Change and innovation in modern manufacturing practices: An expert panel survey of U.K. companies

The aim of this research was to examine the change and innovation capabilities of U.K. manufacturing companies across a range different sectors, and with regard to a variety of modern manufacturing practices. This was achieved by interviewing experts drawn from research, consultancy, professional bodies, and manufacturing companies. The findings indicate that there are optimistic signs for believing that U.K. companies are improving their change capabilities (e.g., project planning, selling and communicating change, consulting end users). More pessimistically, it was found that companies could develop their change capabilities further in a number of key areas (e.g., strategic and systemic thinking, end user participation, management of learning and expertise, evaluating change). It is also suggested that companies are particularly poor at learning from their experiences of managing change, and that this inhibits the further development of change and innovation capabilities. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Industry use of virtual reality in product design and manufacturing: a survey

In 1999, Fred Brooks, virtual reality pioneer and Professor of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, published a seminal paper describing the current state of virtual reality (VR) technologies and applications (Brooks in IEEE Comput Graph Appl 19(6):16, 1999). Through his extensive survey of industry, Brooks concluded that virtual reality had finally arrived and “barely works”. His report included a variety of industries which leveraged these technologies to support industry-level innovation. Virtual reality was being employed to empower decision making in design, evaluation, and training processes across multiple disciplines. Over the past two decades, both industrial and academic communities have contributed to a large knowledge base on numerous virtual reality topics. Technical advances have enabled designers and engineers to explore and interact with data in increasingly natural ways. Sixteen years have passed since Brooks original survey. Where are we now? The research presented here seeks to describe the current state of the art of virtual reality as it is used as a decision-making tool in product design, particularly in engineering-focused businesses. To this end, a survey of industry was conducted over several months spanning fall 2014 and spring 2015. Data on virtual reality applications across a variety of industries was gathered through a series of on-site visits. In total, on-site visits with 18 companies using virtual reality were conducted as well as remote conference calls with two others. The authors interviewed 62 people across numerous companies from varying disciplines and perspectives. Success stories and existing challenges were highlighted. While virtual reality hardware has made considerable strides, unique attention was given to applications and the associated decisions that they support. Results suggest that virtual reality has arrived: it works! It is mature, stable, and, most importantly, usable. VR is actively being used in a number of industries to support decision making and enable innovation. Insights from this survey can be leveraged to help guide future research directions in virtual reality technology and applications.     

An empirical study of the impact of modern code review practices on software quality

Software code review, i.e., the practice of having other team members critique changes to a software system, is a well-established best practice in both open source and proprietary software domains. Prior work has shown that formal code inspections tend to improve the quality of delivered software. However, the formal code inspection process mandates strict review criteria (e.g., in-person meetings and reviewer checklists) to ensure a base level of review quality, while the modern, lightweight code reviewing process does not. Although recent work explores the modern code review process, little is known about the relationship between modern code review practices and long-term software quality. Hence, in this paper, we study the relationship between post-release defects (a popular proxy for long-term software quality) and: (1) code review coverage, i.e., the proportion of changes that have been code reviewed, (2) code review participation, i.e., the degree of reviewer involvement in the code review process, and (3) code reviewer expertise, i.e., the level of domain-specific expertise of the code reviewers. Through a case study of the Qt, VTK, and ITK projects, we find that code review coverage, participation, and expertise share a significant link with software quality. Hence, our results empirically confirm the intuition that poorly-reviewed code has a negative impact on software quality in large systems using modern reviewing tools.     

Resolving the planning and control dilemma in modern manufacturing

This paper presents a methodology for applying computer based logic to control information in manufacturing. This methodology is evolutionary and reorganizes traditional planning and control activities on the basis of functional needs. The methodology is developed in the context of a high volume, repetitive, manufacturer of pressed metal products. Implementation of the methodology is conducted in a modular fashion. There are three major inter-related, integrated functional modules designed to operate within the current manufacturing environment including Just-in-Time manufacturing operations.     

