Romanian Research Network for Integrated

Product and Process Engineering – INPRO

G. Draghici1, A. Draghici

1

1Politehnica University of Timisoara, Integrated Engineering Research

Center, Romania

Abstract

The paper presents relevant aspects for building the Romanian Research

Network for Integrated Product and Process Engineering (INPRO). Based

on the principles of integrated engineering and by building a collaborative

virtual environment, 9 research centers and a national research institute

have decided to share their competencies and knowledge in the field of in-

tegrated product and process engineering. The integration of each partner

in the INPRO network and the work modality are shown in the Joint Pro-

gram of Activities. The main actions that are described in the paper are the

creation, consolidation and development of the network, initiation and de-

velopment of jointly executed research activities and spreading of excel-

lence. Finally, some conclusions are elaborated.

Keywords

Co-operative Platform, Integrated Product and Process Engineering,

Knowledge Management, Virtual Design and Manufacturing

1 Introduction

Virtual organization is one of the potential and ideal places for knowledge

management processes since knowledge is a ‘culture’ among teams or

partners. Therefore, it becomes a suitable place to apply the knowledge

management practice to support its functional and operational process. In-

2

creasing product complexity, shrinking design cycle times, and explosive

global competition are forcing organizations around the world to collabo-

rate in ways not previously considered. The virtual organization focuses

around the idea of a group, which is not constrained by traditional bounda-

ries of space and time. A strong virtual organization has to identify the

strategic options for building the knowledge sharing culture in order to be-

come competitive [2, 4, 6, 7].

This research represents the extension to the national level (in Romania)

of the Virtual Research Laboratory for a Knowledge Community in Pro-

duction (VRL-KCiP) Network of Excellence (NoE), project financed by

the European Commission in the 6th Framework Program (FP6 2002-IST-

NMP-1, Contract no. 507487) [10]. In the context of the national Excel-

lence Research Program (CEEX) we have developed an integrated engi-

neering network (started from 2006), INPRO [3] which allowed a clearer

vision of the research orientations, a better quality of research results and

the link with the European Research Area. The main research activities of

the INPRO project are: development of new research tools and platforms

for collaborative design and manufacturing, product models and product

development processes, knowledge management.

2 The Context of the INPRO Project

Many product development projects require co-operative work between re-

search team with various competences, which are geographical distributed.

When such a project team is set up, all required knowledge must be con-

sidered to solve a certain conception problem in a collaborative environ-

ment. The product development process has changed dramatically in the

last decade because of the progresses in the information and communica-

tion technology (ICT) field. Nowadays, the product development is a result

of a collaborative design process in network [4].

The researches in the field of integrated product and process engineering

are developed by research centers, laboratories from universities all over

the world. In Europe 24 of them are partners in the VRL-KCiP NoE [6]. In

Romania, the scientific research has a spread tendency, because of the low

capacity of using and sustaining the research results by industry. The aca-

demic research has to be improved because of the result integration in the

academic courses. So far, the main research-development-innovation

(RDI) fields are correlated with those established by the European Com-

mission for R&D. Therefore, there is an initiative for integrate the national

scientific research in the European Research Area [1].

3

The INPRO network joint 136 members (83 PhD, 41 PhD. students, 8

researchers and 4 master students) from 9 research centers of the Universi-

ties of Timisoara, Bucharest, Iasi, Brasov, Bacau, Suceava, Sibiu and

Oradea and a national research institute. They have decided to share their

competencies and knowledge in the field of integrated product and process

engineering. The project proposal is based on the idea of linking the Ro-

manian scientific research to the European Research Area using the bridge

created by the participation of the Politehnica University of Timisoara

(UPT, through the Integrated Engineering Research Centre) in the Euro-

pean project VRL-KCiP. Through the INPRO project are developed RDI

activities that include fundamental, applicative researches of pre-

competitive level and are made in common by the network’s partners. At

the organizational level, the network is based on a long time partnership

between the partners and the establishment of the following research poles:

South Pole (Bucharest), East Pole (Iasi-Suceava-Bacau), Central Pole

(Brasov-Sibiu), West Pole (Timisoara-Oradea), as it is shown in figure 1.

The regional research centers will concentrate the scientific research and

the human and material resources of high performance from their region.

