Final Report Summary - USE-IT-WISELY (Innovative continuous upgrades of high investment product-services)
Executive Summary:
To survive in the global competition, industries have to adapt to changing demands caused by new technologies and changing operating environments. This is a challenge especially for industries dealing with high investment product-services, which are typically low volume products with relatively long service lives. Such products must be continually upgraded to new emerging needs, beyond what was anticipated at design time.
Changing user needs are not only driven by new business opportunities or technological development. Increased awareness of the impacts of human activities on the environment and the limits of the global ecological capacity causes changes in customer behaviour and legislation. More environmentally friendly solutions both with respect to production and operation of industrial systems will be needed to deal with issues such as the depletion of natural resources and global warming.
The digital transformation together with increasing environmental concerns will change current industrial structures. Dealing with these challenges requires new forms of collaboration involving all relevant actors working together to achieve sustainable solutions that satisfy current and future needs. New agile business models are needed to deal with the new industrial structures. These will, to an increasing extent, be based on economic models based on the delivery on user outcome instead of delivery of products and on sharing revenues across the value network. This is a prerequisite for a circular economy aiming to reduce the environmental impact through efficient re-use of system components and material.
The Use-it-Wisely project has developed a comprehensive approach for upgrading high-investment product-services based on a continuous upgrade innovation strategy. The approach builds on three corner stones: an adaptation model helping to understand the change and analyse planed actions; a collaboration model to facilitate the communication and knowledge exchange between actors; and an extended actor-product-service system model for efficient management of system data throughout the life-cycle. Tools, methods and processes to support an continuous collaboration between actors and stakeholders were developed and tested in six industrial clusters.
Further development of the Use-it-Wisely approach and associated tools and methods will be continued within a virtual community of practice (CoP). The purpose of the CoP is to increase the value of the project results by extending the activities to a wider community and provide benefits to industries beyond the current project partners. The CoP will be open to interested parties regardless of industries.
Project Context and Objectives:
The digital transformation of industry is profoundly changing the manufacturing of products, provision of services and structures of value creation in general and of individual businesses in particular. Advances in wireless communication combined with embedded sensor and computation technologies have changed the way humans and machines interact, shaping the concept of cyber-physical systems. The speed of technological development in concurrence with global economic development and short-term market volatility force companies to find new strategies to compete in the marketplace. The future competitiveness of manufacturing firms will be increasingly linked to their ability to rapidly transfer developments in science and technology into their processes and products as well as adopting ideas developed both internally and externally.
In parallel with technological development there is a growing concern about human impact on the environment and the limits of the global ecological capacity. This has led to political decisions and global agreements aiming at reducing ecological footprints. Research into key enabling technologies, such as new materials and manufacturing technologies, help reduce ecological footprints and comply with tightening regulations to, for example, reduce global warming or the use of non-renewable resources. Closed-loop life-cycles and circular economy business models appear as a viable solution to reduce environmental impacts. The European Commission has adopted an ambitious Circular Economy Package, which includes revised legislative proposals to stimulate Europe's transition towards a circular economy (European Commision, 2015). A prerequisite for circular life-cycle models is a shift from a business logic based on products as the main bearer value to models based on life-cycle value shared through the value network. This requires new forms of collaboration and focusing on product based services to create end user benefit.
Changes in market demands and user expectations driven by new innovations pose a challenge for mature industries supplying high-investment, low volume products. Due to long pay back times, technical complexity or tight integration with fixed legacy systems, such products cannot easily be replaced to introduce new functionality. To meet changing demands, these systems must be systematically upgraded in order to serve effectivele throughout their designed life. In addition , foresights of future markets and operating environments become crucial when making decisions about investments in innovation and R&D of products and services that need to create value in the long-term.
The Use-it-Wisely (UIW) research project focused on continuous upgrade of high-investment product-services. The goal of the project was to develop an approach to support systematic adaptation to changing needs by developing business models and technologies to support collaborative efforts to sustain and improve high-investment product services.
Project approach and organisation
The project was based on two main assumptions:
1. Efficient adaptatiob can be achieved through small frequent upgrade increments, and
2. Efficent upgrade agility can only be achieved through close and continuous collaboration with all involved actors.
A rationale behind these assumptions is presented below:
Small upgrade increments
- Reduced financial risk due to smaller investment.
- Reduced technical risk due to smaller changes.
- Shorter disruptions.
- Shorter implementation time leading to faster response times and enhanced upgrade agility.
- Reduced environmental impact due to extended use of major system parts.
Actor collaboration
- Important system knowledge exists outside of the corporate borders, on multiple levels.
- System defect, deficiencies and changing user needs are communicated directly and proactively across the network.
- Sustained actor involvement leads to deeper engagement and firm actor networks, building trust and loyalty between partners.
Incremental modifications based on individual customer request easily lead to a diversification of the installed base and increasing management and support costs. Therefore, a holistic approach is necessary in order to develop and maintain technically, economincally and environmentally sustainable solutions. The project investigated both new technologies and business models aiming to enable successful strategies for extended product-service life cycles.
In parallel with system properties that allow for future change, a streamlined process to support effective adaptation is required to achieve agile adaptation. Companies are increasingly moving from linear product life-cycle process with decoupled supplier and customer views to an integrated product-service life-cycle based on a continuous collaboration between actors.
In the linear product-based process ownership is handed over in a delivery-acquisition transaction, which causes a disruption in the flow of product life-cycle data. This can be due to incompatibility between product data management systems or practices, or because of unwillingness to share data between customer and supplier organisation. In addition, direct personal communication and exchange of tacit product knowledge between individuals across company borders is reduced in a life-cycle product model.
Transitioning from a product-based economy to a models based on provision user value or output require new forms of collaboration. Instead of focusing on revenues from individual sales transactions along the value chain service-based models must find ways to maximise total end-user value. This requires a thorough understanding of the business drivers and implications of both the end user and of the contributors in the value network. It also requires an understanding of the technical components of the system and of new emerging technologies that may impact future system implementations, markets and competitors. Making the right decisions with regard to system design, upgrade interventions and business model development must be based on a holistic systems view. Creating and evolving a comprehensive, shared view requires the combined efforts of the involved actors.
Changes to end products frequently also require changes to the production lines and manufacturing systems, while service changes may require adopting new business models. Thus, changeability requirements may have to target simultaneously the product or service, the way it is manufactured, and the complete value network delivering the value added. Sharing of tasks and resources across various forms of collaboration networks can provide improved capacity to change due to smaller, more agile operators and flexibility of the collaboration network itself. Efficient operation of the actor network requires a flexible information architecture that supports decentralized collaborative processes.
To structure the work a number of basic principles guiding the solution were identified:
• Holistic systems view
• Continual improvement
• Flexibility
• Sustainable solutions
• Model based systems engineering
Based on these principles a generic approach was developed. The approach builds on three corner stones:
• an adaptation model helping to understand the change and analyse planed actions;
• a collaboration model to facilitate the communication and knowledge exchange between actors; and
• an extended actor-product-service system model for efficient management of system data throughout the life-cycle.
Virtual and Augmented reality technologies were applied extensively to facilitate communication and collaboration between actors.
Clusters and pilot cases
To ensure a wide applicability of the results, companies from six different industries were included in the project: energy, machinery, space, automotive, ship building and office workplace. For each of the six industries, a cluster was formed, consisting of two to four organisations representing parts of the value network. One organisation responsible for technical and scientific research was included in each cluster. The clusters defined their own use cases based on identified needs or foreseen business potential. The use cases included specific research targets including maintenance inspection, upgrade service development, model-based systems engineering, and circular economy. Each cluster defined a target system that was studied and developed throughout the project in a series of iterations. The final iteration ended with a demonstration of the results achieved in each cluster.
Cluster Industry sector Primary research target
1 Energy production Turbine service inspection
2 Heavy machinery Upgrade service for mobile rock crushers
3 Aerospace Integrated system data management
4 Automotive Production line configuration
5 Shipbuilding Value chain collaboration
6 Furniture Circular economy business model for office furniture
Within each cluster the viewpoints of a broad range of actors, such as design engineers, service personnel, sales staff, managers, decision makers, and end users, were taken into account to create comprehensive systems views. The broad scope of the study allowed for applications supporting both a horizontal integration, i.e. through the life-cycle, and vertical integration, i.e. “shop-floor to top-floor”. In addition, the collaboration between research and practice as well as between seemingly unrelated industries proved beneficial and provided new viewpoints to identified problems.
The research setting, including the six industry clusters, different research targets and multiple actor viewpoints, provided the material to study applications on two different levels: first, on a generic level to analyse commonalities across the clusters and conceptually develop the UIW-approach for dealing with shared issues. And second, on a cluster-specific level to analyse individual use cases to provide bespoke solutions based on the tools and methods of the framework. This two-level approach was designed to ensure the applicability and practice-orientation of the UIW-approach and the transferability of specific solutions to other industries facing similar challenges.
Work packages
The project was arranged in seven work packages.
Work package 1, taking input from the cluster cases, worked out the generic approach to provide tools and methodologies to support the clusters in the iterative development process.
The work in the clusters was coordinated through three integrating work packages (WPs 2, 3, and 4) representing development activities, definition, implementation and testing, to be refined in each iteration. These work packages were also responsible for harmonising the work across the clusters and for producing the deliverables that summarises the work done in the clusters throughout the project.
Finally, at the end of the last iteration, work package 5 was responsible for managing the demonstrations in all clusters.
To achieve maximal impact of the project, work package 6 ran continuously throughout the project focusing on communication and business development. The work package was responsible for interacting with external stakeholder communities to exploit the results. Work package 7 was responsible for coordination and management of the project.
Project Results:
Main results
The project achieved significant results both in individual cluster cases as well as on a general level. A common approach for enabling industrial actors to better respond to changes of customer needs and the operating environment was developed. The result (the Use-it-Wisely approach) with corresponding tools, practices and information was summarised as a generic collaborative platform allowing actors to continue the exchange of knowledge and best practice for a mutual benefit. The tools and methods of the common approach were implemented in the six industry clusters, delivering specific, tangiable results in each case.
A summary of the main results are presented below.
The UIW Platform
As set out in the Description of Work, the concept of the Use-It-Wisely (UIW) Platform is to combine selective theory, best practice, and suitable technologies to better enable innovative continuous upgrades of high investment product-services. In particular, to better enable ideations and analyses for innovative upgrades. This takes the UIW Platform beyond the limitations of platforms based on study of only practitioners’ activities and/or on ICT environments, tools, etc. UIW Platform provides access to physical as well as digital resources for ideations and analyses. This is important because disproportionately large areas of brain mechanisms go into non-repetitive hand movements and movement is important in gaining shared understandings. Furthermore, an action can activate corresponding patterns of neural activity in several people - leading to empathy. Accordingly, a physical symbol system for strategic design of innovative production systems has been devised, piloted, and made available via the UIW Platform. Also, via contacting UIW partners there can be access to many different types of mathematically-based computationally-enabled models, which can be applied during ideations and analyses. In particular, these can be applied to Actors, Products, Services (APS). Actors encompass: users, customers, suppliers, managers, practitioners, regulatory bodies, politicians, media, and public. Products encompass: components/equipment/units; product interfaces; product behavior; product realization. Services encompass: activities performed by actors on products; assistance provided to customers/users before the delivery of a good during the design and production of a good. In addition, UIW System Exemplars have been developed to support ideation and analyses. These have been formulated through induction from the causal context models (CCM) produced by clusters. The UIW System Exemplars illustrate the basic understanding of upgrading and its effects for producers as well as users of upgradable assets. The UIW System Exemplars form the basis of reflection for cluster members on how to describe and model the benefits of shortening upgrade cycles and the power of upgrading. Moreover, the Use-It-Wisely Community of Practice has been established to harness the potential for cross-industrial communication and collaboration during ideations and analyses. This is important because industrial organisations require strategies that enhance communication and collaboration between individuals, to promote innovation, improve industrial performance and maintain a competitive advantage within the marketplace.
Strategic Design Symbol System
With regard to physical as well as digital resources for ideations and analyses, a strategic design symbols system has been developed and tested. Already this symbol system has been piloted and taken into use by several organizations in different parts of the world, including the following: Cranfield University UK; Festo Automation Germany; Nazarbayev University Kazakhstan; The Learning Network on Sustainability Mexico; UC Berkeley USA; Urban Mill Finland; Vinyl Council of Australia and Monash University Australia. The symbol system has been developed to enable the widest possible participation during the strategic design of innovative production systems. This is facilitated by minimum use of words and maximum use of graphics. The overall composition of the symbol system encompasses: Location: village, town, city, region or hub; Value added: create new market; disintermediation; demographically distributed economy; down cycling; ecological renewal; geographically distributed economy; localization; on-shoring; re-cycling; upcycling; Value chain: B2B; B2C; P2P; agricultural; construction; creative; engineer-to-order; healthcare; mass production; retail; or space; Resource inputs: components; formed materials; micro-electronics; open source designs; open source hardware; open source software; raw materials; recycled materials; Infrastructure inputs: computer skills; creative skills; data analytics skills; engineering skills; manual skills; digital infrastructure; energy infrastructure; financial infrastructure; physical infrastructure; social infrastructure; water infrastructure; Type of factory: carry-able factory; fixed factory; factory kits for export; home / club factory; independent local factory; mobile factory; moveable factory; networked local factory; New employment: 1-5 new jobs; 6-50 new jobs; 51-250 new jobs; 250+ new jobs; Time: Today; +1 year; +3 years; +5 years.
System Model for UIW Upgrades of High Investment Product-Services
Modelling different types of modelling have been experienced in UIW, concentrating on the definition of three main concepts: Actors, Products, Services (APS).
Experiments conducted in UIW, show interesting results in the usage of models, for the web-based collaboration, for the connection with simulation/VR or realized product data, for the use of services, and the application of methodologies such as the Causal Context Models, the Circular Economy models and other strategic/company level models. The unique experience acquired in the UIW project allowed the team to concentrate to a specific cluster project, while addressing with the other clusters issues about different industrial domains, different national cultures or different lifecycle stages.
The models related to economical and strategical domains are often not so easy to formalize and typically are not tightly connected with the technical domain. The UIW experience recommends a clearer integration of the related concepts to widely enhance the lifecycle process. The UIW experience allowed also figuring out which issues are common among different design processes. Such problems can be faced with a more effective design approach and a model-based philosophy can provide useful tools to mitigate the current situation. Additional features can be integrated within the system model to cover common areas among different companies. For example, a well-formalized system model can pave the way for tools and techniques that can widely support the decision making process. Currently the system solutions and design choices are strictly dependent on the context and seldom all the knowledge elaborated during these processes are re-used in other projects. The modelling choice is typically commanded by the company choices, and also the industrial domains (e.g. the dependency to customer standards, domain-specific standards or just for legacy).
The main recommendation deriving from such the UIW project, in a complex and heterogeneous (hence inspiring) environment is to derive a common language for the aspects that are not deeply domain-specific, e.g. 3D modelling, product structure, business modelling, etc. A better collaboration in the industry, sharing the semantics of such main concepts is essential. Moreover, the management of complexity using software is not a solution, but a tool to support a solution. The key is the end user. Easy way to represent a very complex set of information is essential. Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Interfaces similar to the websites used by the majority of the population, flow and block diagrams (based on a model), as well as the connection between design and reality are the main means to produce a clear collaboration environment based on a model, where customers, users, technical practitioners, program managers and system engineers can collaborate together are reach in a quicker way an effective way of working.
Simulation Models for UIW Adaptations
In order to better enable adaptation from existing states to desired future states, as referenced in D2.2 BUAS has introduced the cluster organizations to a tutorial using system exemplars. These include all major elements of business. The tutorial has been used by some of the cluster organizations as part of the preparation for the modeling process of cluster specific models. This work provided the basis for the development of the UIW System Exemplars. UIW System Exemplars are basic structures of System Dynamics models created during the UIW project. As part of the UIW platform (WP1), BUAS contributes with UIW System Exemplars to answer the UIW challenge. We develop the UIW System Exemplars by means of an inductive process of extracting them from the causal context models (CCM) produced by the cluster members. The UIW System Exemplars should illustrate the basic understanding of upgrading and its effects for producers as well as users of upgradable assets. The UIW System Exemplars form the basis of reflection for cluster members on how to describe and model the benefits of shortening upgrade cycles and the power of upgrading. All UIW System Exemplars consist of two parts: The System Structure Diagram: This is a qualitative description of the System Exemplar derived from the Causal Context Models developed by the cluster members as part of D2.1 and D2.2. The Simulation Model: This is an extension of the System Structure Diagram and populated with generic values to illustrate the upgrading concepts in a quantitative way. The criteria for the development of the UIW System Exemplars for the UIW project are as follows: most simple underlying models to explain benefits and challenges, as well as organizational constraints to upgrading; recurring upgrading structures found in multiple models or with possible application in multiple models; limited to a small number of stocks. The notional elements of generic UIW structures are as follows: causal relationships; causal loops; and stocks, which is the term for any entity that accumulates or depletes over time. A flow is the rate of change in a stock.
Collaborative Environment – UIW Community of Practice
Communication and collaboration between previously unconnected industries has emerged as one of the foremost benefits of the Use-It-Wisely project. The project consortium has connected their knowledge and working processes to address common challenges and have found solutions for the different industrial sectors, that previously would not have been identified. One of the main achievements of the Use-it-Wisely project is the development of a cross-industrial virtual community, which centres on a platform that allows for communication and collaboration between different manufacturing sectors. Collaborations between industrial, SME, academic and research partners, has inspired the project partners to apply tools and methods from different sectors to their own organisation, and have improved the effectiveness of their contributions within the project, simply through communicating and collaborating outside their sectors. The Use-It-Wisely Virtual Community was established to harness the potential for cross-industrial communication and collaboration and provide a virtual space where experts across different sectors can share knowledge, experience, tools and practices. The UIW Virtual Community is using Bitrix 24. This is a cloud-based service developed by Bitrix, Inc. (Alexandria, VA) and consists of a PHP-based cross-platform to provide advanced web applications for collaboration and communication between organisations and their external associates. The platform can be used on all major operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, and many Unix variants and supports most web servers. It uses both procedural programming or object oriented programming and has the ability to output HTML, PDF files, images, Flash movies and text including any XML file. It can support a wide range of databases and data exchanges between the majority of Web program languages and provides user-friendly writing applications. In addition, it supports Java objects and has useful text processing features and tools, which are categorised both alphabetically and by theme.