计算机虚拟技术在现代制造业中的应用

随着计算机虚拟技术的发展,其应用已经深入到了生活和生产的各个方面。本文第一部分介绍了计算机虚拟技术,第二部分分析了虚拟制造的相关技术和支持,第三部分对计算机虚拟技术在现代制造业中的应用进行了探讨,以期能给相关人员提供有益的参考意见。     

A survey of flexible manufacturing systems

In this report, the different flexible manufacturing systems used for machining and assembling in the following countries are reviewed: the United States, Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany, the German Democratic Republic, Italy, Great Britain, Sweden, Norway, France, Czechoslovakia and Hungary.Three categories of systems discussed are (1) flexible modules and units, (2) flexible transfer lines, and (3) “unaligned” flexible systems. Within each category are several sub-groups, divided up mainly according to the conveyor system and operating mode. This classification shows the effective French position in this field.     

A survey of unit testing practices

Unit testing is testing of individual units or groups of related units. What are a company's typical strengths and weaknesses when applying unit testing? Per Beremark and the author surveyed unit testing practices on the basis of focus group discussions in software process improvement network (SPIN) and launched a questionnaire to validate the results. This survey is an indication of unit testing in several companies. You can use the questionnaire at your own company to clarify what you mean by unit testing, to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your unit testing practices, and to compare with other organizations to improve those practices.     

Internet-based CDSS for modern manufacturing processes selection and justification

To select the right process technology for a business is related to strategic goals, resource availability and market conditions. Such dimensions must be included in an evaluation process of technology choice. Although various approaches have been suggested for evaluation of the modern manufacturing processes, still, there is a need for a decision aid to assist companies in selection and justification of the most suitable technology to their operations and business objectives. In this study, we designed an Internet-based Collaborative Decision Support System (CDSS) consisting of three stages: strategic justification, operational justification, and economic justification. For decision-making process in each stage, knowledge-based systems, simulation, and activity-based costing models and methods are used, respectively. A unique feature of this system is that it not only combines the capabilities of various decision-making methods, but also takes into account the objectives and operating characteristics of individual companies in the evaluation process. The other characteristics of the CDSS are easy to use, understandable, and less time consuming.     

Ubiquitous manufacturing: Current practices,challenges, and opportunities

Ubiquitous manufacturing (UM) features a “design anywhere, make anywhere, sell anywhere, and at any time” paradigm that grants factories an unlimited production capacity and permanent manufacturing service availability. However, the research and applications of UM have been limited thus far to in-factory operations or logistics. For this reason, this study reviews the current practices of UM, discusses the challenges faced by researchers and practitioners, and determines potential opportunities for UM in the near future. Finally, we conclude that the success of UM depends on the quality of the manufacturing services deployed, and that UM is a realizable target for Industry 4.0.     

A survey of modern knowledge modeling techniques

A major characteristic regarding developments in the broad field of artificial intelligence (AI) during the 1990s has been an increasing integration of AI with other disciplines. A number of other computer science fields and technologies have been used in developing intelligent systems, starting from traditional information systems and databases, to modern distributed systems and the Internet. This paper surveys the knowledge modeling techniques that have received most attention in recent years among developers of intelligent systems, AI practitioners and researchers. The techniques are described from two perspectives, theoretical and practical. Hence the first part of the paper presents major theoretical and architectural concepts, design approaches, and research issues. The second part deals with several practical systems, applications, and ongoing projects that use and implement the techniques described in the first part.     

Influencing the effectiveness of IT governance practices through steering committees and communication policies

Information technology (IT) governance practices involve efforts by an organization's leadership to influence IT-related decisions through the location of decision rights and the structure of decision processes. Our focus is on two specific aspects of IT governance: IT steering committees and IT-related communication policies. Adopting an inductive research strategy examining qualitative data, we provide evidence on the influence of these governance practices from three small-/medium-sized organizations. While each firm evidenced a centralized IT governance posture, differences in these firms’ IT steering committees and governance-related communication policies were found to explain differences in the firms’ IT use outcomes. Inferences from our findings are presented in the form of propositions informing future research.     

