A cost-optimized design of a global production network is a complex task. Several optimization tools exist that determine cost-minimized solutions for defined points of times in the future but often ...do not take into account the development of the network over time. The approach of this article is to analyze a series of different cost-optimized scenarios for several points of time in the future with distinct parameter settings and compare its network structures. The goal of such broad calculations of future scenarios according to the idea of “Industry 4.0” is to identify a path in the trade-off between the costs for migrating a network structure into another one and the total landed costs of the regarded series of future network scenarios. The approach will be validated using data from real industrial case studies.
Future cyber-physical production systems will support new business models such as sharing concepts for the joint use of resources by different companies. This paper explores resource sharing in a ...production network and explains how different sharing mechanisms impact the performance of the stakeholders and the dynamics of the entire network. These analyses are carried out using a simulation model and a control-theoretic model. The results show that the introduced sharing approach controls inventory and resource utilization, but it can cause shifts and fluctuations in performance depending on the information that is exchanged.
In today's highly competitive global business landscape, customers demand personalised products and responsive distribution systems, hence fuelling the concept of Distributed Manufacturing (DM) as a ...paradigm that suggests the geographical distribution of manufacturing systems adjacent to the markets enable ‘production on demand’. To this end, the objective of this research is to explore the DM concept to inform firms about the dynamically changing manufacturing environment, along with the emerging opportunities, and support business stakeholders in implementing DM-oriented strategies to achieve digitalisation, personalisation, and localisation. More specifically, the present research builds upon the Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and conducts semi-structured interviews with a panel of 16 experts from the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Automotive, and Engineering industries to develop 12 exploratory industry cases. Our analysis highlights three strategies that companies can adopt to implement DM and realise shorter lead times and personalised product offerings, namely: (i) small-scale DM; (ii) in-house decoupled manufacturing; and (iii) outsourced decoupled manufacturing. However, the economic viability of the DM concept is identified as a significant barrier to relinquish the traditional centralised economies-of-scale. This research contributes by applying the DCT to the DM concept to advocate the viability and sustainability of manufacturing systems in the era of Industry 4.0. Pertaining to the originality of this research, limited work is available on the applicability of DM in industries, from the DCT perspective, to accomplish competitive advantages in the dynamic environment of manufacturing.
•A framework for implementing Distributed Manufacturing (DM) strategies is proposed.•Small-scale and decoupled (in-house or outsourced) are recognized as DM strategies.•DM-oriented strategies aim at digitalisation, personalisation, and localisation.•The resource-based view of the Dynamic Capability Theory underpins the DM concept.•The DM concept advocates viability of industrial systems in the Industry 4.0 era.
In the future, customer value will be achieved not only through the realization of a product or a service but also through socially and environmentally responsible and economically efficient ...manufacturing processes encouraging positive effects for society. Distributed Manufacturing Systems (DMS) are currently discussed in science as a possible approach for sustainable manufacturing. This approach consists largely of the use of decentralized, adaptable and flexible mini-factories. Such production units, organized in networks, allow production-on-demand and therefore the reduction of transport and emissions. In addition, they support the growth and development of regional economic cycles. This paper proposes an increased application of DMS in emerging markets to achieve sustainable production. First, actual challenges of production in emerging markets with a special focus on sustainability are described. In a literature review, the actual state of the art in sustainable manufacturing and distributed manufacturing is presented. Second, the concept of DMS is explained, describing reasons for a trend toward distributed manufacturing. In the next section, the effect of DMS on sustainability in production in emerging markets is analyzed based on the traditional dimensions of sustainability. The paper closes with a critical discussion of DMS and an outlook on future needs in research.
•Emerging countries are facing future risks in the context of sustainable production.•Distributed manufacturing systems are proposed for a more sustainable production.•Sustainability-oriented reasons for the trend toward DMS have been addressed.•Literature confirms, that DMS contribute positively to dimensions of sustainability.•Challenges for the future have been highlighted for every single dimension.
The industrial production landscape is significantly affected by digitization. In the course of this development, various production paradigms have been proposed, such as ubiquitous manufacturing, ...distributed manufacturing or, most recently, cloud manufacturing.
A selective discussion and interpretation of these similar concepts remains in the literature as a research gap. Following the call for research, the aim of this paper is to distinguish the concept of cloud manufacturing from neighboring production paradigms and to locate it within the theory.
This goal will be achieved by means of a literature analysis as well as argumentation based on it and finally presented graphically.
Distributed permutation flow-shop scheduling problem (DPFSP) has achieved much attention in recent years, which always assumes that there are infinite buffers between any consecutive machines. ...However, in many practical industrials, no buffers exist between some consecutive machines due to space constraint or technological requirement, which generate various types of blocking constraint. Hence, a distributed mixed permutation blocking flow-shop scheduling problem (DMBPFSP) is investigated in this paper, which considers three types of blocking constraint and without blocking. The objective is to minimize the maximum makespan among all factories. To address this problem, an improved NEH heuristic (NEH_P) is proposed, which incorporates the re-optimization of partial solutions. Afterwards, an efficient iterated greedy (EIG) algorithm is proposed. In the proposed EIG, the NEH_P heuristic is employed to generate the initial solution with high quality. A problem-specific knowledge based destruction–construction is used to explore the solution space. Three efficient local search procedures are designed to implement exploitation around the critical factory and exploitation across multi-factory. We compare the proposed methods against the closely relevant and high-performing methods in the literature. The computational results indicate that both NEH_P and EIG are very effective for addressing the considered problem.
