Case study into the successful emergency production and certification of a filtering facepiece respirator for Belgian hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic presented European hospitals with chronic shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as surgical masks and respirator masks. Demand outstripped the production capacity of certified European manufacturers of these devices. Hospitals perceived emergency local manufacturing of PPE as an approach to reduce dependence on foreign supply. The fact of a pandemic does not circumvent the hospital’s responsibility to provide appropriate protective equipment to their staff, so the emergency production needed to result in devices that were certified by testing agencies. This paper is a case study of the emergency manufacturing of respirator masks during the first month of the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and is separated into two distinct phases. Phase A describes the three-panel folding facepiece respirator design, material sourcing, performance testing, and an analysis of the folding facepiece respirator assembly process. Phase B describes the redevelopment of individual steps in the assembly process     

The rise of 3D Printing entangled with smart computer aided design during COVID-19 era

During the current Pandemic, seven and a half million flights worldwide were canceled which disrupted the supply chain of all types of goods such as, personal protective gears, medical health devices, raw materials, food, and other essential equipments. The demand for health and medical related goods increased during this period globally, while the production using classical manufacturing techniques were effected because of the lockdowns and disruption in the transporation system. This created the need of geo scattered, small, and rapid manufacturing units along with a smart computer aided design (CAD) facility. The availability of 3D printing technologies and open source CAD design made it possible to overcome this need. In this article, we present an extensive review on the utilization of 3D printing technology in the days of pandamic. We observe that 3D printing together with smart CAD design show promise to overcome the disruption caused by the lockdown of classical manufacturing units specially for medical and testing equipment, and protective gears. We observe that there are several short communications, commentaries, correspondences, editorials and mini reviews compiled and published; however, a systematic state-of-the-art review is required to identify the significance of 3D printing, design for additive manufacturing (AM), and digital supply chain for handling emergency situations and in the post-COVID era. We present a review of various benefits of 3DP particularly in emergency situations such as a pandemic. Furthermore, some relevant iterative design and 3DP case studies are discussed systematically. Finally, this article highlights the areas that can help to control the emergency situation such as a pandemic, and critically discusses the research gaps that need further research in order to exploit the full potential of 3DP in pandemic and post-pandemic future era.     

Applications of additive manufacturing (AM) in sustainable energy generation and battle against COVID-19 pandemic: The knowledge evolution of 3D printing

Sustainable and cleaner manufacturing systems have found broad applications in industrial processes, especially aerospace, automotive and power generation. Conventional manufacturing methods are highly unsustainable regarding carbon emissions, energy consumption, material wastage, costly shipment and complex supply management. Besides, during global COVID-19 pandemic, advanced fabrication and management strategies were extremely required to fulfill the shortfall of basic and medical emergency supplies. Three-dimensional printing (3DP) reduces global energy consumption and CO₂ emissions related to industrial manufacturing. Various renewable energy harvesting mechanisms utilizing solar, wind, tidal and human potential have been fabricated through additive manufacturing. 3D printing aided the manufacturing companies in combating the deficiencies of medical healthcare devices for patients and professionals globally. In this regard, 3D printed medical face shields, respiratory masks, personal protective equipment, PLA-based recyclable air filtration masks, additively manufactured ideal tissue models and new information technology (IT) based rapid manufacturing are some significant contributions of 3DP. Furthermore, a bibliometric study of 3D printing research was conducted in CiteSpace. The most influential keywords and latest research frontiers were found and the 3DP knowledge was categorized into 10 diverse research themes. The potential challenges incurred by AM industry during the pandemic were categorized in terms of design, safety, manufacturing, certification and legal issues. Significantly, this study highlights the versatile role of 3DP in battle against COVID-19 pandemic and provides up-to-date research frontiers, leading the readers to focus on the current hurdles encountered by AM industry, henceforth conduct further investigations to enhance 3DP technology.     

