Risk-Averse Co-Decision for Lower-Carbon Product Family Configuration and Resilient Supplier Selection

Due to global pandemics, political unrest and natural disasters, the stability of the supply chain is facing the challenge of more uncertain events. Although many scholars have conducted research on improving the resilience of the supply chain, the research on integrating product family configuration and supplier selection (PCSS) under disruption risks is limited. In this paper, the centralized supply chain network, which contains only one major manufacturer and several suppliers, is considered, and one resilience strategy (i.e., the fortified supplier) is used to enhance the resilience level of the selected supply base. Then, an improved stochastic bi-objective mixed integer programming model is proposed to support co-decision for PCSS under disruption risks. Furthermore, considering the above risk-neutral model as a benchmark, a risk-averse mixed integer program with Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR) is formulated to achieve maximum potential worst-case profit and minimum expected total greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Then, NSGA-II is applied to solve the proposed stochastic bi-objective mixed integer programming model. Taking the electronic dictionary as a case study, the risk-neutral solutions and risk-averse solutions that optimize, respectively, average and worst-case objectives of co-decision are also compared under two different ranges of disruption probability. The sensitivity analysis on the confidence level indicates that fortifying suppliers and controlling market share in co-decision for PCSS can effectively reduce the risk of low-profit/high-cost while minimizing the expected GHG emissions. Meanwhile, the effects of low-probability risk are more likely to be ignored in the risk-neutral solution, and it is necessary to adopt a risk-averse solution to reduce potential worst-case losses.

Dynamic Modeling for Product Family Evolution Combined with Artificial Neural Network Based Forecasting Model: A Study of iPhone Evolution

<div>Products continuously evolve over time. Realizing the pattern of product family evolution along with proper estimation of features for future products has been regarded as a critical issue for business success. Focusing on this issue, a dynamic model for product family evolution combined with forecasting is proposed in this research work. The proposed model considers the influence of market demand, customer needs and technological requirements that are time-dependent. The methodology is a four-phase model. For each phase, the effectiveness of the developed approach is demonstrated with numerical simulation results and validated with a case study of Apple’s iPhone product family.</div>

Dynamic Modeling for Product Family Evolution Combined with Artificial Neural Network Based Forecasting Model: A Study of iPhone Evolution

<div>Products continuously evolve over time. Realizing the pattern of product family evolution along with proper estimation of features for future products has been regarded as a critical issue for business success. Focusing on this issue, a dynamic model for product family evolution combined with forecasting is proposed in this research work. The proposed model considers the influence of market demand, customer needs and technological requirements that are time-dependent. The methodology is a four-phase model. For each phase, the effectiveness of the developed approach is demonstrated with numerical simulation results and validated with a case study of Apple’s iPhone product family.</div>

Analytical target cascading for multi-level supply chain decisions in cloud perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to adopt a three-stage cloud-based management system for optimizing greenhouse gases (GHG) emission and marketing decisions with supplier selection and product family design in a multi-level supply chain with multiple suppliers, one single manufacturer and multiple retailers.Design/methodology/approachThe manufacturer purchases optional components of a certain functionality from his alternative suppliers and customizes a set of platform products for retailers in different independent market segments. To tackle the studied problem, a hierarchical analytical target cascading (ATC) model is proposed, Jaya algorithm is applied and supplier selection and product family design are implemented in its encoding procedure.FindingsA case study is used to verify the effectiveness of the ATC model in solving the optimization problem and the corresponding algorithm. It has shown that the ATC model can not only obtain close optimization results as a central optimization method but also maintain the autonomous decision rights of different supply chain members.Originality/valueThis paper first develops a three-stage cloud-based management system to optimize GHG emission, marketing decisions, supplier selection and product family design in a multi-level supply chain. Then, the ATC model is proposed to obtain the close optimization results as central optimization method and also maintain the autonomous decision rights of different supply chain members.

