Search

PurposeThe aim of this research was to understand how governmental stakeholder engagement facilitates the sustainability of industrial engineering (IE) projects. A model for governmental stakeholder engagement activities is presented.Design/methodology/approachThe authors relied on a single-case study of a mining project in Northern Europe, where a novel collaboration and engagement approach with governmental stakeholders was piloted in the project's front-end phase. The analysis focused on the collaborative practices through which the IE project investor engaged governmental stakeholders during the project's front-end phase and how the engagement contributed to solving challenges in the early planning and permitting process and achieving project plans that balanced economic, social and environmental aspects.FindingsThe findings show how four collaborative engagement practices reduced uncertainty and equivocality related to the legal sustainability requirements, enabled the development of sustainable design solutions and overall accelerated the permitting process without compromising the quality of final project plans.Practical implicationsThe findings can be used to plan governmental stakeholder engagement and understand related challenges that need to be overcome. The study highlights the need to develop established practices and guidelines for governmental stakeholder engagement.Originality/valueThis study complements prior research on stakeholder engagement and project sustainability by developing an understanding of how governmental stakeholder engagement can be a key mechanism enabling the sustainability of IE project's end product. This research contributes to stakeholder theory by elaborating on a new stakeholder role, intermediary stakeholder.

PurposeDigital servitization concerns how manufacturers utilize digital technologies to enhance their provision of services. Although digital servitization requires that manufacturers possess new capabilities, in contrast to strategic (or dynamic) capabilities, little is known about how they develop the required operational capabilities. The paper investigates the mechanisms for developing operational capabilities in digital servitization.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents an exploratory study based on 15 large manufacturers operating in Europe engaged in digital servitization.FindingsThree operational capability development mechanisms are set out that manufacturers use to facilitate digital servitization: learning (developing capabilities in-house), building (bringing the requisite capabilities into the manufacturer), and acquiring (utilizing the capabilities of other actors). These mechanisms emphasize exploitation and exploration efforts within manufacturers and in collaborations with upstream and downstream partners. The findings demonstrate the need to combine these mechanisms for digital servitization according to combinations that match each manufacturer’s traditional servitization phase: (1) initial phase - building and acquiring, (2) middle phase - learning, building and acquiring, and (3) advanced phase - learning and building.Originality/valueThis study reveals three operational capability development mechanisms, highlighting the parallel use of these mechanisms for digital servitization. It provides a holistic understanding of operational capability development mechanisms used by manufacturers by combining three theoretical perspectives (organizational learning, absorptive capacity, and network perspectives). The paper demonstrates that digital servitization requires the significant application of building and acquiring mechanisms to develop the requisite operational capabilities.

Managers of manufacturing firms have important tasks in choosing novel technology solutions for the firm’s production process. The emergence of ideas for radical manufacturing technology innovations and managers’ proactive search for radical ideas and concepts for developing production processes have not been well understood. This study concentrates on managers’ search practices at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations. We analyzed managers’ practices in the early phase of nine radical manufacturing technology innovation projects across three firms. Radical manufacturing technology innovations require acknowledging both process innovations for the manufacturer and product innovations for the equipment supplier. The findings revealed alternative patterns regarding the use of directed and autonomous search processes, internal and external information sources, and open and closed supplier search. This study offers new knowledge on the nature of the information processing task that managers face and on the search practices managers use at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations. The study contributes by differentiating the managers’ search practices based on the specific innovation scope in terms of the technology, equipment, and production concept. Managers are portrayed as active agents in renewing the production processes of a firm. Propositions are offered concerning the drivers and use of managers’ search practices at the front end of radical manufacturing technology innovations. publishedVersion

Multi-project management is typically considered an intra-organizational endeavor of implementing strategies through programs, portfolios, or lineages of change and development projects. Inter-organizational multi-project management takes place between project-based firms and other actors in project networks. The multi-project aspects in inter-organizational contexts cause significant management complexity, but their specific requirements are inadequately understood. This article explores the nature and requirements of project-based firms’ multi-project management in inter-organizational contexts. Parallel and sequential inter-organizational multi-project settings are proposed as an expansion to the dominant intra-organizational research. A thematic framework is developed based on stakeholder and agency theories and previous knowledge from portfolio and program management research complemented with an inductive analysis of extant literature. Consequently, we map and report previous research on multi-project management requirements relevant to inter-organizational contexts concerning strategy, resources, governance, and learning. Propositions are developed and future research is recommended in these domains. publishedVersion

There is long-lasting horizontal and vertical segregation between female and male academics in technical fields in Finland. This article takes the lack of female academics as its starting point and focuses on a particular case in Finland: the merger of Tampere University of Technology (TUT) and the comprehensive University of Tampere (UTA), two universities which represented opposite ends in the proportion of female academics in Finland. Interviews of female academics in technical fields in the newly merged university allow studying individuals’ gendered academic identity in the context of a changing organisational identification. Identity is chosen as the analytic tool to approach the interplay and disparities from organisational, disciplinary, and individual perspectives. This research demonstrates the significance of gender for disciplinary and organisational identification in technical fields and in the context of a technical university. Taking a gender-neutral approach relates to identifying with technical disciplines and rejecting identification with the new comprehensive merger university. Whereas, with a gender sensitive approach, the new university may offer more possibilities for the female academics to identify with the organisation. publishedVersion

publishedVersion Non

In the quest to improve projects, project actors rely on sound project evaluation. However, project evaluation can be complex and challenging. This study aims to explore and define project evaluation and reveal how it can promote continuous improvements within and across projects and organizations. A review of extant literature finds four constitutive properties for project evaluation: criteria, times, evaluands, and evaluators. Based on the action design research of 75 projects in 21 organizations, the study finds three evaluation perspectives: process, outcome, and learning. Understanding the multidimensionality of project evaluation through the seven identified dimensions offers a meaningful conception of project evaluation. acceptedVersion