Results from the pilot cases of six industrial clusters
The following sections presents specific reults from pilot applications in the six industrial clusters.
Cluster#1: Design, maintenance and refurbishment of turbines in a collavorative environment
The objective of Cluster 1 application was to enhance the inspection process performed in power plants throughout the improvement of a Tecnatom software tool (called GIPE and already deployed in several Spanish Fossil Power Plants) with the objective of extending service life of its components.
So, as a result, a 3D collaborative tool has been developed which makes easier the understanding of component status after the inspection and thus, to provide added-value- services for supporting the decision making process along the life cycle. The selected equipment for demonstrating the case was a steam turbine due to its complexity and the fact that at least one steam turbine is installed in every thermal plant.
Cluster 1 has developed a web-based application, allowing the 3D visualization of all turbine parts together with the inspection results. The information is shown in two ways: (1) with hypertext, using plain text, tables, lists, photographs, 2D drawings, etc. and (2) with a 3D model of the turbine geometry that allows users to navigate through the different parts of the turbine. The tool also includes a collaborative decision-making application, to manage all stakeholders’ proposals, annotations and discussions. Proceeding in that way, comparisons between similar components could be made taking into account the operating experience and lessons learnt stored in the tool.
There are three main domains composing the UiW framework:
1) Market and Data Analysis domain: using business forecasting models and tools can, out of a strategic decision, initiate the upgrade of its product/service or business model.
2) Actor Product Service (APL) modelling domain; needed to handle large amounts of information which come from different sources (3D scan data, CAD models, ad-hoc process databases, etc.). For this purpose a meta-model has been developed and contains some recommendations on how to model information on product and services so that interfaces between different formats and tools are easier to maintain.
3) Collaboration Management domain; needed to improve the communication between different actors involved in the life cycle of a product or service. To do this, several methods and tools have been implemented which are focused on enabling the information flow, promoting collaborations in technical developments, and providing an easy and efficient way to make decisions.
Cluster #1 main contribution has been in two of those three domains: APS modelling; and Collaboration Management domains.
Main results achieved have been:
1) Hierarchical viewer: A product tree based on the component geometry and its assembly has been developed. The company used to work with a different tree, based on the inspection areas, which has also been kept, allowing the user to navigate throughout both trees, indistinctly. In addition, both trees are syncronized.
2) 3D viewer - Hom3r: A generic 3D viewer for complex geometries has been developed. This viewer was called Hom3r (http://proyectos.diana.uma.es/hom3r/) and it is an open source WebGL embeddable module which has been used as the 3D viewer of the application developed in Cluster 1, providing the following features, among others:
• Selection and manipulation of product parts could be made at different levels within the hierarchy.
• Visualization of occluded parts: Adaptve transparency and exploded views.
• Navigation around the product using the mouse, with a restricted set of trajectories withing a cylinder or an ellipsoid.
• 3D interaction: Translation, rotation, selection, isolation and predefined views.
• Visual representation and location of flaws.
• 3D labelling.
• Color highlighting the 3D model to represent information related to a part
3) Interactive viewer of inspection results: It has been developed a simplified module to sort the information according to the inspection techniques, dates and results. Depending on these results, each inspection area in the 3D model is highlighted following a predefined color code in order to facilitate the comprenhesion of the overall status of the turbine.
4) Discussion management tool based on Redmine software: Availability to share and exchange any kind of information and comments related to an inspection result. It’s possible to summarize all the information in a pdf file.
Cluster#2: Upgrade of mobile crushers
The Use-it-Wisely case of Cluster#2 (Metso, RDVelho, VTT) introduces the new approach to upgrading rock crushers at customer sites including new processes, procedures and utilization of technical tools. The higher level problem needing to be solved concerned making upgrade delivery projects profitable and more desirable for customers, the manufacturing OEM (Metso) and suppliers. The main challenges were related to knowing the actual status of the upgrade target machine, communication and collaboration with stakeholders, verification and validation of upgrade specifications and an efficient information flow between the stakeholders. Augmented reality (AR), Virtual environments (VE), camera based 3D scanning, and cloud based solutions were the selected pieces of technology for solving the challenges. They enable better planning and discussing of upgrade service activities. This study was a proof-of-concept that demonstrates the potential of contributions to business model innovations for upgrading business.
Challenges of rock crusher upgrading and proposed solutions:
Challenge: Creating digital data and information about the target machine, including 3D geometry; Proposed solutions: 3D scanning (3D data capture); Expected advantages: Fast and cost-efficient way to get the actual status and geometry.
Challenge: Visualization of upgrade service offerings and proposed solutions for customers; Proposed solutions: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Environments (VE); Expected advantages: Mobile and cheap solution for operations in field, possibility to test non-existing solutions and environments.
Challenge: Visualization of the target machine status and boundary conditions for engineering designers Proposed solutions: Virtual Environments (VE); Expected advantages: Possibility to test non-existing solutions and environments, Effective way to share information and knowledge.
Challenge: Keeping digital data and information up-to-date and sharing it in an appropriate format, for all required stakeholders; Proposed solutions: Cloud-based PLM module; Expected advantages: Possibility to automate information management and dynamically involve different stakeholders.
The OEM manufacturer of rock crushers wants to serve their customers by providing machine upgrade solutions that support increased machine utilization rate and the customers’ capability for crushing rocks, for instance, near urban areas, by decreasing the noise and dust levels of the machines. This is challenging, because every individual machine is different when it leaves the factory. Additionally it is often modified by the customer or a third party during its lifecycle. The lifecycle may exceed ten years and, during that time, machine deformations typically occur, due to harsh conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to know the status of the machines at the customer sites, around the world. Thus, generally machine upgrade projects are not very attractive or profitable. Targeted upgrade activities, status before UiW, and demonstrated solutions:
Activity: Evaluate compatibility of upgrade
Status before UiW: New methodology and technology is needed for design reviews, verification, and validation. Combining virtual upgrade models and worn out machinery is challenging when the module interfaces are very important.
Final demonstrations: An AR application and VE can be used for illustrating the planned upgrades. AR models can be augmented on top of a physical machine or virtual upgrade models can be combined with 3D scanned virtual model of the physical machine. This enables resign reviews, design verification and customer validation. However, fidelity of AR model tracking and quality of camera based 3D scanned models still require improvement for some business applications. Thus demonstration status can be considered as a proof-of-concept.
Activity: Model an old Machine in 3D
Status before UiW: Depends on how old (was it designed in 3D) is the machine, and what is the condition (modifications, transformations) of the machine. Anyhow there is obviously need for improved methodology and technology for modelling existing machine individuals at customers’ sites.
Final demonstrations: Camera-based 3D scanning was selected based on the experiences of technical trials. Normal digital cameras (e.g. in mobile phones) can be used to take photos. The photos are sent to a cloud-based tool which automatically generates a 3D geometry model of the physical target machine. Fidelity of the 3D model is sufficient for supporting upgrade solution design, but it still requires improvement in order to be accurate enough to really describe the actual geometry of the physical machnine.
Activity: Visualize 3D models of machines and Upgrades
Status before UiW: 3D visualization is utilized already to some extent. Anyway quality of visualization should be improved, and 3D visualization should be implemented more widely (different applications), and more deeply (integration to product processes and data management).
Final demonstrations: Quality of 3D visualization has improved during the UiW project thanks to general technical progression. Additionally, e.g. new inexpensive head mounted displays enable involving more stakeholders such as engineering designers to virtual environments. The VE solution was based on 3D CAD models and Unity VE environment. Integration of 3D visualization was described as part of the sales-delivery process.
Activity: Manufacturing an Upgrade
Status before UiW: Product upgrades are manufactured case by case, and separated of standard production. More standard way of managing manufacture within suppliers and value networks is needed.
Final demonstrations: Noise encapsulation upgrade module is the first upgrade module designed during the UiW project that is near standard production mode.
Activity: Configure an existing model of Upgrade
Status before UiW: The upgrade modules are designed and delivered case-by-case. Therefore improved modularization, project references and product data management are needed. Productization of the upgrade modules is challenging because high variety and degree of freedom.
Final demonstrations: Modularity is key principle in new upgrade products, for instance in the previously mentioned noise encapsulation.
Activity: Design a new upgrade
Status before UiW: Improved and re-designed product design and sales-delivery processes are needed: more flexible, agile, cost-efficient. Current processes and procedures are optimized for standard production.
Final demonstrations: A new upgrade sales-delivery process was described. It has been discussed with process stakeholders and potential benefits and possible drawbacks were assessed.
Augmented reality (AR), Virtual environments (VE), camera based 3D scan-ning, and cloud based solutions were selected pieces of technology in order to solve the bottlenecks. Laser based (active) 3D scanning was also tested and compared with (passive) camera based photogrammetric scanning. The accuracy of laser scanning was better, but camera based was chosen because of its mobility and ease of use. 3D scanning enables fast and cost efficient acquisition of the actual 3D model of the product individuals, at customer sites.
VE is a means to visualize scan based 3D models, as well as CAD based 3D models, so that all stakeholders can better understand them. This enables better communication, collaboration and involvement of all stakeholders, including customers, internal stakeholders, suppliers and partners. With the use of VE and AR, it is possible to illustrate upgrade offerings for customers and to test proposed solutions, virtually. They also enable the planning and discussing of service activities. The proposed solutions can be verified and validated, before building physical products.
Cluster#3. Commercial space system development
Cluster 3 defined, developed and demonstrated a collaborative methodology, supported by model-based methods and tools, based on a Space system development scenario, but applicable to any collaborative scenario including different model-based engineering environments.
Rationale: Adaptation to customer demand, continuous upgrade of provided services and products, and especially a quicker response to the customer are needed to cope with the future Space economy. Such objectives in the Use-It-Wisely (UIW) project have been analysed by the Space cluster in terms of improvement of capabilities and efficiency of the technical work. Space industry deals with complex products in a complex industrial organization which often includes the customer; customer is in the design, verification and, naturally, operations loops with its engineering, scientific and high-tech capabilities.
Customers may take decisions based on many key factors, e.g. political constraints (e.g. geographical return for member states in case of the European Space Agency), soundness of the solution, costs, schedule, risks, etc. In case of a commercial customer, the ability to quick respond with an appropriate solution, giving the highest possible confidence that it is meeting the related needs is essential. More complex the proposed solution is, more of the following issues may appear:
- Understanding of real needs and constraints: the expressed needs and constraints may be incomplete or provided without a clear rationale (for instance providing costly constraints which can be drastically reduced with alternative concepts).
- Feedback capture: the customer feedback is essential to provide an alternative solution quicker, or to improve future products/services.
- Traceability: the customer and user needs shall be traced to the technical solution and their changes shall be clearly identified and their impact traced in the technical solution, as well as kept for future evolution of the product.
Such needs comes from a customer-supplier relationship and they can be further broken down into technical-team level requirements:
- Be able to respond in a quick way to a customer (or potential customer) request or a customer change, while: Being able to manage complex technical issues in a distributed team, Being able to manage a large amount of technical data in a distributed team, Being able to keep the required level of quality and risks
- Be able to present clearly the technical solution to a potential customer, showing clearly the advantages with regard to competitors: Being able to provide information at different level of details, Being able to clearly support any proposal for change to the customer showing the advantages, Being able to be supported by clear, complete and visual means to show the solution and related operations (e.g. using simulation and 3D graphics)
Many of the above mentioned needs are meant to be solved by many initiatives in the field of Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE), such as the current European space domain efforts (e.g. with the Concurrent Design Facility or Engineering Data Repository approaches described in ECSS-E-TM-10-23A and ECSS-E-TM-10-25A technical memoranda and related data models), to OMG efforts and to the THALES corporate level (see Capella modelling IT tool) initiatives. They are expected to provide advantages in terms of technical (and project) data management and some of them are already used and proved to bring the promised advantages.
In the experience we gained with model-based environments in the latest years, and through the discussions held during the UIW project, one of the main issues is the interoperability of environments and the security requirements compliance. This includes mainly four issues, with related solutions:
1) Data compatibility: to be solved using data semantics and well-defined and generic interfaces
2) Workflow realization: to be solved using dedicated tasks definition and realization managers, through a concept of services-based exchange between different entities
3) Data Security: to be solved thanks to adequate data semantics and dedicated processes that shall allow a filtered exchange of information, with a clear identification of what is exiting from the company network perimeter
4) Cost and maintainability of the IT infrastructure: to be solved by a cheaper integration between tools (not only in terms of development, but mainly in terms of maintainability). Mapping shall not be based on tool versions or custom formats, but mapping to common semantic data models or custom data structures defined at user level (and not at tool vendor level).
The reference case: A simplified operational scenario has been defined to keep the analysis simple without loss of generality, and it comprises the following entities:
- The (potential) customer technical team: in charge to provide the needs, evaluate technically the solution or proposed changes, and eventually buying the solution.
- The solution provider technical team: managing for the whole industrial team the solution and being the main interface to the customer, analyzing its needs and understanding the final user needs through the interface with the customer.
- The supplier technical team: it is a supplier of the solution provider, kept in the loop to elaborate the solution for the customer.
A reference case is used in support to the definition of use cases, to the definition of the methodology, to the developments, trials and demonstration. Such case is based on the future provision of a today unconventional Space-to-Space re-utilizable product called Space Tug: a sort of taxi service in Space, to move a spacecraft from one position (orbit) to another, while providing also other servicing options. The related project have been chosen for the complexity and originality, and to re-use existing projects data. Naturally the actual Space Tug data are not disseminated, nor published in the UIW activities. Only demonstrative pictures and data sets have been used externally to the UIW partnership.
Based on the above concept, and using the demonstrative data set, a demonstration of collaboration among the different actors have been implemented in a dedicated tool chain, performing a preliminary validation of the feasibility and of the benefits/limits of the approach.
The solution: The solution is a federated environment, where each of the actors belonging to the previously described operational entities can work in a distributed model-based environment which fits their organization and their needs, in their own company networks. The different networks and then connected using dedicated interfaces. Such a federated environment is based on the following assumptions:
- Each environment is web-based, meaning that the models can be accessed through dedicated services available on the company network (with the related security restrictions). It is already the case of some commercial or custom tools, but the current trends are to move towards such types of solutions. The ESA OCDT WSP is an example of web-based services provider in a local network.
- Any technical discipline is able to profit from such system level environment to retrieve the information needed from the other disciplines and to provide the needed information at system level to the other entities.
- The web-based environment shall be semantically unique, i.e. the data can be retrieved, inserted and processed univocally by a human operator or by an automated routine programmed by an operator, independently from the originator/owner of the data. ECSS-E-TM-10-23A technical memorandum describes the current effort in the European Space domain to proceed towards an interoperable Space systems data repository. The data exchange between different repositories is not currently considered nor in the methodology, nor in the related reference data model. An extension has been studied (introducing engineering services, actors, disciplines, etc.).
Cluster#4: Production system for truck cabs
Cluster 4 has developed a solution combining enterprise data of production line and consumer VR technology into an interactive visualization tool for factory layouts. During the project the industrial partner has developed inhouse competence to conduct 3D laser scanning capture of their factory layouts.
Demonstration setup: The final demonstrator was set up in Volvo facilities, an auditorium with a stage area and a back projected screen. The setup consisted of:
- A PC station with demonstrator software
- Positioning sensors on tripods to track the VR space
- Head mounted display (HMD)2
- Hand held controllers for interacting with the VR environment2
- Presentation screen used to give instructions before the test and to duplicate the VR user’s view for onlookers and researchers during the test.
The developed functionality in the final demonstration consisted of a mix of CAD and 3D-Scan data, a top view of a miniature factory, option to step in to the real life sized factury and navigate (walk or teleport options). The operations for design change implemented allowed the user to move resources both in CAD and 3D scanned objects to create alternative layouts, save the changes made and have other users interact/visit the proposed new layout, leave comments/suggestions as well as visualize the ststus of the current system with overlay of data from manufacturing.
Stakeholders in the production system organisation were invited to evaluate the demonstrator and its usability and benefits to support the change processes of factories. A majority of the test persons saw clear benefits from the system, for a number of stakeholders. Most benefit was recognized for the engineers and the factory personnel who would use it to develop better upgrades. While no one disagreed strongly about the benefits of the system, one users was not sure about there being clear benefits to Volvo from using it.
Benefits/Value at different levels of impact based on questionnaire and interviews:
End user: The virtual model is easy to understand. Easier than previously experienced models. It is easier to navigate the model in this way. More functions could be implemented dealing with trial and error.
Company: The system supports giving users the same view of the production system. It gives better understanding. Of course the system could provide value. One user was not sure about the value on a company level, and another stressed the importance of that it should be easy to prepare the input, preferably through integration with the existing PLM platform.
Customer: The system can provide value to the customers on a long term basis. And that the work and communication with them can work quicker.
Value network: Respondents stated that this system can make interactions easier. And also that it would be nice with many users sharing the same environment simultaneously.
EU: On an EU level the respondents felt that the system can lead to better understanding, more interaction, and therefore better decisions. One respondent said: “Will push EU as an enabler of new technology” Generally a lot of focus was placed on faster and easier decision making and communication quality. Ultimately leading to better products delivered.
Community/ society: On the societal level some users saw direct benefits through shifting some processes to the digital world and thus requiring less travel needed and reduction of material used for prototyping. At the same time some of the respondents were not sure about the benefits at this moment.
Comments about benefits and value of the system: When asked about other uses and advantages of the system, respondents expressed that they either liked or wanted:
“Point clouds are good for quickly viewing actual station layout.“
“System can be used to showcase new products/tools with its uses.”
