns regarding future supply chain such as natural disasters, problems in outsourcing and import-export issues associated with goods, raw material and several related issues such as taxation, cultural aspects, risk, reliability and last but not the most important one is associated with environmental issues. During the next-generation of supply chain management, the mode of production as well as management is changing from product oriented towards customer’s demand or service oriented. Another salient feature of this paper is to demonstrate how to do the planning and management of the next-generation supply chain so that it would maximize profit in the chain rather than maximizing profit of an organization in isolation. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic object-oriented coding facility for product life cycle management of discrete products

Discrete products are produced in enormous quantity and diversity all over the world. A global collaborative manufacturing environment requires the minimisation of environmental impact that these products shall ultimately pose. The implementation of an efficient product life cycle management system that encapsulates complete historical information about the product shall prove useful. This information may pertain to the design methodology, material type, details regarding manufacturing methods, use of coating or paints and exposure to radiation, chemicals of varying pH and electroweak forces during production or use. It is essential to have access to this information when the product is in use or in the disassembly stage at the end of the useful life of a product to accomplish the proper reuse or disposal of each component. A coding system that embodies the product life cycle stages for discrete products is envisaged. The proposed coding system stores parameters that are related to the design, manufacture, usage and disposal of a product. A computer programme is developed to establish a product life cycle code (PLCC) in the form of a 256-bit binary number or 64-bit hexadecimal number. The code can be allocated to a component or product at its inception in an interactive web session and stored in a repository for record keeping. The cradle-to-grave binary or hexadecimal code becomes an essential part of each component and product and facilitates the usage, disassembly and disposal of each component. A case study related to the generation of PLCC for discrete products is included towards the end of the article.

Implementation of a responsive supply chain strategy in global complexity: The case of manufacturing firms

Although a responsive supply chain is an integral part of order-winning manufacturing strategies, it has not been clear how firms build a responsive supply chain in global manufacturing environments. Built upon a synthesis of the existing literature and relevant theories, this paper presents a research model that defines the drivers, strategy, and practices of a responsive supply chain and the performance outcomes. This paper is one of the rare empirical studies that identify key variables relevant to the implementation of a successful responsive supply chain. The effective implementation of a responsive supply chain requires a careful definition of a responsive supply chain strategy in terms of the product range, and the frequency and innovativeness of the product offerings. Firms also need to provide key implementation practices (i.e., sharing of information with customers, collaboration with suppliers, use of advanced manufacturing technology) to achieve pull production to achieve responsiveness to the market. This study also suggests that the key contextual factors that influence the extent of implementation of a responsive supply chain strategy are mostly the size of firms, industry characteristics, and customer and supplier bases, rather than the location of manufacturing firms. This paper shows that the effective implementation of a responsive supply chain strategy involves the integration of inter-organizational resources (i.e., socio-relational and techno-process integration) across the global supply chain to enhance pull production capabilities.

The concurrent application of lean production and ERP: Towards an ERP-based lean implementation process

Lean production and enterprise resource planning systems are often quoted as being the two most important strategies for achieving competitive advantage in today's global manufacturing environments. Though IT has traditionally been viewed as a contributor to waste within lean production, we suggest that modern developments in IT and the onset of hybrid “push-pull” production control mechanisms have allowed ERP and lean approaches to converge towards a state where ERP systems can in fact be used to support the deployment of lean practices. This paper analyses typical lean and ERP implementation processes contained within the scientific literature, and by further examining a concurrent implementation process in real-time, we develop and propose a process for ERP-based lean implementations. Our findings suggest that the implementation of a contemporary ERP system can act as a catalyst for the application of lean production practices.

Intelligent Collaborative Quality Assurance System for Wind Turbine Supply Chain Management

To determine the root causes or sources of variance of bad quality in supply chains is usually more difficult because multiple parties are involved in the current global manufacturing environment. Each component within a supply chain tends to focus on its own responsibilities and ignores possibilities for interconnectivity and therefore the potential for systematic quality assurance and quality tracing. Rather than concentrating on assigning responsibility for “recall” incidents, it would be better to expend that energy on constructing a collaborative system to assure product quality by employing a systematic view for the entire supply chain. This paper presents a systematic framework for intelligent collaborative quality assurance throughout an entire supply chain based on an expert system for implementing two levels of quality assurance: system level and component level. This proposed system provides intelligent functions for quality prediction, pattern recognition and data mining. A case study for wind turbines is given to demonstrate this approach. The results show that such a system can assure product quality improved in a continuous process.

Collaborative-Based Framework for Business Workflows Development and Management on the Web Site

This paper deals with collaborative-based framework for business workflows development and management on the web site (CFBWDM) in global manufacturing environment. The framework has been developed on the collaboration analysis among Lithuanian and European Union industrial companies based on the three type’s knowledge: marketing, products and processes development and products manufacturing. Interacting among developed framework sections by Internet software and interfaces is carried out. The CFBWDM framework has been tested and adopted in some Lithuanian manufacturing companies.

The Organizational Support of Oversea Expatriates in Global Manufacturing Environment: the Case of Taiwanese Companies in Vietnam

The Organizational Support of Oversea Expatriates in Global Manufacturing Environment: the Case of Taiwanese Companies in Vietnam

An approach to partner selection in virtual enterprises based on grey relational analysis

Virtual enterprise (VE) is a new type of cooperation mode and has attracted considerable attention in the global manufacturing environment. Success of the VE is highly dependent on participators, and thus selection of partners becomes a crucial issue. Partner selection can be considered as a multi-attribute decision-making problem involving variable criteria and a large number of alternatives. However, decision makers are usually uncertain of their preferences owing to changeable types of criteria and incomplete information on candidates. Therefore, an integrated approach is presented in this paper. First, a decision matrix is flexibly established according to the requirements, and then attribute weights of the decision matrix are calculated using the combination weighting method. Subsequently, the preference-order of candidates is provided to enable decision makers to choose suitable partners using grey relational analysis. Finally, an illustrative example is used to explain an application of the proposed approach.

Manufacturing Resources Optimization Deployment for Complicated Parts Based on Network

Agility of physical manufacturing unit is the competitive advantage in the global manufacturing environment. It is believed that the agility can be realized by dynamically optimization deployment of networked manufacturing resources. To solve this problem, logical manufacturing unit (LMU) and logical manufacturing process (LMP) are proposed and defined to decompose and model networked manufacturing task according to the process of complex part. When selecting manufacturing resources for these manufacturing tasks, many factors should be taken into account. However, manufacturing cost, time to market and manufacturing quality are the most important factors. In this paper, networked manufacturing resources pre-deployment is carried out to find candidate manufacturing resources based on manufacturing resources abilities, such as part family, geometric feature, material type, rough type, dimension range, machining method, precision grade and production type. Then, taking transportation time and cost besides manufacturing time, cost and quality into consideration, the objectives and restrictions of manufacturing resources optimization deployment are analyzed, and manufacturing resources optimization deployment problem is considered as a multi-objectives optimization problem.