Collaborative Product Research Articles

Research on implementation factors of product ecological design based on digital collaboration

To assist enterprises in adapting to the challenges of the digital era during the product eco-design stage, based on the synergistic symbiosis theory and the eco-strategy wheel, combined with literature research and expert interviews, this study identifies 11 factors for enterprises to realize product eco-design under digital collaboration. In this study, the Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was used to aggregate the identified 11 factors into four factor sets: strong cause, weak cause, strong result, and weak result; and the Interpretive Structural Model (ISM) was used to create a multilevel recursive model of product eco-design for digital collaboration. The study's findings show that: digital collaborative product eco-design is a combination of intra-organizational, intra-organizational, and external organizational synergies; and digital collaboration improves the efficiency of eco-design technology acquisition. This research provides a scientific foundation for company managers to make product eco-design decisions in the context of the worldwide digitalization trend.

Leveraging Generative AI Prompt Programming for Human-Robot Collaborative Assembly

In manufacturing, traditional robotic programming methodologies have often been focused on independent operation, offering limited capabilities for seamless human-robot collaboration. This paper introduces a paradigm shift in collaborative production systems by leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs). Contrary to traditional methods that rely on pre-defined assembly instructions, this paper introduces a novel framework employing primitive knowledge of the production process, including product design and required assembly steps. By integrating LLMs and a behavior tree-based system control, this approach enables programmers to rapidly deploy collaborative assembly procedures by expediting the programming of robotic operations. The system also incorporates Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies, which facilitate real-time alterations in assembly steps, leading to reduced overall production time. The framework’s behavior tree-based control architecture allows for dynamic adaptability, offering optimized solutions across a range of assembly scenarios. The results of the framework’s deployment suggest that this innovative programming paradigm significantly enhances both the adaptability and efficiency of collaborative manufacturing settings.

A cross-enterprise collaborative production scheduling decision support algorithm with multi-agent support

Abstract This study harnesses the capabilities of intelligent agent technology to develop a framework for cross-enterprise collaborative production scheduling decision-making. It conducts a comprehensive examination of the business processes and production scheduling decisions encapsulated within this framework. The research begins by pinpointing the challenges inherent in cross-enterprise collaborative production scheduling. Subsequently, it introduces a genetic algorithm tailored for agent-based decision-making in this context and delineates its algorithmic parameters. The effectiveness of this approach is validated through a series of simulation experiments focused on a case study of cross-enterprise collaborative production scheduling from an agent-oriented perspective. The findings indicate that implementing the agent structure and genetic algorithms in a scenario involving ten workpieces and ten machines (10×10) results in a new job reach time of 30, a workshop load of 0.5338, and an average reduction in scheduling time of 11.60%. These results underscore the efficacy of the proposed agent structure and genetic algorithms in enhancing decision support for cross-enterprise collaborative production scheduling, thereby laying a scientific foundation for achieving heightened production efficiency through intelligent agent technology.

A modular framework of robot gripping tools for human robot collaborative production lines

Robot gripping systems are subject to many technological transformations because of their need to adjust to a continuously changing market involving a large diversity of products and materials. This issue is further burdened by the high integration and control complexity in HRC environments. This paper proposes a modular framework of gripping tools with versatility in grasping and processing of different components based on automatic tool change solutions. Control and safety modules are being investigated for the flexible and safe handling of components. The proposed framework is being applied to two industrial scenarios from the white goods and the automotive sectors.

XMKR: Explainable manufacturing knowledge recommendation for collaborative design with graph embedding learning

Design for manufacturability is crucial to ensure high-quality products. It fully considers manufacturing-related factors in a collaborative design manner. However, since manufacturing knowledge is unstructured and hard to reuse, designers mainly depend on frequent design iterations to meet complex manufacturing constraints. Such insufficient design-manufacturing collaboration is not conducive to design efficiency improvement. To alleviate the problem, this paper proposes a novel graph embedding-based approach of Explainable Manufacturing Knowledge Recommendation (XMKR) for collaborative product design, which could achieve designer-oriented manufacturing knowledge reuse to avoid design errors proactively and minimize excessive iterations. Firstly, a graph embedding model based on the graph neural network (MKGE-GNN) is proposed to learn implicit semantic information of manufacturing knowledge. Secondly, with MKGE-GNN learning results, the potential manufacturing knowledge preferences of designers are identified in the design context graph by Personalized PageRank to achieve context-aware explainable manufacturing knowledge recommendation. Finally, a car body collaborative design case is conducted to validate the efficacy of the proposed approach, which not only provides accurate manufacturing knowledge in designers’ decision-making, but also enhances designers’ cognitions for manufacturability in the dynamic design context.

