The evaluation of the actual competitive advantages derived from the use of Manufacturing Executi... more The evaluation of the actual competitive advantages derived from the use of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) is a relevant topic to increase performances of manufacturing companies. Many qualitative studies are present in literature in order to underline the effectiveness of MES. Nevertheless no quantitative evaluations have been published or reported. Aim of the main study, realized in collaboration with Siemens Spa, was to design a framework to define and calculate economical and operational indicators about costs, revenues and efficiency. The framework, including a model of Key Performance Indicators organized through a hierarchical structure of 4 levels and 70 elements, has been defined through a study performed in two large companies that, recently, adopted MES system. Through a differential evaluation of KPI before and after implementation authors estimated MES impact end related benefits (the evaluation is just an estimation due to the low number of companies investigate...
Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing, 2017
Manufacturing sustainability is related to complex adaptive systems crossing different layers; su... more Manufacturing sustainability is related to complex adaptive systems crossing different layers; sustainability issues, and their potential resolutions, are transversal to supply and shop-floor levels, often including interaction between them; in addition, multiple actors across the supply chain interact displaying non-linear and non-rational behaviours characterized by feedbacks and time lags. This complexity is nowadays addressed with classical simulation approaches such as System Dynamics (SD), Dynamic Systems (DS) at very high and aggregate level, or Discrete Event Simulation (DES) at very low and disaggregated level. Agent Based Modelling (ABM) approach may potentially address such issues in a more effective way because it exploits the strengths of both aggregated and disaggregated models, while minimizing the drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to present a self-developed multi-agent based framework as a basis for sustainable manufacturing modelling, simulation and analysis. A literature review on agent based modelling applied to sustainable manufacturing issues is reported to justify choices adopted in the developed tool. Then an illustrative case of a semi-automated food production line is described with the aim of evaluating the self-developed framework through some sustainability and productivity KPIs, and showing easiness and adaptability. The complete agent based simulator and the interaction sequence are reported and validated by an experimental campaign.
A digitalization of business process through utilizing Digital Twins is an approach that assists ... more A digitalization of business process through utilizing Digital Twins is an approach that assists companies to align themselves with changes of technology development, and accordingly, improve their outcomes. To take full advantage of implementing Digital Twins, the importance of the creative phase role as pillars of this technology on the performance of the other parts and overall outcome should not be overlooked. This research addresses the lack of an integrated framework for setting up the creative phase of digital twins. To design the proper framework, by relying on a qualitative empirical method, an interview with persons who are experts in the Digital Twin area was organized to collect the information about all obvious and hidden aspects of this phase and manifest what kind of entities participate in this phase, what potential challenges and obstacles exist and what solution is effective to overcome them. The structural feature of the proposed framework continuously prepares th...
Environmental regulations and sustainable developments are forcing industries to assess, optimize... more Environmental regulations and sustainable developments are forcing industries to assess, optimize and improve their processes to minimize costs and increase the efficiency of industrial sustainability dimension. This effect is more evident in the food industries due to the high impact that this sector has on environmental and economical sustainability, considering the primary role of packaging systems, the huge water consumption both for the production and the cleaning processes or the energy utilization related to the treatment plant or to the raw material production. Thus, the aim of this study was to review the current state of soft drink supply chains with respect to industrial sustainability issues. For this reason, a comprehensive literature review was performed to understand what sustainable best practices and key performance indicators are largely applied to soft drink supply chains and then a comparison with two soft drink case studies was proposed to identify if there is a...
Abstract In recent years manufacturing companies have been faced with various challenges related ... more Abstract In recent years manufacturing companies have been faced with various challenges related to volatile demand and changing requirements from customer as well as suppliers. This trend is now even accelerating with a direct impact on the value chain. New technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems try to solve these challenges and solutions such as the German high tech strategy “Industrie 4.0” or the Italian cluster “Fabbrica Intelligente” which often aimed at enhancing the flexibility of manufacturing systems among many other competitive dimensions. However, these approaches often do not provide a detailed definition of flexibility and its different manifestations. Therefore, the question rises if different types of flexibility, that have an impact on the complete manufacturing system, can be better identified with the existing Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM). This question becomes even more important when considering the potential that smart machines interacting with humans, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), and the possibility to increase connectivity and data access through technologies, such as the internet of things (IoT), offer for increasing flexibility. Especially due to the various possibilities it becomes even more important to understand, which kind of flexibility is needed for a given problem. Implementing flexibility into the MVMM requires a ‘catalog’ that makes use of the MVMM framework presenting an overview of internal and external influence factors in order to support the identification of correct solutions and improvements related to functional areas in the manufacturing environment. Starting from a qualitative literature review on manufacturing flexibility, a ‘flexibility catalog’ is designed, which provides a structural definition of existing flexibility types and their composition as well as providing decision support. In conclusion, the scope of the ‘flexibility catalog’ is to verify that the flexibility demand fits into the market trends and is aligned to the manufacturing and company strategy, in order to help firms to take decisions and delivering value.
