Search Results (5)

The Internet of Things (IoT) and smart manufacturing (SM) are mutually reinforcing. The establishment of IoT-based common facilities for SM is the premise of building SM system. Industrial IoT (IIoT) infrastructure for SM refers to common facilities based on IoT that support SM in industries or sectors, and plays a dominant role and faces severe challenges in the intelligence of SM. The infrastructure is independent of the products and production process in a specific factory. This paper develops conceptual and capability frameworks of IIoT infrastructure from a unified perspective of IIoT-related SM industries. These frameworks reflect relationships between IIoT and SM with in-depth relationships among basic facilities of IIoT infrastructure and lay the foundation of SM. In this paper the common characteristics and high-level requirements with respect to the different IoT layers of IIoT infrastructure are analyzed, and the capability framework and relevant capabilities of IIoT infrastructure are summarized according to the characteristics and requirements. In order to help service providers implement their systems to meet the needs of SM, the existing and newly developed IIoT infrastructure are integrated partially or in whole according to the intelligence level, so as to provide technical guidance for stakeholders to apply emerging ICTs to SM. Full article

Industries worldwide have faced continuous burdens since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, while adjusting to rapidly changing rules and regulations. Industries need to be prepared to remain operational and productive in the face of current and emergent pathogens. While several businesses could remain functional through remote work, critical industries faced closings, worker shortages, and loss of productivity. Pharmaceutical industries were blessed with an increase in the stock market and creation of new jobs, but faced serious severe challenges due to shortage of medicines and drugs. Critical infrastructures such as healthcare, food and agriculture, manufacturing, construction, transportation, retail, waterworks, and waste management took a significant hit during the pandemic, and are still suffering from worker shortages to function optimally. Above all odds, companies were able to maintain the necessities by implementing strict safety protocols such as thorough and repeated cleaning, use of hand sanitizer/disinfectants, wearing face masks and personal protective equipment, and maintaining social distancing. This article addresses how COVID-19 disrupted normal operations on a large scale, and how essential businesses have learned to assess the impact, handle situations effectively, and become resilient for future crises. Best practices were tailored to each industry sector to prepare for and address the pandemic. Full article

The circular economy (CE) is about a system-level change towards sustainability, and it aims at keeping products, components, and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, covering both technical and biological cycles. This study aimed at exploring, discovering, describing, and synthesizing the characteristics of CE development in the construction sector in Japan based on the perspectives of sectoral organizations and focusing on the following themes: (1) sustainable production; (2) sustainable consumption; (3) creation and maintenance of value in a CE; (4) CE innovations; (5) CE of material and energy use; (6) technological, economic, and social barriers to CE; (7) CE guidance; and (8) specific CE aspects in the construction sector. This study applied a qualitative research approach, including a questionnaire survey as the specific method. This study addressed a gap in the research and helps to improve understanding of the CE development priorities based on the perspectives of organizations operating in or related to the construction sector in Japan. The findings indicate that the priority CE development focus areas in the construction sector in Japan encompass, for example, the use of sustainable and renewable raw materials; consumer awareness; and the design, use, and manufacturing of sustainable, recyclable, reusable, and repairable products, components, and materials. The barriers to CE that need to be overcome encompass, for example, the lack of general knowledge about circular economy opportunities and of seeing the “big picture” as well as issues related to economic benefits and the development of CE and sustainability-oriented products, components, and materials. Particularly important CE aspects in the construction sector include the maintenance of existing buildings; sustainability and the long-life cycles of products, components, and materials; CE-oriented product design; and sustainability criteria and cooperation between parties covering the whole life cycle of construction. Full article

This study aims to determine the technical efficiency levels of the enterprises active in the “Manufacture of Basic Iron and Steel and of Ferro-Alloys” sector in Turkey. The inputs and outputs are deterministic in classical Data Envelopment Analysis, so the changes in exchange rate, inflation rate, etc. aren’t considered, and the precautions for future inconsistencies are not foreseen. This leads to critics of deterministic Data Envelopment Analysis models. In this paper, the additive model developed depending on the Banker, Charnes and Cooper (BCC) model was extended by chance constrained programming formulations in order to overcome the insufficiencies in deterministic Data Envelopment Analysis, and the technical analysis of “Manufacture of Basic Iron and Steel and of Ferro-Alloys” sector was performed. Full article