A Data-Driven Human–Machine Collaborative Product Design System Toward Intelligent Manufacturing

A Data-Driven Human–Machine Collaborative Product Design System Toward Intelligent Manufacturing

Framing participatory methods in provenance research: From the restitution of objects to a collaborative production of knowledge

Provenance research on European museum collections of colonial origin is a process of knowledge production from the reconstruction of collection items’ trajectories and the memories and meanings attached to them, often envisioning an eventual restitution to their supposed communities of origin. This paper examines how this process of examining and possibly returning physical relics of colonial extraction risks reproducing colonial knowledge and its accessibility. In order to counter this risk, it proposes a conceptual shift towards participatory approaches of engaging the scholarly as well as local communities on both sides in sharing and developing knowledge about and from the collections and creating equitable mutual access to the different layers of the produced knowledge. The thoughts presented here are supported with examples and experiences from collaborative field research on selected object collections from German museums in possible communities of origin in Tanzania.

Digital Twins and Software Services: Leveraging Product Data for Improved Product Development

As the digital transformation continues to evolve, manufacturing companies must adapt by broadening their service offerings to include digital solutions. This expansion addresses current challenges and positions these companies favorably in emerging collaborative production ecosystems, future proofing their business models. This work extends the work done in the research project Product Lifecycle Enrichment as a Service (PLCEaaS) research project that involved partners from academia and industry. It showcases the prototypical implementation of specialized services to enrich a product portfolio. Building on pre-existing use cases and a digital twin based on the concept of the Asset Administration Shell, our primary focus lies in services tailored for enhancing product sizing and facilitating data-driven innovation for product enhancements. Based on this prototypical implementation, the project contents are presented holistically: The conceptual design of the services, the systematic modeling of the digital twin, the application of analytical methods to evaluate the product data, and a possible deployment for users of the services. The services’ fundamental functioning and the relevant components’ interaction are shown. The paper concludes with a critical review of the research project and addresses open issues in an outlook.

In Pursuit of Ethical and Inclusive Research: What Ethics Committees and Disability Researchers Can Learn From Each Other

Across disciplines, qualitative researchers have documented epistemological and practical tensions in the ethical review of community-based and participatory research, with many arguing that ethics committees’ decisions perpetuate the exclusion of marginalised communities from research engagement. In the existing literature, the research team and the ethics committee are often characterised as staunch opponents. Conversely, in our recent qualitative research addressing communication about sexuality with young people with cerebral palsy who use communication methods other than speech (augmentative and alternative communication), we found that constructive collaboration between researchers and committee members yielded novel insights. Co-authored by a multi-disciplinary research team and the former chair of a Human Research Ethics Committee, this reflexive case study identified three key tensions which arose in the ethical review of research involving this purportedly marginalised population, which reflected the wider importance of trust. We propose a series of practical recommendations to support productive collaboration in the pursuit of safe, inclusive and community-driven research.

Implementing a video production collaboration system with information marker overlay technique

Implementing a video production collaboration system with information marker overlay technique

Using Ubuntu as a Research Paradigm to Unpack How Ghanaian Novice Teachers and Their Collaborators Engaged Virtually in Collaborative International Qualitative Research

The article details how Ubuntu was incorporated into each step of the research project, shares the authors’ experiences and key learnings, and provides recommendations for researchers utilizing Ubuntu as a research paradigm. Ubuntu is an ancient African philosophy emphasizing a way of life grounded in interdependence, collaboration, harmony, and community. In recent years, researchers have incorporated Ubuntu as a research paradigm to decolonize research in a sub-Saharan African context. The present article used international collaborative qualitative research conducted virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate the application of Ubuntu as a research paradigm for conducting research in the African context. Some of the key takeaways include technological factors to consider, establishing connections during the planning stage, and ultimately nurturing productive collaboration within virtual groups.

