Gas nitriding is an important thermochemical surface treatment that is used to improve the wear and corrosion resistance as well as the fatigue endurance of steel parts. Accurate process control is the effective way to ensure the properties reliability of nitriding process. To realize the accurate process control, the nitriding process parameters need to be modeled and controlled to meet the specifications. There has been ongoing effort on the simulation of the gas nitriding process since 1990s. However, most of the work has been done to simulate the gas nitriding process of pure iron due to the limited thermodynamics and kinetics information available on the gas nitriding process of steels. The objective of this project is to develop an accurate and user friendly software model to simulate the gas nitriding process of steels based on the fundamental understanding of thermodynamics and kinetics. In this work, the customized Lehrer diagram which describes the phase stabilities in specified steel as a function of nitriding potential and temperature has been successfully constructed by computational thermodynamics for the first time. Based on the Lehrer diagrams for steels, the compound layer growth model is proposed to simulate the gas nitriding process of steels. By using this model, the properties of the nitrided steels based on the phase constitution, surface nitrogen concentration, nitrogen concentration profile, case depth, as well as growth kinetics can be simulated as a function of the process parameters (temperature, time, and the nitriding atmosphere). The results of the model are in excellent agreement with experimental results.

書本是推動文明進步不可或缺的一大利器，人們透過書本的知識來提升自己的能力，但現今的社會主要書本來源大多數皆由出版社主導編輯、出版及發行。因此本論文以不同的角度來討論幾個議題：從作者的角度來看，作者會希望可以擺脫出版社的控制並自行出版；出版社對通路的庫存量可以控制數量的需求；讀者可以自行決定閱讀內容，作出屬於自己的一本書。綜合以上的不同角度的出版需求議題，我們稱為隨需出版。 本論文首先分析出版業的總體環境，接下來透過次級資料收集及訪談方式，從作者、庫存及客製的需求角度來討論隨需出版。我們發現到從作者出版的需求，在美國及台灣都有業者提供相關的服務；從庫存的需求，我們透過訪問秀威資訊，他們利用印刷技術，讓庫存上升的量風險下降；從客製的需求，我們透過訪問旗標資訊，了解他們如何滿足對於大型企業客戶的需求出版。 另外我們也思考如何從單一讀者的需求，可以從建立出版平台，讀者依據自己想要的內容決定出版的書籍。因此本論文提出了以讀者為導向的隨需出版的觀念，讓讀者可以自行選擇想要內容來編輯書籍的出版模式，並且提出在老師編輯教材及個人研究方面的可能應用。 總之我們發現除了以讀者為導向的隨需出版仍需要深入研究外，其他種類需求仍不斷進步。雖然目前還沒有業者從事相關的工作，但未來讀者想要依據自己想要閱讀材料的需求日漸抬頭，相信我們所提出來的構想，一定會被實現。 / Books were an indispensable tool in helping the progress of civilization. People enhance their capacity through reading books. Nowadays, the provision of books was most dominated by the Press in terms of editing, publishing and issue. Therefore, this paper adopts different point of views to discuss several important issues. From the author's perspective, they wish to get rid of the control of the Press and publish on their own. Press, however, control the number of demand on the inventory of the market. Readers, on the other hand, wish to decide to what to read from the books. The comprehensive analysis from different point of view on publishing demand issues is so called “Book on-demand publishing”. This thesis analyzes the overall environment of the publishing industry, followed through secondary data collection and interviews from authors, inventory, and customized on-demand publishing. We visited the Show-We information company which took advantages of state of art printing technology in order to reduce the risks as the result from the increase of inventory; from the demand for customized, We visited the Flag publishing company. We understood how they meet the needs of enterprise customers for publishing. In addition, we also thought about how to establish a publishing platform on the basis of a single reader’s demand. In other words, the readers publish their own books based on the content they want to read. This thesis proposed the reader-oriented concept of demand publishing. Readers could select the desired content to be codifies in published form. We also propose the potential application of the demand publishing in the context of educational materials. In sum, we found that in-depth study in addition to on-demand publishing of reader-oriented and other types of customers-oriented is necessary. Although there is no industry engaged in such work, the need for readers-oriented publishing is rising. In the near future, we believe that our proposal could contribute the demand publishing.