Purpose: The use of a manufacturers’ equipment and industrial services is dependent on the users’ readiness and capabilities. In a business-to-business context, different users may have different experiences with intelligent product features and related smart services, and the experiences need to be understood, when a manufacturer develops and delivers its industrial services. The goal of this study is to identify user experience patterns concerning intelligent product features and related smart services for industrial equipment. The focus is on the early phases of adopting the intelligent product features and related smart services. Design/Methodology/Approach: A qualitative case study was implemented with two customers of a machine manufacturer. Data were collected through interviews, and user experiences were analysed concerning intelligent features, services, and the service supplier. Findings: The cross-case analysis reveals that all users do not experience benefits from intelligent features and related smart services. Four different user experience patterns are reported: feature-centric, competence-centric, development-oriented, and decision-oriented. Originality/Value: The study adopts a users’ perspective to industrial services, thereby offering a more nuanced idea of customer experiences and potentially explaining why digital servitization proceeds slowly within customer firms. publishedVersion

Power generation from river hydropower plants depends mainly on river flow. Water fluctuations in the river make the yield process unpredictable. To reduce these fluctuations, building a small reservoir at the river flow of the hydropower plant is recommended. Conventionally, classic single-pond models are commonly used to design run-of-river hydropower plants. However, such models are associated with fluctuations, sagging, and irregular power fluctuations that lead to irregular water fluctuations. This research proposes a novel idea to replace the single-pond model with a three-pond model to increase the plant’s overall efficiency. The three-pond model is developed as a three-tank nonlinear hydraulic system that contains the same amount of water as a conventional single pond. It also has the advantage of minimizing the run-of-river power plant’s dependence on river flow and increasing efficiency by trapping swell and turbulence in the water. To further increase the efficiency, the developed model was tested for smooth and effective level control using fuzzy control. publishedVersion

This paper analyses valuations of ‘good’ interdisciplinary research that manifest in research planning workshops. We use ethnographic case data from an interdisciplinary research project on vertical farming to build insight on how differing registers in the valuing of ‘good’ interdisciplinary research are balanced. The vertical farming project we use as a case includes researchers from sub-disciplines of the life sciences, technology, data science, and human sciences in a Finnish university of applied science (UAS). We use thematic content analysis to identify four core registers of valuing the ‘goodness’ of research and tensions between the following registers: money, sustainability, scientific value, and academic identity. These registers largely conform to a statistical-economical regime of academic evaluation, while sustainability draws on RRI principles and the interdisciplinary emphasis on societal problem-solving. The registers are balanced mainly through temporal and conceptual compartmentalisations. Throughout three workshop encounters over the course of a six-month period, a perpetual negotiation of the different registers of valuing ‘good’ research was taking place, with attempts to avoid exclusionary choices between “money, time, or saving the world”.

publishedVersion Non

Funding Information: Financial support was provided by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 200021_184940). Funding Information: Networking support provided by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology, COST Action CA19108 (Hi-SCALE) is acknowledged. Funding Information: Supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, Portugal, with reference UIDB/00066/2020. Funding Information: A part of this work was supported by the Russian National Technology Initiative Foundation (Grant ID 0000000007418QR20002). Funding Information: The research was also supported by the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grant No. MA-2767). Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) by the Strategic Science Investment Fund ‘‘Advanced Energy Technology Platforms’’ under Contract RTVU2004. Funding Information: Y Wang acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Award DMR-2132338. R P Camata and C-C Chen are supported by the FTPP Program funded by NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1 Cooperative Agreement OIA-2148653. C-C Chen also acknowledges support from the NSF Award DMR-2142801. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. This paper presents a roadmap to the application of AI techniques and big data (BD) for different modelling, design, monitoring, manufacturing and operation purposes of different superconducting applications. To help superconductivity researchers, engineers, and manufacturers understand the viability of using AI and BD techniques as future solutions for challenges in superconductivity, a series of short articles are presented to outline some of the potential applications and solutions. These potential futuristic routes and their materials/technologies are considered for a 10-20 yr time-frame. publishersversion published

Increased digitalization and technological development raises the demand for rare and precious metals (RPM). Due to their rarity, mining RPMs from the earth is becoming increasingly difficult. Traditional urban mining methods to recover RPMs from printed circuit boards (PCB) need to separate the RPMs from non-metallic substances, e.g. plastic. This separation requires toxic substances and causes unwanted and toxic by-products and emissions. The ability to identify regions-of-interest on PCBs, i.e. the gold pads, and to extract RPMs from only the desired areas would reduce the need for toxic substances. In this study, a single 12 MHz high-intensity focused-ultrasound transducer was used to 1) image a PCB to locate the gold pads, and 2) to subsequently induce inertial cavitation to remove gold from three extraction areas on the selected gold pad. The sonication was performed in water without additional chemicals. Gold removal was verified by imaging the pad with a coded-excitation scanning acoustic microscope (fc = 375 MHz). Average areas and volumes of the three extraction regions were A = (12.2 ± 0.5)·103 μm2 and V = (18 ± 2)·103 μm3, respectively. The total amount of removed gold and nickel (from beneath the gold plating) from all three extraction areas was estimated to mAu,tot = (570 ± 20) ng and mNi,tot = (440 ± 30) ng. This study constitutes a first step towards more environmentally friendly, non-toxic urban mining of RPMs.