Additively manufactured respirators: quantifying particle transmission and identifying system-level challenges for improving filtration efficiency

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the supply chain for personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical professionals, including N95-type respiratory protective masks. To address this shortage, many have looked to the agility and accessibility of additive manufacturing (AM) systems to provide a democratized, decentralized solution to producing respirators with equivalent protection for last-resort measures. However, there are concerns about the viability and safety in deploying this localized download, print, and wear strategy due to a lack of commensurate quality assurance processes. Many open-source respirator designs for AM indicate that they do not provide N95-equivalent protection (filtering 95% of SARS-CoV-2 particles) because they have either not passed aerosol generation tests or not been tested. Few studies have quantified particle transmission through respirator designs outside of the filter medium. This is concerning because several polymer-based AM processes produce porous parts, and inherent process variation between printers and materials also threaten the integrity of tolerances and seals within the printed respirator assembly. No study has isolated these failure mechanisms specifically for respirators. The goal of this paper is to measure particle transmission through printed respirators of different designs, materials, and AM processes. The authors compare the performance of printed respirators to N95 respirators and cloth masks. Respirators in this study printed using desktop- and industrial-scale fused filament fabrication processes and industrial-scale powder bed fusion processes were not sufficiently reliable for widespread distribution and local production of N95-type respiratory protection. Even while assuming a perfect seal between the respirator and the user’s face, although a few respirators provided >90% efficiency at the 100−300 nm particle range, almost all printed respirators provided <60% filtration efficiency. Post-processing procedures including cleaning, sealing surfaces, and reinforcing the filter cap seal generally improved performance, but the printed respirators showed similar performance to various cloth masks. The authors further explore the process-driven aspects leading to low filtration efficiency. Although the design/printer/material combination dictates the AM respirator performance, the identified failure modes originate from system-level constraints and are therefore generalizable across multiple AM processes. Quantifying the limitations of AM in producing N95-type respiratory protective masks advances understanding of AM systems toward the development of better part and machine designs to meet the needs of reliable, functional, end-use parts.     

Mass Personalisation as a Service in Industry 4.0: A Resilient Response Case Study

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) leads to mass personalisation as an emerging manufacturing paradigm. Mass personalisation focuses on uniquely made products to individuals at scale. Global challenges encourage mass personalisation manufacturing with efficiency competitive to mass production. Driven by individualisation as a trend and enabled by increasing digitalisation, mass personalisation can go beyond today’s mass customisation. This paper aims to introduce Mass Personalisation as a Service (MPaaS) to address unique and complex requirements at scale by harnessing Industry 4.0 technologies, including Internet of Things, Additive Manufacturing, Big Data, Cloud Manufacturing, Digital Twin, and Blockchain. A case study for the implementation of MPaaS in personalised face masks is presented. The workforce with constant exposure to contaminants requires personal protective equipment (PPE), such as facemasks, for longer hours resulting in pressure-related ulcers. This prolonged use of PPE highlights the importance of personalisation to avoid ulcers and other related health concerns. Most studies have used Additive Manufacturing for individualisation and cloud capabilities for large-scale manufacturing. This study develops a framework and mathematical model to demonstrate the capability of the proposed solution to address one of the most critical challenges by making personalised face masks as an essential PPE in the critical industrial environment.     

An integrated framework for blockchain-enabled supply chain trust management towards smart manufacturing

With the development of a new generation of information technology, smart manufacturing has put forward higher requirements for supply chain. It is necessary to ensure the synchronization of the supply chain operation and maintain the reliability of the supply chain management, therefore the trust evaluation for the supply chain becomes extremely important. Traditional supply chain management has problems such as information flow is easy to be tampered with, logistics is difficult to trace, and capital flow is not true, which leads to increased opportunity costs due to the lack of trust among transaction entities in the supply chain. The emergence of blockchain technology provides an opportunity to improve the supply chain ecosystem. In this paper, an integrated framework for blockchain-enabled supply chain trust management towards smart manufacturing is proposed to explain how to enhance trust management with the help of blockchain from the perspectives of information flow, logistics, and capital flow. An optimized trust management model is designed for better entities evaluation in supply chain. A coal mine equipment manufacturing industry scenario is presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework.     