Application of gamification in work environment

Introduction: preliminary findings clearly suggest that games and gamified systems have motivational potential for workplaces. The use of gamified systems in work environments could be a positive and innovative solution to address contemporary problems in organizations such as: high levels of stress, reduced social capital, reduced loyalty and rapid changes in workforce demographics. The objective was to characterize the application of gamification in the work context. Method: a total of 23 articles in Spanish and English, from Science, Scielo and Dialnet, were reviewed; using as keywords: gamification, game, work environment, being more than 50 % of the last five years. Result: it is considered a technology with a potentially high impact in industries such as retail, media, consumer goods and marketing, manufacturing. Gamification in intra-organizational environments can affect employee attitudes and behaviors, make workplaces more attractive, create opportunities for productive collaboration, improve customer service, build loyalty, and increase productivity. Conclusions: gamification in the work environment uses game-like experiences to promote organizational and personal performance; It seems to be associated with improvements in motivation, productivity, performance, immediacy and remuneration according to true effort. However, its degree of applicability is still unclear.

A Study on the Impact of Perceived Characteristics on Purchase Intention towards Collaboration Products between Foreign Brands and China Chic IPs

Purpose: In recent years, with the continuous development of the China Chic economy, an increasing number of foreign brands have partnered with China Chic intellectual property (IP) to introduce collaborative products. Although collaboration products between foreign brands and China Chic IPs have been consistently introduced, there is still a limited amount of research focusing on these products. This empirical study aims to investigate the factors that influence consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions towards foreign brands and China Chic IPs collaboration products.
 Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on the conceptual model of factors that determine behavioral intentions to buy co-branded products constructed by Helmig et al. (2007) to verify the effects of perceived brand localness, perceived product innovativeness, perceived fit, and perceived psychological distance on consumer attitudes towards the foreign brand - China Chic IP collaboration products. This study is based on Helmig et al.'s (2007) conceptual model, which examines the factors that determine consumers' behavioral intention to purchase co-branded products. Combined with the research context this study verifies the effects of perceived brand localness, perceived product innovativeness, perceived fit and perceived psychological distance on consumer attitudes towards foreign brands and China Chic IPs collaboration products are examined and verified. The relationships among these variables were assessed through the Structural Equation Model and the SPSS macro process model.
 Findings: The results indicate that consumer attitudes are positively influenced by perceived product innovativeness and perceived brand localness. On the other hand, perceived psychological distance has a negative impact on attitudes. However, the impact of perceived fit on attitudes has not been conclusively determined. Furthermore, consumer ethnocentrism moderates the relationship between perceived brand localness and attitudes, displaying a negative effect. Lastly, the analysis reveals a positive association between attitudes and purchase intentions for foreign brands and China Chic IPs collaboration products.
 Research limitations/implications: This study demonstrates that the marketing strategy of collaborating with China Chic IP has a positive impact on Chinese consumers' attitudes towards such collaboration products and their willingness to make purchases. This collaborative strategy serves as a catalyst for stimulating consumers' buying behavior and enhancing the market presence of foreign brands in China. However, this study does have limitations, including the absence of a specific focus on a particular product category and not including variables related to consumers' attitudes towards foreign brands and the country of origin.
 Originality/value: This study contributes to the research of brand and cultural collaboration strategies. From a marketing perspective, it provides insights on how foreign brands can enhance their collaboration strategy with China Chic IPs in a more systematic and efficient manner.

Collaboration of Starbucks and Blackpink to Increase Purchase Intention

The development of the times and the impact of globalization have made it easier for foreign cultures to enter Indonesia; one example is Korean culture. Korean Wave or Hallyu is a term often used to describe the phenomenon of Korean popular culture. Therefore, this research aims to determine the relationship between Starbucks and Blackpink Collaboration on interest in purchasing Blackpink special edition tumblers. The theory used in this research is the S-O-R theory. The method used is quantitative; this research uses a sampling technique using the Non-Probability Sampling method with a total sample of 97 respondents who are fans or knowing Blackpink and Starbucks in Indonesia. The research results show that the Blackpink special edition tumbler product collaboration variable (X) and the purchase intention variable (Y) have a strong relationship. The correlation coefficient value shows a positive number, which means there is a unidirectional relationship between the two variables.