publishedVersion Non

In this study, textile-based dry electrodes that are integrable to clothing were developed, and their potential and limitations in EDA measurements were characterized. Copper-based and silver-based fabric electrodes and two types of electrodes embroidered from conductive thread were tested for EDA-measurements from fingers, and their performance was compared to that of commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes. Based on the experiment results, stimulus response of skin conductance could be measured with all the electrodes. Copper-based fabric and densely embroider silver electrodes give the best EDA response, which is comparable to that of commercial Ag/AgCl electrodes. The next step is to integrate these textile electrodes into gloves and socks and carry out EDA measurements on female and male adults as well as on children. Our goal is that these EDA measurement clothes would become a part of our everyday life, which would enable versatile health and well-being related applications. acceptedVersion

This paper considers semi-autonomous excavation done by heavy-duty bulldozers with an onboard front-mounted blade. The goal is to gradually manipulate the blade digging depth to maximize the amount of excavated soil while considering the approaching terrain shape, traction, and the mobile base inclination. With the proposed system, the operator provides the target load on the machine and the blade is controlled semi- autonomously, while the operator can focus on driving the mobile base. To reduce large load variations caused by terrain shape irregularities affecting the blade, our system uses an onboard lidar to generate an elevation map of the terrain, updating it online as the machine moves. From the discrete map, we generate a well- behaved function describing the terrain shape. This provides a nominal blade elevation path that is modified online based on the measured load on the machine to maneuver the blade gradually, avoiding large gradient changes. The resulting Cartesian elevation profile is used as a reference to a blade position controller that counteracts the mobile base inclination. A commercial bulldozer with no modifications to its original hydraulics was used as an experimental platform, and the results verify the efficacy of the proposed methods in challenging outdoor conditions. acceptedVersion

In this paper, we evaluate eight popular and open-source 3D Lidar and visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) algorithms, namely LOAM, Lego LOAM, LIO SAM, HDL Graph, ORB SLAM3, Basalt VIO, and SVO2. We have devised experiments both indoor and outdoor to investigate the effect of the following items: i) effect of mounting positions of the sensors, ii) effect of terrain type and vibration, iii) effect of motion (variation in linear and angular speed). We compare their performance in terms of relative and absolute pose error. We also provide comparison on their required computational resources. We thoroughly analyse and discuss the results and identify best performing system for the environment cases with our multi-camera and multi-Lidar indoor and outdoor datasets. We hope our findings help one to choose a sensor and the corresponding SLAM algorithm combination suiting their needs, based on their target environment. acceptedVersion

Plate-type thermal energy storage systems (PTESs) have been proposed to mitigate the effect of the low thermal conductivity of phase change materials on the performance and efficiency of thermal energy storage systems. Nevertheless, a prompt reduction in the thermal power of PTESs due to the drop/rise in the outlet temperature at the early stage of the charging/discharging process has not been well resolved. To remedy this, the current study proposes a modified PTES and presents a computational fluid dynamics model of this PTES for performance and efficiency analysis. The results show that the outlet temperature of the modified PTES is constant for 100 min in the melting and 33 min in the solidification processes, while this temperature drops/raises almost immediately in the similar PTESs after starting these processes. In addition, the presented PTES shows an improvement of 75 % and 28.6 %, respectively, in the energy storage capacity per unit volume and effectiveness than a roll-bonded PTES. publishedVersion

Background: Today's meat and dairy industry has a vast environmental footprint. To reach the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) of ending hunger globally (SDG #2) and achieving sustainable consumption and production (SDG #12), this food production system needs to change. Recent years have seen the rise in popularity of the vegan or plant-based diet among consumers, which can go some way to reducing the environmental burden. This trend has motivated pioneering food producers to develop innovative vegan food products for niche markets, thus driving the sustainability transition of the food sector. Scope and approach: This commentary tracks how three pioneering food companies have responded to the vegan trend in Europe. From the analysis of the sustainable innovation journeys of these innovative food producers, we propose a framework that presents a multi-level perspective on the socio-technical transition of the food production and consumption system. Key findings and conclusions: The findings show how food producers, incumbents, and new entrants progress through an early phase of planning a direction and establishing a goal, followed by pivoting and experimenting in response to changes in the business environment. This innovation journey concludes as the company moves from experimentation and learning activities onto innovation implementation. The paper postulates a model that describes how regime level changes arise from the microfoundations of the food production and consumption system, as the innovation journeys of companies drive institutional change towards sustainability. The paper identifies future research avenues to explore the sustainable development of vegan food production in more depth. acceptedVersion

The automation of processes that handle deformable materials is considered to be a complicated task. Due to their properties, these materials require specialised solutions for their manipulation, using robotic systems and mostly, using specifically developed hardware which limits its use for different deformable objects. To solve this issue, this paper presents an approach for bimanually manipulating Deformable Linear Objects (DLOs) using a dual-arm industrial robot. This approach aims at providing an automatic, generic, and easily reconfigurable solution and is implemented for routing cables in a human-centric platform. The approach consists of a cyber-physical system (CPS) composed by commercial hardware: a robot equipped with two parallel grippers, and a reconfigurable Robot Operating System (ROS) software. In more details, the developed software extracts information about the process, such as the routing path, keypoints of the workstation setup and objects dimensions. Then, it uses the extracted information to generate suitable bimanual trajectories for the robot. Finally, the approach has been tested for three different routine paths. acceptedVersion

