Implications of automation in engineer-to-order production:a case study

In order to retain a certain level of production in Norway,suppliers to the Norwegian maritime industry need to lower their production costs.Automation is generally an effective way of achieving this in standardized high-volume,low variety production.However,manufacturing companies in the Norwegian maritime industry typically supply capital-intensive,advanced and customized products in low volumes.In this engineer-to-order production situation,manual labor is traditionally preferred over automation.Nonetheless,such companies increasingly automate parts of their production.This paper presents a case of a supplier that has chosen to automate its welding operations,the implications and determinants of this decision.     

Interface engineering of Co9S8/SnS heterostructure as a high-performance anode for lithium/sodium-ion batteries

Transition metal sulfide(TMS) anodes exhibit the characteristics of phase stability and high capacity for lithium/sodium-ion batteries(LIBs/SIBs).However,the TMS anodes often suffer from poor electronic conductivity,low ionic diffusion and large volume expansion during Li/Na-ion intercalation significantly impairing the LilNastorage performance.Herein,a long chain heterostructure composed of the Co₉S₈ and SnS are first reported,which can generate rich phase interfaces,and s...