The aim of this paper is to study a set of emerging key-enabling requirements for the design of m... more The aim of this paper is to study a set of emerging key-enabling requirements for the design of multi-agent or holonic manufacturing systems dealing with the energy aware scheduling of future production systems. These requirements are organized according to three different views, namely informational, organizational and lifecycle views. It is shown that these emerging key-enabling requirements are not sufficiently addressed by the research literature. An illustrative futuristic example of a system complying with these requirements is provided. From this example, new research opportunities and issues can be easily found.
Abstract Service operations management of metropolitan gas networks at operational level implies ... more Abstract Service operations management of metropolitan gas networks at operational level implies the optimization of decisions related to logistic activities, taking into account multi-objectives and operational constraints. This paper proposes a metaheuristic approach for the operational planning of the daily logistic activities based on vehicle routing with time window model. Experimental results for a real planning case in a gas distribution network demonstrate the approach effectiveness.
Lean is now widely recognized as one the most effective means for increasing competitiveness and ... more Lean is now widely recognized as one the most effective means for increasing competitiveness and improving operational efficiency. Anyway, what could be the benefit in adopting a Lean approach in the food processing industry, is not still clear. For these reasons, the Authors decided to develop an action research, inside a large food company sited in Italy, collaborating with the Plant Technical Support (PTS) unit to verify applicability and benefits of Lean in food processing. According to the action research methodology Authors provided specific expertise to the PTS people developing a simple but practical conceptual model and several research hypotheses. In order to investigate these hypotheses Value Stream Mapping and Discrete Event Simulation have been extensively used. Results confirm some of the generated hypotheses showing interesting improvement areas. Furthermore, PTS people realized that Lean results could be obtained quicker and to a greater extent through the use of simulation technology. As this paper shows, through predictive simulation modelling, the time to implement Lean is greatly reduced and hidden forms of waste become much more apparent
The evaluation of the actual competitive advantages derived from the use of Manufacturing Executi... more The evaluation of the actual competitive advantages derived from the use of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) is a relevant topic to increase performances of manufacturing companies. Many qualitative studies are present in literature in order to underline the effectiveness of MES. Nevertheless no quantitative evaluations have been published or reported. Aim of the main study, realized in collaboration with Siemens Spa, was to design a framework to define and calculate economical and operational indicators about costs, revenues and efficiency. The framework, including a model of Key Performance Indicators organized through a hierarchical structure of 4 levels and 70 elements, has been defined through a study performed in two large companies that, recently, adopted MES system. Through a differential evaluation of KPI before and after implementation authors estimated MES impact end related benefits (the evaluation is just an estimation due to the low number of companies investigate...
Service Orientation in Holonic and Multi-Agent Manufacturing, 2017
Manufacturing sustainability is related to complex adaptive systems crossing different layers; su... more Manufacturing sustainability is related to complex adaptive systems crossing different layers; sustainability issues, and their potential resolutions, are transversal to supply and shop-floor levels, often including interaction between them; in addition, multiple actors across the supply chain interact displaying non-linear and non-rational behaviours characterized by feedbacks and time lags. This complexity is nowadays addressed with classical simulation approaches such as System Dynamics (SD), Dynamic Systems (DS) at very high and aggregate level, or Discrete Event Simulation (DES) at very low and disaggregated level. Agent Based Modelling (ABM) approach may potentially address such issues in a more effective way because it exploits the strengths of both aggregated and disaggregated models, while minimizing the drawbacks. The purpose of this paper is to present a self-developed multi-agent based framework as a basis for sustainable manufacturing modelling, simulation and analysis. A literature review on agent based modelling applied to sustainable manufacturing issues is reported to justify choices adopted in the developed tool. Then an illustrative case of a semi-automated food production line is described with the aim of evaluating the self-developed framework through some sustainability and productivity KPIs, and showing easiness and adaptability. The complete agent based simulator and the interaction sequence are reported and validated by an experimental campaign.