Firms create and manage project portfolios to implement and renew their strategies. With the dominant contingency theory view, studies have primarily focused on project portfolios and their internal management whilst acknowledging that different practices are needed in different contexts. A strategic view of managing project portfolios, however, requires adopting a stronger external orientation, both within and outside of the firm. In this paper, we call for research on the management of project portfolios. We investigate the relationship between project portfolios and their context based on four theoretical alternatives: institutional theory, stakeholder theory, resource dependence theory, and sensemaking theory. The results offer explanations to the mechanisms connecting project portfolios with their context, call for a reformulation of portfolio success, and propose a new research agenda to revitalize the study of managing project portfolios in their contexts. acceptedVersion

PurposeThis paper addresses the most important factors for the selection of additive manufacturing (AM) technology as a method of production of metal parts. AM creates objects by adding material layer by layer based on 3D models. At present, interest in AM is high as it is hoped that AM contributes to the competitiveness of Western manufacturing industries.Design/methodology/approachA literature study is conducted to identify the factors that affect the selection of AM technology. Expert interviews and the best–worst method are used to prioritize these factors based on relative factor weights.FindingsTechnology, demand, environment and supply-related factors are categorized and further mapped to offer a holistic picture of AM technology selection. According to expert assessments, market demand was ranked highest, although market demand is currently lacking.Research limitations/implicationsThe composition and size of the expert panel and the framing of some of the factors in light of previous literature cause validity limitations. Further research is encouraged to differentiate the selection factors for different AM implementation projects.Originality/valueThe paper presents a more complete framework of factors for innovation selection in general and the selection of AM technology specifically. This framework can serve as a basis for future studies on technology selection in the (additive) manufacturing sector and beyond. In addition to AM-specific factor weights, the paper explains why specific factors are important, reducing uncertainty for managers that have to choose between alternative manufacturing technologies.

This paper presents interactive learning activities on both individual exercises and course implementations. The main objective is to enrich the education of production engineering both on bachelor and master level studies. The learning activities are focused on the order-to-delivery process on a factory floor as well as the related planning and scheduling tasks. The theoretical topics of the education are explained as a base for the topics of the learning activities. The core of the learning activities is a simulation model and several exercises are conducted using the simulation environment. Additional activities are added to the simulation environment to bring interactive elements to individual exercises. Similarly, the interaction elements in the course implementations are discussed. These topics are elaborated from the viewpoints of the current education and possibilities for the future development. publishedVersion

Lean manufacturing is commonly agreed as efficient and competitive performance towards which all manufacturing companies desire to develop their operations. Literature largely supports this with numerous case studies on various industries and fields, from manufacturing to services and health business. However, among manufacturing companies of complex products, produced in small batch sizes in high cost countries, most of the companies have either not achieved lean performance or have only partially benefited from it. There is lack of sufficient descriptions and measures on how companies, other than mass producers, could achieve and sustain leanness holistically. To address this gap, this paper introduces a lean manufacturing reference framework situated in the small batch size manufacturing, which emphasises integrated product and production development, and contingent factors to better align with the demands of manufacturers. The framework is constructed based on literature review and then validated with Sustainability and Key Performance Indicators Landscape. publishedVersion

Finnish infrastructure construction sector has challenges in productivity and advancing digitalization. We suggest that these problems can be explained with inadequate knowledge-based management (KBM) practices: When information goes missing, employees must collect the information repeatedly. When organizations haven’t identified their information needs, data is collected but never used. The purpose of this research is to discover what is the priority of development to improve KBM in project network. A project network in Finnish infrastructure construction sector typically consists of project companies and public customers. This research was conducted by distributing a survey on maturity of KBM to 22 Finnish organizations in infrastructure construction. 10 of these organizations are customer organizations and 12 are project companies. The results are analyzed with a framework suggested for the maturity survey. The results show that, in the project network, customer organizations have less developed KBM practices than project companies, which is not surprising. The interesting point, however, is that the results highlight the importance of the customer organizations in information sharing in the project network. Therefore, the inadequate KBM practices of customer organizations seem to weaken the productivity of the whole project network. publishedVersion

This paper presents solutions for methodological issues that can occur when obtaining face recognition and object detection for a ROS-based (Robot Operating System) open-source platform. Ubuntu 18.04, ROS Melodic and Google TensorFlow 1.14 are used in programming the software environment. TurtleBot2 (Kobuki) mobile robot with additional onboard sensors are used to conduct the experiments. Entire system configurations and specific hardware modifications that were proved mandatory to make out the system functionality are also clarified. Coding (e.g., Python) and sensors installations are detailed both in onboard and remote laptop computers. In experiments, TensorFlow face recognition and object detection are examined by using the TurtleBot2 robot. Results show how objects and faces were detected when the robot is navigating in the previously 2D mapped indoor environment. acceptedVersion

Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) management focuses on employee safety and health; OHS legislation establishes the requirements for OHS management competencies. This study aims to identify measures for developing OHS management skills during a management career to support managers’ competence development and continuing learning. A qualitative multiple-case study of seven industrial companies in the energy and processing industries and industrial services was conducted. Measures for developing OHS management skills during the following stages of a management career were identified: 1) recruitment, 2) orientation, 3) competence assessment, 4) competence development, 5) performance assessment and measurement, and 6) incentives and rewards. This study suggests practical organizational measures for developing managers’ OHS competence at different career stages as general management competencies. Developing managers’ OHS competence provides them with knowledge of their responsibilities and expectations, as well as company-wide OHS objectives and practices to improve OHS and operational efficiency. publishedVersion