JUSUF: Modular Tier-2 Supercomputing and Cloud Infrastructure at Jülich Supercomputing Centre

JUSUF is a petaflop supercomputer operated by Jülich Supercomputing Centre at Forschungszentrum Jülich as a European supercomputing and cloud resource. JUSUF was funded via the ICEI project and especially serves the Human Brain Project and PRACE via ICEI and the Fenix Research Infrastructure. The system consists of two parts, an HPC cluster partition and an Infrastructure-as-a-Service cloud partition. The system entered production phase in spring 2020. It is based on the Bull X400 product family with AMD Rome processors, partially accelerated by Nvidia V100 GPUs, and Nvidia Mellanox HDR InfiniBand.

Design as a Marked Point Process

Although AI systems which support composition using predictive text are well established there are no analogous technologies for mechanical design. Motivated by the vision of a predictive system that interactively suggests features to designer, this paper describes the theory, implementation and assessment of an intelligent system that learns from a family of previous designs and generates inferences using a form of spatial statistics. The formalism presented, models 3D design activity as a ‘Marked Point Process’ that enables the probability of specific features being added at a particular locations to be calculated. Because the resulting probabilities are updated every time a new feature is added the predictions will become more accurate as a design develops. This approach allows the cursor position on a CAD model to implicitly define a spatial focus for every query made to the statistical model. The authors describe the mathematics underlying a statistical model that amalgamates the frequency of occurrence of the features in the existing designs of a product family. Having established the theoretical foundations of the work, a generic six step implementation process is described. This process is then illustrated for circular hole features using a statistical model generated from a dataset of hydraulic valves. The paper describes how the positions of each design's extracted hole features can be homogenized through rotation and scaling. Results suggest that within generic part families (i.e. designs with common structure) a marked point process can be effective at predicting incremental steps in the development of new designs.

Experimental and Numerical Assessment of Supporting Road Signs Masts Family for Compliance with the Standard EN 12767

The analysis aimed to assess the passive safety of supporting masts for road signs in accordance with EN 12767. Experimental tests were carried out based on the requirements of the standard for the smallest and the largest constructions within the product family. Numerical models of crash tests were prepared for whole product family using the Finite Element Method in the LS-Dyna environment. Based on the comparison of the experimental tests and the numerical calculations, the usefulness of the numerical model for estimating the actual value of the Acceleration Severity Index (ASI) and the Theoretical Head Impact Velocity (THIV) was assessed. With the use of these relationships the values of ASI and THIV for masts not tested experimentally were estimated. It was confirmed that the analyzed masts met the requirements for the passive safety of structures set out in the standard EN 12767. It was possible since as a result of the impact, the mast column detached from the base, allowing the vehicle to continue moving. The behavior of the masts was primarily influenced by the destruction of the safety connectors. The paper presents the most important elements from the point of view of designing such solutions.

Product design lifecycle information model (PDLIM)

In response to rapidly changing market and customer needs, product design and development (PDD) is evolving into a human-centred and data-driven design paradigm. The design environment gets more open often involving crowdsourcing and the design process becomes more complex, considering product family design along product whole lifecycle development, and needing more data support. Therefore, it is critical to effectively capture, share, and manage design-related information in such a complex design environment. From this perspective, it is a prerequisite to have a proper product design lifecycle information model (PDLIM) to guide information gathering, sharing and management. To the best of our knowledge, currently, there lacks such a PDLIM to support effective PDD, though digital twin (DT) technology shows a great potential of supporting product lifecycle information collection and management. In this paper, the overall structure of the proposed PDLIM is firstly developed to frame in all main product lifecycle stages and the corresponding key phases for structurally capturing and storing necessary data along a product lifecycle. Secondly, key design information items against the main product lifecycle stages and their corresponding key phases are explored from literature reviews and case study analyses. Thirdly, the necessity of the identified information items in the PDLIM is qualitatively evaluated by two case studies. Finally, the PDLIM is further evaluated by applying formal object-role modelling (ORM) to demonstrate how design information items are used and interacted in exemplary design interaction scenarios, and to approve that it can be formally described and managed as an information model. The evaluation results show that the PDLIM is feasible to be adapted in a crowdsourcing-combined PDD process for supporting design management, reviewing, quality control, and next round product redesign and improvement.