The results are based on close collaboration between the 20 partners of the UIW research project. This was outlined in the Factories of the Future roadmap for Horizon 2020 (EFFRA2013) and other platforms and networks focused on innovation in production, such as Manufuture (2006) or the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) project (2011).
Challenge 2: Factory Upgrading
Challenge 3: Maintenance Management
Here, it is convenient to connect all this information with the 3D geometry of the product. In many cases, the product consists of a physical assembly of parts that define the geometry of the product.
Challenge 4: In-Operation Upgrades Demanded by Customers
Maintenance work is usually focused on one subassembly or a specific part, and different maintenance services may be performed on different parts of the product or over an area or volume defined within the product geometry. Providing a user-centered design of the 3D interaction mechanisms is essential for a collaborative decision-making tool (González-Toledo et al.2015).
Challenge 5: Upgrades Driven by Changes in Regulations
Chapter “Rock Crusher Upgrade Business from PLM Perspective” presents a similar industrial case where new digital technology is used to enable a new business model for upgrading old machines in the mining and construction sectors. There, the innovative business model is based on smart technical design solutions of the upgrade products and on the digitalization of information flows for upgrade projects.
Challenge 6: Business Modelling Simulation and Innovation
Such business model analyzes allow the company to evaluate the effectiveness of different policy options under different circumstances and improve management decision-making. In addition, such business model analyzes could be extended with quantitative simulation models for estimation in the context of business model innovation (Rahmandad and Sterman 2012; Groesser and Jovy 2016). Chapter "Complexity management and system dynamics thinking" presents how to tackle this challenge using causal context models and how to extend them with quantitative models for performing estimations.
Challenge 7: Retirement and reutilization
As an example, a simulator application can be used to study new product-service strategies based on the CE model or to allow the customer to be informed about the costs associated with different possible upgrades. The decision to initiate an upgrade may also stem from technical analysis of the situation. As previously mentioned, the actor-product-service model organizes all the information related to the.
Some of the aforementioned challenges require the production of applications and models to perform predictions in the context of business innovation in a systematic and reliable manner in order to subsequently make decisions about which upgrades to perform. In Proceedings of the 5th Advances in Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) Conference (pp. 83–88), Krakow, July, 2014.
System Obsolescence and Decay of Use Value Require Change
At the same time, increased awareness of the impact of human activities on the environment has become an important factor influencing the design of new products as well as upgrade solutions. The common denominator of most current developments is the need for closer links between the actors involved. The ability of suppliers to maintain or increase the useful value of an asset over its intended life becomes an important, perhaps even decisive, factor in buyers' investment decisions.
Another external factor is component obsolescence, i.e. the redesign required as replacement components become obsolete. Systems thinking and tools for modeling complexity and causal dependencies (e.g. Anderson and Johnson 1997) can be used to assist strategic planning and management by building a common understanding of the implications for the design task and possible future developments (see also Groesser, Chapter 'Complexity management and system dynamics thinking' in this book).
Adapting to Change in Markets and Environment
Companies are increasingly moving from a linear product life cycle process with separate supplier and customer views (Figure 1) to an integrated product and service life cycle based on continuous collaboration between actors (Figure 2). In a linear product-based process, ownership is transferred in a delivery-to-receipt transaction, causing disruptions in the flow of product lifecycle data. Focusing on end-user value rather than product value creates a common interest among actors to increase impact and reduce life-cycle costs.
The integrated collaborative product-service life-cycle process model builds on the sharing of data across the actor network. It requires closer ties between customer and supplier, and provides a basis for defining structures for network collaboration for continuous adaptation of industrial product-service systems.
The Use-it-Wisely Project
The supplier's main objective is not to maximize profit in a single product delivery, but to deliver end-user value, for example as guaranteed uptime or system output. This requires business models focused on the sharing of income between the actors who contribute to generating output. As such models are typically based on service delivery rather than transfer of ownership, delivery and acquisition sub-processes have been removed.
This motivates systematic maintenance and continuous adaptation to change: changes in the operating environment, such as increased production costs, changing market demand and new competition, force the user to set new business goals. The gap between current output and new goals creates the need to modify the system.
