Multi-Criteria Decision Support System for Smart and Sustainable Machining Process

Proposal of a Decision Support System and Model to Mitigate Scope Variability for New Product Development

This paper proposes a decision support model (DSM) to be used by project managers (PM) in the research of new products within multinational companies to select the right option to mitigate scope variability during critical junctures like project continuity. On-the-shelf DSM are leveraged to overcome their shortcomings with more effective and relevant solutions. The proposed DSM is a consolidation of on-the-shelf DSM and methodologies such as balanced scorecard; quality function deployment; analytic hierarchy process; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; and agile methodology, leading to an application in a decision support system (DSS) using progressive web applications. Feedback and input were collected through interviews with experienced PMs. Performance indicators were then developed to be reviewed by the PM to verify their applicability. Based on the feedback obtained, the developed model contributes to the engineering research industry as it mitigates common challenges that PMs face by efficiently providing a solution-seeking guideline.

From Industry 4.0 towards Industry 5.0: A Review and Analysis of Paradigm Shift for the People, Organization and Technology

The industry is a key driver of economic development. However, changes caused by introduction of modern technologies, and increasing complexity of products and production, directly affect the industrial enterprises and workers. The critics of the Industry 4.0 paradigm emphasized its orientation to new technologies and digitalization in a technocratic way. Therefore, the new industrial paradigm Industry 5.0 appeared very soon and automatically triggered a debate about the role of, and reasons for applying, the new paradigm. Industry 5.0 is complementing the existing Industry 4.0 paradigm with the orientation to the worker who has an important role in the production process, and that role has been emphasized during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this research, there is a brief discussion on main drivers and enablers for introduction of these new paradigms, then a literature-based analysis is carried out to highlight the differences between two paradigms from three important aspects—people, organization, and technology. The conclusion emphasizes the main features and concerns regarding the movement towards Industry 5.0, and the general conclusion is that there is a significant change of the main research aims from sustainability towards human-centricity. At the end, the analysis of maturity models that evaluates enterprises’ readiness to introduce features of new paradigms is given as well.

The Product Customization Process in Relation to Industry 4.0 and Digitalization

Today’s customer no longer wants one-size-fits-all products but expects products and services to be as tailored as possible. Mass customization and personalization are becoming a trend in the digitalization strategy of enterprises and manufacturing in Industry 4.0. The purpose of the paper is to develop and validate a conceptual model for leveraging Industry 4.0 and digitalization to support product customization. We explored the implications and impacts of Industry 4.0 and digitalization on product customization processes and determine the importance of variables. We applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our hypotheses regarding the antecedents and consequences of digitalization and Industry 4.0. We estimated the process model using the partial least squares (PLS) method, and goodness of fit measures show acceptable values. The proposed model considers relationships between technology readiness, digitalization, internal and external integration, internal value chain, and customization. The results show the importance of digitalization and technology readiness for product customization. The results reveal that the variable of internal integration plays a crucial mediating role in applying new technologies and digitalization for customization. The paper’s main contribution is the conclusion that, for successful implementation of the customization process, models are required to focus on the internal and external factors of the business environment. Our findings are supported by various practical applications of possible product customization.