Several studies have shown that safety management and culture are linked to safety performance, but the role of safety performance measurement is unclear. At best, performance measurement is an important management tool. However, the use of performance information in safety management is often inefficient. There is a need for an overview of the development areas that are essential in achieving the safety benefits of performance measurement. This study aims to identify the status of safety performance measurement in industrial companies, proposing future research and development areas for safety performance measurement. The study was conducted as a multiple case study involving seven companies from different industries. The results show that the participating industrial companies’ safety performance measurement status was developed. Future development efforts should highlight the supportive practices and structures of performance measurement, essentially leadership and management. This study structures future development areas for safety performance measurement and supports organizations in better utilizing measurement information in their safety work. publishedVersion

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the EU economy and account for a large number of employment opportunities. Improvements in the working conditions and well-being of employees in SMEs are crucial for the development of businesses, societies, and workers. This study investigated and developed the safety, health, and well-being (SHW) of employees in SME manufacturing companies. The proposed company-specific development process involved four companies and consisted of an e-survey, interviews, and a workshop. Both employers and employee representatives participated in the process. The process revealed a good working community and support received from others as resources in the studied companies. The factors needing development were found to be work posture and movement, workplace thermal environment, communication, haste, orderliness, and tidiness. This study provides knowledge about SHW risks, resources, and development measures in manufacturing SMEs. publishedVersion

Collaboration largely determines ERP development success but is fluid with difficulties. We propose them originating from collaborating actors’, such as developers’ and clients’, diverging perceptions. Identifying these perceptions is difficult as they often surface only when the perceptions contradict. In this paper, we utilize the narrative approach, arguing actors being storytellers sharing and living through narratives, to explore an ERP development project where a client and a vendor collaborate in a seeming well-defined manner. Interpreting the actors’ narratives and masterplots shows that they contradict each other. We argue this resulting from the parties’ different perceptions on collaboration, and their unaligned masterplots. This also explains severe problems in the project and illustrates narratives and masterplots as useful for uncovering the actors’ underlying perceptions, driving their actions. publishedVersion

Even though risk assessment is an important factor in occupational health and safety (OHS) promotion and accident prevention, there are no clear definition of when the risk assessment is successful nor instructions on how to evaluate it. Inadequate risk assessments lead to ineffective safety prevention programs, inefficient use of resources, and criticism towards risk assessment. If decisions are based on misleading results, significant sources of risks are failed to eliminate or reduce.Certain factors have been recognized in the literature to affect the quality of a risk assessment, including initial assumptions, chosen method, risk assessment team, resources, and consultation and collaboration of relevant stakeholders. In evaluating the quality of risk assessment, it is suggested to examine the completeness, accuracy, fidelity, and fitness of the risk assessment results. Different approaches have been identified to be used in the evaluation, such as carrying out a parallel analysis of the system, comparing the results with occurring accidents in corresponding systems, and examining the process. This study aims to add knowledge of when a risk assessment is successful and which factors influence the success. The data was collected from OHS specialists and managers (n = 10) by interviewing them. In addition, the Delphi survey was emailed to 17 OHS specialists and managers resulting in 8, 12, and 13 responses in three rounds. The respondents represented four large companies (manufacturing, transportation and storage, and other technical testing and analysis), one medium-sized company (electrical power generation, transmission, and distribution), consulting business companies, and public authority. The interviews and the Delphi survey focused on when a risk assessment can be said to be successful and which individual and organizational features affect its success. According to the interviews, companies do not systematically evaluate the quality of the risk assessment or its success but rather control if the risk assessments are completed. However, they did acknowledge the importance and need for evaluating the risk assessment processes and results. Based on the Delphi survey, individual features affecting the risk assessment are, for example, understanding of the entity, communication and interaction skills, and understanding of the interdependencies. Organizational features influencing risk assessment include organization’s commitment to safety and safety management, risk assessment being a part of the safety management system, and line organization understanding its responsibilities and operating accordingly. Finally, a successful risk assessment fulfills, among others, the following points; the risk assessment represents reality, the results are utilized in planning and developing work tools, instructions and operations, the employees are aware of the residual risks and able to acknowledge them while working, the risk assessment is utilized in educational and orientation material, and that the measures have been focused and carried out so that the risk is removed or reduced. Further research is needed to formulate a model guiding the evaluation of the quality and success of risk assessment. publishedVersion

Existing Deep Learning (DL) frameworks typically do not provide ready-to-use solutions for robotics, where very specific learning, reasoning, and embodiment problems exist. Their relatively steep learning curve and the different methodologies employed by DL compared to traditional approaches, along with the high complexity of DL models, which often leads to the need of employing specialized hardware accelerators, further increase the effort and cost needed to employ DL models in robotics. Also, most of the existing DL methods follow a static inference paradigm, as inherited by the traditional computer vision pipelines, ignoring active perception, which can be employed to actively interact with the environment in order to increase perception accuracy. In this paper, we present the Open Deep Learning Toolkit for Robotics (OpenDR). OpenDR aims at developing an open, non-proprietary, efficient, and modular toolkit that can be easily used by robotics companies and research institutions to efficiently develop and deploy AI and cognition technologies to robotics applications, providing a solid step towards addressing the aforementioned challenges. We also detail the design choices, along with an abstract interface that was created to overcome these challenges. This interface can describe various robotic tasks, spanning beyond traditional DL cognition and inference, as known by existing frameworks, incorporating openness, homogeneity and robotics-oriented perception e.g., through active perception, as its core design principles. acceptedVersion