Additive manufacturing in the spare parts supply chain

As additive manufacturing (AM) evolves to become a common method of producing final parts, further study of this computer integrated technology is necessary. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the potential impact of additive manufacturing improvements on the configuration of spare parts supply chains. This goal has been accomplished through scenario modeling of a real-life spare parts supply chain in the aeronautics industry. The spare parts supply chain of the F-18 Super Hornet fighter jet was selected as the case study because the air-cooling ducts of the environmental control system are produced using AM technology. In total, four scenarios are investigated that vary the supply chain configurations and additive manufacturing machine specifications. The reference scenario is based on the spare parts supplier's current practice and the possible future decentralization of production and likely improvements in AM technology. Total operating cost, including downtime cost, is used to compare the scenarios. We found that using current AM technology, centralized production is clearly the preferable supply chain configuration in the case example. However, distributed spare parts production becomes practical as AM machines become less capital intensive, more autonomous and offer shorter production cycles. This investigation provides guidance for the development of additive manufacturing machines and their possible deployment in spare parts supply chains. This study contributes to the emerging literature on AM deployment in supply chains with a real-world case setting and scenario model illustrating the cost trade-offs and critical requirements for technology development.     

An agent-based approach for e-manufacturing and supply chain integration

A major problem facing manufacturing organisations is how to provide efficient and cost-effective responses to the unpredictable changes taking place in a global market. This problem is made difficult by the complexity of supply chain networks coupled with the complexity of individual manufacturing systems within supply chains. Current systems such as manufacturing execution systems (MES), supply chain management (SCM) systems and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems do not provide adequate facilities for addressing this problem. This paper presents an approach that would enable manufacturing organisations to dynamically and cost-effectively integrate, optimise, configure, simulate, restructure and control not only their own manufacturing systems but also their supply networks, in a co-ordinated manner to cope with the dynamic changes occurring in a global market. This is realised by a synergy of two emerging manufacturing concepts: Agent-based agile manufacturing systems and e-manufacturing. The concept is to represent a complex manufacturing system and its supply network with an agent-based modelling and simulation architecture and to dynamically generate alternative scenarios with respect to planning, scheduling, configuration and restructure of both the manufacturing system and its supply network based on the coordinated interactions amongst agents.     

Eco-friendly additive manufacturing of metals: Energy efficiency and life cycle analysis

Additive manufacturing (AM) of metal materials has attracted widespread attention and is shifting the conventional manufacturing landscape toward free-form processes. With increasing concerns about global sustainability, eco-consideration is highly encouraged to be integrated into AM processes. This review provides a comprehensive and timely discussion on the life cycle of metal parts fabricated through AM. The energy consumption required for raw metal material extraction and subsequent AM processes is analyzed. The eco-design and energy efficiency of metal AM are evaluated to reveal the role of manufacturing methods, machine subsystems, and post-processing modes in the eco-integration. AM-induced supply chain management, utilization, and recycling of the printed metal structure are also analyzed. Finally, a comprehensive life cycle assessment regarding the environmental, social, and economic impacts of metal AM is also addressed. Future directions of AM are also briefly discussed to provide insight and vision on the emerging field of additive eco-manufacturing.     

基于物联网技术的医疗设备供应链管理

医疗设备供应链管理是医院非诊疗流程管理中重要的环节。当前,我国企业的医疗设备供应链管理尚处于初级阶段,运作效率差,信息系统建设落后,管理水平低下。以条码技术、移动终端为主的物联网技术是医院供应链管理比较经济、可行的方案。文中探讨了医疗设备供应链管理中存在的问题,分析了物联网技术用于医疗设备供应链管理的可行性,构建了基于物联网的医疗设备供应链管理系统模型,介绍了其应用流程和实施步骤。     

面向Agent的集群式供应链服务系统设计方法研究

为了帮助中小型企业(SMEs)应对经济全球化的挑战,“集群式供应链”的概念作为一种新型管理模式被提了出来,它集成了工业集群和供应链两个方面的优势.目前,对集群供应链的研究仍然处于初级阶段,其理论结果难以应用到实践当中.基于此背景,提出一个集群式供应链服务系统的设计方法,以Agent模型与Web服务之间的模型映射为桥梁,整合来自不同学科领域的研究成果,从而弥补该领域理论和实践之间的鸿沟.最后,通过浙江织里镇的童装工业集群的案例,来解释如何使用该方法指导集群式供应链的构建和开发,主要包括三个阶段:商业建模、模型映射和实现建模.     