Structure of the Chapter
Research Setting
To ensure broad applicability of the results, companies from six different industries were included in the study: energy production, heavy machinery, aerospace, automotive, shipbuilding and furniture. For each of the six industries, a cluster was formed consisting of two to four organizations representing parts of the value network. Reduced environmental impact due to extended use of larger system parts Stakeholder cooperation Important system knowledge exists outside the company's boundaries, at.
And second, at a cluster-specific level to analyze individual use cases to provide tailor-made solutions based on the tools and methods of the UIW framework. This two-tiered approach is designed to ensure the applicability and practice orientation of the UIW approach and the transferability of specific solutions to other industries facing similar challenges.
Research Process
The broad scope of the study allowed for applications that supported both a horizontal integration, i.e. through the life cycle, and vertical integration, i.e. "shop floor to upper floor". The research environment, including the six industry clusters, different research objectives and multiple actor viewpoints, provided the material to study applications at two different levels: First, at a generic level to analyze commonalities across the clusters and conceptually develop the UIW approach to dealing with common problems . The results of the iterative development process were collected and reported by each of the clusters.
The generic tools and methods used for the analysis of the use cases and the experience of applying specific technologies in the implementation of technical solutions targeting concrete development needs were collected to form the basis of the UIW approach to innovative upgrades of high-investment products to support -services. Based on relevant general research topics, a number of focus areas were selected (A.2) to support the development of shared knowledge, tools and methods (B.2) and to fill the Use-it-Wisely tool box.
A Holistic System View
Continual Improvement
The idea behind a continuous upgrade strategy is to initiate and implement relatively small but frequent change steps to minimize the gap between customers' desired performance and actual system performance (Fig. 4). DP is the performance of an IPSS as desired by the owner or user of the IPSS. The decision to improve actual performance, i.e. the decisions to upgrade the assets through investing, depends on several factors; for example, the ease with which the asset can be upgraded, the direct costs and benefits of upgrading, and the (more indirect) potential loss of customer and market share if the IPSS is not upgraded.
Figure 4 shows a large area A, which represents the “loss zone” due to infrequent upgrades. The objective of the UIW framework is to reduce the loss area, ie. the range between DP and actual performance, using constants, ie. more frequent and smaller improvements.
Integrative Flexibility
In the figure, it is assumed that the two upgrade steps cannot improve the performance to the latest DP, but there is a significant gap. The UIW approach aims to serve a wide range of industries and different upgrading needs. The approach is generic by design to provide sufficient flexibility to adapt to different application scenarios and scenarios in the manufacturing industry as a whole.
This is necessary to enable actors across the value chain to contribute effectively to the improvement process by bringing knowledge and experience beyond what is available in traditional R&D teams. The UIW approach is also designed to cover a wide range of functions, including business development and decision making, engineering data management, and life cycle support.
Collaborative Innovation
The tools and methods described in the approach are chosen to serve a variety of user groups in each application case. Thus, it supports an integration of functions both horizontally across the life cycle and vertically "from shop floor to top floor". The need for increased collaboration across the value network is also a direct consequence of the shift towards a service-dominant business logic, where value is defined by the customer and produced as a collaborative effort of the value network (Vargo et al. 2008).
However, open and collaborative innovation models are fundamentally different from traditional organization-centered ones, especially in terms of where in the network knowledge is accumulated and where innovation is created (Lakhani et al. 2012). This requires a new way of thinking, where shared knowledge is considered a competitive advantage of the collaborative network rather than an internal strategic asset.
Sustainability
Model-Based Engineering and Data Management
The purpose of the ideas is to move the system from its current state (“as is”) to a desirable future state (“to be”). The collaborative ideation produces ideas and proposed solutions to transform the system from its current state to a desirable future state. The results of the simulations may show that the ideas are insufficient to transform the system to the target state.
The discrepancy between the target future state and the simulated future state provides data for further ideation and refinement of the proposed solutions. The UIW approach includes three main elements: the UIW framework; UIW-web platform, and; UIW virtual community.
The UIW-Framework
One of the key elements of the UIW approach is close and continuous interaction between the actors involved. The community also provides access to information or expert services related to the application of the different methods. Using the framework in specific update innovation projects improves existing tools and models and generates new knowledge.
Some examples of tools and their use in the process are presented in II. part of this book. 2015).The innovation imperative: Contributing to productivity, growth and well-being. 2015).Remanufacturing Market Study.European Remanufacturing Network.