Multisolid waste collaborative production of aeolian sand-red mud-fly ash cemented paste backfill

This study proposed the novel idea of anaolian sand-red mud-fly ash cemented paste backfill (ARFCPB) to realize low-carbon backfill mining. This idea realizes large-scale disposal and resource utilization of red mud (RM) and fly ash (FA) solid wastes. The influence of the FA/RM mass ratio and mass concentration on the mechanism of action of ARFCPB was explored through comprehensive rheological performance, mechanical property, microscopic, and leaching toxicity tests. The results showed that the fresh ARFCPB slurry could be described by the Herschel–Bulkley model (R2 ≥ 0.964). As the FA/RM mass ratio increased, the ARFCPB slurry yield stress decreased, the thixotropy decreased, and the slump increased. This is because RM has a large specific surface area and an unsmooth surface, resulting in greater water absorption by RM than by FA. In addition, the uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of ARFCPB can meet the needs of backfill mining with higher strength requirements. UCS first increases and then decreases with increasing FA/RM mass ratio, which is optimal when the mass ratio of FA to RM is 4. When the FA/RM mass ratio was 4, the UCSs of specimens A4 and B4 with mass concentrations of 78% and 80%, respectively, were 5.6 MPa and 6.4 MPa after 28 days of curing. The leaching results of heavy metal ions in group B4 meet the Class III groundwater standards and can be used for centralized drinking water sources and industrial and agricultural water. Considering the fluidity characteristics, mechanical properties, and leaching results, B4 was identified as the optimal formulation. Finally, the microstructure of the ARFCPB was studied using ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and SEM. The results can contribute to clean production in the aluminum production industry, coal-fired power plants, and coal mines.

Ольга Кобилянська в кінематографічному дискурсі

The article emphasizes the need to supplement the literary discourse with the topical issue of intermedia poetics, namely the film reception of the biography and works of Olha Kobylianska. It is noted that cinematography had an organic impact on the life and works of the Bukovynian author. This is evidenced by her autobiographies, biographical studies, as well as the works written under the impression of cinema (“By Situations”), or which imply the cinema code in the plot (“Black Apostol”), or those that demonstrate a pronounced cinematic poetics (“Ghost”, “Battle”). The poetry and prose of the author are mentioned to become an integral part of the cinematographic discourse, that is traditionally activated in relation to writers on the eve of their anniversary. The analyzed documentaries “Valse Brillante. Olha Kobylianska” (2013) and “To be one’s own goal. Olha Kobylianska” (2014) present a receptive version of her biography, created in a productive collaboration of filmmakers and literary critics. The functional potential of the biographical films, that popularize and actualize the works of this outstanding personality, contribute to the full understanding of Olha Kobylianska as a complete artistic phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the fact that compared to biographical projects, film reception of the writer’s works is significantly more productive, which contributes to the reconstruction of a holistic perception of her literary heritage. The films “Earth” (1954), “The Wolfhound” (1967), “The Melancholic Waltz” (1990), “The Princess” (1994), “Nature. The third film” (television series “The Island of Love” 1995–1996), “Early on Sunday, I dug a potion” (2019) are the film texts of different genres that demonstrate the occasional attention to the works by Kobylianska in the cinematic environment, due to a certain historical situation, another anniversary or the desire of filmmakers to reinterpret the works of the classic.