Setting order promising times in a supply chain network using hybrid simulation-analytical approach: An industrial case study

Supply chain management (SCM) involves the management of material and information flow among the members of chain such as vendors, manufacturing plants and distribution centers. The main processes in supply chain are production planning, control, distribution and logistics. Effective management of all these processes provides the manufacturing companies great advantages in time based competition. In order to gain a competitive edge, firms must be able to deliver their products fast and on-time. This can be managed by better production planning, scheduling and due-date setting. This paper suggests a hybrid approach for setting realistic order due dates for a produce-to-order manufacturing company operating within a supply chain environment. The proposed hybrid approach combines mathematical and simulation modeling to bring together the advantages of both approaches.     

基于云平台的共享制造模式定价策略

在共享制造背景下,设备制造商可以通过两种方式向消费者提供服务:直接出售生产型设备给消费者,通过云平台提供制造服务:在购买模式下,讨论消费者的决策行为以及设备制造商的最优定价策略;在服务模式下,采用逆向归纳法分别求解基于商业性云平台(最大化自身收益)和基于公益性云平台(最大化社会总效益)的多阶段动态博弈问题.通过比较两种...     

The effect of firefighter personal protective equipment on static and dynamic balance

Abstract

Firefighters work in unpredictable conditions, necessitating the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, the additional weight from the PPE and self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) alters their centre of mass (COM), restricts movement and limits vision (face mask) contributing to a firefighters’ challenge of maintaining balance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to quantify the effects of firefighter PPE on static and dynamic balance. Participants performed two sets of three functional balance tests: (1) Static Single Leg (SSL); (2) Dynamic Single Leg (DSL); (3) Limits of Stability (LOS). The balance tests were performed under one control and three randomised PPE conditions: (1) athletic clothing; (2) turnouts; (3) turnouts?+?SCBA; (4) turnouts?+?SCBA?+?face mask. Our study found turnouts?+?SCBA both with and without the face mask negatively affected dynamic balance. These findings identify factors in fall-related injuries and strategies to reduce occupational risk.

Practitioner summary: Slips, trips and falls are the most common cause of injury in firefighters. Our study investigated the effects of firefighter personal protective equipment (PPE) on static and dynamic balance utilising a computerised balance instrument. We found that turnouts with a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) with or without face mask negatively affected balance.     

基于大数据的电网设备供应链溯源管理评价研究

为了加强电网设备质量源头治理,解决设备质量可追溯性问题,实现贯穿设备全寿命周期的全程质量管控。本文从大数据理念出发,首先建立了基于大数据的电网设备供应链溯源管理评价框架模型,指明了电网设备供应链溯源管理评价的技术路线,其次设计采用网络爬虫技术对散落的海量数据进行爬取和处理,从而提取电力设备供应商的信息,然后构建了包含5个一级指标、8个二级指标和两个维度的三级指标的电力物资供应商评价指标体系,分析了指标间的相互关系,最后对如何合理配指标权重进行了探索,对主观赋权法、客观赋权法和模糊综合评价三种权重确定方法进行了对比分析,从而搭建了具有追溯性的电网设备供应链溯源管理评价模型,为电网企业进行供应商的评价优化提供借鉴。     

敏捷制造ERP中的关键优化问题及其数学模型

敏捷制造企业对供应链计划、动态联盟的组成与风险利润分配等多种功能的需要，带来了一系列新的优化问题，研究了对其中的几个相关的优化问题，建立了新产品投入时间计划，动态结盟的伙伴企业挑选、供应链的分肖网络设计，风险防范投资，分布式多工厂生产计划，以及分布式仓库存储控制等问题的数学模型，对模型可能的求解方法进行了探讨，模型与算法已成功应用到开发中的面向敏捷制造的ERP系统中。     

