This scientific monograph focuses on selected manufacturing activities and their characteristics and trends in Slovenia and some other European countries. The first chapter Introduction outlines the evolution of manufacturing and current trends focused on Industry 4.0. The second chapter presents European Manufacturing Survey and basic characteristics of Slovenian subsample of manufacturing companies. Third chapter deals with manufacturing backshoring to Europe. Fourth chapter focuses on the use of advanced manufacturing technologies and information-communication technologies, while the fifth chapter focuses on the use of specific organisational concepts in Slovenian manufacturing companies. The last chapter presents value adding activities and outsourcing activities in manufacturing companies and introduction of product-related services in manufacturing companies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 96852481
An example of open innovation is presented, in which customers - users collaborate to design a component for the end product refrigerator. The main research question was whether a buyer / consumer might actively participate in the process of new product development. We applied the conjoint analysis and quality function deployment (QFD) in order to test and understand how customers perceive the different attributes of a new product development process. The research showed that is reasonable to include the customer into the development starting with brainstorming phase and in the continuation at different stages of the product development. This avoids possible problems mainly associated with costs. This is why the open innovation fosters creativity that can lead to great ideas that add value to the product. Teamwork also creates a comfortable social environment for people.
COBISS.SI-ID: 21757974
Workers with disabilities are still lagging in employment rates compared to the healthy workforce and are more sensitive for possible injuries that are usually connected with non-adequate workplace design. The purpose of our research was to develop a decision support system that would aid in the process of identifying and categorizing disabilities of workers, and assigning the most suitable workplace with needed requirements in an integrated work environment to ensure high safety, productivity and satisfaction. The usefulness of the system has been shown in a case study of a large sized production company.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22759190
We developed a system optimization model of transportation routing design and conduct solution analysis which is based on the improved multi-objective swarm intelligence algorithm. The algorithm is applied to solve the combinatorial optimization problem of railway door-to-door freight transportation. The optimization results show that the RMN-MOSFLA-PR can be better applied to solve the combined multi-objective optimization problem, and that it can find Pareto frontier through the comparative analysis in the example of transportation. The frontier can provide support for transportation enterprises, arrange the decision-making of the starting and ending stations for multiple shippers, and optimize the use of existing transportation resources, so as to reduce the transportation cost and time.
COBISS.SI-ID: 22716694
In order to develop a formal framework for the transmission of metrology data on the basis of the International System of Units, European project EMPIR 17IND02 SmartCom was agreed between the European Commission and the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (Euramet). The project aims to provide the methodological and technical foundation for the unambiguous, universal, safe and uniform communication of metrological smart data in the IoT and Industry 4.0. The project will increase the industrial capabilities and the provision of regulations for data exchange in the IoT. In addition to describing the general ideas and aims of the project, this article presents the research results achieved in the first midterm period.
COBISS.SI-ID: 23128086