“Manufacturing simulation in VR“
Cluster#5: Vessel information-rich meta-file
Cluster 5 developed several tools to a) facilitate the communication between the actors, b) provide a competitive business advantage in the naval domain of small passenger vessels and c) provide invidividual tools for each actor to enable the facilitation of small scale frequent upgrades.
Within Cluster 5 was developed the “Vessel Meta-File”, a user-friendly, web-based, information rich, technical meta-file that acts as the main knowledge-base between the yard, the classification society and the end-user. The Vessel Meta-File enables the storage of information regarding all aspects of a vessel’s life cycle; from initial customer requirements, to drawings, material and equipment data, sea-trial reports to post-delivery survey and inspection reports. The Vessel Meta-File provides a collaborative platform for sharing such data among all involved actors across the vessel’s life-cycle, reducing costs involved in the design, production and maintenance phases. Three additional tools were developed, which can be used in conjunction to the Vessel Meta-File:
1) System Dynamics Model that describes the mechanisms and variable interactions between the Yard, the Classification Society and the end-user, and enables the three different parties to forecast trends in the behaviour of the small craft passenger vessels market and allow predictive actions and decisions such as the upgrade of a vessel to support and extend its life-cycle.
2) “Vessel Configurator” system was also implemented to assist the transformation of the business and operational requirements derived from the Dynamic Causal Context Model to technical specifications that comply with current national flag or international regulations for the specific type of vessels.
3) “Dessign Support Plugin” was developed to translate the technical specifications emanating from the “Vessel Configurator” and the respective requirements of the vessel onwner, into an estimatation of the key attributes of the vessel and its approximate cost.
The UiW development included three specific business objectives:
Name of the objective: Economic gain from using the Vessel Meta-File application and supporting tools.
Objective definition: Increased ability to rapidly follow the market dynamics by means of fast production and delivery of personalised final products.
Cluster-specific objective: Quick reaction to varying service demand, regulation change, alterations requests from the customer through value chain integration (€250-300k for the entire industry).
Explanation: The economic gain of the UIW tool consists of two parts: 1) The construction of the boat occupies capacity for a shorter period of time as the exchange of technical information between the certification society (INSB) and the boatyard (OCEAN) is improved. Thus, the boatyard can construct more boats during the same building period. 2) The operators (SEAbility) need to commit fewer financial resources with shorter lead times when purchasing a boat and can therefore react better to market trends. The improvement is due mainly to a reduced time to react to changes in the design of boats as well as improvements in handling times for new requests. The target is reached around 2032. The benefit in this objective is measured for the whole industry and accumulated over time.
The “No UIW tool” run shows an accumulated loss for the industry of about 50,000 Euro. This makes sense given that the tool shortens construction times for large boats. This leads to the operators having to make decisions with larger uncertainties about the utilisation of their fleet. This in turn leads to overcapacity in the market. The benefit derived from the improved information exchange and resulting shortening of construction and order times, not only has financial benefits for all actors but also supports an improved use of resources available, e.g. boat materials that are not used for construction.
Name of the objective: Savings per boat Objective definition: Cost reduction of around 30% by decreasing lead times in product/process development
Cluster-specific objective: Reducing time and costs by 30% due to the availability of the vessel technical information (from €50-60k to €40k);
Explanation: The implementation of the Vessel Meta-file application facilitates and improves the upgrading of existing boats. Upgrading is in general a shorter process than complete construction, as the hull and other elements of the boats remain intact. Regardless, the savings are in the same range as for building on a per case basis. Thus, the tool has a larger impact for the upgrading as it has for building. The objective of €20K is achieved towards the end of the simulation period, when the database in the tool includes nearly 90% of all relevant regulations and amendments. The simulated results oscillate due to the fact that the improved communication between the certification society and the boatyard also depends on the number of amendments. Amendments to existing regulation happen mostly when there are new constructions which in turn take place mostly when fleets are renewed. The renewal of fleets is a cyclical process and causes the oscillating behaviour shown in the graph above.
Name of the objective: Time savings in boat building
Objective definition: Set-up and ramp-up time reduction for new processes and plant designs (30%)
Cluster-specific objective: Decreased lead time in product modifications by at least 20% (from ca. 90 to 70 days) due to better information about the modifications costs needed to meet new business demands;
Explanation: Time savings from the implementation of the UIW tool are shown in the objective above. The target is never reached by the simulation result. This is due to the fact that the initial goal was set for larger boats. Larger boats have longer lead times and changes in the design take longer to be amended. In the case of large boats in the simulation, its result shows a reduction of lead times of nearly half a month. The improvement after the implementation of the UIW tool is initially steep as more and more new requests comply with the system and flattens out after around 2021 when the smaller improvements are due to a decrease in amendments necessary in the regulations.
Cluster#6: Sustainabel furniture that grows with the end-users
Economically and environmentally it might be more responsible or even feasible to combine products and services to elongate product lifetime. Although the circular economy is a current issue, the industrial state-of-the-art is that still a limited number of manufactures have shown a shift towards a closed-loop business. Companies exploring these new strategies are primarily focused at servicing at their customers site and not on total efficient and cost effective reverse logistics, disassembly and remanufacturing strategies with their entire supply chain. Gispen, a major office furniture producer in the Netherlands, has embraced circular economic principles to create new business, extend product life time and improve the adaptability of their products. Office furniture should be more adaptable to future customer demands, i.e. the furniture should be able to better handle the changes in requirements for functionality, look and feel and numbers, but still guarantee a high level of quality and at a reasonable price. Proved sustainability, flexibility, and upgrades will become crucial elements to office furniture companies to guarantee long-term success. This could lead to shorter lifecycles of office furniture due to changing demands on functionality, or required flexibility.
UIW goals & results: Gispen is aware of these changes and wants to overcome highly competitive dynamics in the current furniture market, by developing new product-service combinations. Innovative product-service combinations prolong the life time cycle of an asset and thereby avoiding a new purchase incentive. Hence, remaining value in existing products and materials and at the same time avoid waste. In the Use-It-Wisely project the following applications were developed to achieve the goals of Gispen and to close the gap from a linear into a circular concept with a special focus on circular economy oriented alternative business models and circular product design:
1) A System Dynamic simulation model. A system dynamic (SD) model was developed in order to simulate circular economy business scenarios. The SD model provides detailed insights into the dynamics of the changing business model. The business model will change from a single transaction model (sale/buy) to a (circular) product-service model. A multiple transaction model with split payments was developed. An iterative approach has been used to quantitatively model Gispens’ new business model. The main elements in the system dynamic simulation model are:
- The most important central KPI’s, i.e. business objective variables, for Gispen. A shared definition of the business objective variables (profit, total turnover, market share) was determined to evaluate effects of different tested policies and scenarios.
- The relevant variables in the causal-context model. A management science approach was used to structure discussions on input variables and important outcomes.
- The quantified relationships between central KPI’s and variables in the model. Gispen management was frequently consulted to ensure that the model building proceeds in the right direction. Gispen employees from sales and the financial department were involved to provide data on relevant business parameters which are used as initial values in the model. Macro-economic predictions at an EU level, existing GDP data, market trends for the office furniture market, standard values for cost and time to implement new business models structures and Gispen specific data such as annual reports and branch reports were incorporated. Furthermore, several scenarios in terms of macro-economic conditions were taken into account (i.e. negative, neutral and positive trends) as well as a predefined bandwidth for variables with a high level of uncertainty.
The model was validated on the level of model structure and model behaviour. The focus was on internal and external validity of the model, for instance, were all relationships correctly modelled and KPI’s calculated in a correct manner, and concurrent validity, i.e. does the model give similar results for the model predictions and Gispen historical data.
A circular business scenario was modelled and evaluated. Within this business scenario, office furniture will be leased to an user (who will pay per month) and will get a financial incentive by Gispen after several years of use. In this model, Gispens’ current, i.e. linear, as well as the new circular business model were both included. Hence combining two different businessmodels in order to model the transition period.
2) Circular Economy Design Framework. In order to create awareness among customers and engineers and be able to rank product designs, a Design Framework, including a checklist has been developed. A circular Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is also part of this framework. The combination of qualitative design requirements and quantitative LCA calculations provide an in-depth product evaluation to support the transition to a more closed-loop system. Gispen has a high level of customization (i.e. Engineer To Order projects). In the near future Gispen wants to keep this high level of customization in their products, but at the same time a modular product design should allow easy (dis)assembly and adaptability. In order to do so, design guidelines and circular requirements for product design, re-design and remanufacturing are necessary. These guidelines are part of a Circular Economy Design Framework. The framework provides insight in the degree of adaptation to circular principles. By filling out the checklist for each product design, and thereby creating a total score for the product, it is possible to compare one product versus another. This circular product score provides information to monitor progress on circular design and adjust whenever necessary. The checklist is a first attempt to create a tool which is easy to use for designers and on the other hand is covering the broad topics of design for circularity.
Sustainable design choices need to be well-founded. Generally accepted are LCA tools to calculate environmental impact. However, traditionally these tools calculate a ‘take-make-dispose’ scenario. Insights in reuse, remanufacturing and the impacts thereof is needed. So the traditional LCA tool needs to be upgraded including new closed-loop scenarios, according to the circular economy concept. This new circular LCA tool aims to support product development and is based on the quantitative LCA methodology. The effects of a particular circular scenario (e.g. sell, repurchase, and lease back) on environmental impact for different kinds of furniture, materials, and processes can be assessed.
Publications
In addition to numerous conference presentations and other dissemination events the project produced a total of 10 peer reviewd articles:
Aromaa, S. & Väänänen, K., 2016. Suitability of virtual prototypes to support human factors/ergonomics evaluation during the design. Applied Ergonomics, 56, pp.11–18. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003687016300333.
Berglund, J., Lindskog, E. & Johansson, B., 2016. On the Trade-off between Data Density and Data Capture Duration in 3D Laser Scanning for Production System Engineering. Procedia CIRP, 41, pp.697–701. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2015.12.141.
Fox, S., 2015. Relevance: a framework to address preconceptions that limit perceptions of what is relevant. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(4), pp.804–812. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1753-8378&volume=2&issue=2&articleid=1781094&show=abstract.
Fox, S., 2016. Dismantling the Box — Applying Principles for Reducing Preconceptions During Ideation. International Journal of Innovation Management, 20(6), p.1650049. Available at: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1363919616500493.
Fox, S. & Groesser, S.N. 2016. Reframing the relevance of research to practice. European Management Journal, 34(5), pp.457–465. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2016.07.005 [Accessed October 7, 2016].
Fox, S. & Grösser, S., 2015. Economical information and communication design for multi-national projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(3), pp.574–585. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-02-2015-0014.
Gong, L. et al., 2016. Improving Manufacturing Process Change by 3D Visualization Support: A Pilot Study on Truck Production. Procedia CIRP, 57, pp.298–302.
Groesser, S.N. & Jovy, N., 2015. Business model analysis using computational modeling/: a strategy tool for exploration and decision-making. Journal of Management Control.
Lindskog, E. et al., 2016. Improving Lean Design of Production Systems by Visualization Support. Procedia CIRP, 41, pp.602–607. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2016.01.004.
Lindskog, E. et al., 2014b. Lean Based Problem Solving using 3D Laser Scanned Visualizations of Production Systems. International Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology, 3(3), pp.556–565.
Potential Impact:
The projects broad approach covering diverse industries and technologies produced results of wide applicability. The potential impact, therefore, extends beyond the participating companies to industry at large, supporting a continuous renewal of products and services to better serve changing customer needs.
The proposed solutions targets specific needs imposed by the digital transformation of industy and the need for a more sustainable solutions, thereby contributing to societal needs of an internationally competitive and environmentally responsible European industry.
The following sections list the potential impact of some of the key results.
Strategic Design Symbol System
The strategic design symbol system has already been taken into use by several organizations outside of the UIW consortium. It is anticipated that it will be used at international manufacturing events in India, Iran, and the UK during Spring 2017. It is intended that the strategic design symbol system will be further developed for broader application via a more sophisticated digital / physical system. The current version of the open access online publication for the strategic design symbol system can be accessed by the following link: http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/technology/2016/T270.pdf
System Model for UIW Upgrades of High Investment Product-Services
Cluster #1 focus has been on the operational phase (in particular maintenance activities), studying the connection between the design data and the inspection data. Cluster #2 focus has been on the product design, but as improvement of existing hardware. This shall allow an easier understanding by the final user, and a relevant cost saving for the manufacturer in terms of understanding of customer needs and re-use of existing items. Cluster #3 focus has been on the flow of data between different industrial entities, with a special focus on model-based engineering environments and related connection with design, production and operations. Cluster #4 focus has been not on the delivered product to a commercial customer, but on the manufacturing plant of customizable line of products. Cluster #5 focus has been on the collaboration of different entities for the production and configuration of existing or new vessels. A tool chain and an improved process for the connection between the vessel design and the relationship between customers/users/authorities have been demonstrated. Cluster #6 focus has been on the change of the overall paradigm in the office furniture customer relationship, introducing a circular economy approach.
Simulation Models for UIW Adaptations
The UIW System Exemplars will be publicly available and can be used as first steps in the modeling process identifying the simple underlying structures of a potential upgrading problem a user of the platform has. The provided UIW System Exemplars are the first element of any UIW related System Dynamics model and allow practitioners to start modeling their own upgrading challenges using the UIW System Exemplars as a stepping stone for a more specific model directly applied to their challenge. Supporting information and consulting can be available via the links of Stefan Grösser’s website: http://strategysimulationlab.org/blog/
Collaborative Environment – UIW Community of Practice
The CoP web platform can be used to disseminate results of the project, promote services based on the competences of the individual partners, and work as a collaborative platform for developing new ideas or initiate collaboration projects. The potential benefits as well as initial organisation and business model of the CoP have been presented in Deliverable D6.31.
Reduced life-cycle costs through improved service collaboration
The innovative and refurbished tool proposed in this project context will provide increased added-value to a wide range of users (from inspectors to engineers but also manufacturers and power plants owners), since it will facilitate the sharing of this information through a collaborative network while ensuring simplicity in the data access. This will enable seamless communication among all actors and also will lead to a reduction of costs by minimizing set-up and ramp-up times.
Besides the above, in case new designs or re-designs were needed, the visualization in advance of such modifications for all actors will make possible a cost-effective solution considering the requirements from manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, repair and disposal phases.
This solution is purposed to be used in a wide range of operational cases. It brings less running and maintenance costs during the power plant life cycle. It also brings quality, efficiency and accuracy into inspection tests and the possibility to compare different power plants and turbines.
Stakeholder: Tecnatom; Role in the value chain: Service company; Impact: Improvement of collaboration among different actors, enhancement of Inspection services, easiness for including/integrating other equipment, assessment of suitable equipment, applicability to other energy sectors, reuse as training tool, increase of component understanding, friendly, intuitive and easy-to-use tool.
Stakeholder: Power plants; Role in the value chain: Customer; Impact: Gaining best available knowledge for decision making, lower costs and improved investment planning, improvement of collaboration among different actors, friendly, intuitive and easy-to-use tool.
Stakeholder: Other engineering companies; Role in the value chain: Service companies; Impact: Planning inspection performance and evaluating the results providing added value, collaboration improvement, communications improvement.
Stakeholder: Manufacturing companies; Role in the value chain: Supplier companies; Impact: Gaining best available knowledge for decision making, lower costs and improved investment planning, collaboration improvement, communications improvement.
Stakeholder: University of Malaga; Role in the value chain: Developers of hom3r (open source 3D viewer); Impact: Gain visibility for their research on 3D interaction
Increased productivity through better upgrade service provision
Cluster#2 presented how future novel pieces of technology may change upgrade project processes and remove current major process bottlenecks that hinder profitability. There is no quantitative data supporting the claimed productivity increase. Instead, productivity is claimed to be increased by better effectivity, more value adding work and less waste in the upgrade processes.
The new approach is based on clever engineering design solutions for the upgrade products, as well as on the digitalization of information flows of the upgrade projects. Clever engineering design solutions mean modularized upgrade products and services that can be configured, at least partially, for a specific customer need. Thus, less engineering work from scratch is needed. Digitalization saves a lot of calendar time and unproductive work, but it also makes information content richer. When, for instance, a realistic digital 3D model of the upgrade target is instantly available to designers, they can begin the definition upgrade solution immediately, with more reliable initial data.
Productivity increases by decreasing unproductive work during an upgrade delivery project. When information is correct and available, there is less need for searching and rework due to wrong status information and corrections. Requirement specifications of the upgrade can be validated with the customer and the proposed upgrade solutions can be verified against the requirements and validated with the customer, based on virtual models. When design flaws are recognized earlier, with a virtual prototype model, and engineering changes are made based on them, there is a potential for decreasing changes with manufactured physical products. Furthermore, AR- and VE-based visualization enables better understanding of information, and thus, better communication and involvement of the stakeholders. Therefore, more knowledge is involved in the process, which decreases uncertainty and improves the quality of decision making. The changing market situation and customer needs can be responded to with better knowledge management, leading to new product-service innovations.
Technology maturity, usability and usefulness were evaluated from a business benefit viewpoint. It can be concluded that maturity and usability are not yet quite good enough, but taking into account the current speed of development of such devices, they probably will be good enough, in the near future. However, this study was more of a proof-of-concept, which demonstrated the potential of contributing to business model innovation in an upgrade business. The tools and methods were not actually integrated with business processes and information management systems in production. Thus questions still remain as to what level of integration is needed between the tools and the IT systems for cost efficiency. In principle, there are no major technical obstacles for implementation and integration of the whole IT architecture. However, in addition to the technical issues, new processes and work methods may require an even greater effort.