doi linkki ei toimi 31.1.2022, ilmoitettu lehteen/US Already before the pandemic, digitally mediated collaborative work and communication were perceived as challenging. We investigate the attitudes towards emerging technologies and for transforming practises in workplaces. The focus lies on understanding the readiness for appropriating emotional tracking on presence and support for collaboration. The research-based design framework allowed to combine the various perspectives of the transdisciplinary team. Methods included participatory design, design thinking, contextual inquiry and prototype testing for enhancing presence while working with shared objects in video conferencing to explore the appropriation of tools. The findings revealed four indications: 1) awareness of interlocutors’ presence during synchronous communication is crucial. 2) Emotion and behaviour tracking raises concerns about privacy and personal control over what is displayed to others, and technology could be simpler non-distracting the work at hand. 3) The prototype was found to enhance the feeling of presence without disturbing work at hand, and 4) appropriation requires a step-by-step approach.

Strategic alignment of project portfolios concerns the match between projects in the portfolio and the organization’s strategy. It is often considered either as a selection criterion when creating the project portfolio or as a performance indicator when assessing success. Organizations pursue optimal strategic alignment while retaining responsiveness to changes in the environment. The problem guiding this study is the need to understand how strategic alignment occurs in practice in the work of project portfolio management in the context of multiple project portfolios. We explore large firms’ practices of strategic alignment and cross-portfolio interplay in the innovation project portfolios of three industrial firms. The findings reveal social, mechanistic, and structural practices of portfolios’ strategic alignment and sharing, synergy creation, and boundary-spanning practices in cross-portfolio interplay. Strategic alignment is reported as a dynamic, continuous activity in the work of managers and personnel, with versatile practices that drive both efficiency and renewal. publishedVersion

This paper analyses socially optimal nuclear plant operation and nuclear waste management. Two waiting rules are derived: the first characterizes the optimal continuation of electricity production, and the second gives the optimal nuclear waste disposal date. Both rules balance the cost and benefit of either continuing production or delaying waste disposal into a deep geological repository. In addition, multiple regulatory options are investigated. The optimized waste storage and disposal cost forms the payment that should be collected from the nuclear power firm into a nuclear waste fund. The properties of this payment and other regulatory options including a tax to be paid at the shutdown date of the plant are investigated, and it is shown that the money can be collected by a plant-specific constant fee targeted at firm's profit or output. Numerical illustration shows that waste disposal to a deep geological repository is a cost-minimizing solution only with very low interest rates. For interest rates above one percent it is optimal to store the waste in an on-ground storage facility in perpetuity.

Solar-induced Fluorescence (SIF) has an advantage over greenness-based Vegetation Indices in detecting drought. This advantage is the mechanistic coupling between SIF and Gross Primary Productivity (GPP). Under water stress, SIF tends to decrease with photosynthesis, due to an increase in non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), resulting in rapid and/or sustained reductions in the fluorescence quantum efficiency (phi F). Water stress also affects vegetation structure via highly dynamic changes in leaf angular distributions (LAD) or slower changes in leaf area index (LAI). Critically, these responses are entangled in space and time and their relative contribution to SIF, or to the coupling between SIF and GPP, is unclear. In this study, we quantify the relative effect of structural and photosynthetic dynamics on the diurnal and spatial variation of canopy SIF in a potato crop in response to a replicated paired-plot water stress experiment. We measured SIF using two platforms: a hydraulic lift and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to capture temporal and spatial variation, respectively. LAD parameters were estimated from point clouds and photographic data and used to assess structural dynamics. Leaf phi F estimated from PAM fluorescence measurements were used to represent variations in photosynthetic regulation. We also measured foliar pigments, operating quantum yield of photosystem II (PSII), photosynthetic gas exchange, stomatal conductance and LAI. We used a radiative transfer model (SCOPE) to provide a means of decoupling structural and photosynthetic factors across the diurnal and spatial domains. The results demonstrate that diurnal variation in SIF is driven by photosynthetic and structural dynamics. The influence of phi F was prominent in the diurnal SIF response to water stress, with reduced fluorescence efficiencies in stressed plants. Structural factors dominated the spatial response of SIF to water stress over and above phi F. The results showed that the relationship between SIF and GPP is maintained in response to water stress where adjustments in NPQ and leaf angle co-operate to enhance the correlation between SIF and GPP. This study points to the complexity of interpreting and modelling the spatiotemporal connection between SIF and GPP which requires simultaneous knowledge of vegetation structural and photosynthetic dynamics.

publishedVersion

Purpose Manufacturing firms delivering complex products and systems are increasingly offering advanced data-based services. Customers, however, are not always willing to adopt manufacturers’ advanced services, so manufacturers need knowledge of how to promote customers’ service readiness. The purpose of this paper is to further develop the concept of service readiness by proposing a framework for industrial customers’ organizational dimension of service readiness and by increasing the understanding of the conditions underpinning that service readiness. Design/methodology/approach This case study explores service readiness among customers of a manufacturer delivering complex systems and related services. Interviews were conducted within the company and among key customers as the potential users of those services. Findings Customers use versatile processes, engage multiple people and use different evaluation criteria when considering adoption of data-based services. The organizational component of service readiness involves requirements in the service context, supplier relations and organizational habits and culture. Actions are proposed for manufacturers to promote customers’ readiness for new services. Research limitations/implications The research is limited through its qualitative design and case selection. Mapping of the organizational dimension of service readiness further develops the concept of service readiness and offers a framework for further research. This research offers novel understanding of organization-level service adoption to complement individual-centric technology adoption. Practical implications New knowledge is offered to manufacturing firms about customers’ challenges and requirements in adopting advanced services. This knowledge will help manufacturers to support customers and develop the activities of their own salespeople when introducing advanced services. Originality/value The findings expose the contents of the organizational dimension of customers’ service readiness. The study provides a more complete picture of service readiness and shows it to be a multilayered concept with interdependencies between its levels, between individuals in customer organizations and even between the manufacturer and the customer organization.

