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The technologies of Industry 4.0 provide an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of Visual Management in manufacturing. The opportunity of improvement is twofold. From one side, Visual Management theory and practice can inspire the design of new software tools suitable for Industry 4.0, on the other side, the technology of Industry 4.0 can be used to increase the effectiveness of visual software tools. The paper first explores how the theoretical result on Visual Management can be used as a guideline to improve human-computer interaction, then a methodology is proposed for the design of visual patterns for manufacturing. Four visual patterns are presented that contribute to the solution of problems frequently encountered in discrete manufacturing industries, these patterns help to solve planning and control problems thus providing support to various management functions. Positive implications of this research concern people engagement and empowerment as well as improved problem solving, decision-making and management of manufacturing processes.

This paper presents an innovative methodology, from which an efficient system prototype is derived, for the algorithmic prediction of malfunctions of a generic industrial machine tool. It integrates physical devices and machinery with Text Mining technologies and allows the identification of anomalous behaviors, even of minimal entity, rarely perceived by other strategies in a machine tool. The system works without waiting for the end of the shift or the planned stop of the machine. Operationally, the system analyzes the log messages emitted by multiple data sources associated with a machine tool (such as different types of sensors and log files produced by part programs running on CNC or PLC) and deduces whether they can be inferred from them future machine malfunctions. In a preliminary offline phase, the system associates an alert level with each message and stores it in a data structure. At runtime, three algorithms guide the system: pre-processing, matching and analysis: Preprocessing, performed only once, builds the data structure; Matching, in which the system issues the alert level associated with the message; Analysis, which identifies possible future criticalities. It can also analyze an entire historical series of stored messages The algorithms have a linear execution time and are independent of the size of the data structure, which does not need to be sorted and therefore can be updated without any computational effort.

Facility management is an evolving discipline that has received attention from both professionals and researchers in recent years. Modern facility management considers various interests related to material resources, and among others, social and environmental interests. An important opportunity for the improvement of this discipline derives from the introduction of Industry 4.0 technologies for the management of material resources. In this paper, we shall study the problem of industrial facility management, an area with important economic implications. Starting from a facility management model for the maintenance of industrial assets, we develop a general approach to maintenance based on the Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems, which allows us to reason about the implementation of an effective Organisational Facility Management Unit. The objective is the continuous improvement of maintenance activities, from which also derives the improvement of the production process performance.

In Industry 4.0, Human Machine Interfaces are largely used in order to increase the performances of production processes at the same time reducing the number of emergencies and accidents. In manufacturing, the most typical system used to monitor the production is the Andon. It is a graphical system exploited in plants to notify operators who deal with management, maintenance and production performance of the presence of a problem. Of course, the usability of such interfaces is essential to allow an operator to identify and react more effectively to potentially critical situations. Improving the usability of such interfaces is a big challenge due to the increasing complexity of the data that must be processed and understood quickly by operators. In this paper, we present a set of guidelines to help professional developers to design usable interfaces for monitoring industrial production in manufacturing. Such guidelines are based on usability principles and formalized by reviewing existing industrial interfaces. Using a realistic case study prepared with manufacturing experts, we propose an Andon interface that we developed to test the efficacy of these guidelines on a last generation touch-wall device.

We derived a promising approach to reducing the energy consumption necessary in manufacturing processes from the combination of management methodologies and Industry 4.0 technologies. Based on a literature review and experts&rsquo, opinions, this work contributes to the efficient use of energy in batch production processes combining the analysis of the overall equipment effectiveness with the study of variables managed by cyber-physical production systems. Starting from the analysis of loss cause identification, we propose a method that obtains quantitative data about energy losses during the execution of batch processes. The contributions of this research include the acquisition of precise information about energy losses and the improvement of value co-creation practices so that energy consumption can be reduced in manufacturing processes. Decision-makers can use the findings to start a virtuous process aiming at carbon footprint and energy costs reductions while ensuring production goals are met.

One important paradigm proposed in literature by the scientific community that advocates the viable system approach is the structure-system dichotomy for the capability to simplify the investigation of a phenomenon and recognize its scope and implications. The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution to the debate which concerns the structure-system approach introducing the concept of interaction type as a bridge linking the relationship concept to that of interaction. The interaction type is first introduced in its simplest form using an UML class diagram that points out its role when the observer views changes from structure to system and from system to structure. Then, the recursive nature of interaction types is discussed in order to show how complex relationships, that involve more parties at several interaction levels, can be better represented and used. Finally, a model for the representation of transactions is proposed in which a transaction type can be interpreted as a particular case of interaction type and a transaction as an ordered set of interactions. Two case studies are presented in the paper; the first concerns an example of fund transfer and highlights how the interaction type hierarchy can be applied. The second case study is from the port community system of South Italy and shows how a clearance to enter or leave national waters can be described as “departure from” and “arrival to” interaction types.