Improved engineering quality through collaborative model-based Systems Engineering
The methodology used for the development of the Engineering distributed architecture, i.e. web-based archtiecture for collaboration, visual supports (VR and in-browser 3D/2D visualization), web Application Programming Interfaces’ (API) for interfaces model-to-tools and use of data models and libraries for semantics, allowed the development, modification and integration of a complex environment using a rapid prototyping approach and quick evaluation of outcomes. With respect to software aspects, the methodology chosen for Request Configurator, Workflow Manager and Probes allows for easy integration of different components by way of APIs. Furthermore the maintenance of the software components is easier leveraging on existing and widespread programming frameworks.
The demonstration feedback showed a great interest by the participants and the used interface and process is felt comfortable and seen as potentially improving efficiency in the daily work. However, the necessity to improve the tools and interfaces from demonstrative prototypes into an operational toolchain has been considered necessary, as well as the usage in a pilot project.
The operational toolchain needs also an agreement between the main European and non-European Space projects stakeholders. For that reason the Use-it-wisely project results have been gradually disseminated along the project in the companies involved, but also in relevant Space and non-Space conferences and meetings. The most relevant conferences at the end of the project includes the 7th International Systems & Concurrent Engineering for Space Applications Conference (SECESA 2016), where the paper “Modelling and Collaboration across Organizations: issues and a solution” has been awarded as one of the best 10 papers. Inside the Italian INCOSE Conference (CIISE ’16) the Use-It-Wisely project has been cited during the presentation as bringing potential advantage with respect to unsolved issues on the field of MBSE, towards a multi-domain public (not only related to the Space industry). The enabling use of MBSE crossed with Virtual Reality technologies has been also presented at the EuroVR conference.
Outside the European Space community, Vastalla has presented the project at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA on April 2016.
The main project outcomes are and will be presented inside the Thales Alenia Space and ALTEC companies, and towards stardardization/harmonisation meetings in the field of model-based design and collaboration. Vastalla is planning to apply for a SME Instrument Phase 1 before the end of January 2017 leveraging on some interesting ideas explored during Use-It-Wisely project.
Savings through better and faster decision making based on realistic VR
Promising technological developments have recently been made in the field of 3D imaging and VR technologies. These developments facilitate both wide spread (all employees through web interfaces) as well as detailed modelling and analysis for interesting questions and decisions for several actors (maintenance, designers, operators etc..). UIW is one of the first applied science projects in direct collaboration with industry to actually make use of these new opportunities. Acceptance/ diffusion if innovation in this field is not a fast process since the actual beneficiary initially does not even know that the technology exists, and yet is the methodologies and work tasks to be performed to be tailor-made and then standardised, which is some the work UIW provides to European industry. This project provides an insight into the use of these technologies in a wide range of industries and services.
3D-imaging provides visually realistic and geometrically accurate snapshots of the physical properties of the real world. The snapshots are stored in a format often called point clouds and can be used for modelling and analysis in virtual planning software. The point cloud data can be overlaid with other models and/or information regarding the various subsystems, separately or in parallel to find, discuss, and analyse issues and changes. Through the natural ease of understanding these models provide, they allow the various actors and experts that are using the system to express their different needs and requirements (Lindskog, 2014). In this manner they can provide a valuable discussion ground and act as decision support for a manager, allowing him or her to make informed decisions with an expanded understanding of the consequences. Furthermore, it gives him or her a tool with which to visualize and communicate the decisions in a way that is approachable by all different actors regardless of technical background. By being able to include a broader range of actors and end users there is potential to gather a broader range of inputs and design comments to feed into the decision process.
Simplifying and speeding up the workflow to produce models enables iterative and frequent use of the models throughout the development process. It also means that a higher number of concepts and ideas can be tested and explored. The collaborative virtual reality models allow actors to experience the models in a 1:1 scale. Participants in the evaluation described that this gave them a better sense of the proposed solutions. Furthermore the ability to share these realistic models with users in other departments or countries within the organisation was stated as a benefit.
Volvo has been working actively with virtual reality in a research capacity for several decades. However it is only with the recent development and the introduction of VR on the consumer market that the usability and cost has created the conditions for making use of it in large scale, across the organisation. Previously, this technology work was limited to large test facilities and costly fixed installations. The ability to set up and implement solutions at a low cost means that investments in development of technical solutions and work methods can be shared and benefited from on a greater scale than before. The demonstrator developed within the project will be input for the update of the Volvo production system internal strategy (confidential) on enabling technologies.
Reduction of environmental footprint through better design
Reduction of the environmental footprint:
Objective definition: Reduction of around 40% in the environmental footprint and resource consumption during the production and use phases of the meta products, together with an increased use of more environment-friendly materials
Cluster-specific objective: Ability to consider environment-friendly materials that could expand the life cycle of the product while decreasing the environmental footprint due to better forecast and planning (reduce atmospheric emissions to less than 0.15 kg per passenger per voyage);
Explanation: This objective describes the decrease in emissions due to the use of new materials and technologies. Emissions per passenger transported is calculated under the assumption of a homogeneous set of high season transport routes. A constant load factor for the market is also assumed to be at 80%, meaning that on average for each voyage 80% of capacity is filled. Depending on the load factor, the overall level of emissions per passenger increases or decreases but the general behaviour stays the same. The behaviour is due to two factors of fleet management: 1) There is an overall trend to lower emissions per passenger due to improvements in technology and 2) there are periodical increases of emissions caused by boat aging. It is assumed that due to wear and tear of the engine and other related boat characteristics the older boats operate at a lower efficiency and produce more emissions per passenger. The decreases in emissions comes from the increased building periods we have seen in objective 1. There is no run without the implementation of the UIW tool shown as the differences in the emissions per passenger are only marginal.
Fuel savings: Objective definition: Reduction of around 40% in the environmental footprint and resource consumption during the production and use phases of the meta products, together with an increased use of more environment-friendly materials
Cluster-specific objective: Ability to consider environment-friendly materials that could expand the life cycle of the product while decreasing the environmental footprint due to better forecast and planning (decrease of fuel consumption at approx. €50-80k/year);
Explanation: This objective addresses fuel savings due to improvements in material usage, technology and designs. The UiW simulation results show the comparison of the savings in any month compared to the same month a year ago. The savings are adjusted for market coverage, i.e. show the comparison if all passengers are served. There are some periods where operators do not have enough boats available to serve all passengers (between 2016 and 2021). This is also the period during which the largest yearly savings in fuel are realised. During this period a large number of boats are replaced with boats with a higher fuel efficiency and thus lead to fuel savings while also maxing out on the available capacity for boat construction and a backlog that causes the market to be underserved.
Reduction of environmental footprint through circular economy
The simulated business model scenarios ,among others, have been used by Gispen to establish new business agreements with public and private companies in the Netherlands. The simulation model can be used as an illustration of added value of business or process modelling for other companies. A first simulation of strategies ('trial and error') can be done in the model before implementation in the real world takes place. Thereby more successful and durable changes in any business model are supported. The Circular Design Framework provides an approach including a checklist to sustainable design and aims to support designers and R&D officers within Gispen to develop circular office furniture, as well as providing results to be accountable towards end users c.q. clients.
The ultimate goals to achieve with support of the Circular Framework are (1) no waste or pollution during the entire life cycle (2) 100% re-use of products, modules and parts, (3) no use of energy from non-renewable resources for producing products or the use of products itself; (4) no use of virgin materials and (5) maintain the highest possible value of the product during the product lifetime and maximisation of product lifetime itself. By using the Circular Framework, Gispen can show customers the degree of circularity of their products and the effects of several product life cycle scenarios (i.e. linear vs. circular). A more quantified effect of, design choices in material or packaging on the environmental impact can be visualized.
Summary of overall benefits and impact:
- New insights for a strategic change of Gispen business model and potential financial effects of changing (CE) business models
- Increase of customer awareness on circular economy and importance of product design
- Increase of market size/amount of customers by modular and flexible products suitable for various customers
- Smaller environmental footprint through extended product life cycle and reuse of material
- Potential reduction of costs for material, transport and energy. Decreasing regular and environmental costs.
Benefits of Circular Design Framework:
- Establish requirements and improve understanding of circular design
- Review, evaluate and provide feedback on product design
- Compare and manage innovation level
- Easy implementation in processes and targets
Dissemination activities:
- Circulaire Economie Congress, February 2nd 2016 Eindhoven.
- Bootcamp session in Industry & Manufacturing . Title: Quantify the circularity of products by Karin Verploegen. http://www.smart-circle.org/circulareconomy/.
- At least 15 individual customer presentations at customer sides or the Gispen Experience Center in Culemborg.
- 20 customer tours at Alliander (www.alliander.nl Alliander is a energy network company and is responsible for the distribution of energy such as electricity, (bio)gas and heat). Several potential customers of Gispen joined each tour.
- Presentation of the Design framework to a group of approximately 30 suppliers.
Other Publications:
- Elsevier Facility Management, Januari 2016.
- Elsevier Facility Management, July 2015.
- FMM Circulaire Huisvesting, maart 2015.
- Inside Information Duurzaamheid, juni 2015.
- Parliament magazine, January 2016.
- Rhijnvis Media Facility Management, May 2015.
Dissemination of results
The project included a separate work package (WP6) dedicated to communication and dissemination activities. The work package also investigated potential business models for ensuring a wider exposure and extended impact after the completion of the project.
The results relating to defined objectives are presented below.
WP6 Objective 1: Capture project results and detail how to communicate and exploit them within agreed stakeholder audiences (Task 6.1 Communications Plan and Activity - Stakeholders, Messages, Channels)
Communications Plans: This activity was completed successfully during the Use-it-Wisely project. Carr designed the communications plan with associated activities by Month 6; this was then revised in Month 24. Partners played an active role in dissemination and at regular stages throughout the Use-it-Wisely project, WP6 leader Carr implemented a schedule of phone calls with individual project partners to stay abreast of all project progress and updates. We held monthly WP6 teleconferences to monitor communications activity among partners and measure progress against the targets set in the DoW
Website: The website was the central communications channel in the Use-it-Wisely project and all material, events and communications activities linked back to it. It was also used as a channel to link to the project’s social profiles, on Twitter, YouTube, and most recently LinkedIn. It included copies of all public deliverables, publications and videos produced. We updated the site with news articles very regularly – on average once a month over the project (44 articles across 39 months). The project website received a very high level of traffic and exceeded the targets set out in the Description of Work by more than double. Our aim was to attract 5,000 website visitors. Google Analytics shows that during the project there were 13,846 sessions and 11,861users on the site. In order to improve the user journey and engagement levels with the website, Carr undertook a major re-design of the Use-it-Wisely website in early 2016, with a cleaner design and more focus on project outcomes and results.
Brochures, newsletters, posters: See Appendix D of D6.13 for images of marketing materials, such as posters and brochures, produced for the Use-it-Wisely project. During the lifetime of the project WP6 produced brochures, leaflets, posters, pull-up stands, presentation templates, inforgraphics, folders and event agenda and invitations. The materials produced exceeded the requirements of the DoW. All materials directed people to the website and included acknowledgementof European Commission funding.
Social Media: We used a variety of social media channels to communicate the Use-it-Wisely concept, project developments and results. We concentrated our effort on Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Graphics and videos were developed and produced to engage the audience on the social channels. We were successful in creating a large online community of interested stakeholders through Use-it-Wisely’s social channels and these tools will continue to be a driving force of the Community of Practice (CoP), ensuring long-term exploitation of the research results. We made good progress against the targets for social media channels in the Description of Work, and exceeded targets in some areas. Due to the flexible nature of the communications plan, we revised our direction with some of the channels as the project progressed.
Participation at events: Use-it-Wisely’s partners organised and participated in a range of high profile events to engage target audiences and disseminate the project messages. These included lead-user networking, workshops, conferences, seminars, and publications in industrial magazines. DoW targets were exceeded. Please see the Impact section of this document and Appendix A of D6.13 for full list of dissemination activities, including events.
Networking with other projects: Extensive project networking occurred through networks such as EuroVR and EFFRA. UIW networked very effectively with the FP7 project ProSeCo.
Influencing Policy Makers: Influencing policy was a key target of the Use-it-Wisely project. From the outset of the project, consortium partners set about informing representatives in local and national governments, as well as industry and representative bodies of the important work being undertaken. Please see the Results section of this document and D6.13 for further details.
Planned Policy Paper: Work Package 6, in close cooperation with VTT, will create a policy paper outlining the policy implications of UIW results. This will be circulated to the stakeholders mentioned in the Impact section of this document.
WP6 Objective 2: Refine the exploitable results and develop the concept of the project business model for the stakeholders and beyond (Task 6.2 Use-it-Wisely business model, technology transfer and commercialization plan)
Refine the project exploitable results: A cluster-by-cluster exploitation and dissemination plan was created, and drafts were sent to clusters for review.
Analyse the business potential of the cluster cases including an assessment of economic viability: Some of the cluster cases are already being taken into use and the solutions are seen to have a significant business potential and possibility for productivity growth. By benchmarking the solutions, concepts, and operation models created in the project, other European companies can also make use of the results to gain significant economic development opportunities.
Define technology transfer plan: The Community of Practice platform will be used for the technology transfer and commercialisation, and parties interested for example in the results of the project can establish new projects to develop the results further.
WP6 Objective 3: Prepare a business plan for an SME spin-off (Task 6.3 Business plan for a spin-off company)
Create business plan covering the business model of the new company, its vision and strategy: The business plan will be the Community of Practice business model. The aim is to create a platform (Community of Practice) concentrating on upgrading businesses, re-engineering, more efficient use of resources and solving business related problems. The UIW CoP will focus on offering contacts to service, technology and tool providers and networking organizations who have something to offer to organizations who have problems, needs and demand for tools, novel technology, know-how, services, methods and best practices and company case examples. The CoP offers its users a portal to market their seminars, fairs, trading session, training and consultancy services to other CoP companies directly.
Focus on the project-based network organization, ensuring high expertise, global potential, local services and low fixed costs: The business plan will be written about the CoP and actions needed to get it up and running. The Community of Practice model was chosen for its least bureaucratic features and good value running costs. The model does not require a new company to be established, but works as a portal through which the project partners could continue marketing their knowledge and offering their services, tools and expertise globally after the UIW project ends.
Describe the services that the company could sell to customers, outline the typical customer and customer cases: The UIW CoP will focus on offering contacts to service, technology and tool providers and networking organizations who have something to offer to organizations who have problems, needs and demand for tools, novel technology, know-how, services, methods and best practices and company case examples. The CoP offers its users a portal to market their seminars, fairs, trading session, training, and consultancy services directly to other CoP companies. Typical customers are different service providers and service users, different sized companies and organizations and their upper middle-management personnel.
WP6 Objective 4: Manage the activities of the Advisory Board (Task 6.4 Advisory Board)
Communicate the project results, accounting for the goals and feedback of those industries: While the first six months of the project focused on developing communications templates and strategy, it also laid the foundation for the development of an impactful Advisory Board that will help the project to achieve the expected impact and will pressure the project to move the six key industries beyond the current state of the art. The members of the AB will be asked to question, discern and influence the activity of the clusters to ensure the work of the clusters and the project goes beyond the state of the art in the industry sectors, specifically in relation to the project objectives. AB members will be asked to provide insight and advice at AB meetings and to offer guidance to Cluster leaders as required. The structure of the AB and of the three AB meetings allowed for a two-way flow of communication. The AB members benefited from information and idea sharing with other industry leaders, many of whom have vast experience in EU research projects and could offer key insights into developments relevant to specific industries. The two-way communication also provided an opportunity for the AB members to gain access to wider market intelligence, addressing issues such as innovative trends, changing markets, and evolving best practice in domestic and international markets.
Form an Advisory Board of 10-15 members proposed by the cluster industries: Following consultation with the Cluster Leaders, we formed an Advisory Board of six members, representing each of the six industrial cases.
Online Communications (Website) Impact:
5,000 visitors during the project: We exceeded this target by more than double, with 11,861 visitors to the website during the project
10 years website survival after the project end: We will be securing the domain name and hosting to ensure survival of the website for up to 10 years after the project end
Social Media Impact:
- Over 750 Twitter followers: 518 – achievement level of almost 70%
- At least 5 project videos on YouTube: 11 videos available target exceeded by more than 100%
Dissemination Activities Impact:
- Number of industrial workshop organized / participated (estimate: 2): 6 (See D6.13)
- Open days / industrial round table (estimate: 2): 6 (See D6.13)
- Number of press releases (estimate: 2): 2
- Number of press conferences (estimate: 1): We decided against holding a press conference and instead concentrated on building relationships with key media and briefing journalists directly.
Interest from the industrial and scientific community (number of requests for information, citation, cooperation): TBC – this is difficult to quantify, but partners indicated a high level of interest from the industrial and scientific community in their networks
- Number of scientific workshops / special session organized (estimate: 4): 4
- Number of journal articles (estimate: 3): 8
- Conference publications (estimate: 20): 10 (est.)
- Number of M.Sc. thesis (estimate: 10): 2
- Number of Ph.D. dissertations (estimate: 3): 4 PhDs – although no dissertation produced solely focusing on the project
- Researcher exchange within Use-it-wisely consortium (estimate: 12 person-months, two exchange visits): 2
Inluencing Policy Makers:
VTT gave a presentation on Use-it-Wisely at the European Week of Regions and Cities on 13th October 2016 in Brussels. The invited audience included representatives from the Committees of the Regions – Regional Authorities and Regional Representatives.
During the course of the project, Chalmers University of Technology has also given presentations to policy makers from the Swedish Department of Commerce. In the latest Swedish research proposition (Dated 24thNovember 2016) a strong focus is put on production and digitalisation of factories.
On behalf of Cluster 6, Gispen has made contact with the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and Corporate Social Responsibility Netherlands.
The Use-it-Wisely final event in Brussels in October 2016 was a key focus for reaching the policy stakeholder group directly and raising awareness levels about the project. In preparation, Carr compiled a targeted list of policy makers. We issued invitations to all individuals on the target list and disseminated communication materials about the project through a number of direct emails and follow-up phone calls. This targeted database identified over 150 policy makers relevant to Use-it-Wisely’s objectives.