The thesis study reveals that the position of bottleneck is a significant importance in supplychain process. The modern supply chain is characterized as having diverse products due tomass customization, dynamic production technology and ever changing customer demand.Usually customized supply chain process consists of an assemble to order (ATO) or make-to-order (MTO) type of operation. By controlling the supply constraints at upstream, a smoothmaterial flow achieved at downstream. Effective management on operational constraint willresults in speed up customer delivery. A throughout evaluation of demand constraints isnecessary to gain the competitive benefits over the entire market. The study is based on a conceptual model, comprises of engineer to order (ETO), MTO, ATOand make to stock (MTS) separated by decoupling point. All these represent the particularprocess in supply chain. The important perspective of this study is that the constraints areallocated in particular part of supply chain, which will become the supply chain moreversatile. This thesis study explains the use of detail capacity and material planningtechniques in upstream, midstream and downstream of the customer order decoupling supplychain. A shifting bottleneck concept has been studied in a better way, in order to keep relativestability and reduce the complexity in production management. This thesis study tries to findout some possible factors that reduce the bottleneck shifting in supply chain. This research provides the guideline about the implementation of lean, leagile and agility incustomized supply chain. Also key factors are discussed which are necessary to achieve theseparadigms. Basically leagile is the mixture of both lean & agile strategies. Leagile is inclinedtowards sustaining the flow for mixed-model production. Its intent is to achieve theefficiencies in mass production, while producing a medium variety of products. The focus inleagile strategy is to gain effective control at shop floor planning, including capacity andmaterial planning systems.Different relevant aspects of standardization and customization are considered through theproduction processes. In addition to this rate base, hybrid and time phase material planningtechniques are sorted in different supply chain parts through multiple level of bill of material.

Following by the signing of ECFA recently, the industrial environment is changed rapidly forcing many small and medium enterprises to face various kinds of internal and external challenges. They encounter the obstacles to advance their technical and producing system which is their weakness as well. In the earlier year, these enterprises was founded basing on the trusting relationship between the owner and the employees, and the working regulations, salary, and bounces were created according to their cooperating consensus. However, when their original mode of production could not catch up in time along with the growth of capacity, advance of the industry and expansion of market, the relationship has started to change. Hence, they tried to change the original structure by looking for transforming or through the organizational improvement in response to the upcoming crisis and challenges. Among these changes, the establishment and import of systematization has become the major pattern in present. This research is focused on a traditional machinery factory which produces non-standard products internationally hoping to create new experience inspired by the success in the past including introducing the new management mode and new strategy from the stage of contract signing, design to post service making the company on the invincible position. During the process of transforming, many relationship-oriented enterprises including the one discussed in this research are facing several different factors among clients vs. company, agency vs. company, company vs. suppliers, and company vs. employees and what influence will be caused due to the establishment of the new system is the main discussion in this research. Furthermore, whether the customized production is suitable for the new system? What kind of obsolete will the company encounter? Will there be any problem caused? Also, the research will discuss how to locate the most suitable method within all kinds of possible limiting factors through hard facts, dangerous half-truths & total nonsense and convert these knowhow into power to decrease all the impacts brought by the changes.

With the rapidly development of electronic commerce, the competitions between enterprises have been getting more and more turbulent. In order to win business in such a highly competitive environment, it has to not only implement customized marketing strategy but also have a timely response whenever there is any change in the business environment. Currently, in most companies, whenever the marketing people wants to implement a new sales promotion program, he has to communicate it with the MIS department and ask it to rewrite the Web system and pages. It is quite often a very time-consuming as well as strenuous process. In this research, we have explored all popular and important sales promotion models. Based on these models, an object-oriented Web system has been designed and developed. There is an interface by which the marketing people can set the new sales promotion program and then, the Web system can execute it immediately afterwards. The interface, allows the marketing people easily to select target customers, conditions for getting bonus and contents of bonus to set a new sales promotion program. That is, the marketing people can let the Web system execute a new sales promotion program whenever he wants without the help of system programmers. In addition, the whole design is object-oriented. It lets the system have very high portability.