Purpose This paper empirically investigates the processes by which manufacturing firms create radical innovations in their core production process, referred to as radical manufacturing technology innovations (RMTI). The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of the processes and practices manufacturing firms use to create RMTI. Design/methodology/approach Creation processes for 23 RMTI projects from diverse industry and technology contexts are explored. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews, and an inductive analysis was carried out to identify similarities and differences in RMTI types and creation processes. Findings Three types of RMTI and three alternative RMTI creation processes are revealed and characterized. An integrated view is developed of the activities of the equipment supplier and the manufacturing firm, highlighting their different roles and interaction across the three RMTI creation process types. Research limitations/implications The exploratory design limits the depth of the analysis per RMTI project, and the focus is on manufacturing technology innovations in one country. The results extend previous case and context-specific findings on RMTI creation processes and provide novel frameworks for cross-case comparisons. Practical implications The manufacturing firms’ proactive role in RMTI creation is defined. A framework is proposed for using different RMTI creation processes for different types of RMTI. Originality/value This study addresses recent calls for empirical research on understanding the ways in which process innovations unfold in manufacturing firms. The findings emphasize the role of manufacturing firms as creators of RMTI in addition to their role as innovation adopters and implementers and reveal the suitability of different RMTI creation processes for different RMTI types.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of performance measurement systems as technologies of government in the operationalisation of smart city programmes. It answers the research question: how do the development and use of performance measurement systems support smart cities in the achievement of their goals? Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a longitudinal case study that uses an interventionist approach to investigate the possibilities and limitations of the use of performance measurement systems as technologies of government in a smart city. Interpretations are theoretically informed by the Foucauldian governmentality framework (Foucault, 2009) and by public sector performance measurement literature. Findings The findings address the benefits and criticalities confronting a smart city that introduces new performance measurement systems as a technology of government. Such technologies become problematic tools when the city network is characterised by a fragmentation of inter-departmental processes, and when forms of resistance emerge due to a lack of process owners, horizontal accountability and cooperation among involved parties. Research limitations/implications This paper is based on a case study of a single smart city, and outlines the need for both comparative and multidisciplinary analyses in order to analyse the causes and effects of smart city challenges. Originality/value This paper offers a critical understanding of the role of accounting in the smart city. The ineffectiveness of performance measurement systems is related to the multiple roles of such technologies of government, which may lead to a temporary paralysis in the achievement of smart city goals and programmes.

Project stakeholder management deals with managing and fulfilling stakeholder expectations and has tended to focus on the viewpoint of the focal firm or the project rather than that of the project stakeholders. The stakeholders' perspective is important because they can significantly influence projects, particularly infrastructure delivery involving both public and private actors. This study focuses on the ways that stakeholders pursue influence on projects through their expectation of project value. The goal is to identify the value-oriented reasons for stakeholders to utilize specific influence strategies. A multiple case study was implemented in three transport infrastructure projects. The study argues that stakeholders' expectations of project value creation explain the stakeholder influence strategies utilized. The findings link project value with stakeholder influence strategies and reveal four influence strategies in transport infrastructure projects, differentiated according to their different value priorities. The unique value-influence combinations of public infrastructure projects are revealed and discussed. acceptedVersion

Adopting design thinking and innovation-oriented approaches in organizations is crucial but not always simple. New practices of collaboration, user-orientedness and exploration require a compatible culture to be successfully integrated into product development. This paper presents a case study based on 12 interviews of employees and managers in a large Finland-based technology company, introducing new ways of working to product development. Silos, focusing on inventions, and a lack of resources for exploration were highlighted as key challenges in transitioning from incremental development to innovations. Perhaps counterintuitively, introducing new ways of working requiring a collaborative culture - the most widely recognized shortcoming in the current practice in the case - were best received, and support and feedback could be found for pilot projects in these arenas. When the gap between the practice and culture was smaller, change efforts could perhaps be more challenging, as there was less of a consensus on a need to change. The results suggest than developers need not automatically shy away from piloting new ways of working even when existing cultures are not compatible.

Design thinking has a prominent role as established corporations ramp up innovation efforts focusing on user needs. Current literature provides a plethora of definitions for design thinking with variations in tools, methods and cultures. This study aims to identify differences in perception and maturity of design thinking across different contexts within a large corporation. The results are based on a thematic analysis of nine semi-structured interviews with industrial and user experience designers in the case company, operating in different countries and three different organizational contexts: lone designers of a region, unit-embedded design team managers and global-level design managers. The results echo the literature in finding no uniform definition of design thinking. Instead, it was seen as a continuous scale of practices, cognitive approaches and mindsets aiming for stronger user-centrism in the organization. Practices and maturity varied between contexts, indicating that to strengthen the role of design in an organization, a deep understanding of the context is crucial for a successful implementation.