A digitalization of business process through utilizing Digital Twins is an approach that assists ... more A digitalization of business process through utilizing Digital Twins is an approach that assists companies to align themselves with changes of technology development, and accordingly, improve their outcomes. To take full advantage of implementing Digital Twins, the importance of the creative phase role as pillars of this technology on the performance of the other parts and overall outcome should not be overlooked. This research addresses the lack of an integrated framework for setting up the creative phase of digital twins. To design the proper framework, by relying on a qualitative empirical method, an interview with persons who are experts in the Digital Twin area was organized to collect the information about all obvious and hidden aspects of this phase and manifest what kind of entities participate in this phase, what potential challenges and obstacles exist and what solution is effective to overcome them. The structural feature of the proposed framework continuously prepares th...
Environmental regulations and sustainable developments are forcing industries to assess, optimize... more Environmental regulations and sustainable developments are forcing industries to assess, optimize and improve their processes to minimize costs and increase the efficiency of industrial sustainability dimension. This effect is more evident in the food industries due to the high impact that this sector has on environmental and economical sustainability, considering the primary role of packaging systems, the huge water consumption both for the production and the cleaning processes or the energy utilization related to the treatment plant or to the raw material production. Thus, the aim of this study was to review the current state of soft drink supply chains with respect to industrial sustainability issues. For this reason, a comprehensive literature review was performed to understand what sustainable best practices and key performance indicators are largely applied to soft drink supply chains and then a comparison with two soft drink case studies was proposed to identify if there is a...
Abstract In recent years manufacturing companies have been faced with various challenges related ... more Abstract In recent years manufacturing companies have been faced with various challenges related to volatile demand and changing requirements from customer as well as suppliers. This trend is now even accelerating with a direct impact on the value chain. New technological roadmaps and suggested interventions in manufacturing systems try to solve these challenges and solutions such as the German high tech strategy “Industrie 4.0” or the Italian cluster “Fabbrica Intelligente” which often aimed at enhancing the flexibility of manufacturing systems among many other competitive dimensions. However, these approaches often do not provide a detailed definition of flexibility and its different manifestations. Therefore, the question rises if different types of flexibility, that have an impact on the complete manufacturing system, can be better identified with the existing Manufacturing Value Modeling Methodology (MVMM). This question becomes even more important when considering the potential that smart machines interacting with humans, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), and the possibility to increase connectivity and data access through technologies, such as the internet of things (IoT), offer for increasing flexibility. Especially due to the various possibilities it becomes even more important to understand, which kind of flexibility is needed for a given problem. Implementing flexibility into the MVMM requires a ‘catalog’ that makes use of the MVMM framework presenting an overview of internal and external influence factors in order to support the identification of correct solutions and improvements related to functional areas in the manufacturing environment. Starting from a qualitative literature review on manufacturing flexibility, a ‘flexibility catalog’ is designed, which provides a structural definition of existing flexibility types and their composition as well as providing decision support. In conclusion, the scope of the ‘flexibility catalog’ is to verify that the flexibility demand fits into the market trends and is aligned to the manufacturing and company strategy, in order to help firms to take decisions and delivering value.
The aim of this paper is to study a set of emerging key-enabling requirements for the design of m... more The aim of this paper is to study a set of emerging key-enabling requirements for the design of multi-agent or holonic manufacturing systems dealing with the energy aware scheduling of future production systems. These requirements are organized according to three different views, namely informational, organizational and lifecycle views. It is shown that these emerging key-enabling requirements are not sufficiently addressed by the research literature. An illustrative futuristic example of a system complying with these requirements is provided. From this example, new research opportunities and issues can be easily found.
Abstract Service operations management of metropolitan gas networks at operational level implies ... more Abstract Service operations management of metropolitan gas networks at operational level implies the optimization of decisions related to logistic activities, taking into account multi-objectives and operational constraints. This paper proposes a metaheuristic approach for the operational planning of the daily logistic activities based on vehicle routing with time window model. Experimental results for a real planning case in a gas distribution network demonstrate the approach effectiveness.
Lean is now widely recognized as one the most effective means for increasing competitiveness and ... more Lean is now widely recognized as one the most effective means for increasing competitiveness and improving operational efficiency. Anyway, what could be the benefit in adopting a Lean approach in the food processing industry, is not still clear. For these reasons, the Authors decided to develop an action research, inside a large food company sited in Italy, collaborating with the Plant Technical Support (PTS) unit to verify applicability and benefits of Lean in food processing. According to the action research methodology Authors provided specific expertise to the PTS people developing a simple but practical conceptual model and several research hypotheses. In order to investigate these hypotheses Value Stream Mapping and Discrete Event Simulation have been extensively used. Results confirm some of the generated hypotheses showing interesting improvement areas. Furthermore, PTS people realized that Lean results could be obtained quicker and to a greater extent through the use of simulation technology. As this paper shows, through predictive simulation modelling, the time to implement Lean is greatly reduced and hidden forms of waste become much more apparent
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