To cope with the current increase in both competition and customer requirements, traditional construction enterprises need more efficient methods to manage their relationships with customers. From the recession of Taiwan in recent years¡Atraditional construction industry needing to transform and escalate is no longer a empty verbiage. The construction industry has huge market potential undiscovered. Analyzing the information returned from customers and products, business can provide active and accurate services to the right customers through the right ways at the right time and raise the customers satisfaction. As the importance of CRM pertaining to management of relationships with customers has been recognized, meanwhile, with regard to implementation of the extensive software which involves investment of massive human resources, capital, and time, many critical decisions still need to be concerned. This research aims at extracting relevant factors affecting the adoption process and proposes a convincing framework verified by an empirical case study. Induction is used in the research. The first hand data are gathered through interviewing and circulating the questionnaire. After summing up this information and other relative articles and analyzing them with descriptive statistics, the result is derived and the conclusions are made according to the objective and frame of the study. The conclusions of this research are¡G (1)CRM is very important to the management. (2)Home Renovation should carry out the standard procedure of service to create customer value and to gain competitive advantage. (3) Home Renovation should emphasize on the collecting of the information of customers and looking for the best niche that can generate more profit on house repairing. (4) Customers expect to have professional Home Renovation team to run this market and offer high quality service. (5) The employees on first line play a very important role on building the relationship with the customers. (6) Home Renovation should follow the plan step by step to phase in the CRM. It only works when you really fulfill the plan and correct it timely. Some advice is offered in this research report, such as recommending that the government should build a safety system on all buildings and should make emphasis on the concept of house repairing and diagnosing. Home Renovation should know for sure what benefits that CRM will bring. Basically we can apply this research report to the real practice. When facing virtual problems in business operation, we can turn them in to management problems and then transform them into the themes for research and find out the solutions through scientific ways. Keywords: Customer Relationship Management¡BCustomized Service¡B Customer value¡BCustomer need¡BCustomer satisfaction

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo implementar e avaliar um programa de inserção de jovens com deficiência intelectual em atividades laborais na Faculdade de Educação da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro.Para tal, foi utilizado o conceito de emprego customizado, que baseia-se na criação e/ou adaptação de postos de trabalho em empresas e outras instituições, se adequando a demanda do empregadorcom as habilidades do sujeito com deficiência, de forma a criar uma função que atenda às necessidades de ambas as partes. Um dos procedimentos da customização do trabalho é o Perfil Pessoal Positivo PPP, uma estratégia para traçar as habilidades e dificuldades dos jovens e adultos com deficiência, de forma a facilitar sua inserção no mercado de trabalho e outros espaços sociais. Participaram da pesquisa quatro jovens com deficiência intelectual, denominados treinandos indicados pelos professores de uma escola especial da rede pública do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, oriundos decursos de formação inicial e continuada em auxiliar de serviços gerais e auxiliar de contínuo-reprografia. Utilizou-se a metodologia de pesquisa-ação, com dados colhidos através de entrevistas semiestruturadas com os sujeitos com deficiência intelectual e os funcionários da Faculdade de Educação, assim como observação de seu desempenho. Como dados complementares, também foram realizadas entrevistas semiestruturadas com as mães dos jovens e os funcionários da Faculdade de Educação que aturaram diretamente com os treinandos. As entrevistas iniciais com os treinandos serviram como base para traçar seu o PPP, e determinar que atividades seriam mais adequadas para eles. Já as realizadas com os gestores da Faculdade, visaram compreender a dinâmica de funcionamento e as necessidades de trabalho da instituição.A elaboração do PPPpermitiu romperas barreiras impostas pelas exigências do mercado de trabalho, como escolarização mínima, capacitação, entre outras, pois, compreendendo as características do sujeito, é possível encontrar funções laborais que se adequem às suas singularidades e, ao mesmo tempo, atendam às necessidades do empregador. Concluímos, com base nos dados colhidos, que analisar o ambiente de trabalho com o objetivo de oferecer mão deobra adequada para a demanda é pré-requisito para a contratação e inclusão laboral de pessoas com deficiência. A customização do emprego contribui para a eliminação das barreiras atitudinais e preconceitos, aumentando as probabilidades de um desempenho e produção laboral satisfatória, beneficiando, tanto a instituição quanto o funcionário. / The present research has the objective of implement and evaluate a program that inserts young people