Process Design Capability Research Articles

Blockchain-based application for NC machining process decision and transaction

In the field of NC process design, a large number of designers or manufacturing enterprises have provided a wealth of crowd intelligence resources. However, the lack of organizational methods for the knowledge contained in a large number of machining process data makes it impossible to effectively utilize the machining process knowledge. At the same time, due to the intellectual property protection of machining process, process knowledge cannot be freely shared among designers and manufacturing enterprises, which makes the process design system limited in knowledge that can be applied and difficult to break through and improve. To counter this problem, a blockchain-based NC machining process decision and transaction approach is proposed. First, the process knowledge repositories in the process design consortium are structurally characterized by the probability graph structure to support the automatic decision-making of process schemes; Then, process design requirements are transmitted to each process design node in the consortium through the blockchain; Then, according to the process design requirements, the process scheme is determined in each node with the process design capability of such parts through depth first search and probability calculation; Finally, the process schemes are fed back to the demander through the blockchain to achieve the purpose of transaction and knowledge protection. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by the test of actual parts.

EVALUATING INNOVATION CAPABILITIES OF REAL ESTATE FIRMS: A COMBINED FUZZY DELPHI AND DEMATEL APPROACH

Due to strong competition, numerous technology advancements and the monetary policy of the government, the survival of Indian real estate firms now depends on their capacity to measure their existing innovation capabilities, rebuild them and adopt new ones. The aim of this study is to evaluate the technology and human resources innovation capabilities of Indian real estate firms by applying fuzzy Delphi and DEMATEL techniques. After identifying the innovation capabilities through an extensive literature review, a questionnaire is designed based on fuzzy linguistic scales to manage any vagueness of information received. Data has been collected from experts in the field, with capabilities then finalized by using a fuzzy Delphi method. To establish cause-effect relationships among capabilities, a DEMATEL method is applied to the data collected from a second questionnaire. Analysis of the data divides capabilities into two groups i.e. cause and effect. The results show that innovation management, robustness of product and process design capability, strategic planning and knowledge resources fall in the cause group; these are critical findings given the effect on the other capabilities. The study outcomes can help real estate firms to enhance their capabilities with the proposed model providing guidelines and direction in this regard.

From product design to product, process and domain design capabilities of local tier 2 suppliers: lessons from case studies in Japan, Thailand and China

The approach of Banri Asanuma, who focused on product design capability and the classification of works based on supplied/approved drawings are used for evaluating the capabilities of automotive parts suppliers. However, when evaluated with Asanuma's framework, most tier 2 suppliers are given the primarily low assessment that “are at the stage of working from supplied drawings”. In this study, we introduce process design capability and domain design capability, in addition to the conventional product design capability, to more precisely evaluate local tier 2 suppliers in Japan, Thailand and China. As a result, Japanese suppliers demonstrate their superiority over Thai and Chinese suppliers in all three capabilities. The product design and process design capabilities of Thai and Chinese parts suppliers are still at the development stage. On the other hand, a comparison between Thailand and China reveals the trend of Thai parts suppliers being more active in domain design than Chinese suppliers.

The Mediating Effects of the Process Design Capability and Product Interior Design Capability on the Relationship between SMEs’ External Information Network Diversity and Their New Technology Development Capability

New technology development capability plays a key role in making small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increase their innovation performance, such as in product or process innovation. To examine the influencing factors of SMEs' new technology development capability, this study empirically analyzes the mediating effects of SMEs' process design capability and product interior design capability on the positive association between their external information network diversity and new technology development capability. This study performs the ordinary least squares regression on a sample of 2,000 South Korean SMEs. Results reveal that SMEs' process design capability fully mediates, and product interior design capability partially mediates the positive association between the external information network diversity and new technology development capability.

Impact of Process Design Capabilities on Skill Formation and Employment Management : a Case Study of a Large Washing Machine Factory

Impact of Process Design Capabilities on Skill Formation and Employment Management : a Case Study of a Large Washing Machine Factory

Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics for Simulation of Drying Processes: A Review

In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used increasingly to improve process design capabilities in many industrial applications, including industrial drying processes. Drying of food and beverage products, industrial and municipal wastewater sludge, and other manufacturing and environmental products is done regularly in order to enhance the quality and life span of these products and to facilitate their use, storage, and transportation. With recent advancements in mathematical techniques and computer hardware, CFD has been found to be successful in predicting the drying phenomenon in various types of industrial dryers, which utilize all forms of drying operations including spray, freeze, and thermal drying techniques. The CFD solutions are being used to optimize and develop equipment and processing strategies in the drying industry, replacing expensive and time-consuming experimentations. However, a comprehensive review on the application of CFD for the design, study, and evaluation of industrial dryers is not yet available. A comprehensive review of the current literature on the use of CFD models in both industrial and lab-scale drying applications is presented in this article. The use of Eulerian-Eulerian and Eulerian-Lagrangian models in the study of the drying kinetics for gas–solid multiphase flow systems is fully discussed. Merits and disadvantages of using various CFD models in the design of industrial dryers are illustrated and the scope of their applicability is also discussed.