A simulation analysis of the effectiveness of drum-buffer-rope scheduling in furniture manufacturing

Simulation has proven to be an important computer tool in analyziing new manufacturing approaches. In this paper we use simulation models to compare a new approach to manufacturing with current practices. The new approach is referred to as the Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR) method of synchronous manufacturing. We discuss the DBR approach and demonstrate the application of DBR in a furniture manufacturing case example. Simulation models are used to compare the DBR approach with the typical system of production control referred to as a cutting approach. The simulation analysis indicates considerable savings in makespan are possible when DBR is used in place of the cutting approach.     

A survey of dynamic scheduling in manufacturing systems

In most real-world environments, scheduling is an ongoing reactive process where the presence of a variety of unexpected disruptions is usually inevitable, and continually forces reconsideration and revision of pre-established schedules. Many of the approaches developed to solve the problem of static scheduling are often impractical in real-world environments, and the near-optimal schedules with respect to the estimated data may become obsolete when they are released to the shop floor. This paper outlines the limitations of the static approaches to scheduling in the presence of real-time information and presents a number of issues that have come up in recent years on dynamic scheduling. The paper defines the problem of dynamic scheduling and provides a review of the state-of-the-art of currently developing research on dynamic scheduling. The principles of several dynamic scheduling techniques, namely, heuristics, meta-heuristics, multi-agent systems, and other artificial intelligence techniques are described in detail, followed by a discussion and comparison of their potential.     

A heuristic procedure for production planning of modern manufacturing systems

The purpose of this paper is to present a new heuristic algorithm based on a feasible enumeration method, developed to solve the machine loading and product-mix decision problems for manufacturing systems based on group technology. It provides an efficient tool for machine load and product-mix analysis to optimally select parts to be manufactured in a limited amount of time available in a given production facility, by applying the group technology concept. A computational algorithm is developed, a sample numerical problem included, and computational results presented. It is shown that the algorithm herein proposed is very efficient from the computational view point. The heuristics imbedded in the feasible enumeration procedure is repreented by a priority rule which has been found to be independent of problem data and general for the class of problem analysed.     

The impact of AMT practices on firm performance in manufacturing SMEs

This research deals with the use of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The main purpose of this study is to find out the types of AMT to adopt to improve the manufacturing parameters that have significant impact on firm performance. In the research firstly, the current situation in AMT use in SMEs is examined. Secondly, the relationship between manufacturing parameters and firm performance is investigated. Finally, the relationship between the types of AMT and manufacturing parameters is investigated. The sampling pool includes 102 manufacturing SMEs that introduced AMTs. Our findings show that local area network, computer-aided design, and computer-aided manufacturing technologies are the most commonly used and automated storage, robotics, and wide area network technologies are the least commonly used AMTs in SMEs. In addition, the statistical association between manufacturing parameters and firm performance indicate that product design performance, fixture utilization, setup and production planning performance have positive impact, while capacity utilization and finished product inventory need have negative impact on firm performance.     

Integrated model of operations effectiveness of small to medium-sized manufacturing enterprises

The Small to Medium-sized Manufacturing Enterprise (SME) has consistently demonstrated the ability to innovate and bring to the market new technologies and advancement in manufacturing. SMEs in industrialized nations function as the supplier base for domestic manufacturing. However, as more businesses are going global, SMEs face a new challenge in competing in the competitive global market. In this research, we aim to answer the following question: by taking advantage of the challenge as new opportunities, how SMEs can reposition themselves to be more competitive in the global market. We analyze the data collected from over 3000 SMEs using an integrated productivity-oriented model. The results present us with information about SMEs’ operation and performance. We are able to link both qualitative and quantitative factors of multiple manufacturing input/output to further assess the performance of SMEs, making a set of efficiency benchmarks available. This information can be used to help SMEs better understand the problems and opportunities confronting their operations. So their business transformations can be cost-effectively conducted for more competitive edges.