with intellectual disabilities in work activities at the School of Education College of the Rio de Janeiro State University. For that, the concept of customized job was used, which is based on the creation/adaptation of work posts in companies and other institutions, meeting the demands of the employer with the skills of the handicap person, the forma that benefits both parties. One of the procedures of work customization is the Positive Personal Profile PPP, a strategy to trace the skills and difficulties people with disability have, in a way to facilitate their inclusion in the work market and other social spaces. Four youth with intellectual disability took part on the research, they were called trainees and were indicated by the teachers of a special school of the public network of Rio de Janeiro; they were graduates formation courses in general services (cleaning) and administrative helpers. The methodology used was the action research, with data collected from semi-structured interviews with the subjects and employees of the School of Education, as well as from the observation of their performance. Semi-structured interviews with the mothers of the subjects and with the employees of the Education College that had direct contact with the trainees, provided complementary data. The initial interviews with the trainees served as a foundation to trace their PPP, and determine the activities that would be more adequate for them. The interview with the supervisors from the College had the objective of understanding the functioning dynamic and the institutions work needs. The elaboration of the PPP allowed the break of some barriers of the work market, like minimal school graduation, capacitation, among others, because when you understand the characteristics of the subject you can find work functions that adapt to his uniqueness and at the same time fulfill the employers needs. We conclude, based on the data collected, that analyzing the work environment with the objective of offering proper workforce is prerequisite for laboral inclusion of deficient people. Job customization contributes for eliminating the barriers of attitude and prejudice, enhancing the probabilities of a satisfactory production and performance meeting both the institution and the employees needs.

Purpose: The study aimed to analyze and visualize the flow of information from the arrival of a complex customer order, until complete technical documentation is submitted to production. To answer the purpose, two questions were formulated. 1. How is order flow from order to production ensured in complex customizations? 2. How can the order flow be visualized to create a united picture in a manufacturing company? Method: To answer the two questions of the study, theory has been collected using literature studies. The theory gathered forms the basis of the study's analysis and has therefore focused on order flow, how these can be designed, how the order process goes on and can be managed, and how an order process can be visualized. Theory obtained in literature studies was summarized in a theoretical framework. The study's empirical data collection consisted of a case study focusing on the ordering process that included document studies, interviews and observation. The empirical data pattern was then compared to the theoretical framework. Based on the pattern comparison, question 1 could be answered and the basis for the visualization discussed in question 2. Findings: The outcome of the study's first question shows how order flow can be ensured from orders to production at manufacturing companies engaged in customized production. The order process and its flow of information can be effectively and safely summarized in nine steps, from the creation of standards to manufacturing production orders. Steps one to three are defined as the initial and most critical phase in which the customer is in focus. Steps four to six concern the internal communication between different departments to process and build a correct order. The final phase includes steps from seven to nine and describes the fulfillment of orders prior to production. The reason for visualizing and creating a united picture of the order flow according to question two is affected by the outcome of question one. The study shows that the order flow can be visualized by establishing a flowchart of the activities in the order flow. The design depends on its context and how the activities in the order process are implemented. Based on this, the principle of creating a visual image is general, but with details that are considered case-specific. Implications: The study contributes theoretically based on a general context about how analysis and visualization of information within the order flow can be handled. The report becomes a reference point for securing the order flow as it is based on previous research linked to the report's areas. The study provides practical support with a basis for ensuring and visualizing the order flow of manufacturing companies for customization. Limitations: The study is a one-case-design study in a specific context where general theory and case unique empirical data have been combined, which affects generalisability. This was compensated by the fact that the company in the study represents manufacturing companies of customized products. Context and order process design affect the visualization and limitations in predicting the outcome. Simplification to ensure order processing rather than solving specific problems in the flow has been of interest. / Syfte: Studien syftade till att analysera och visualisera flödet av information från det att en komplex kundorder anländer, till dess att kompletta tekniska underlag överlämnas till produktion. För att besvara syftet formulerades två frågeställningar. 