List of Websites:
http://use-it-wisely.eu/
To survive in the global competition, industries have to adapt to changing demands caused by new technologies and changing operating environments. This is a challenge especially for industries dealing with high investment product-services, which are typically low volume products with relatively long service lives. Such products must be continually upgraded to new emerging needs, beyond what was anticipated at design time.
Changing user needs are not only driven by new business opportunities or technological development. Increased awareness of the impacts of human activities on the environment and the limits of the global ecological capacity causes changes in customer behaviour and legislation. More environmentally friendly solutions both with respect to production and operation of industrial systems will be needed to deal with issues such as the depletion of natural resources and global warming.
The digital transformation together with increasing environmental concerns will change current industrial structures. Dealing with these challenges requires new forms of collaboration involving all relevant actors working together to achieve sustainable solutions that satisfy current and future needs. New agile business models are needed to deal with the new industrial structures. These will, to an increasing extent, be based on economic models based on the delivery on user outcome instead of delivery of products and on sharing revenues across the value network. This is a prerequisite for a circular economy aiming to reduce the environmental impact through efficient re-use of system components and material.
The Use-it-Wisely project has developed a comprehensive approach for upgrading high-investment product-services based on a continuous upgrade innovation strategy. The approach builds on three corner stones: an adaptation model helping to understand the change and analyse planed actions; a collaboration model to facilitate the communication and knowledge exchange between actors; and an extended actor-product-service system model for efficient management of system data throughout the life-cycle. Tools, methods and processes to support an continuous collaboration between actors and stakeholders were developed and tested in six industrial clusters.
Further development of the Use-it-Wisely approach and associated tools and methods will be continued within a virtual community of practice (CoP). The purpose of the CoP is to increase the value of the project results by extending the activities to a wider community and provide benefits to industries beyond the current project partners. The CoP will be open to interested parties regardless of industries.
Project Context and Objectives:
The digital transformation of industry is profoundly changing the manufacturing of products, provision of services and structures of value creation in general and of individual businesses in particular. Advances in wireless communication combined with embedded sensor and computation technologies have changed the way humans and machines interact, shaping the concept of cyber-physical systems. The speed of technological development in concurrence with global economic development and short-term market volatility force companies to find new strategies to compete in the marketplace. The future competitiveness of manufacturing firms will be increasingly linked to their ability to rapidly transfer developments in science and technology into their processes and products as well as adopting ideas developed both internally and externally.
In parallel with technological development there is a growing concern about human impact on the environment and the limits of the global ecological capacity. This has led to political decisions and global agreements aiming at reducing ecological footprints. Research into key enabling technologies, such as new materials and manufacturing technologies, help reduce ecological footprints and comply with tightening regulations to, for example, reduce global warming or the use of non-renewable resources. Closed-loop life-cycles and circular economy business models appear as a viable solution to reduce environmental impacts. The European Commission has adopted an ambitious Circular Economy Package, which includes revised legislative proposals to stimulate Europe's transition towards a circular economy (European Commision, 2015). A prerequisite for circular life-cycle models is a shift from a business logic based on products as the main bearer value to models based on life-cycle value shared through the value network. This requires new forms of collaboration and focusing on product based services to create end user benefit.
Changes in market demands and user expectations driven by new innovations pose a challenge for mature industries supplying high-investment, low volume products. Due to long pay back times, technical complexity or tight integration with fixed legacy systems, such products cannot easily be replaced to introduce new functionality. To meet changing demands, these systems must be systematically upgraded in order to serve effectivele throughout their designed life. In addition , foresights of future markets and operating environments become crucial when making decisions about investments in innovation and R&D of products and services that need to create value in the long-term.
The Use-it-Wisely (UIW) research project focused on continuous upgrade of high-investment product-services. The goal of the project was to develop an approach to support systematic adaptation to changing needs by developing business models and technologies to support collaborative efforts to sustain and improve high-investment product services.
Project approach and organisation
The project was based on two main assumptions:
1. Efficient adaptatiob can be achieved through small frequent upgrade increments, and
2. Efficent upgrade agility can only be achieved through close and continuous collaboration with all involved actors.
A rationale behind these assumptions is presented below:
Small upgrade increments
- Reduced financial risk due to smaller investment.
- Reduced technical risk due to smaller changes.
- Shorter disruptions.
- Shorter implementation time leading to faster response times and enhanced upgrade agility.
- Reduced environmental impact due to extended use of major system parts.
Actor collaboration
- Important system knowledge exists outside of the corporate borders, on multiple levels.
- System defect, deficiencies and changing user needs are communicated directly and proactively across the network.
- Sustained actor involvement leads to deeper engagement and firm actor networks, building trust and loyalty between partners.
Incremental modifications based on individual customer request easily lead to a diversification of the installed base and increasing management and support costs. Therefore, a holistic approach is necessary in order to develop and maintain technically, economincally and environmentally sustainable solutions. The project investigated both new technologies and business models aiming to enable successful strategies for extended product-service life cycles.
In parallel with system properties that allow for future change, a streamlined process to support effective adaptation is required to achieve agile adaptation. Companies are increasingly moving from linear product life-cycle process with decoupled supplier and customer views to an integrated product-service life-cycle based on a continuous collaboration between actors.
In the linear product-based process ownership is handed over in a delivery-acquisition transaction, which causes a disruption in the flow of product life-cycle data. This can be due to incompatibility between product data management systems or practices, or because of unwillingness to share data between customer and supplier organisation. In addition, direct personal communication and exchange of tacit product knowledge between individuals across company borders is reduced in a life-cycle product model.
Transitioning from a product-based economy to a models based on provision user value or output require new forms of collaboration. Instead of focusing on revenues from individual sales transactions along the value chain service-based models must find ways to maximise total end-user value. This requires a thorough understanding of the business drivers and implications of both the end user and of the contributors in the value network. It also requires an understanding of the technical components of the system and of new emerging technologies that may impact future system implementations, markets and competitors. Making the right decisions with regard to system design, upgrade interventions and business model development must be based on a holistic systems view. Creating and evolving a comprehensive, shared view requires the combined efforts of the involved actors.
Changes to end products frequently also require changes to the production lines and manufacturing systems, while service changes may require adopting new business models. Thus, changeability requirements may have to target simultaneously the product or service, the way it is manufactured, and the complete value network delivering the value added. Sharing of tasks and resources across various forms of collaboration networks can provide improved capacity to change due to smaller, more agile operators and flexibility of the collaboration network itself. Efficient operation of the actor network requires a flexible information architecture that supports decentralized collaborative processes.
To structure the work a number of basic principles guiding the solution were identified:
• Holistic systems view
• Continual improvement
• Flexibility
• Sustainable solutions
• Model based systems engineering
Based on these principles a generic approach was developed. The approach builds on three corner stones:
• an adaptation model helping to understand the change and analyse planed actions;
• a collaboration model to facilitate the communication and knowledge exchange between actors; and
• an extended actor-product-service system model for efficient management of system data throughout the life-cycle.
Virtual and Augmented reality technologies were applied extensively to facilitate communication and collaboration between actors.
Clusters and pilot cases
To ensure a wide applicability of the results, companies from six different industries were included in the project: energy, machinery, space, automotive, ship building and office workplace. For each of the six industries, a cluster was formed, consisting of two to four organisations representing parts of the value network. One organisation responsible for technical and scientific research was included in each cluster. The clusters defined their own use cases based on identified needs or foreseen business potential. The use cases included specific research targets including maintenance inspection, upgrade service development, model-based systems engineering, and circular economy. Each cluster defined a target system that was studied and developed throughout the project in a series of iterations. The final iteration ended with a demonstration of the results achieved in each cluster.
Cluster Industry sector Primary research target
1 Energy production Turbine service inspection
2 Heavy machinery Upgrade service for mobile rock crushers
3 Aerospace Integrated system data management
4 Automotive Production line configuration
5 Shipbuilding Value chain collaboration
6 Furniture Circular economy business model for office furniture
Within each cluster the viewpoints of a broad range of actors, such as design engineers, service personnel, sales staff, managers, decision makers, and end users, were taken into account to create comprehensive systems views. The broad scope of the study allowed for applications supporting both a horizontal integration, i.e. through the life-cycle, and vertical integration, i.e. “shop-floor to top-floor”. In addition, the collaboration between research and practice as well as between seemingly unrelated industries proved beneficial and provided new viewpoints to identified problems.
The research setting, including the six industry clusters, different research targets and multiple actor viewpoints, provided the material to study applications on two different levels: first, on a generic level to analyse commonalities across the clusters and conceptually develop the UIW-approach for dealing with shared issues. And second, on a cluster-specific level to analyse individual use cases to provide bespoke solutions based on the tools and methods of the framework. This two-level approach was designed to ensure the applicability and practice-orientation of the UIW-approach and the transferability of specific solutions to other industries facing similar challenges.
Work packages
The project was arranged in seven work packages.
Work package 1, taking input from the cluster cases, worked out the generic approach to provide tools and methodologies to support the clusters in the iterative development process.
The work in the clusters was coordinated through three integrating work packages (WPs 2, 3, and 4) representing development activities, definition, implementation and testing, to be refined in each iteration. These work packages were also responsible for harmonising the work across the clusters and for producing the deliverables that summarises the work done in the clusters throughout the project.
Finally, at the end of the last iteration, work package 5 was responsible for managing the demonstrations in all clusters.
To achieve maximal impact of the project, work package 6 ran continuously throughout the project focusing on communication and business development. The work package was responsible for interacting with external stakeholder communities to exploit the results. Work package 7 was responsible for coordination and management of the project.
Project Results:
Main results
The project achieved significant results both in individual cluster cases as well as on a general level. A common approach for enabling industrial actors to better respond to changes of customer needs and the operating environment was developed. The result (the Use-it-Wisely approach) with corresponding tools, practices and information was summarised as a generic collaborative platform allowing actors to continue the exchange of knowledge and best practice for a mutual benefit. The tools and methods of the common approach were implemented in the six industry clusters, delivering specific, tangiable results in each case.
A summary of the main results are presented below.
The UIW Platform
As set out in the Description of Work, the concept of the Use-It-Wisely (UIW) Platform is to combine selective theory, best practice, and suitable technologies to better enable innovative continuous upgrades of high investment product-services. In particular, to better enable ideations and analyses for innovative upgrades. This takes the UIW Platform beyond the limitations of platforms based on study of only practitioners’ activities and/or on ICT environments, tools, etc. UIW Platform provides access to physical as well as digital resources for ideations and analyses. This is important because disproportionately large areas of brain mechanisms go into non-repetitive hand movements and movement is important in gaining shared understandings. Furthermore, an action can activate corresponding patterns of neural activity in several people - leading to empathy. Accordingly, a physical symbol system for strategic design of innovative production systems has been devised, piloted, and made available via the UIW Platform. Also, via contacting UIW partners there can be access to many different types of mathematically-based computationally-enabled models, which can be applied during ideations and analyses. In particular, these can be applied to Actors, Products, Services (APS). Actors encompass: users, customers, suppliers, managers, practitioners, regulatory bodies, politicians, media, and public. Products encompass: components/equipment/units; product interfaces; product behavior; product realization. Services encompass: activities performed by actors on products; assistance provided to customers/users before the delivery of a good during the design and production of a good. In addition, UIW System Exemplars have been developed to support ideation and analyses. These have been formulated through induction from the causal context models (CCM) produced by clusters. The UIW System Exemplars illustrate the basic understanding of upgrading and its effects for producers as well as users of upgradable assets. The UIW System Exemplars form the basis of reflection for cluster members on how to describe and model the benefits of shortening upgrade cycles and the power of upgrading. Moreover, the Use-It-Wisely Community of Practice has been established to harness the potential for cross-industrial communication and collaboration during ideations and analyses. This is important because industrial organisations require strategies that enhance communication and collaboration between individuals, to promote innovation, improve industrial performance and maintain a competitive advantage within the marketplace.
Strategic Design Symbol System
With regard to physical as well as digital resources for ideations and analyses, a strategic design symbols system has been developed and tested. Already this symbol system has been piloted and taken into use by several organizations in different parts of the world, including the following: Cranfield University UK; Festo Automation Germany; Nazarbayev University Kazakhstan; The Learning Network on Sustainability Mexico; UC Berkeley USA; Urban Mill Finland; Vinyl Council of Australia and Monash University Australia. The symbol system has been developed to enable the widest possible participation during the strategic design of innovative production systems. This is facilitated by minimum use of words and maximum use of graphics. The overall composition of the symbol system encompasses: Location: village, town, city, region or hub; Value added: create new market; disintermediation; demographically distributed economy; down cycling; ecological renewal; geographically distributed economy; localization; on-shoring; re-cycling; upcycling; Value chain: B2B; B2C; P2P; agricultural; construction; creative; engineer-to-order; healthcare; mass production; retail; or space; Resource inputs: components; formed materials; micro-electronics; open source designs; open source hardware; open source software; raw materials; recycled materials; Infrastructure inputs: computer skills; creative skills; data analytics skills; engineering skills; manual skills; digital infrastructure; energy infrastructure; financial infrastructure; physical infrastructure; social infrastructure; water infrastructure; Type of factory: carry-able factory; fixed factory; factory kits for export; home / club factory; independent local factory; mobile factory; moveable factory; networked local factory; New employment: 1-5 new jobs; 6-50 new jobs; 51-250 new jobs; 250+ new jobs; Time: Today; +1 year; +3 years; +5 years.
System Model for UIW Upgrades of High Investment Product-Services
Modelling different types of modelling have been experienced in UIW, concentrating on the definition of three main concepts: Actors, Products, Services (APS).
Experiments conducted in UIW, show interesting results in the usage of models, for the web-based collaboration, for the connection with simulation/VR or realized product data, for the use of services, and the application of methodologies such as the Causal Context Models, the Circular Economy models and other strategic/company level models. The unique experience acquired in the UIW project allowed the team to concentrate to a specific cluster project, while addressing with the other clusters issues about different industrial domains, different national cultures or different lifecycle stages.
The models related to economical and strategical domains are often not so easy to formalize and typically are not tightly connected with the technical domain. The UIW experience recommends a clearer integration of the related concepts to widely enhance the lifecycle process. The UIW experience allowed also figuring out which issues are common among different design processes. Such problems can be faced with a more effective design approach and a model-based philosophy can provide useful tools to mitigate the current situation. Additional features can be integrated within the system model to cover common areas among different companies. For example, a well-formalized system model can pave the way for tools and techniques that can widely support the decision making process. Currently the system solutions and design choices are strictly dependent on the context and seldom all the knowledge elaborated during these processes are re-used in other projects. The modelling choice is typically commanded by the company choices, and also the industrial domains (e.g. the dependency to customer standards, domain-specific standards or just for legacy).
The main recommendation deriving from such the UIW project, in a complex and heterogeneous (hence inspiring) environment is to derive a common language for the aspects that are not deeply domain-specific, e.g. 3D modelling, product structure, business modelling, etc. A better collaboration in the industry, sharing the semantics of such main concepts is essential. Moreover, the management of complexity using software is not a solution, but a tool to support a solution. The key is the end user. Easy way to represent a very complex set of information is essential. Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Interfaces similar to the websites used by the majority of the population, flow and block diagrams (based on a model), as well as the connection between design and reality are the main means to produce a clear collaboration environment based on a model, where customers, users, technical practitioners, program managers and system engineers can collaborate together are reach in a quicker way an effective way of working.
Simulation Models for UIW Adaptations
In order to better enable adaptation from existing states to desired future states, as referenced in D2.2 BUAS has introduced the cluster organizations to a tutorial using system exemplars. These include all major elements of business. The tutorial has been used by some of the cluster organizations as part of the preparation for the modeling process of cluster specific models. This work provided the basis for the development of the UIW System Exemplars. UIW System Exemplars are basic structures of System Dynamics models created during the UIW project. As part of the UIW platform (WP1), BUAS contributes with UIW System Exemplars to answer the UIW challenge. We develop the UIW System Exemplars by means of an inductive process of extracting them from the causal context models (CCM) produced by the cluster members. The UIW System Exemplars should illustrate the basic understanding of upgrading and its effects for producers as well as users of upgradable assets. The UIW System Exemplars form the basis of reflection for cluster members on how to describe and model the benefits of shortening upgrade cycles and the power of upgrading. All UIW System Exemplars consist of two parts: The System Structure Diagram: This is a qualitative description of the System Exemplar derived from the Causal Context Models developed by the cluster members as part of D2.1 and D2.2. The Simulation Model: This is an extension of the System Structure Diagram and populated with generic values to illustrate the upgrading concepts in a quantitative way. The criteria for the development of the UIW System Exemplars for the UIW project are as follows: most simple underlying models to explain benefits and challenges, as well as organizational constraints to upgrading; recurring upgrading structures found in multiple models or with possible application in multiple models; limited to a small number of stocks. The notional elements of generic UIW structures are as follows: causal relationships; causal loops; and stocks, which is the term for any entity that accumulates or depletes over time. A flow is the rate of change in a stock.
Collaborative Environment – UIW Community of Practice
Communication and collaboration between previously unconnected industries has emerged as one of the foremost benefits of the Use-It-Wisely project. The project consortium has connected their knowledge and working processes to address common challenges and have found solutions for the different industrial sectors, that previously would not have been identified. One of the main achievements of the Use-it-Wisely project is the development of a cross-industrial virtual community, which centres on a platform that allows for communication and collaboration between different manufacturing sectors. Collaborations between industrial, SME, academic and research partners, has inspired the project partners to apply tools and methods from different sectors to their own organisation, and have improved the effectiveness of their contributions within the project, simply through communicating and collaborating outside their sectors. The Use-It-Wisely Virtual Community was established to harness the potential for cross-industrial communication and collaboration and provide a virtual space where experts across different sectors can share knowledge, experience, tools and practices. The UIW Virtual Community is using Bitrix 24. This is a cloud-based service developed by Bitrix, Inc. (Alexandria, VA) and consists of a PHP-based cross-platform to provide advanced web applications for collaboration and communication between organisations and their external associates. The platform can be used on all major operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, and many Unix variants and supports most web servers. It uses both procedural programming or object oriented programming and has the ability to output HTML, PDF files, images, Flash movies and text including any XML file. It can support a wide range of databases and data exchanges between the majority of Web program languages and provides user-friendly writing applications. In addition, it supports Java objects and has useful text processing features and tools, which are categorised both alphabetically and by theme.
