Applying light for human health: What lighting product manufacturers need to know

Integrative lighting concepts, the process of including the physiological and psychological impacts from lighting into the design process for buildings and urban spaces, are still in their infancy. There are many aspects that are not known or only partially understood and this restricts the widespread application of integrative lighting. This paper explores some of the issues from the viewpoint of a lighting product manufacturer and discusses possible ways to move forward as an industry.

Dealing with the Obsolescence of Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) in Electronic Products

PLDs are commonplace in today's electronic products. When such devices reach their end-of-life, the product manufacturer must find a viable solution, both technical and economical. Replacing a PLD by an ASIC is a viable alternative that is explored in this paper, using a real case as an example. Boundary business conditions for deciding for this option are presented. Depending on these conditions, obsolescence can be seen as an opportunity for the improvement of the product, taking advantage of other benefits that an ASIC brings. As an ASIC development can be seen as risky, pricy, and as having a long time to market, a structured ASIC platform, called ICX, that mitigates all of these three aspects, is also presented.

REPRESENTATIVE DESIGN PRACTICES AS A DESIGNER’S RIGHT TO CREATIVE COMMUNICATION

To be a designer means to create new things and new qualities of already existing things, determined by the current concepts. Information about the functions and emotional characteristics of the future product is initially reflected in the author's concept, that is, in the text about the qualities of a specific but not yet produced thing. This concept is consumer-oriented but not intended for them. Nevertheless, it becomes the basis of communication between the designer, the product manufacturer, and the consumer. This study aims to determine how the process is organized, which ensures the transformation of the designer's creative ideas into conceptual texts and then into real objects that can become productive means of socio-cultural communication. The study relies on methodological foundations of a general philosophical nature. Thus, the axiological approach, as a socially holistic complex of views, beliefs, and ideals, allows a designer to analyze the values of a modern person and consider them in the design process. The phenomenological method reveals the features of design objects involved in communication. The structural and functional approach reveals the diversity and complexity of the connections inherent in the representation practices as original forms of communication. As the mechanisms of the representative practices are constantly developing, they are one of the most effective means for creative communication. By the results obtained, we can conclude that representations designed as a self-sufficient design product denote not only an act of such communication but also protect the designer's rights to express creativity at the interpersonal, professional, and social level of communication.

Preventing Counterfeit Products using Cryptography, QR Code and Webservice

Counterfeit production is a threat for every genuine business causing damage to their brand image and stealing their revenues. The aim of this paper is topresenta novel method to prevent counterfeit products using cryptography, QR code and webservice. The method requires that every original product manufacturer obtain a cryptographic key pair, securely store their private key and publish their public key on their website as a QR code. The product manufacturer needs to print a unique item code on their product packs and provide inside the pack a QR code encoding the ciphertext generated by encrypting the item code with their private key. For product verification by buyers, the manufacture is required to provide a QR code scanning app for download on their website, Google Play Store or iPhone App Store. The scanning app should have additional cryptographic functionality to decrypt ciphertext of the item code encoded in the QR code. The manufacturer also needs to launch a simple webservice on his hosting server to accept requests from the mobile app and verify the item code and buyer’s name in its database. Technicalimplementation and the verification process are described in detail through figures and flowchart. The method can be implemented even by small manufacturers with nominal cost by obtaining a key pair and creating a scanning app and webservices. We have also tested the method with an actual software code written for cryptographic operations using the Java cryptography Extension and QR code operations using Google Zxing libraries.

Generating Marketing Outcomes through Internet of Things (IoT) Technologies

This paper highlights the effectiveness of data stored from the operational use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies for generating marketing-related outcomes, such as business intelligence for product development, product support, and customer relationship management (CRM), by exploring this research domain under the lens of the well-established means–ends theory. This study conducted a multidisciplinary literature review to develop the conceptual framework. Moreover, a smart refrigerator was chosen as an example to demonstrate how the analysis of data stored from the operational use of IoT devices can help generate marketing outcomes such as new product development, customer support, and CRM. The study articulates that IoT technology helps in furthering the objectives of CRM along with other strategies of business growth and success. Using a practical example backed by a sound theoretical framework, this study will not only help practitioners to empirically test this significant yet under-explored topic but will also help elucidate that, by embedding IoT devices in their products, business managers can ensure business longevity. Furthermore, it explains how the IoT can provide support to improve communication ties between the product manufacturer and consumer through product support and CRM strategies.

The Status of a Manufacturer of an Insurance Product and the Agency Activity

Following the principles of IDD, the Act of 15 December 2017 on insurance distribution introduced the concept of “‘a manufacturer of an insurance product” into Polish insurance practice and legislation. Obtaining the status of an insurance product manufacturer involves the responsibility for the design of this product, the necessity to maintain the process of the insurance product governance as well as the obligation to review and examine whether the product is not defective. Clearly and automatically, an insurance undertaking is a manufacturer of an insurance product. Nevertheless, in certain factual situations this status may be shared by an insurance undertaking with insurance intermediaries, including agents, if they perform a significant and decisive function in the product manufacturing process, that is to say, when an insurance intermediary’s impact on the shape of the product is essential. The status of a manufacturer of an insurance product is relevant while determining the liability of an insurance undertaking and a distributor for the product defect both in administrative proceedings before the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and in civil disputes with customers. An agent, having the status of a manufacturer of an insurance product, is liable for regulatory responsibility, assessed primarily by the KNF, namely the responsibility for the fulfilment of the obligations imposed by the law regarding the proper pursuit of activities and in certain factual situations, also the application of appropriate procedures for the development and management of an insurance product, which will be at the centre of the assessment. In the event of an infringement of the duties and requirements for the performance of product governance by an agent and a manufacturer, the Financial Supervision Authority may apply a number of supervisory instruments.

FORMATION OF MATERIAL FLOWS IN A LOGISTIC SYSTEM WITH FEEDBACK

The study is devoted to solving the problem of forming reverse material flows with the use of circular economy processes, which will achieve maximum efficiency of the logistics system.The existing linear model of the economy is not environmentally oriented, as it constantly requires the involvement of additional primary resources, which, passing through the man-made system, produce a large amount of waste. The concept of circular economy is based on the principles and goals of the concept of sustainable development and emphasizes the need to close logistics systems, the creation of logistics systems with feedback. The tool for the implementation of the concept are closed logistics chains, which include direct and reverse material flows.Participants and the processes used in the circular economy model proposed by the Ellen McArthur Foundation were used to create a model of a feedback logistics system that includes complete closed logistics chains. According to this model, the main participants in closed chains are: resource provider, parts manufacturer, product manufacturer, service provider, consumer/user, collection center), repair center, sort center, utilization center.Within a complete closed supply chain, the direct chain starts with the natural environment and the supplier of resources and ends with the consumer/user of the product, the reverse chain begins with the consumer/user of the product and ends with the recycling center and the natural environment.Among the processes of the circular economy to highlight the processes related to reverse logistics and involved in the organization of reverse flows to create feedback in a closed logistics chain: recover, recycle, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, repair, reuse. These processes, which can be called circular, create logistics loops between the participants in the logistics chain, providing feedback in closed logistics chains.The article presents a graphical model of the logistics system with feedback using circular processes; created an economic-mathematical model of the logistics system with feedback.Keywords: circular process; closed logistics chain; logistics loop; reverse material flow.