A qualification procedure to manufacture and repair aerospace parts with electron beam melting

This paper is focused on qualification procedures for metal parts manufactured using new additive manufacturing (AM) techniques in the aerospace industry. The main aim is to understand the interaction between these technologies and the stringent regulatory framework of this industry in order to develop correct quality assurance and quality control procedures in accordance with the certification process for the technology and spare parts. These include all the testing and validation necessary to implement them, as well as to maintain their capability throughout their life-cycle, specific procedures to manufacture or repair parts, work-flows and records, amongst others. An entire qualification procedure for electron beam melting (EBM) to reproduce and repair an aerospace part has been developed and it is presented in this paper. These will be part of the future quality assurance and quality management systems of those aerospace companies that implement AM in their supply chain.     

面向集群式供应链的服务系统设计方法研究

为了帮助中小型企业(SMEs)应对经济全球化的挑战,"集群式供应链"的概念作为一种新型管理模式被提了出来,它集成了工业集群和供应链两个方面的优势。目前,对集群供应链的研究仍然处于初级阶段,其理论结果难以应用到实践当中。基于此,本文提出采用Agent建模技术作为桥梁,用以弥补集群式供应链理论和实践之间的鸿沟。最后,给出了一个服务系统的实现模式,用于指导集群式供应链的构建和开发。     

Implementation of intelligent systems, enabling integration of SMEs to high-value supply chain networks

In the face of increasing competition from low-cost economies, European manufacturing companies are focusing on optimisation of operational activities to remain competitive. Previous work has identified how companies can optimise implementation of specialist technology to improve production capability; however increasing demands in service requirements such as customisability and flexibility are often negating the localised gains in capability.Supply chain management has become an increasingly important aspect of operations improvement to ensure support throughout the product realisation process. The key to creating a supply chain capable of this rapid response and high level of adaptability is integration of intelligent systems and management capabilities.A site-visit-based survey and characterisation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), comprising actual or potential supply chain components, reveals that even those with well developed capabilities and attitudes to adopting production technologies are largely not proactive with technology adoption targeting these needs.A review of requirements for SMEs to achieve such competitive supply chain capabilities reveals a hierarchy of technical expertise to be developed. This is presented as an implementation strategy for staged introduction of these tools and techniques with a view to establishing high-value supply chains capable of withstanding business pressures from developing economies.     

Adaptability analysis of design for additive manufacturing by using fuzzy Bayesian network approach

The rapid development of Additive Manufacturing (AM) has been conspicuous and appealing towards manufacturing end-use products and components over the past decade. The continual advancement of AM has brought many advantages such as personalization and customization, reduction of material waste, cutting off the existence of special tooling during fabrication, etc. However, the AM approach has its limitations, such as a lack of knowledge of AM process activities and the progressive industrialization of AM, which makes the design process activities unstable, unpredictable, and have a limited effect. The concept of “design for AM (DFAM)” is increasing, which means we have the opportunity to concentrate almost totally on product functioning. Therefore, the entire design paradigm must be revised to accommodate new production capabilities, geometries, and parameters to avoid molding or machine tooling technology constraints. Few studies have attempted to provide systematic and quantitative knowledge of the relationship between these elements and the feasibility of the design process, making it difficult for designers to assess and control AM industrialization. For this reason, DFAM is needed to reform AM from rapid manufacturing to a mainstream manufacturing method. This paper put forward a framework based on the Fuzzy Bayesian Network (FBN) for DFAM decision-making. Twenty impact factors were encapsulated from experts’ experience and existing literature to investigate the potential adaptability of DFAM. The proposed approach uses expert knowledge and Fuzzy Set Theory (FST) presented with Triangular Fuzzy Numbers (FFN) to perceive the uncertainties. The Bayesian Network (BN) captures the causal relationships and dependencies among the impact components and analyzes the DFAM adaptability for robust probabilistic reasoning. A robot arm claw was used to show the effectiveness of our approach. The results showed that FBN could be used to guide DFAM adaptability in the manufacturing industry.