Results from the pilot cases of six industrial clusters
The following sections presents specific reults from pilot applications in the six industrial clusters.
Cluster#1: Design, maintenance and refurbishment of turbines in a collavorative environment
The objective of Cluster 1 application was to enhance the inspection process performed in power plants throughout the improvement of a Tecnatom software tool (called GIPE and already deployed in several Spanish Fossil Power Plants) with the objective of extending service life of its components.
So, as a result, a 3D collaborative tool has been developed which makes easier the understanding of component status after the inspection and thus, to provide added-value- services for supporting the decision making process along the life cycle. The selected equipment for demonstrating the case was a steam turbine due to its complexity and the fact that at least one steam turbine is installed in every thermal plant.
Cluster 1 has developed a web-based application, allowing the 3D visualization of all turbine parts together with the inspection results. The information is shown in two ways: (1) with hypertext, using plain text, tables, lists, photographs, 2D drawings, etc. and (2) with a 3D model of the turbine geometry that allows users to navigate through the different parts of the turbine. The tool also includes a collaborative decision-making application, to manage all stakeholders’ proposals, annotations and discussions. Proceeding in that way, comparisons between similar components could be made taking into account the operating experience and lessons learnt stored in the tool.
There are three main domains composing the UiW framework:
1) Market and Data Analysis domain: using business forecasting models and tools can, out of a strategic decision, initiate the upgrade of its product/service or business model.
2) Actor Product Service (APL) modelling domain; needed to handle large amounts of information which come from different sources (3D scan data, CAD models, ad-hoc process databases, etc.). For this purpose a meta-model has been developed and contains some recommendations on how to model information on product and services so that interfaces between different formats and tools are easier to maintain.
3) Collaboration Management domain; needed to improve the communication between different actors involved in the life cycle of a product or service. To do this, several methods and tools have been implemented which are focused on enabling the information flow, promoting collaborations in technical developments, and providing an easy and efficient way to make decisions.
Cluster #1 main contribution has been in two of those three domains: APS modelling; and Collaboration Management domains.
Main results achieved have been:
1) Hierarchical viewer: A product tree based on the component geometry and its assembly has been developed. The company used to work with a different tree, based on the inspection areas, which has also been kept, allowing the user to navigate throughout both trees, indistinctly. In addition, both trees are syncronized.
2) 3D viewer - Hom3r: A generic 3D viewer for complex geometries has been developed. This viewer was called Hom3r (http://proyectos.diana.uma.es/hom3r/) and it is an open source WebGL embeddable module which has been used as the 3D viewer of the application developed in Cluster 1, providing the following features, among others:
• Selection and manipulation of product parts could be made at different levels within the hierarchy.
• Visualization of occluded parts: Adaptve transparency and exploded views.
• Navigation around the product using the mouse, with a restricted set of trajectories withing a cylinder or an ellipsoid.
• 3D interaction: Translation, rotation, selection, isolation and predefined views.
• Visual representation and location of flaws.
• 3D labelling.
• Color highlighting the 3D model to represent information related to a part
3) Interactive viewer of inspection results: It has been developed a simplified module to sort the information according to the inspection techniques, dates and results. Depending on these results, each inspection area in the 3D model is highlighted following a predefined color code in order to facilitate the comprenhesion of the overall status of the turbine.
4) Discussion management tool based on Redmine software: Availability to share and exchange any kind of information and comments related to an inspection result. It’s possible to summarize all the information in a pdf file.
Cluster#2: Upgrade of mobile crushers
The Use-it-Wisely case of Cluster#2 (Metso, RDVelho, VTT) introduces the new approach to upgrading rock crushers at customer sites including new processes, procedures and utilization of technical tools. The higher level problem needing to be solved concerned making upgrade delivery projects profitable and more desirable for customers, the manufacturing OEM (Metso) and suppliers. The main challenges were related to knowing the actual status of the upgrade target machine, communication and collaboration with stakeholders, verification and validation of upgrade specifications and an efficient information flow between the stakeholders. Augmented reality (AR), Virtual environments (VE), camera based 3D scanning, and cloud based solutions were the selected pieces of technology for solving the challenges. They enable better planning and discussing of upgrade service activities. This study was a proof-of-concept that demonstrates the potential of contributions to business model innovations for upgrading business.
Challenges of rock crusher upgrading and proposed solutions:
Challenge: Creating digital data and information about the target machine, including 3D geometry; Proposed solutions: 3D scanning (3D data capture); Expected advantages: Fast and cost-efficient way to get the actual status and geometry.
Challenge: Visualization of upgrade service offerings and proposed solutions for customers; Proposed solutions: Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Environments (VE); Expected advantages: Mobile and cheap solution for operations in field, possibility to test non-existing solutions and environments.
Challenge: Visualization of the target machine status and boundary conditions for engineering designers Proposed solutions: Virtual Environments (VE); Expected advantages: Possibility to test non-existing solutions and environments, Effective way to share information and knowledge.
Challenge: Keeping digital data and information up-to-date and sharing it in an appropriate format, for all required stakeholders; Proposed solutions: Cloud-based PLM module; Expected advantages: Possibility to automate information management and dynamically involve different stakeholders.
The OEM manufacturer of rock crushers wants to serve their customers by providing machine upgrade solutions that support increased machine utilization rate and the customers’ capability for crushing rocks, for instance, near urban areas, by decreasing the noise and dust levels of the machines. This is challenging, because every individual machine is different when it leaves the factory. Additionally it is often modified by the customer or a third party during its lifecycle. The lifecycle may exceed ten years and, during that time, machine deformations typically occur, due to harsh conditions. Therefore, it is difficult to know the status of the machines at the customer sites, around the world. Thus, generally machine upgrade projects are not very attractive or profitable. Targeted upgrade activities, status before UiW, and demonstrated solutions:
Activity: Evaluate compatibility of upgrade
Status before UiW: New methodology and technology is needed for design reviews, verification, and validation. Combining virtual upgrade models and worn out machinery is challenging when the module interfaces are very important.
Final demonstrations: An AR application and VE can be used for illustrating the planned upgrades. AR models can be augmented on top of a physical machine or virtual upgrade models can be combined with 3D scanned virtual model of the physical machine. This enables resign reviews, design verification and customer validation. However, fidelity of AR model tracking and quality of camera based 3D scanned models still require improvement for some business applications. Thus demonstration status can be considered as a proof-of-concept.
Activity: Model an old Machine in 3D
Status before UiW: Depends on how old (was it designed in 3D) is the machine, and what is the condition (modifications, transformations) of the machine. Anyhow there is obviously need for improved methodology and technology for modelling existing machine individuals at customers’ sites.
Final demonstrations: Camera-based 3D scanning was selected based on the experiences of technical trials. Normal digital cameras (e.g. in mobile phones) can be used to take photos. The photos are sent to a cloud-based tool which automatically generates a 3D geometry model of the physical target machine. Fidelity of the 3D model is sufficient for supporting upgrade solution design, but it still requires improvement in order to be accurate enough to really describe the actual geometry of the physical machnine.
Activity: Visualize 3D models of machines and Upgrades
Status before UiW: 3D visualization is utilized already to some extent. Anyway quality of visualization should be improved, and 3D visualization should be implemented more widely (different applications), and more deeply (integration to product processes and data management).
Final demonstrations: Quality of 3D visualization has improved during the UiW project thanks to general technical progression. Additionally, e.g. new inexpensive head mounted displays enable involving more stakeholders such as engineering designers to virtual environments. The VE solution was based on 3D CAD models and Unity VE environment. Integration of 3D visualization was described as part of the sales-delivery process.
Activity: Manufacturing an Upgrade
Status before UiW: Product upgrades are manufactured case by case, and separated of standard production. More standard way of managing manufacture within suppliers and value networks is needed.
Final demonstrations: Noise encapsulation upgrade module is the first upgrade module designed during the UiW project that is near standard production mode.
Activity: Configure an existing model of Upgrade
Status before UiW: The upgrade modules are designed and delivered case-by-case. Therefore improved modularization, project references and product data management are needed. Productization of the upgrade modules is challenging because high variety and degree of freedom.
Final demonstrations: Modularity is key principle in new upgrade products, for instance in the previously mentioned noise encapsulation.
Activity: Design a new upgrade
Status before UiW: Improved and re-designed product design and sales-delivery processes are needed: more flexible, agile, cost-efficient. Current processes and procedures are optimized for standard production.
Final demonstrations: A new upgrade sales-delivery process was described. It has been discussed with process stakeholders and potential benefits and possible drawbacks were assessed.
Augmented reality (AR), Virtual environments (VE), camera based 3D scan-ning, and cloud based solutions were selected pieces of technology in order to solve the bottlenecks. Laser based (active) 3D scanning was also tested and compared with (passive) camera based photogrammetric scanning. The accuracy of laser scanning was better, but camera based was chosen because of its mobility and ease of use. 3D scanning enables fast and cost efficient acquisition of the actual 3D model of the product individuals, at customer sites.
VE is a means to visualize scan based 3D models, as well as CAD based 3D models, so that all stakeholders can better understand them. This enables better communication, collaboration and involvement of all stakeholders, including customers, internal stakeholders, suppliers and partners. With the use of VE and AR, it is possible to illustrate upgrade offerings for customers and to test proposed solutions, virtually. They also enable the planning and discussing of service activities. The proposed solutions can be verified and validated, before building physical products.
Cluster#3. Commercial space system development
Cluster 3 defined, developed and demonstrated a collaborative methodology, supported by model-based methods and tools, based on a Space system development scenario, but applicable to any collaborative scenario including different model-based engineering environments.
Rationale: Adaptation to customer demand, continuous upgrade of provided services and products, and especially a quicker response to the customer are needed to cope with the future Space economy. Such objectives in the Use-It-Wisely (UIW) project have been analysed by the Space cluster in terms of improvement of capabilities and efficiency of the technical work. Space industry deals with complex products in a complex industrial organization which often includes the customer; customer is in the design, verification and, naturally, operations loops with its engineering, scientific and high-tech capabilities.
Customers may take decisions based on many key factors, e.g. political constraints (e.g. geographical return for member states in case of the European Space Agency), soundness of the solution, costs, schedule, risks, etc. In case of a commercial customer, the ability to quick respond with an appropriate solution, giving the highest possible confidence that it is meeting the related needs is essential. More complex the proposed solution is, more of the following issues may appear:
- Understanding of real needs and constraints: the expressed needs and constraints may be incomplete or provided without a clear rationale (for instance providing costly constraints which can be drastically reduced with alternative concepts).
- Feedback capture: the customer feedback is essential to provide an alternative solution quicker, or to improve future products/services.
- Traceability: the customer and user needs shall be traced to the technical solution and their changes shall be clearly identified and their impact traced in the technical solution, as well as kept for future evolution of the product.
Such needs comes from a customer-supplier relationship and they can be further broken down into technical-team level requirements:
- Be able to respond in a quick way to a customer (or potential customer) request or a customer change, while: Being able to manage complex technical issues in a distributed team, Being able to manage a large amount of technical data in a distributed team, Being able to keep the required level of quality and risks
- Be able to present clearly the technical solution to a potential customer, showing clearly the advantages with regard to competitors: Being able to provide information at different level of details, Being able to clearly support any proposal for change to the customer showing the advantages, Being able to be supported by clear, complete and visual means to show the solution and related operations (e.g. using simulation and 3D graphics)
Many of the above mentioned needs are meant to be solved by many initiatives in the field of Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE), such as the current European space domain efforts (e.g. with the Concurrent Design Facility or Engineering Data Repository approaches described in ECSS-E-TM-10-23A and ECSS-E-TM-10-25A technical memoranda and related data models), to OMG efforts and to the THALES corporate level (see Capella modelling IT tool) initiatives. They are expected to provide advantages in terms of technical (and project) data management and some of them are already used and proved to bring the promised advantages.
In the experience we gained with model-based environments in the latest years, and through the discussions held during the UIW project, one of the main issues is the interoperability of environments and the security requirements compliance. This includes mainly four issues, with related solutions:
1) Data compatibility: to be solved using data semantics and well-defined and generic interfaces
2) Workflow realization: to be solved using dedicated tasks definition and realization managers, through a concept of services-based exchange between different entities
3) Data Security: to be solved thanks to adequate data semantics and dedicated processes that shall allow a filtered exchange of information, with a clear identification of what is exiting from the company network perimeter
4) Cost and maintainability of the IT infrastructure: to be solved by a cheaper integration between tools (not only in terms of development, but mainly in terms of maintainability). Mapping shall not be based on tool versions or custom formats, but mapping to common semantic data models or custom data structures defined at user level (and not at tool vendor level).
The reference case: A simplified operational scenario has been defined to keep the analysis simple without loss of generality, and it comprises the following entities:
- The (potential) customer technical team: in charge to provide the needs, evaluate technically the solution or proposed changes, and eventually buying the solution.
- The solution provider technical team: managing for the whole industrial team the solution and being the main interface to the customer, analyzing its needs and understanding the final user needs through the interface with the customer.
- The supplier technical team: it is a supplier of the solution provider, kept in the loop to elaborate the solution for the customer.
A reference case is used in support to the definition of use cases, to the definition of the methodology, to the developments, trials and demonstration. Such case is based on the future provision of a today unconventional Space-to-Space re-utilizable product called Space Tug: a sort of taxi service in Space, to move a spacecraft from one position (orbit) to another, while providing also other servicing options. The related project have been chosen for the complexity and originality, and to re-use existing projects data. Naturally the actual Space Tug data are not disseminated, nor published in the UIW activities. Only demonstrative pictures and data sets have been used externally to the UIW partnership.
Based on the above concept, and using the demonstrative data set, a demonstration of collaboration among the different actors have been implemented in a dedicated tool chain, performing a preliminary validation of the feasibility and of the benefits/limits of the approach.
The solution: The solution is a federated environment, where each of the actors belonging to the previously described operational entities can work in a distributed model-based environment which fits their organization and their needs, in their own company networks. The different networks and then connected using dedicated interfaces. Such a federated environment is based on the following assumptions:
- Each environment is web-based, meaning that the models can be accessed through dedicated services available on the company network (with the related security restrictions). It is already the case of some commercial or custom tools, but the current trends are to move towards such types of solutions. The ESA OCDT WSP is an example of web-based services provider in a local network.
- Any technical discipline is able to profit from such system level environment to retrieve the information needed from the other disciplines and to provide the needed information at system level to the other entities.
- The web-based environment shall be semantically unique, i.e. the data can be retrieved, inserted and processed univocally by a human operator or by an automated routine programmed by an operator, independently from the originator/owner of the data. ECSS-E-TM-10-23A technical memorandum describes the current effort in the European Space domain to proceed towards an interoperable Space systems data repository. The data exchange between different repositories is not currently considered nor in the methodology, nor in the related reference data model. An extension has been studied (introducing engineering services, actors, disciplines, etc.).
Cluster#4: Production system for truck cabs
Cluster 4 has developed a solution combining enterprise data of production line and consumer VR technology into an interactive visualization tool for factory layouts. During the project the industrial partner has developed inhouse competence to conduct 3D laser scanning capture of their factory layouts.
Demonstration setup: The final demonstrator was set up in Volvo facilities, an auditorium with a stage area and a back projected screen. The setup consisted of:
- A PC station with demonstrator software
- Positioning sensors on tripods to track the VR space
- Head mounted display (HMD)2
- Hand held controllers for interacting with the VR environment2
- Presentation screen used to give instructions before the test and to duplicate the VR user’s view for onlookers and researchers during the test.
The developed functionality in the final demonstration consisted of a mix of CAD and 3D-Scan data, a top view of a miniature factory, option to step in to the real life sized factury and navigate (walk or teleport options). The operations for design change implemented allowed the user to move resources both in CAD and 3D scanned objects to create alternative layouts, save the changes made and have other users interact/visit the proposed new layout, leave comments/suggestions as well as visualize the ststus of the current system with overlay of data from manufacturing.
Stakeholders in the production system organisation were invited to evaluate the demonstrator and its usability and benefits to support the change processes of factories. A majority of the test persons saw clear benefits from the system, for a number of stakeholders. Most benefit was recognized for the engineers and the factory personnel who would use it to develop better upgrades. While no one disagreed strongly about the benefits of the system, one users was not sure about there being clear benefits to Volvo from using it.
Benefits/Value at different levels of impact based on questionnaire and interviews:
End user: The virtual model is easy to understand. Easier than previously experienced models. It is easier to navigate the model in this way. More functions could be implemented dealing with trial and error.
Company: The system supports giving users the same view of the production system. It gives better understanding. Of course the system could provide value. One user was not sure about the value on a company level, and another stressed the importance of that it should be easy to prepare the input, preferably through integration with the existing PLM platform.
Customer: The system can provide value to the customers on a long term basis. And that the work and communication with them can work quicker.
Value network: Respondents stated that this system can make interactions easier. And also that it would be nice with many users sharing the same environment simultaneously.
EU: On an EU level the respondents felt that the system can lead to better understanding, more interaction, and therefore better decisions. One respondent said: “Will push EU as an enabler of new technology” Generally a lot of focus was placed on faster and easier decision making and communication quality. Ultimately leading to better products delivered.
Community/ society: On the societal level some users saw direct benefits through shifting some processes to the digital world and thus requiring less travel needed and reduction of material used for prototyping. At the same time some of the respondents were not sure about the benefits at this moment.
Comments about benefits and value of the system: When asked about other uses and advantages of the system, respondents expressed that they either liked or wanted:
“Point clouds are good for quickly viewing actual station layout.“
“System can be used to showcase new products/tools with its uses.”
