scholarly journals Digital Manufacturing Challenges Education—SmartLab Concept as a Concrete Example in Tackling These Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 192
Author(s):  
Maarit Tihinen ◽  
Ari Pikkarainen ◽  
Jukka Joutsenvaara

Digitalization is boosting the manufacturing industry’s shift to smart manufacturing systems, which will efficiently utilize the potential of new technologies for their business outcomes and value. However, the literature shows that manufacturing companies have implemented very little digital technology due to a lack of the required knowledge and competences. Increasingly, interconnected, digitalized, and complex processes lead to new skill requirements in companies and thereafter also of their workforce’s training needs to respond to the smart manufacturing’s new great expectations. The article provides concrete examples of tackling challenges in education arising from digital manufacturing. The case study introduced in this article concerns the additive manufacturing (AM) method, which is expected to give rise to significant changes in various industrial fields, including digital manufacturing. Advances in digital manufacturing requires skilled professionals who are aware of the possibilities and potential of the latest technology. Education therefore needs to be developed. This article points out that the built learning and development environment, SmartLab, supports multidisciplinary approaches and close collaboration between several stakeholders like companies, engineering education courses, students, and RDI actors. The SmartLab concept is thus also expected to provide a remarkable competitive advantage for business in the region.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2897
Author(s):  
Raffaele Cioffi ◽  
Marta Travaglioni ◽  
Giuseppina Piscitelli ◽  
Antonella Petrillo ◽  
Adele Parmentola

Smart manufacturing is considered as a new paradigm that makes work smarter and more connected, bringing speed and flexibility through the introduction of digital innovation. Today, digital innovation is closely linked to the “sustainability” of companies. Digital innovation and sustainability are two inseparable principles that are based on the concept of circular economy. Digital innovation enables a circular economy model, promoting the use of solutions like digital platforms, smart devices, and artificial intelligence that help to optimize resources. Thus, the purpose of the research is to present a systematic literature review on what enabling technologies can promote new circular business models. A total of 31 articles were included in the study. Our results showed that realization of the circular economy involved two main changes: (i) managerial changes and (ii) legislative changes. Furthermore, the creation of the circular economy can certainly be facilitated by innovation, especially through the introduction of new technologies and through the introduction of digital innovations.


Author(s):  
Andrew Thomas ◽  
Wyn Morris ◽  
Claire Haven-Tang ◽  
Mark Francis ◽  
Paul Byard

The adoption of Smart Manufacturing Systems in manufacturing companies is often seen as a strategy towards achieving improvements in productivity. However, there is little evidence to indicate that UK manufacturing SMEs are prepared for the implementation of such systems. Through the employment of a triangulation research approach involving the detailed examination of 36 UK manufacturing SMEs from three manufacturing sectors, this study investigates the level of awareness and understanding within SMEs of Smart Manufacturing Systems. The development of a profiling tool is shown and is subsequently used to audit company awareness and understanding of the key technologies, collaborative networks and systems of SMS. Further information obtained from semi-structured interviews and observations of manufacturing operations provide further contextual information. The findings indicate that whilst the priority technologies and systems differ between manufacturing sectors, the key issues around the need for developing appropriate collaborative networks and knowledge management systems are common to all sectors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2850
Author(s):  
Dalibor Dobrilovic ◽  
Vladimir Brtka ◽  
Zeljko Stojanov ◽  
Gordana Jotanovic ◽  
Dragan Perakovic ◽  
...  

The growing application of smart manufacturing systems and the expansion of the Industry 4.0 model have created a need for new teaching platforms for education, rapid application development, and testing. This research addresses this need with a proposal for a model of working environment monitoring in smart manufacturing, based on emerging wireless sensor technologies and the message queuing telemetry transport (MQTT) protocol. In accordance with the proposed model, a testing platform was developed. The testing platform was built on open-source hardware and software components. The testing platform was used for the validation of the model within the presented experimental environment. The results showed that the proposed model could be developed by mainly using open-source components, which can then be used to simulate different scenarios, applications, and target systems. Furthermore, the presented stable and functional platform proved to be applicable in the process of rapid prototyping, and software development for the targeted systems, as well as for student teaching as part of the engineering education process.


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