Sustainability, as well as the sustainable use of resources and related issues, has inspired a long-lasting and lively debate among scholars of different disciplines. Due to under-investigation of several of the sustainability-related challenges, this paper aims to better understand the system dynamics that, supported by some digital enablers (e.g., digital technologies and platforms), boost the sustainability of complex service systems such as healthcare. To this end, the theoretical meta-model of interaction types, which inspired the prototype digital platform dedicated to the online delivery of health-related services, is presented. Moreover, some healthcare usage scenarios, based on the prototype’s functions, are analysed and discussed. This allows understanding of how important the role of technologies and, in particular, digital platforms, are in empowering actors and in making them willing to interact, and share their own resources in continually new ways. This paves the way for ongoing value co-creation, which is essential for healthcare system sustainability.

A Port Community System (PCS) is an electronic platform that links the multiple systems operated by private and public organizations. Accordingly, PCSs can be interpreted as complex service system networks that coproduce services. The study proposes a three levels top-down methodology which aims to interpret existing PCS in order to: provide a formal description of this system network based on the enterprise architecture concepts of a PCS; illustrate how each actor of a PCS offers or requires services; and present a new approach to the measurement of services based on the Goal-Question-Metric paradigm.

The need for complex systems has grown in recent years to react to the different requirements arisen in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent environment. Examples range from air traffic control systems, systems managing transactions on the stock exchange or environmental monitoring systems. The increasing complexity of such systems brings to the higher complexity of project management activities, which requires the review of commonly used methodologies to provide a better response to expectations of success for the planned projects. In this work we present a method for project monitoring and control based on the idea of a project view: given an analysis dimension such as time, cost and quality, each participant in the project has its own view on the project execution. The unavoidable differences between the views of various stakeholders have been formalized in the function \(gap\) that can be interpreted as an inverse measure of the degree of consonance between two participants with respect to the dimension of considered analysis. The method can leverage on the consonance seeking among stakeholders as a reduction factor of project risks.

The literature offers several examples of executable specification languages, ranging from mathematically based notation to visual formalisms. In this paper, an analysis environment for executable system specifications based on the language RSF (Requirement Specification Formalism) is presented. The analysis environment also contains two other linguistic tools — RSQ (Requirement Specification Querying), and SEF (Specification Execution Filtering). Using RSQ, classes of execution paths with certain properties can be exercised, so that selected behavioral aspects can be observed. Using SEF, the amount of information and the times at which it is output can be controlled, making the behavior analysis more effective. The paper shows how the notation of RSF, with its few basic concepts, is naturally exploited as a nucleus for the other tools, which are easily integrated to produce the final analysis environment. The combination of RSQ and SEF allows the planning of testing and analysis activities. A working session is shown for a specification describing a telephone switch call handler.

In recent years there has been a growth in size and complexity of the projects managed by public or private organizations. This leads to increased probability of project failures, frequently due to the difficulty and the ability to achieve the objectives such as on-time delivery, cost containment, expected quality achievement. In particular, one of the most common causes of project failure is the very high degree of uncertainty that affects the expected performance of the project, especially when different stakeholders with divergent aims and goals are involved in the project.In this paper we present a new visualization technique, called 3DRC, that addresses the prevention and proactive handling of the potential controversies among project stakeholders. The approach is based on the 3D radar charts, to allow easier and more immediate analysis and management of the project views giving a contribution in reducing the project uncertainty and, consequently, the risk of project failure.

The issue of knowledge management in a distributed network is receiving increasing attention from both scientific and industrial organizations. Research efforts in this field are motivated by the awareness that knowledge is more and more perceived as a primary economic resource and that, in the context of organization of organizations, the augmented management complexity of its whole life cycle requires new reference models. In this paper, we build on recent research work to propose a distributed knowledge management framework that can be used in several application domains. We characterize the dimension of social influences in terms of identity, negotiation and trust modeling them within a framework that can augment learning and cooperation capabilities through knowledge sharing and effective communication. A particular instance of the presented framework, to handle the problem of risk management in enterprise alliance partnership, is discussed as a case study that shows the practical applicability of our approach.

In a fast-changing environment, organizations face conditions of growing complexity that challenge decision-making and innovation activities, highlighting an increasing need to develop dynamic capabilities. In this scenario, our focus is on service science's recent call for “T-shaped professionals,” identified as people possessing both functional/disciplinary expertise and ability to apply knowledge across different contexts. Starting from this notion and by adopting a viable systems approach (vSa), we shift focus from individuals to organizations, providing an interpretation of the structure and dynamics of a “T-shaped knowledge” to be developed with respect to a distributed knowledge management network in which organizations pursue learning-by-interaction and knowledge cocreation. By integrating the vSa and the distributed knowledge management framework (DKMF), our proposal provides a multidimensional vSa-DKMF metamodel to assess the relational conditions among cooperating organizations as well as to provide guidelines for the construction of a knowledge network built on the idea of T-shaped knowledge. To illustrate the practical aspects of vSa-DKMF, we focus on the case of open communities of practice as an emblematic example of developing a T-shaped knowledge starting from a specialized (“I-shaped”) knowledge.