“Manufacturing simulation in VR“
Cluster#5: Vessel information-rich meta-file
Cluster 5 developed several tools to a) facilitate the communication between the actors, b) provide a competitive business advantage in the naval domain of small passenger vessels and c) provide invidividual tools for each actor to enable the facilitation of small scale frequent upgrades.
Within Cluster 5 was developed the “Vessel Meta-File”, a user-friendly, web-based, information rich, technical meta-file that acts as the main knowledge-base between the yard, the classification society and the end-user. The Vessel Meta-File enables the storage of information regarding all aspects of a vessel’s life cycle; from initial customer requirements, to drawings, material and equipment data, sea-trial reports to post-delivery survey and inspection reports. The Vessel Meta-File provides a collaborative platform for sharing such data among all involved actors across the vessel’s life-cycle, reducing costs involved in the design, production and maintenance phases. Three additional tools were developed, which can be used in conjunction to the Vessel Meta-File:
1) System Dynamics Model that describes the mechanisms and variable interactions between the Yard, the Classification Society and the end-user, and enables the three different parties to forecast trends in the behaviour of the small craft passenger vessels market and allow predictive actions and decisions such as the upgrade of a vessel to support and extend its life-cycle.
2) “Vessel Configurator” system was also implemented to assist the transformation of the business and operational requirements derived from the Dynamic Causal Context Model to technical specifications that comply with current national flag or international regulations for the specific type of vessels.
3) “Dessign Support Plugin” was developed to translate the technical specifications emanating from the “Vessel Configurator” and the respective requirements of the vessel onwner, into an estimatation of the key attributes of the vessel and its approximate cost.
The UiW development included three specific business objectives:
Name of the objective: Economic gain from using the Vessel Meta-File application and supporting tools.
Objective definition: Increased ability to rapidly follow the market dynamics by means of fast production and delivery of personalised final products.
Cluster-specific objective: Quick reaction to varying service demand, regulation change, alterations requests from the customer through value chain integration (€250-300k for the entire industry).
Explanation: The economic gain of the UIW tool consists of two parts: 1) The construction of the boat occupies capacity for a shorter period of time as the exchange of technical information between the certification society (INSB) and the boatyard (OCEAN) is improved. Thus, the boatyard can construct more boats during the same building period. 2) The operators (SEAbility) need to commit fewer financial resources with shorter lead times when purchasing a boat and can therefore react better to market trends. The improvement is due mainly to a reduced time to react to changes in the design of boats as well as improvements in handling times for new requests. The target is reached around 2032. The benefit in this objective is measured for the whole industry and accumulated over time.
The “No UIW tool” run shows an accumulated loss for the industry of about 50,000 Euro. This makes sense given that the tool shortens construction times for large boats. This leads to the operators having to make decisions with larger uncertainties about the utilisation of their fleet. This in turn leads to overcapacity in the market. The benefit derived from the improved information exchange and resulting shortening of construction and order times, not only has financial benefits for all actors but also supports an improved use of resources available, e.g. boat materials that are not used for construction.
Name of the objective: Savings per boat Objective definition: Cost reduction of around 30% by decreasing lead times in product/process development
Cluster-specific objective: Reducing time and costs by 30% due to the availability of the vessel technical information (from €50-60k to €40k);
Explanation: The implementation of the Vessel Meta-file application facilitates and improves the upgrading of existing boats. Upgrading is in general a shorter process than complete construction, as the hull and other elements of the boats remain intact. Regardless, the savings are in the same range as for building on a per case basis. Thus, the tool has a larger impact for the upgrading as it has for building. The objective of €20K is achieved towards the end of the simulation period, when the database in the tool includes nearly 90% of all relevant regulations and amendments. The simulated results oscillate due to the fact that the improved communication between the certification society and the boatyard also depends on the number of amendments. Amendments to existing regulation happen mostly when there are new constructions which in turn take place mostly when fleets are renewed. The renewal of fleets is a cyclical process and causes the oscillating behaviour shown in the graph above.
Name of the objective: Time savings in boat building
Objective definition: Set-up and ramp-up time reduction for new processes and plant designs (30%)
Cluster-specific objective: Decreased lead time in product modifications by at least 20% (from ca. 90 to 70 days) due to better information about the modifications costs needed to meet new business demands;
Explanation: Time savings from the implementation of the UIW tool are shown in the objective above. The target is never reached by the simulation result. This is due to the fact that the initial goal was set for larger boats. Larger boats have longer lead times and changes in the design take longer to be amended. In the case of large boats in the simulation, its result shows a reduction of lead times of nearly half a month. The improvement after the implementation of the UIW tool is initially steep as more and more new requests comply with the system and flattens out after around 2021 when the smaller improvements are due to a decrease in amendments necessary in the regulations.
Cluster#6: Sustainabel furniture that grows with the end-users
Economically and environmentally it might be more responsible or even feasible to combine products and services to elongate product lifetime. Although the circular economy is a current issue, the industrial state-of-the-art is that still a limited number of manufactures have shown a shift towards a closed-loop business. Companies exploring these new strategies are primarily focused at servicing at their customers site and not on total efficient and cost effective reverse logistics, disassembly and remanufacturing strategies with their entire supply chain. Gispen, a major office furniture producer in the Netherlands, has embraced circular economic principles to create new business, extend product life time and improve the adaptability of their products. Office furniture should be more adaptable to future customer demands, i.e. the furniture should be able to better handle the changes in requirements for functionality, look and feel and numbers, but still guarantee a high level of quality and at a reasonable price. Proved sustainability, flexibility, and upgrades will become crucial elements to office furniture companies to guarantee long-term success. This could lead to shorter lifecycles of office furniture due to changing demands on functionality, or required flexibility.
UIW goals & results: Gispen is aware of these changes and wants to overcome highly competitive dynamics in the current furniture market, by developing new product-service combinations. Innovative product-service combinations prolong the life time cycle of an asset and thereby avoiding a new purchase incentive. Hence, remaining value in existing products and materials and at the same time avoid waste. In the Use-It-Wisely project the following applications were developed to achieve the goals of Gispen and to close the gap from a linear into a circular concept with a special focus on circular economy oriented alternative business models and circular product design:
1) A System Dynamic simulation model. A system dynamic (SD) model was developed in order to simulate circular economy business scenarios. The SD model provides detailed insights into the dynamics of the changing business model. The business model will change from a single transaction model (sale/buy) to a (circular) product-service model. A multiple transaction model with split payments was developed. An iterative approach has been used to quantitatively model Gispens’ new business model. The main elements in the system dynamic simulation model are:
- The most important central KPI’s, i.e. business objective variables, for Gispen. A shared definition of the business objective variables (profit, total turnover, market share) was determined to evaluate effects of different tested policies and scenarios.
- The relevant variables in the causal-context model. A management science approach was used to structure discussions on input variables and important outcomes.
- The quantified relationships between central KPI’s and variables in the model. Gispen management was frequently consulted to ensure that the model building proceeds in the right direction. Gispen employees from sales and the financial department were involved to provide data on relevant business parameters which are used as initial values in the model. Macro-economic predictions at an EU level, existing GDP data, market trends for the office furniture market, standard values for cost and time to implement new business models structures and Gispen specific data such as annual reports and branch reports were incorporated. Furthermore, several scenarios in terms of macro-economic conditions were taken into account (i.e. negative, neutral and positive trends) as well as a predefined bandwidth for variables with a high level of uncertainty.
The model was validated on the level of model structure and model behaviour. The focus was on internal and external validity of the model, for instance, were all relationships correctly modelled and KPI’s calculated in a correct manner, and concurrent validity, i.e. does the model give similar results for the model predictions and Gispen historical data.
A circular business scenario was modelled and evaluated. Within this business scenario, office furniture will be leased to an user (who will pay per month) and will get a financial incentive by Gispen after several years of use. In this model, Gispens’ current, i.e. linear, as well as the new circular business model were both included. Hence combining two different businessmodels in order to model the transition period.
2) Circular Economy Design Framework. In order to create awareness among customers and engineers and be able to rank product designs, a Design Framework, including a checklist has been developed. A circular Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology is also part of this framework. The combination of qualitative design requirements and quantitative LCA calculations provide an in-depth product evaluation to support the transition to a more closed-loop system. Gispen has a high level of customization (i.e. Engineer To Order projects). In the near future Gispen wants to keep this high level of customization in their products, but at the same time a modular product design should allow easy (dis)assembly and adaptability. In order to do so, design guidelines and circular requirements for product design, re-design and remanufacturing are necessary. These guidelines are part of a Circular Economy Design Framework. The framework provides insight in the degree of adaptation to circular principles. By filling out the checklist for each product design, and thereby creating a total score for the product, it is possible to compare one product versus another. This circular product score provides information to monitor progress on circular design and adjust whenever necessary. The checklist is a first attempt to create a tool which is easy to use for designers and on the other hand is covering the broad topics of design for circularity.
Sustainable design choices need to be well-founded. Generally accepted are LCA tools to calculate environmental impact. However, traditionally these tools calculate a ‘take-make-dispose’ scenario. Insights in reuse, remanufacturing and the impacts thereof is needed. So the traditional LCA tool needs to be upgraded including new closed-loop scenarios, according to the circular economy concept. This new circular LCA tool aims to support product development and is based on the quantitative LCA methodology. The effects of a particular circular scenario (e.g. sell, repurchase, and lease back) on environmental impact for different kinds of furniture, materials, and processes can be assessed.
Publications
In addition to numerous conference presentations and other dissemination events the project produced a total of 10 peer reviewd articles:
Aromaa, S. & Väänänen, K., 2016. Suitability of virtual prototypes to support human factors/ergonomics evaluation during the design. Applied Ergonomics, 56, pp.11–18. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003687016300333.
Berglund, J., Lindskog, E. & Johansson, B., 2016. On the Trade-off between Data Density and Data Capture Duration in 3D Laser Scanning for Production System Engineering. Procedia CIRP, 41, pp.697–701. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2015.12.141.
Fox, S., 2015. Relevance: a framework to address preconceptions that limit perceptions of what is relevant. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(4), pp.804–812. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?issn=1753-8378&volume=2&issue=2&articleid=1781094&show=abstract.
Fox, S., 2016. Dismantling the Box — Applying Principles for Reducing Preconceptions During Ideation. International Journal of Innovation Management, 20(6), p.1650049. Available at: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S1363919616500493.
Fox, S. & Groesser, S.N. 2016. Reframing the relevance of research to practice. European Management Journal, 34(5), pp.457–465. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2016.07.005 [Accessed October 7, 2016].
Fox, S. & Grösser, S., 2015. Economical information and communication design for multi-national projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(3), pp.574–585. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-02-2015-0014.
Gong, L. et al., 2016. Improving Manufacturing Process Change by 3D Visualization Support: A Pilot Study on Truck Production. Procedia CIRP, 57, pp.298–302.
Groesser, S.N. & Jovy, N., 2015. Business model analysis using computational modeling/: a strategy tool for exploration and decision-making. Journal of Management Control.
Lindskog, E. et al., 2016. Improving Lean Design of Production Systems by Visualization Support. Procedia CIRP, 41, pp.602–607. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2016.01.004.
Lindskog, E. et al., 2014b. Lean Based Problem Solving using 3D Laser Scanned Visualizations of Production Systems. International Journal of Engineering Science and Innovative Technology, 3(3), pp.556–565.
Potential Impact:
The projects broad approach covering diverse industries and technologies produced results of wide applicability. The potential impact, therefore, extends beyond the participating companies to industry at large, supporting a continuous renewal of products and services to better serve changing customer needs.
The proposed solutions targets specific needs imposed by the digital transformation of industy and the need for a more sustainable solutions, thereby contributing to societal needs of an internationally competitive and environmentally responsible European industry.
The following sections list the potential impact of some of the key results.
Strategic Design Symbol System
The strategic design symbol system has already been taken into use by several organizations outside of the UIW consortium. It is anticipated that it will be used at international manufacturing events in India, Iran, and the UK during Spring 2017. It is intended that the strategic design symbol system will be further developed for broader application via a more sophisticated digital / physical system. The current version of the open access online publication for the strategic design symbol system can be accessed by the following link: http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/technology/2016/T270.pdf
System Model for UIW Upgrades of High Investment Product-Services
Cluster #1 focus has been on the operational phase (in particular maintenance activities), studying the connection between the design data and the inspection data. Cluster #2 focus has been on the product design, but as improvement of existing hardware. This shall allow an easier understanding by the final user, and a relevant cost saving for the manufacturer in terms of understanding of customer needs and re-use of existing items. Cluster #3 focus has been on the flow of data between different industrial entities, with a special focus on model-based engineering environments and related connection with design, production and operations. Cluster #4 focus has been not on the delivered product to a commercial customer, but on the manufacturing plant of customizable line of products. Cluster #5 focus has been on the collaboration of different entities for the production and configuration of existing or new vessels. A tool chain and an improved process for the connection between the vessel design and the relationship between customers/users/authorities have been demonstrated. Cluster #6 focus has been on the change of the overall paradigm in the office furniture customer relationship, introducing a circular economy approach.
Simulation Models for UIW Adaptations
The UIW System Exemplars will be publicly available and can be used as first steps in the modeling process identifying the simple underlying structures of a potential upgrading problem a user of the platform has. The provided UIW System Exemplars are the first element of any UIW related System Dynamics model and allow practitioners to start modeling their own upgrading challenges using the UIW System Exemplars as a stepping stone for a more specific model directly applied to their challenge. Supporting information and consulting can be available via the links of Stefan Grösser’s website: http://strategysimulationlab.org/blog/
Collaborative Environment – UIW Community of Practice
The CoP web platform can be used to disseminate results of the project, promote services based on the competences of the individual partners, and work as a collaborative platform for developing new ideas or initiate collaboration projects. The potential benefits as well as initial organisation and business model of the CoP have been presented in Deliverable D6.31.
Reduced life-cycle costs through improved service collaboration
The innovative and refurbished tool proposed in this project context will provide increased added-value to a wide range of users (from inspectors to engineers but also manufacturers and power plants owners), since it will facilitate the sharing of this information through a collaborative network while ensuring simplicity in the data access. This will enable seamless communication among all actors and also will lead to a reduction of costs by minimizing set-up and ramp-up times.
Besides the above, in case new designs or re-designs were needed, the visualization in advance of such modifications for all actors will make possible a cost-effective solution considering the requirements from manufacturing, engineering, maintenance, repair and disposal phases.
This solution is purposed to be used in a wide range of operational cases. It brings less running and maintenance costs during the power plant life cycle. It also brings quality, efficiency and accuracy into inspection tests and the possibility to compare different power plants and turbines.
Stakeholder: Tecnatom; Role in the value chain: Service company; Impact: Improvement of collaboration among different actors, enhancement of Inspection services, easiness for including/integrating other equipment, assessment of suitable equipment, applicability to other energy sectors, reuse as training tool, increase of component understanding, friendly, intuitive and easy-to-use tool.
Stakeholder: Power plants; Role in the value chain: Customer; Impact: Gaining best available knowledge for decision making, lower costs and improved investment planning, improvement of collaboration among different actors, friendly, intuitive and easy-to-use tool.
Stakeholder: Other engineering companies; Role in the value chain: Service companies; Impact: Planning inspection performance and evaluating the results providing added value, collaboration improvement, communications improvement.
Stakeholder: Manufacturing companies; Role in the value chain: Supplier companies; Impact: Gaining best available knowledge for decision making, lower costs and improved investment planning, collaboration improvement, communications improvement.
Stakeholder: University of Malaga; Role in the value chain: Developers of hom3r (open source 3D viewer); Impact: Gain visibility for their research on 3D interaction
Increased productivity through better upgrade service provision
Cluster#2 presented how future novel pieces of technology may change upgrade project processes and remove current major process bottlenecks that hinder profitability. There is no quantitative data supporting the claimed productivity increase. Instead, productivity is claimed to be increased by better effectivity, more value adding work and less waste in the upgrade processes.
The new approach is based on clever engineering design solutions for the upgrade products, as well as on the digitalization of information flows of the upgrade projects. Clever engineering design solutions mean modularized upgrade products and services that can be configured, at least partially, for a specific customer need. Thus, less engineering work from scratch is needed. Digitalization saves a lot of calendar time and unproductive work, but it also makes information content richer. When, for instance, a realistic digital 3D model of the upgrade target is instantly available to designers, they can begin the definition upgrade solution immediately, with more reliable initial data.
Productivity increases by decreasing unproductive work during an upgrade delivery project. When information is correct and available, there is less need for searching and rework due to wrong status information and corrections. Requirement specifications of the upgrade can be validated with the customer and the proposed upgrade solutions can be verified against the requirements and validated with the customer, based on virtual models. When design flaws are recognized earlier, with a virtual prototype model, and engineering changes are made based on them, there is a potential for decreasing changes with manufactured physical products. Furthermore, AR- and VE-based visualization enables better understanding of information, and thus, better communication and involvement of the stakeholders. Therefore, more knowledge is involved in the process, which decreases uncertainty and improves the quality of decision making. The changing market situation and customer needs can be responded to with better knowledge management, leading to new product-service innovations.
Technology maturity, usability and usefulness were evaluated from a business benefit viewpoint. It can be concluded that maturity and usability are not yet quite good enough, but taking into account the current speed of development of such devices, they probably will be good enough, in the near future. However, this study was more of a proof-of-concept, which demonstrated the potential of contributing to business model innovation in an upgrade business. The tools and methods were not actually integrated with business processes and information management systems in production. Thus questions still remain as to what level of integration is needed between the tools and the IT systems for cost efficiency. In principle, there are no major technical obstacles for implementation and integration of the whole IT architecture. However, in addition to the technical issues, new processes and work methods may require an even greater effort.