1. Hur säkerställs orderflödet från order till produktion vid komplexa kundanpassningar? 2. Hur kan orderflödet visualiseras för att skapa en gemensam bild i ett tillverkande företag? Metod: För att besvara studiens två frågeställningar har teori samlats in med hjälp av litteraturstudier. Den teori som samlats in ligger till grund för studiens analys och har därför varit inriktad på orderflöde, hur dessa kan utformas, hur orderprocessen går till och kan hanteras samt hur en orderprocess kan visualiseras. Teori som erhölls vid litteraturstudier sammanfattades i ett teoretiskt ramverk. Studiens empiriska datainsamling bestod av en fallstudie med fokus på orderprocessen som inkluderade dokumentstudier, intervjuer och observation. Den empiriska data mönsterjämfördes sedan mot det teoretiska ramverket. Utifrån mönsterjämförelsen kunde frågeställning 1 besvaras och ligga till grund för visualiseringen som behandlas i frågeställning 2. Resultat: Resultatet av studiens första frågeställning visar hur orderflödet kan säkerställas från order till produktion hos tillverkande företag som bedriver kundanpassad produktion. Orderprocessen och dess informationsflöde kan bedrivas på ett effektivt och säkert sätt sammanfattas i nio steg, från skapande av standarder till upprättande av tillverkningsorder. Steg ett till tre definieras som den inledande och mest kritiska fasen där kunden är i fokus. Steg fyra till sex berör den interna kommunikationen mellan olika avdelningar för att behandla och bygga en korrekt order. Sista fasen inkluderar steg sju till nio och beskriver uppfyllande av order inför produktion. Grunden för att visualisera och skapa en gemensam bild av orderflödet enligt frågeställning två påverkas av resultatet av frågeställning ett. Studien visar på att orderflödet kan visualiseras genom upprättande av ett flödesschema över aktiviteterna i orderflödet. Utformandet är beroende av sin kontext och hur aktiviteterna i orderprocessen genomförs. Utifrån detta är principen för upprättande av en visuell bild generell, men med detaljer som anses fallspecifika. Implikationer: Studien bidrar teoretiskt utifrån ett generellt sammanhang kring hur analys och visualisering av information inom orderflödet kan hanteras. Rapporten blir en referenspunkt för säkerställande av orderflödet då den bygger på tidigare forskning kopplat till rapportens områden. Studien bidrar praktiskt med ett underlag för att säkerställa och visualisera orderflödet hos tillverkande företag vid kundanpassning. Begränsningar: Studien är en enfallsstudie i specifik kontext där allmän teori och fallunik empiri har kombinerats vilket påverkar generaliserbarheten. Detta kompenseras med att företaget i studien representerar tillverkande företag av kundanpassade produkter. Kontext och orderprocessens utformning påverkar visualiseringen och begränsningar i att förutsäga resultatet finns. Förenkling till att säkerställa orderhanteringen snarare än att lösa specifika problem i flödet har varit av intresse.

O design de assentos personalizados produzidos em espumas de poliuretano (PU) é uma opção para melhorar o conforto e o posicionamento das pessoas com deficiências que passam horas do dia sentadas na mesma posição. Estas superfícies de suporte aumentam a área de contato entre o assento e o usuário, o que melhora na distribuição do seu peso, diminuindo as pressões localizadas que geram problemas como úlceras de pressão. A grande maioria dos equipamentos destinados à produção destes assentos são dedicados, ou seja, especialmente desenvolvidos para este propósito, assim como suas ferramentas. Estes fatores aumentam o custo do produto final e restringem o número de pessoas que poderiam desfrutar de equipamentos personalizados. Neste sentido, a presente pesquisa objetiva estabelecer rotinas de desenvolvimento e produção de assentos personalizados para usuários de cadeiras de rodas manufaturados através de usinagem CNC convencional com a utilização de espumas de poliuretano. Para isto, foram ensaiados parâmetros (rotação e avanço) de usinagem CNC para cortar as espumas de PU. Os desbastes foram analisados quanto a precisão do corte e rebarbas em sua superfície, e os parâmetros selecionados como adequados para o corte foram então transpostos para ensaios de acabamento. Sendo as espumas de PU materiais flexíveis, a forma gerada foi verificada através da digitalização tridimensional. Para avaliar a deformação em peças maiores, os parâmetros foram testados em assentos e então analisados mais uma vez através da digitalização. Foram testados três combinações de velocidades de avanço, mantendo a rotação a 24.000 RPM por ter se mostrado mais adequada. Para validação da pesquisa, um estudo de caso foi executado com a melhor combinação de velocidade de avanço, verificadas anteriormente. Com esta pesquisa, foi comprovada a viabilidade da produção de assentos personalizados em espumas de PU flexível através da usinagem CNC. Também, com a produção destes é possível levar ao usuário um equipamento que melhora a distribuição das pressões na superfície do assento, fato verificado através de um tapete medidor de pressões. / The design of customized seats manufactured in polyurethane foams is and alternative to improve comfort and positioning for people with disabilities, as