The benefits of contract management can be usually observed in terms of ambiguity minimization, disputes avoidance and smooth completion of processes arising from contractual agreements. Neverthless, uncertainty still plays its role: contractors might not have detailed information on the objective to achieve, the realization context could be not fully identified, the assumptions made at contract signing were misleading. These are just few examples of threats that can undermine the successin the achievement of contractual goals opening the door to stakeholder disputes especially when complex projects and virtual enterprises are involved. In this paper we propose a statechart model of contract management activities that formalizes the main interaction among contractors. The model represents the three fundamental states of a contract life cycle: Preparation, Execution and Termination, and is taken as reference for the ordinary life cycle management activities. In particular, we deepen the problem of dispute management providing a detailed representation useful for the dispute avoidance, if needed through the support of a mediator. The model also provides a set of transition rules that formally specify the behaviour of a reactive system for the support of contract and dispute management.

Risk management in several application domains is receiving increasing attention in the last years especially when the risk management must be pursued in a network made of interacting systems. The motivation is that although risk management models and techniques are mature enough to handle risk in the context of a single system, risk evaluation in the setting of a network of systems is much more difficult to model and manage. Because of the lack of awareness of risk, it is difficult to perceive risks propagation within the network of systems. On the other hand, the lack of shared goals and knowledge represents itself a risk, so that we need a good paradigm to organize and communicate information.

The issue of knowledge management in a distributed network is receiving increasing attention from both scientific and industrial organizations. Research efforts in this field are motivated by the awareness that knowledge is more and more perceived as a primary economic resource and that, in the context of organization of organizations, the augmented management complexity of its whole life cycle requires new reference models. In this paper, we build on recent research work to propose a distributed knowledge management framework that can be used in several application domains. We characterize the dimension of social influences in terms of identity, negotiation and trust modeling them within a framework that can augment learning and cooperation capabilities through knowledge sharing and effective communication. A particular instance of the presented framework, to handle the problem of risk management in enterprise alliance partnership, is discussed as a case study that shows the practical applicability of our approach.

Refining a specification S1 means to provide another specification S2 which contains all the information given in S1 but with more detail. In this paper, we use logical implication from lower to higher levels of logic specifications to give a definition of refinement between these levels. This guarantees that any property of the higher level is also verified at the lower one. The definition of the relation "is refinement of" is given for specifications which are general first-order theories and it is proved to be transitive. A relevant aspect is that the different levels of logic specifications are in general not immediately comparable, because they can use different vocabularies. For this reason, the concept of transcription is introduced formally in our definition. Then the particular case of Horn specifications is considered. Horn specification semantics can be given by the methodology of least models. This may suggest definitions of the concept of refinement different from the one based on logical implication from lower to higher levels. However, conceptual problems can arise depending on the kind of the refinement definition chosen. Perhaps the most interesting effect is that the property of refinement transitivity may be lost. A possible way to restore the transitivity is provided.

Relation grammars are introduced as a powerful formalism for specifying the syntax of visual languages and, more generally, of multi-dimensional languages. Textual languages use only the implicit relation of sequential concatenation of symbols. The proposed extension relax this limitation and allows the introduction of any number of relations. By analogy with textual grammars, relation grammars make it easier to recognize the purpose of the lexical analysis phase and that of the syntactic one for parsing multi-dimensional structures.

A system for the definition, querying and analysis of executable specification is presented in the paper. After a short review RSF, a specification language for the definition of systems with time constraints, the authors consider the problem of querying the specifications. The query language RSQ allows one to characterize sub-classes of possible specification execution behaviours in terms of queries directed to the specification. The problem of selection of significant information produced during the execution of the specification is also considered. The system proposes three linguistic tools, one for the definition, one for the querying and the last for the filtering of executable software specifications. The linguistic tools are quite homogeneous both in their syntax and semantics and support the organization of software behaviour inspection and analysis in the RSF prototyping environment. >

Relation grammars (RGs) are introduced as a possible general framework for specifying the syntax of visual languages and, more generally, of multi-dimensional languages. A formal definition of relation grammars is given. Two examples of applications on graphs are shown. RG formalism is compared to conventional context-free grammars. RGs are used to describe the syntax of horizontal lines and statechart graphs using picture processing grammars and picture layout grammars, respectively. >

The problem of performance evaluation of business processes supported by Workflow Management Systems is a recent research issue. In this paper, we propose an approach to the performance evaluation of automated business processes based on the measurement language WPQL (Workflow Performance Query Language). The paper first describes the WPQL architecture together with a selection mechanism by means of which the workflow entities to measure are isolated. Then, the main constructs of WPQL for measure definition and measure application are presented and exemplified. Finally, we show a working session of the support tool and discuss some guideline for further research.

In several application fields, sentences can assume, besides the usual values true and false, a third value that signals their unacceptability. This may happen when a query to a database violates the database constraints or in typed logic programming, where a goal which does not satisfy the type constraints can be considered unacceptable. Here a three-valued Horn logic is presented, where the third value has the meaning of “illegal”, i.e. unacceptable. The extension of the conventional logic operators is considered, and a model-theoretic semantics for three-valued Horn programs is provided, which allows a formal definition of legality (i.e. acceptability) of logic formulas and programs. For the class of legal three-valued logic programs the use of the traditional SLD resolution algorithm is proven to be sound. Finally, it is shown that the legality check of a three-valued logic program can be also carried out through SLD resolution.