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This study surveys the usage of various justification activities in plants that have adopted advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). Relationships between the usage of these activities and the level of performance of AMT projects are also determined. Our findings suggest that justification approaches and justification criteria preference help to explain the adoption of the more integrated technologies. However, the number of functional departments involved in AMT justification activities is more effective in explaining project performance than the other justification activities. Our results also indicate that the majority of plants are not utilizing discounted cash-flow and probabilistic justification techniques. This study provides some insights into the formation of decision making teams for the justification process. Future research directions in this area are also suggested.

This article investigates the relationships between adoption of various advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT), the way that firms plan for and implement them, and their eventual performance. Data obtained from 125 manufacturing firms in the U.S. is used to test several hypotheses which were derived from an extensive review of the AMT implementation literature. The four research questions that drive this study are: (1) What types of planning and installation activities have firms utilized to support their AMT adoptions?, (2) do differences in the level of effort applied to these activities have any impact on the eventual performance of the systems?, (3) are firms that are using integrated technologies, such as FMC/FMS and CIM, applying higher levels of effort on these planning and installation activities than other firms?, and (4) Are these firms achieving higher levels of success than firms that are not using the integrated technologies. The results indicate that firms adopting integrated technologies had exerted significantly higher levels of effort on strategic planning and team-based project management and had also achieved higher levels of performance across a wider range of performance factors than other firms. In addition, firms that had exerted higher levels of effort on developing human factors appeared to be achieving more of the benefits of AMT than their counterparts. The overall results and the research and practical implications of this study are discussed.

Organizations vary greatly in their approaches and success in justifying investment in advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). This study investigates usage of various justification approaches by US manufacturers and examines the impact of such practices on the ultimate performance of AMT projects. Responses from a survey mailed to 584 plants in the US were used to test four propositions concerning AMT justification practices. We first discover that the majority of plants are not utilizing the more sophisticated justification techniques that are being touted by many researchers. Significantly, firms using hybrid justification strategies which include both economic and strategic justification approaches were found to attain higher levels of success from their AMT projects than plants that used only one method. However, once a plant used a hybrid justification method, preference for either strategic or economic criteria had no impact on the level of success of the project. Not surprisingly, plants using the more complex manufacturing technologies were more likely to have multiple functional departments involved in the justification process. Finally, the composition of inter-departmental teams for planning, justification and installation activities have an impact on the success of the AMT project.

In an increasingly technology-based competitive global business environment, the operational and competitive strategic potentials of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) and related systems cannot be overlooked. This article presents the results of an investigation of AMT implementation practices at 82 discrete-parts durable goods manufacturing plants in the USA. Several propositions that were derived from the AMT literature are tested. The results of this investigation indicate that plants that are desirous of adopting integrated technologies should be prepared to exert considerable effort on the activities in the pre-planning and justification stages of the implementation process. These and other findings that will be particularly useful to firms in the pre-planning stages of technology adoption are outlined and discussed. Research implications of this study are also presented and discussed.

<p>  </p> <p>High-resolution enclosed channels/fibers are highly demanded by different disciplines such as microfluidic channels for chemical synthesis, bioreactors for drug metabolism, magnetic locomotor for drug delivery, and wearable devices for motion detection. However, the current fabrication techniques for enclosed channels/fibers are restricted to a few millimeters in size. Their manufacturing often involves time and energy-consuming multi-step processes with insufficient resolution. In this work, we demonstrate a novel co-flow-enabled fabrication method to resolve the technological restrictions in the fabrication of high-resolution enclosed channels/fibers with efficient production time, controllable morphologies, and high throughput manner.</p> <p>An epoxy-based enclosed microfluidic channel was first built. A non-reactive paraffin oil and a liquid resin were pumped into a 3D-printed co-flow generator and worked as core and shell fluids, respectively. The epoxy resin was cured by external heat stimulus. As a result, the reaction region was limited between the generator wall surface and the boundary of core flow, eliminating the need for precise control over the curing system. The experiment was successfully conducted to cure build resin channel inside copper and resin tubes with good shell thickness.</p> <p>Conductive hollow hydrogel microfibers were also fabricated by this method. Sodium Alginate and Calcium Chloride were chosen as the shell and core flows, respectively. The ionic crosslinking happens at the boundary of two flows and expands outwards across the radial direction. Thus, the diameter of the hollow channel can be easily adjusted by tuning the flow rate and the size of the core flow injection needle. PEDOT: PSS, a conductive polymer, was mixed with Sodium Alginate to impart fibers with excellent electrical conductivity. The synthesized hollow microfibers have shown their functionality in stretching movement detection by serving as a fundamental building element of motion sensors. </p>

Esta tese busca, de início, pesquisar comparativamente, com a abrangência possível, os métodos e processos pelos quais as empresas componentes do setor siderúrgico nacional avaliam - sob o ponto de vista da viabililidade - a tomada de suas decisões relativamente a seus peculiares e vultosos investimentos em equipamentos de tecnologia avançada de manufatura. Revisita primária e metodologicamente amplo repertório de métodos de avaliação consagrados pela prática e pela literatura, tendo como cenário o setor em referência representado pelas várias modalidades industriais que o suportam. A pesquisa é realizada com base no estudo de múltiplos casos realizados em grandes empresas siderúrgicas, a partir de visitas a suas instalações e entrevistas com seus especialistas de análise de viabilidade de projetos de investimento. Ao final, oferece modelo de avaliação a ser adotado complementarmente aos critérios utilizados pelo setor em referência, a partir das observações e discussões efetuadas em campo. / This thesis initially seeks to search, in a comparative basis and with the permissible largeness, the methods and procedures through which the companies comprising the national siderurgic sector appraise their decisions referring to their peculiar and huge investments in AMT equipments, under a feasibility point of view. A primary review is made, in a comparative way, of a large well known evaluation methods repertoire, in a background at which act the various concerned industrial modalities. The search is accomplished based on the study of multiple cases realized at big siderurgic companies, by visiting their installations and by interviewing their specialists in investment feasibility project analysis. Eventually offers an evaluation model to be adopted by this sector, based upon the observation and discussions made in the related field research.

Esta tese busca, de início, pesquisar comparativamente, com a abrangência possível, os métodos e processos pelos quais as empresas componentes do setor siderúrgico nacional avaliam - sob o ponto de vista da viabililidade - a tomada de suas decisões relativamente a seus peculiares e vultosos investimentos em equipamentos de tecnologia avançada de manufatura. Revisita primária e metodologicamente amplo repertório de métodos de avaliação consagrados pela prática e pela literatura, tendo como cenário o setor em referência representado pelas várias modalidades industriais que o suportam. A pesquisa é realizada com base no estudo de múltiplos casos realizados em grandes empresas siderúrgicas, a partir de visitas a suas instalações e entrevistas com seus especialistas de análise de viabilidade de projetos de investimento. Ao final, oferece modelo de avaliação a ser adotado complementarmente aos critérios utilizados pelo setor em referência, a partir das observações e discussões efetuadas em campo. / This thesis initially seeks to search, in a comparative basis and with the permissible largeness, the methods and procedures through which the companies comprising the national siderurgic sector appraise their decisions referring to their peculiar and huge investments in AMT equipments, under a feasibility point of view. A primary review is made, in a comparative way, of a large well known evaluation methods repertoire, in a background at which act the various concerned industrial modalities. The search is accomplished based on the study of multiple cases realized at big siderurgic companies, by visiting their installations and by interviewing their specialists in investment feasibility project analysis. Eventually offers an evaluation model to be adopted by this sector, based upon the observation and discussions made in the related field research.

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