More than just cleaning: A qualitative descriptive study of hospital cleaning staff as caregivers

Background: Cleaning staff in hospitals can spend an average of 10–20 min per day per patient room. Published literature shows a pattern of interactions between housekeepers and patients, and that they believe themselves to be a part of the patient care team, but to date, no study has framed them as a caregiving population.
 Who is it for? Clinicians, healthcare staff, administrators & faculty
 Involvement & Engagement: Study design was co-created by the principal investigator and co-authors. Two members of the Environmental Services department at UC Davis Health were consulted in developing study aims and an online survey. (Survey data not included in article)
 Objective: To describe the experiences and perceptions of hospital housekeeping staff in relation to patient care.
 Setting: A 625-bed tertiary, academic medical center in the United States.
 Design & Methods: Eight housekeeping staff participated in this qualitative descriptive study. Design, implementation and monitoring was a product of collaboration between co-authors. Participants ranged from 40 to 62 years old, from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and worked at the study hospital from 4 months to 20 years. Interviews were conducted between September 2020-October 2020. Participants were recruited through flyers, email, and snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews lasting 30 – 60 min. Data were analysed through thematic analysis using a 6-step framework that included data familiarization, generation of initial codes, search for themes, review of data, definition and naming of themes, and generation of a written report. Trustworthiness of the data was established through strategies such as reflective journaling, researcher triangulation and member-checking.
 Results: Three themes emerged: 1) “Here to take care of you” 2) Difficulties & Coping: and 3) Perceptions of their role. These three themes provide insight into participants' perceptions of patient interactions and the kind of connections they formed with patients as they went about their duties.
 
 Implications: The potential for cleaning staff providing care to patients opens multiple possibilities for future research. There is little understanding of this phenomenon from the patient perspective, and of the ways in which cleaning staff can support inter-professional care and collaboration. The retention of experienced staff is vital and so wages which reflect the value of their work must not be overlooked. Their contribution can also be recognized by giving them equal access to the same health benefits and paid sick leave, vacation leave as other staff. 
 Study findings suggest that there exists among housekeeping staff a respect for the humanity of patients, a duty to protect people from disease, and a longstanding practice of engaging in therapeutic connections with patients. These results reveal an opportunity to expand our understanding of who we call a caregiver, and to improve how we recognize and support each member of the healthcare team.
 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666142X22000364

The Role of IT Applications on New Product Performance in the Digital Age: The Role of Supply Chain Synergy Mediation

Based on resource-based theory, dynamic capability theory and transaction cost theory, this paper analyzes the influence of IT application based on big data analysis on new product performance, the mediating role of supply chain collaboration and the moderating role of relationship risk between supply chain collaboration and new product performance in the context of supply chain collaboration in the digital age. The results show that IT advancement and IT consistency have significant positive effects on new product performance; Joint problem solving and information sharing in supply chain collaboration play a partial mediating role in the relationship between IT advancement and new product performance. At the same time, IT also plays a part of mediating role in the relationship between IT consistency and new product performance. Relationship risk positively moderates the relationship between information sharing and new product performance. The research conclusions not only enrich the existing theories, but also have important reference significance for the digitization and information construction and innovation development in the context of enterprise supply chain collaboration.

Task reallocation of human-robot collaborative production workshop based on a dynamic human fatigue model

As collaborative robots become more popular in industry, they are used to collaborate with human workers and free human workers from repeated and heavy work and reduce the risk of physical injuries. However, human workers need to finish tasks that require high cognitive abilities, which increases the risk of mental fatigue. Fatigue can negatively impact workers and even threaten the safety of workers. Currently, the dynamics of human fatigue model are rarely considered. Hence, it is crucial to develop a dynamic allocation method for human-robot collaborative tasks that considers dynamic human fatigue to ensure efficient and safe human-robot collaboration. This paper proposes a task reallocation method for human-robot collaborative production workshop based on a dynamic human fatigue model. A fatigue feature extraction method from multimodal data and a fatigue evaluation network are proposed to evaluate the current fatigue status of human workers. Based on the evaluation results, the human fatigue model is dynamically updated. If the worker’s fatigue state changes, a task reallocation scheme is generated by an improved genetic algorithm based on reinforcement learning and the dynamic human fatigue model. The experimental results show that the proposed model and algorithm are effective and efficient, and can provide innovative insights for realizing a human-centered manufacturing workshop.

Retracted: Text Knowledge Acquisition Method of Collaborative Product Design Based on Genetic Algorithm

Retracted: Text Knowledge Acquisition Method of Collaborative Product Design Based on Genetic Algorithm