•A distributed mixed blocking permutation flow-shop scheduling problem is studied.•An effective improved NEH is proposed.•An effective IG method incorporating novel enhanced strategies is presented.•The proposed methods obtain better results.
Past work has shown that particle material extrusion (fused particle fabrication (FPF)/fused granular fabrication (FGF)) has the potential for increasing the use of recycled polymers in 3D printing. ...This study extends this potential to high-performance (high-mechanical-strength and heat-resistant) polymers using polycarbonate (PC). Recycled PC regrind of approximately 25 mm
was 3D printed with an open-source Gigabot X and analyzed. A temperature and nozzle velocity matrix was used to find useful printing parameters, and a print test was used to maximize the output for a two-temperature stage extruder for PC. ASTM type 4 tensile test geometries as well as ASTM-approved compression tests were used to determine the mechanical properties of PC and were compared with filament printing and the bulk virgin material. The results showed the tensile strength of parts manufactured from the recycled PC particles (64.9 MPa) were comparable to that of the commercial filament printed on desktop (62.2 MPa) and large-format (66.3 MPa) 3D printers. Three case study applications were investigated: (i) using PC as a rapid molding technology for lower melting point thermoplastics, (ii) printed parts for high temperature applications, and (iii) printed parts for high-strength applications. The results show that recycled PC particle-based 3D printing can produce high-strength and heat-resistant products at low costs.
The demand for distributed manufacturing systems (DMS) in the manufacturing sector has notably gained vast popularity as a suitable choice to accomplish sustainability benefits. Manufacturing ...companies are bound to face critical barriers in their pursuit of sustainability goals. However, the extent to which the DMS attributes relate to sustainable performance and impact critical barriers to sustainability is considerably unknown. To help close this gap, this article proposes a methodology to determine the relative importance of sustainability barriers, the influence of DMS on these barriers, and the relationship between DMS attributes and sustainable performance. Drawing upon a rich data pool from the Chinese manufacturing industry, the best-worst method is used to investigate the relative importance of the sustainability barriers and determine how the DMS attributes influence these barriers and relate to sustainability. The study findings show that "organizational barriers" are the most severe barriers and indicate that "reduced carbon emissions" has the highest impact on "organizational" and "sociocultural barriers" whereas public approval" has the highest impact on "organizational barriers." The results infer that "reduction of carbon emission" is the DMS strategy strongly linked to improved sustainable performance. Hence, the results can offer in-depth insight to decision-makers, practitioners, and regulatory bodies on the criticality of the barriers and the influence of DMS attributes on the sustainability barriers, and thus, improve sustainable performance for increased global competitiveness. Moreover, our study offers a solid foundation for further studies on the link between DMS and sustainable performance.
The recent trend of globalisation of the economy has been accelerated thanks to emerging new communication technologies. This forces some companies to be adapted to rapidly changing market ...requirements utilising a multi-factory production network. Job scheduling in such a distributed manufacturing system, is significantly complicated especially in the presence of dynamic events. Furthermore, production systems need to be flexible to timely react to the imposed changes. Hence, reconfigurable machine tools (RMTs) can be used as a resource for flexibility in manufacturing systems. This paper deals with a distributed job-shop rescheduling problem, in which the facilities benefit from reconfigurable machines. Firstly, the problem is mathematically formulated to minimise total weighted lateness in a static state. Then, the dynamic version is extent based on a designed conceptual framework of rescheduling module to update the current schedule. Since the problem is NP-hard, a self-adaptive hybrid equilibrium optimiser algorithm is proposed. The experiments show that the proposed EO algorithm is extremely efficient. Finally, a simulation-optimisation model is developed to evaluate the performance of the manufacturing system facing stochastic arriving jobs. The obtained results show that the production system can be very flexible relying on its distributed facilities and reconfigurable machines.
The vaccines industry has not changed appreciably in decades regarding technology, and has struggled to remain viable, with large companies withdrawing from production. Meanwhile, there has been no ...let-up in outbreaks of viral disease, at a time when the biopharmaceuticals industry is discussing downsizing. The distributed manufacturing model aligns well with this, and the advent of synthetic biology promises much in terms of vaccine design. Biofoundries separate design from manufacturing, a hallmark of modern engineering. Once designed in a biofoundry, digital code can be transferred to a small-scale manufacturing facility close to the point of care, rather than physically transferring cold-chain-dependent vaccine. Thus, biofoundries and distributed manufacturing have the potential to open up a new era of biomanufacturing, one based on digital biology and information systems. This seems a better model for tackling future outbreaks and pandemics.
Biofoundries incorporate high levels of automation that implement complex workflows in order to increase the reliability and reproducibility of biotechnology.Biofoundries in different locations can communicate via digital data to complete design/build/test/learn operations.Distributed manufacturing attempts to bring small-scale manufacturing to many locations, directly in contradiction to the centralised mass production paradigm.Biofoundries are suited to the design of certain types of vaccines that do not require whole cells.The design and prototyping of vaccines in biofoundries with final manufacture in small-scale facilities offers the possibility to bring manufacturing close to the point of care.The marriage of biofoundries and the distributed manufacturing model offers solutions to the troubled vaccines manufacturing industry.
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