those people spend hours of the day seated in the same position. These support surfaces increase the contact area between the seat and user. This aspect improves weight distribution reducing localized pressures that can generate scars. The great majority of equipments and tools destined to the manufacture of these seats are dedicated, i.e. specially developed to this purpose. These factors enhance the final product cost and restrict the number of people who could enjoy customizes equipments. In this sense, the present research aims at establishing development and production routines of customized seats for wheelchair users manufactured through conventional CNC machining of polyurethane foams. It was tested parameters (spindle and feed rates) of CNC machining to cut polyurethane foams. The selected parameters were then transposed to finishing tests. As polyurethane foams are flexible materials that tend to deform, the distortions on the generated geometry were analyzed through tridimensional scanning. The parameters were then tested and the distortion was analyzes in bigger pieces. It was tested three combinations of feeds, keeping the spindle at 24.000 RPM (more adequate according t previous tests). A case study was also executed to validate the research. This study proves the viability of customized seat manufacture in polyurethane foams through CNC machining. It also provides the user an equipment that can improve the pressure distribution in seats surfaces, verified through a mat measurer system.

Machine learning algorithms are invented to learn from data and to use data to perform predictions and analyses. Many agencies are now using machine learning algorithms to present services and to perform tasks that used to be done by humans. These services and tasks include making high-stake decisions. Determining the right decision strongly relies on the correctness of the input data. This fact provides a tempting incentive for criminals to try to deceive machine learning algorithms by manipulating the data that is fed to the algorithms. And yet, traditional machine learning algorithms are not designed to be safe when confronting unexpected inputs. In this dissertation, we address the problem of adversarial machine learning; i.e., our goal is to build safe machine learning algorithms that are robust in the presence of noisy or adversarially manipulated data. Many complex questions -- to which a machine learning system must respond -- have complex answers. Such outputs of the machine learning algorithm can have some internal structure, with exponentially many possible values. Adversarial machine learning will be more challenging when the output that we want to predict has a complex structure itself. In this dissertation, a significant focus is on adversarial machine learning for predicting structured outputs. In this thesis, first, we develop a new algorithm that reliably performs collective classification: It jointly assigns labels to the nodes of graphed data. It is robust to malicious changes that an adversary can make in the properties of the different nodes of the graph. The learning method is highly efficient and is formulated as a convex quadratic program. Empirical evaluations confirm that this technique not only secures the prediction algorithm in the presence of an adversary, but it also generalizes to future inputs better, even if there is no adversary. While our robust collective classification method is efficient, it is not applicable to generic structured prediction problems. Next, we investigate the problem of parameter learning for robust, structured prediction models. This method constructs regularization functions based on the limitations of the adversary in altering the feature space of the structured prediction algorithm. The proposed regularization techniques secure the algorithm against adversarial data changes, with little additional computational cost. In this dissertation, we prove that robustness to adversarial manipulation of data is equivalent to some regularization for large-margin structured prediction, and vice versa. This confirms some of the previous results for simpler problems. As a matter of fact, an ordinary adversary regularly either does not have enough computational power to design the ultimate optimal attack, or it does not have sufficient information about the learner's model to do so. Therefore, it often tries to apply many random changes to the input in a hope of making a breakthrough. This fact implies that if we minimize the expected loss function under adversarial noise, we will obtain robustness against mediocre adversaries. Dropout training resembles such a noise injection scenario. Dropout training was initially proposed as a regularization technique for neural networks. The procedure is simple: At each iteration of training, randomly selected features are set to zero. We derive a regularization method for large-margin parameter learning based on dropout. Our method calculates the expected loss function under all possible dropout values. This method results in a simple objective function that is efficient to optimize. We extend dropout regularization to non-linear kernels in several different directions. We define the concept of dropout for input space, feature space, and input dimensions, and we introduce methods for approximate marginalization over feature space, even if the feature space is infinite-dimensional. Empirical evaluations show that our techniques consistently outperform the baselines on different datasets.