Established companies turn to new ventures for bolstering exploration activities, but we know relatively little of the product development processes of startups and new ventures and how different stakeholders are utilized in these. The current study investigated the product development activities and experiments of eight Finnish food and beverage ventures in a multiple case study based on 22 interviews. How the developed products fit into the existing portfolio and experience of the ventures seemed to define their enacted development process. Internal experimentation was a constant feature, although the type of experiments varied between different phases of the development process. External-facing experiments were less frequent and more for validation than concept generation. On the other hand, they also carried important market creation functionalities. The results suggest that more nuanced terminology around experimentation would be useful to determine what type of experiments serve different goals in the development process.

It is expected that by utilizing digital technologies, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence, the manufacturing base of Europe will become stronger and allow production re-shoring from other trade areas to take place. The European competitiveness is tied to better competences of the workforce and fast implementation of new technologies. This requires new approaches for formal and non-formal education. For this, we propose a new robotics learning concept and collaboration scheme to support both MSc level education, but also non-formal education with industry. The non-formal education example could be a combination of an education package followed by rapid experimenting with a robot system. In order to facilitate the learning process, we have established the Tampere RoboLab and joint academia-industry education modules for both formal and non-formal education. The Tampere RoboLab operates with similar principles as e.g. Fab Labs (fabrication laboratories), but the focus is on indoor stationary and mobile robotics. Aside from education, the concept allows system interoperability testing and pre-competitive research to be done in the same premises as well as field robotics by providing the state of art localisation and perception sensors, and computation and communication devices. This paper will introduce the concept, used hardware and software configurations, education modules and the forms of industry-academia collaboration. publishedVersion

Enhancing productivity is a challenge for a whole supply network rather than for a set of separate manufacturing companies. Hence, the concept of Digital Extended Enterprise (DEXTER), a highly competitive manufacturing network, was synthesized. For defining the constituent domains of digitalization, lean manufacturing and extended enterprise, a set of DEXTER models were derived from the literature and the interviews of manufacturing companies. Furthermore, for characterizing the development levels of the particular areas of performance the presented research resulted a DEXTER maturity model. The maturity model comprises of five levels of maturity defined by 69 statements in the key performance areas (KPA): strategy, business model, processes, performance indicators, interfaces and information flow. Finally, the development of four industrial cases over the period of two years were assessed with the DEXTER maturity model and with the key performance indicators (KPI), such as reliability of deliveries and quality. By comparing the findings of the maturity and the KPIs of the case companies, we found that the qualitative and quantitative methods both indicate a leap in productivity. This observation was further reassured by studying the profitability and productivity of the case companies within the period of observation. publishedVersion

Global operations are accelerating the diffusion of technology and the pace of innovation. The increased demand for ICT and problem-solving skills requires new methods and tools to support continuous learning paradigm. The emergence of circular economy (CE) paradigm is demanding the companies to change and take broader role in the value chain. Within these new value-chains, the manufacturer plays central role re-designing products for multiple uses and proposing new consumption patterns to customers through innovative services covering the current and future life-cycles of the product. This new level of complexity and interconnection puts a pressure to the education system, which traditionally is highly focused on its own priority areas. The paper will present an approach to speed uptake of CE business potential by introducing an education module created in collaboration with industry and academia to support the creation of new talents in the field of manufacturing industry. publishedVersion

Requirements and constraints form the base for each new design but in the design phase only a limited amount of them is known; more requirements and constraints appear during the later phases of product lifecycle. At the moment, the information that is collected after the main design phase is not often stored in a re-usable way. On the other hand, large amount of decisions made by design engineers during the design phase is either not stored or documented at all. This lack of lifecycle knowledge causes large amount of unnecessary costs in a form of scrapping, re-work and additional work hours, therefore providing a potential for large savings. This paper explains the current situation, the challenges, the problems and the consequences of poor knowledge management. The problem of hidden product knowledge is a complex one and solving it requires changes to processes, tools, and maybe even to ways certain functions in companies are organized and managed. This paper proposes ways to at least partially solve the problem by using the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools and modifying the way engineers work. publishedVersion

Circular economy (CE) is one of the most discussed topics in academy and industry. Yet, the vastness of the subject can easily distract the discussions and cause incoherence to CE related plans and solutions. To assist in these challenges several frameworks and conceptual structures have been created. In this paper, we compare different CE frameworks from literature and evaluate their suitability to assist manufacturing companies in their strategic development work that aims for transformations towards CE. As an outcome, we propose synthesized guidelines for developing a CE framework, which would better support firms’ strategic decision-making and growth in CE. publishedVersion

Professionalization of safety is gaining some interest in international safety literature, including (post)graduate training and education of safety experts. Different from research, there are hardly any publications and discussions on the quality of (post) graduate safety education in the academic safety literature. This article starts with a short historical picture of safety education. After this picture, a description of the ten (post) graduate safety courses involved is presented with a special reference to the assessment of the quality of these courses. It shows that an internal evaluation of quality, like reactions from trainees, and results from examinations, and tests are presently the main quality indicators. Discussions on how quality assessment can be performed has led to an overview of literature on educational objectives and educational models, and possible options for this assessment. The article concludes that the transfer of safety knowledge and skills to companies and organizations is a highly desirable elaboration of the quality concept. But it is also clear that traditional safety indicators can provide no, or only unreliable, information about the degree of this transfer. An overview of possible minor and major accident scenarios of the company or organisation concerned might be a better option, combined with the activities of the trainee to influence and prevent activation of these scenarios., (undefined)