Improved engineering quality through collaborative model-based Systems Engineering
The methodology used for the development of the Engineering distributed architecture, i.e. web-based archtiecture for collaboration, visual supports (VR and in-browser 3D/2D visualization), web Application Programming Interfaces’ (API) for interfaces model-to-tools and use of data models and libraries for semantics, allowed the development, modification and integration of a complex environment using a rapid prototyping approach and quick evaluation of outcomes. With respect to software aspects, the methodology chosen for Request Configurator, Workflow Manager and Probes allows for easy integration of different components by way of APIs. Furthermore the maintenance of the software components is easier leveraging on existing and widespread programming frameworks.
The demonstration feedback showed a great interest by the participants and the used interface and process is felt comfortable and seen as potentially improving efficiency in the daily work. However, the necessity to improve the tools and interfaces from demonstrative prototypes into an operational toolchain has been considered necessary, as well as the usage in a pilot project.
The operational toolchain needs also an agreement between the main European and non-European Space projects stakeholders. For that reason the Use-it-wisely project results have been gradually disseminated along the project in the companies involved, but also in relevant Space and non-Space conferences and meetings. The most relevant conferences at the end of the project includes the 7th International Systems & Concurrent Engineering for Space Applications Conference (SECESA 2016), where the paper “Modelling and Collaboration across Organizations: issues and a solution” has been awarded as one of the best 10 papers. Inside the Italian INCOSE Conference (CIISE ’16) the Use-It-Wisely project has been cited during the presentation as bringing potential advantage with respect to unsolved issues on the field of MBSE, towards a multi-domain public (not only related to the Space industry). The enabling use of MBSE crossed with Virtual Reality technologies has been also presented at the EuroVR conference.
Outside the European Space community, Vastalla has presented the project at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA on April 2016.
The main project outcomes are and will be presented inside the Thales Alenia Space and ALTEC companies, and towards stardardization/harmonisation meetings in the field of model-based design and collaboration. Vastalla is planning to apply for a SME Instrument Phase 1 before the end of January 2017 leveraging on some interesting ideas explored during Use-It-Wisely project.
Savings through better and faster decision making based on realistic VR
Promising technological developments have recently been made in the field of 3D imaging and VR technologies. These developments facilitate both wide spread (all employees through web interfaces) as well as detailed modelling and analysis for interesting questions and decisions for several actors (maintenance, designers, operators etc..). UIW is one of the first applied science projects in direct collaboration with industry to actually make use of these new opportunities. Acceptance/ diffusion if innovation in this field is not a fast process since the actual beneficiary initially does not even know that the technology exists, and yet is the methodologies and work tasks to be performed to be tailor-made and then standardised, which is some the work UIW provides to European industry. This project provides an insight into the use of these technologies in a wide range of industries and services.
3D-imaging provides visually realistic and geometrically accurate snapshots of the physical properties of the real world. The snapshots are stored in a format often called point clouds and can be used for modelling and analysis in virtual planning software. The point cloud data can be overlaid with other models and/or information regarding the various subsystems, separately or in parallel to find, discuss, and analyse issues and changes. Through the natural ease of understanding these models provide, they allow the various actors and experts that are using the system to express their different needs and requirements (Lindskog, 2014). In this manner they can provide a valuable discussion ground and act as decision support for a manager, allowing him or her to make informed decisions with an expanded understanding of the consequences. Furthermore, it gives him or her a tool with which to visualize and communicate the decisions in a way that is approachable by all different actors regardless of technical background. By being able to include a broader range of actors and end users there is potential to gather a broader range of inputs and design comments to feed into the decision process.
Simplifying and speeding up the workflow to produce models enables iterative and frequent use of the models throughout the development process. It also means that a higher number of concepts and ideas can be tested and explored. The collaborative virtual reality models allow actors to experience the models in a 1:1 scale. Participants in the evaluation described that this gave them a better sense of the proposed solutions. Furthermore the ability to share these realistic models with users in other departments or countries within the organisation was stated as a benefit.
Volvo has been working actively with virtual reality in a research capacity for several decades. However it is only with the recent development and the introduction of VR on the consumer market that the usability and cost has created the conditions for making use of it in large scale, across the organisation. Previously, this technology work was limited to large test facilities and costly fixed installations. The ability to set up and implement solutions at a low cost means that investments in development of technical solutions and work methods can be shared and benefited from on a greater scale than before. The demonstrator developed within the project will be input for the update of the Volvo production system internal strategy (confidential) on enabling technologies.
Reduction of environmental footprint through better design
Reduction of the environmental footprint:
Objective definition: Reduction of around 40% in the environmental footprint and resource consumption during the production and use phases of the meta products, together with an increased use of more environment-friendly materials
Cluster-specific objective: Ability to consider environment-friendly materials that could expand the life cycle of the product while decreasing the environmental footprint due to better forecast and planning (reduce atmospheric emissions to less than 0.15 kg per passenger per voyage);
Explanation: This objective describes the decrease in emissions due to the use of new materials and technologies. Emissions per passenger transported is calculated under the assumption of a homogeneous set of high season transport routes. A constant load factor for the market is also assumed to be at 80%, meaning that on average for each voyage 80% of capacity is filled. Depending on the load factor, the overall level of emissions per passenger increases or decreases but the general behaviour stays the same. The behaviour is due to two factors of fleet management: 1) There is an overall trend to lower emissions per passenger due to improvements in technology and 2) there are periodical increases of emissions caused by boat aging. It is assumed that due to wear and tear of the engine and other related boat characteristics the older boats operate at a lower efficiency and produce more emissions per passenger. The decreases in emissions comes from the increased building periods we have seen in objective 1. There is no run without the implementation of the UIW tool shown as the differences in the emissions per passenger are only marginal.
Fuel savings: Objective definition: Reduction of around 40% in the environmental footprint and resource consumption during the production and use phases of the meta products, together with an increased use of more environment-friendly materials
Cluster-specific objective: Ability to consider environment-friendly materials that could expand the life cycle of the product while decreasing the environmental footprint due to better forecast and planning (decrease of fuel consumption at approx. €50-80k/year);
Explanation: This objective addresses fuel savings due to improvements in material usage, technology and designs. The UiW simulation results show the comparison of the savings in any month compared to the same month a year ago. The savings are adjusted for market coverage, i.e. show the comparison if all passengers are served. There are some periods where operators do not have enough boats available to serve all passengers (between 2016 and 2021). This is also the period during which the largest yearly savings in fuel are realised. During this period a large number of boats are replaced with boats with a higher fuel efficiency and thus lead to fuel savings while also maxing out on the available capacity for boat construction and a backlog that causes the market to be underserved.
Reduction of environmental footprint through circular economy
The simulated business model scenarios ,among others, have been used by Gispen to establish new business agreements with public and private companies in the Netherlands. The simulation model can be used as an illustration of added value of business or process modelling for other companies. A first simulation of strategies ('trial and error') can be done in the model before implementation in the real world takes place. Thereby more successful and durable changes in any business model are supported. The Circular Design Framework provides an approach including a checklist to sustainable design and aims to support designers and R&D officers within Gispen to develop circular office furniture, as well as providing results to be accountable towards end users c.q. clients.
The ultimate goals to achieve with support of the Circular Framework are (1) no waste or pollution during the entire life cycle (2) 100% re-use of products, modules and parts, (3) no use of energy from non-renewable resources for producing products or the use of products itself; (4) no use of virgin materials and (5) maintain the highest possible value of the product during the product lifetime and maximisation of product lifetime itself. By using the Circular Framework, Gispen can show customers the degree of circularity of their products and the effects of several product life cycle scenarios (i.e. linear vs. circular). A more quantified effect of, design choices in material or packaging on the environmental impact can be visualized.
Summary of overall benefits and impact:
- New insights for a strategic change of Gispen business model and potential financial effects of changing (CE) business models
- Increase of customer awareness on circular economy and importance of product design
- Increase of market size/amount of customers by modular and flexible products suitable for various customers
- Smaller environmental footprint through extended product life cycle and reuse of material
- Potential reduction of costs for material, transport and energy. Decreasing regular and environmental costs.
Benefits of Circular Design Framework:
- Establish requirements and improve understanding of circular design
- Review, evaluate and provide feedback on product design
- Compare and manage innovation level
- Easy implementation in processes and targets
Dissemination activities:
- Circulaire Economie Congress, February 2nd 2016 Eindhoven.
- Bootcamp session in Industry & Manufacturing . Title: Quantify the circularity of products by Karin Verploegen. http://www.smart-circle.org/circulareconomy/.
- At least 15 individual customer presentations at customer sides or the Gispen Experience Center in Culemborg.
- 20 customer tours at Alliander (www.alliander.nl Alliander is a energy network company and is responsible for the distribution of energy such as electricity, (bio)gas and heat). Several potential customers of Gispen joined each tour.
- Presentation of the Design framework to a group of approximately 30 suppliers.
Other Publications:
- Elsevier Facility Management, Januari 2016.
- Elsevier Facility Management, July 2015.
- FMM Circulaire Huisvesting, maart 2015.
- Inside Information Duurzaamheid, juni 2015.
- Parliament magazine, January 2016.
- Rhijnvis Media Facility Management, May 2015.
Dissemination of results
The project included a separate work package (WP6) dedicated to communication and dissemination activities. The work package also investigated potential business models for ensuring a wider exposure and extended impact after the completion of the project.
The results relating to defined objectives are presented below.
WP6 Objective 1: Capture project results and detail how to communicate and exploit them within agreed stakeholder audiences (Task 6.1 Communications Plan and Activity - Stakeholders, Messages, Channels)
Communications Plans: This activity was completed successfully during the Use-it-Wisely project. Carr designed the communications plan with associated activities by Month 6; this was then revised in Month 24. Partners played an active role in dissemination and at regular stages throughout the Use-it-Wisely project, WP6 leader Carr implemented a schedule of phone calls with individual project partners to stay abreast of all project progress and updates. We held monthly WP6 teleconferences to monitor communications activity among partners and measure progress against the targets set in the DoW
Website: The website was the central communications channel in the Use-it-Wisely project and all material, events and communications activities linked back to it. It was also used as a channel to link to the project’s social profiles, on Twitter, YouTube, and most recently LinkedIn. It included copies of all public deliverables, publications and videos produced. We updated the site with news articles very regularly – on average once a month over the project (44 articles across 39 months). The project website received a very high level of traffic and exceeded the targets set out in the Description of Work by more than double. Our aim was to attract 5,000 website visitors. Google Analytics shows that during the project there were 13,846 sessions and 11,861users on the site. In order to improve the user journey and engagement levels with the website, Carr undertook a major re-design of the Use-it-Wisely website in early 2016, with a cleaner design and more focus on project outcomes and results.
Brochures, newsletters, posters: See Appendix D of D6.13 for images of marketing materials, such as posters and brochures, produced for the Use-it-Wisely project. During the lifetime of the project WP6 produced brochures, leaflets, posters, pull-up stands, presentation templates, inforgraphics, folders and event agenda and invitations. The materials produced exceeded the requirements of the DoW. All materials directed people to the website and included acknowledgementof European Commission funding.
Social Media: We used a variety of social media channels to communicate the Use-it-Wisely concept, project developments and results. We concentrated our effort on Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Graphics and videos were developed and produced to engage the audience on the social channels. We were successful in creating a large online community of interested stakeholders through Use-it-Wisely’s social channels and these tools will continue to be a driving force of the Community of Practice (CoP), ensuring long-term exploitation of the research results. We made good progress against the targets for social media channels in the Description of Work, and exceeded targets in some areas. Due to the flexible nature of the communications plan, we revised our direction with some of the channels as the project progressed.
Participation at events: Use-it-Wisely’s partners organised and participated in a range of high profile events to engage target audiences and disseminate the project messages. These included lead-user networking, workshops, conferences, seminars, and publications in industrial magazines. DoW targets were exceeded. Please see the Impact section of this document and Appendix A of D6.13 for full list of dissemination activities, including events.
Networking with other projects: Extensive project networking occurred through networks such as EuroVR and EFFRA. UIW networked very effectively with the FP7 project ProSeCo.
Influencing Policy Makers: Influencing policy was a key target of the Use-it-Wisely project. From the outset of the project, consortium partners set about informing representatives in local and national governments, as well as industry and representative bodies of the important work being undertaken. Please see the Results section of this document and D6.13 for further details.
Planned Policy Paper: Work Package 6, in close cooperation with VTT, will create a policy paper outlining the policy implications of UIW results. This will be circulated to the stakeholders mentioned in the Impact section of this document.
WP6 Objective 2: Refine the exploitable results and develop the concept of the project business model for the stakeholders and beyond (Task 6.2 Use-it-Wisely business model, technology transfer and commercialization plan)
Refine the project exploitable results: A cluster-by-cluster exploitation and dissemination plan was created, and drafts were sent to clusters for review.
Analyse the business potential of the cluster cases including an assessment of economic viability: Some of the cluster cases are already being taken into use and the solutions are seen to have a significant business potential and possibility for productivity growth. By benchmarking the solutions, concepts, and operation models created in the project, other European companies can also make use of the results to gain significant economic development opportunities.
Define technology transfer plan: The Community of Practice platform will be used for the technology transfer and commercialisation, and parties interested for example in the results of the project can establish new projects to develop the results further.
WP6 Objective 3: Prepare a business plan for an SME spin-off (Task 6.3 Business plan for a spin-off company)
Create business plan covering the business model of the new company, its vision and strategy: The business plan will be the Community of Practice business model. The aim is to create a platform (Community of Practice) concentrating on upgrading businesses, re-engineering, more efficient use of resources and solving business related problems. The UIW CoP will focus on offering contacts to service, technology and tool providers and networking organizations who have something to offer to organizations who have problems, needs and demand for tools, novel technology, know-how, services, methods and best practices and company case examples. The CoP offers its users a portal to market their seminars, fairs, trading session, training and consultancy services to other CoP companies directly.
Focus on the project-based network organization, ensuring high expertise, global potential, local services and low fixed costs: The business plan will be written about the CoP and actions needed to get it up and running. The Community of Practice model was chosen for its least bureaucratic features and good value running costs. The model does not require a new company to be established, but works as a portal through which the project partners could continue marketing their knowledge and offering their services, tools and expertise globally after the UIW project ends.
Describe the services that the company could sell to customers, outline the typical customer and customer cases: The UIW CoP will focus on offering contacts to service, technology and tool providers and networking organizations who have something to offer to organizations who have problems, needs and demand for tools, novel technology, know-how, services, methods and best practices and company case examples. The CoP offers its users a portal to market their seminars, fairs, trading session, training, and consultancy services directly to other CoP companies. Typical customers are different service providers and service users, different sized companies and organizations and their upper middle-management personnel.
WP6 Objective 4: Manage the activities of the Advisory Board (Task 6.4 Advisory Board)
Communicate the project results, accounting for the goals and feedback of those industries: While the first six months of the project focused on developing communications templates and strategy, it also laid the foundation for the development of an impactful Advisory Board that will help the project to achieve the expected impact and will pressure the project to move the six key industries beyond the current state of the art. The members of the AB will be asked to question, discern and influence the activity of the clusters to ensure the work of the clusters and the project goes beyond the state of the art in the industry sectors, specifically in relation to the project objectives. AB members will be asked to provide insight and advice at AB meetings and to offer guidance to Cluster leaders as required. The structure of the AB and of the three AB meetings allowed for a two-way flow of communication. The AB members benefited from information and idea sharing with other industry leaders, many of whom have vast experience in EU research projects and could offer key insights into developments relevant to specific industries. The two-way communication also provided an opportunity for the AB members to gain access to wider market intelligence, addressing issues such as innovative trends, changing markets, and evolving best practice in domestic and international markets.
Form an Advisory Board of 10-15 members proposed by the cluster industries: Following consultation with the Cluster Leaders, we formed an Advisory Board of six members, representing each of the six industrial cases.
Online Communications (Website) Impact:
5,000 visitors during the project: We exceeded this target by more than double, with 11,861 visitors to the website during the project
10 years website survival after the project end: We will be securing the domain name and hosting to ensure survival of the website for up to 10 years after the project end
Social Media Impact:
- Over 750 Twitter followers: 518 – achievement level of almost 70%
- At least 5 project videos on YouTube: 11 videos available target exceeded by more than 100%
Dissemination Activities Impact:
- Number of industrial workshop organized / participated (estimate: 2): 6 (See D6.13)
- Open days / industrial round table (estimate: 2): 6 (See D6.13)
- Number of press releases (estimate: 2): 2
- Number of press conferences (estimate: 1): We decided against holding a press conference and instead concentrated on building relationships with key media and briefing journalists directly.
Interest from the industrial and scientific community (number of requests for information, citation, cooperation): TBC – this is difficult to quantify, but partners indicated a high level of interest from the industrial and scientific community in their networks
- Number of scientific workshops / special session organized (estimate: 4): 4
- Number of journal articles (estimate: 3): 8
- Conference publications (estimate: 20): 10 (est.)
- Number of M.Sc. thesis (estimate: 10): 2
- Number of Ph.D. dissertations (estimate: 3): 4 PhDs – although no dissertation produced solely focusing on the project
- Researcher exchange within Use-it-wisely consortium (estimate: 12 person-months, two exchange visits): 2
Inluencing Policy Makers:
VTT gave a presentation on Use-it-Wisely at the European Week of Regions and Cities on 13th October 2016 in Brussels. The invited audience included representatives from the Committees of the Regions – Regional Authorities and Regional Representatives.
During the course of the project, Chalmers University of Technology has also given presentations to policy makers from the Swedish Department of Commerce. In the latest Swedish research proposition (Dated 24thNovember 2016) a strong focus is put on production and digitalisation of factories.
On behalf of Cluster 6, Gispen has made contact with the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency and Corporate Social Responsibility Netherlands.
The Use-it-Wisely final event in Brussels in October 2016 was a key focus for reaching the policy stakeholder group directly and raising awareness levels about the project. In preparation, Carr compiled a targeted list of policy makers. We issued invitations to all individuals on the target list and disseminated communication materials about the project through a number of direct emails and follow-up phone calls. This targeted database identified over 150 policy makers relevant to Use-it-Wisely’s objectives.
List of Websites:
http://use-it-wisely.eu/
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