Fig. 1. Relations between the research poles inside the INPRO network and the

link with the European Research Area

The specific strategic objectives followed by the creation of the INPRO

network are: (1) setting up a manufacturing knowledge base in the field of

product and processes integrated engineering, (2) increasing research ac-

tivities performance, stimulating the specialized research team foundation

in the priority R&D fields and facilitating the access to the EU research

programs, (3) enhancing of the human resources education process by in-

The relation with the ERA

EAST Pole

SOUTH Pole

CENTRAL Pole

WEST Pole

4

cluding the young PhD. students in the joint research activities and by as-

sure the access to the disseminating activities in the INPRO network and

the connection with VRL-KCiP NoE, (4) facilitating the mobilities inside

the INPRO network and the VRL-KCiP NoE, (5) superior valorization of

the existing material research base and research cost reduction by creating

the possibility to common use of the partners’ extant infrastructure, (6)

managerial skills development in the scientific research field and increas-

ing the capacity for new financial resources identification.

Fig. 2. The INPRO network’s Joint Program of Activities

The operational objectives are: (1) creation, consolidation and develop-

ment of the INPRO network, (2) initiation and development of jointly exe-

cuted research activities, (3) spreading of excellence. The specific strategic

objectives are realized by the Joint Program of Activities depicted in figure

2. It consists of managerial aspects for organizing the INPRO network, but

also the methods and tools that are used for the virtual collaborative envi-

ronment development.

JJOOIINNTT PPRROOGGRRAAMM OOFF AACCTTIIVVIITTIIEESS IINN TTHHEE IINNPPRROO NNEETTWWOORRKK

Creation, consolida-tion and development of

the network

Partners integration and network’s organizing and de-

velopment

Creation, development and maintaining the commu-

nication infrastructure

Co-operation between

the network members

Initiation and develop-ment of jointly executed

research activities

Develop new research tools and platforms for com-

mon use

Analyze and development of product models and manu-

facturing processes

Knowledge management

Spreading of excel-

lence

Joint program of train-

ing for network members

Dissemination of the

research results

Knowledge transfer to

industry

5

3 INPRO Network Creation, Consolidation and Development

3.1 Partners’ Integration, Network’s Organizing and Development

These are focus on adapting the organizational activities of the network

through a strategic plan, for identifying the most demanding industrial re-

quirements, defining the knowledge map and a competence profile regard-

ing the current expertise of each member. In addition, there will be devel-

oped a policy to strengthen relations between the research activities. The

work phases are:

Definition of a strategic plan for the partners’ integration – there will

be formulated the strategic priorities of the network by using the SWOT

method for the diagnosis of the internal and external environment. Each

year the strategy will be up-date.

Developing and maintaining a continuous living and upgraded vision on

future industrial needs - a marketing research by opinion poll method will

be developed for the industrial needs identification regarding research, de-

velopment and innovation. Each partner will distribute and collect the

questionnaires in his geographical area each year for the vision up-date.

Define a knowledge map and a competence profile is necessary to de-

termine the current expertise of each member, by collecting the individual

competencies in INPRO network. The preliminary ontology and the

knowledge map will be built. These will be actualized each year.

Development of a policy to strengthen the relations between the re-

search activities - The methods and tools that will be applied are in the

field of researchers’ motivation and implication.

3.2 Creation, Development and Maintaining the Network’s Communication Infrastructure

This will focus on defining, developing and managing common tools for

internal and external communication and knowledge sharing. The work

phases are:

Definition of tools for internal communication will facilitate the collabo-

rative work in the virtual environment. The tools that will be used are vi-

sioconference (VC) equipment (will allowed the connection with the VRL-

KCiP NoE, by using the experience of Timisoara team), servers and spe-

6

cific software for the knowledge management and sharing common

knowledge databases.

Definition of tools for external communication will support the activities

for the spreading of excellence from the network to the external environ-

ment. The network’s web page includes links to the partners, activities de-

veloped, results, news and e-journal.

Demonstration of software tools and, where is possible, making them

available to other partners through the Internet - The software own by the

partners will be available to all INPRO network members through Internet

and they will support the common research.

3.3 Co-operation between the Network Members

With the aim to sustained the collaboration between partners, but also with

other national and international Networks, there will be formed an Adviser

Council. This will focus on encouraging mobility of the partners, their

common work for articles and books and coordinating the PhD topics

(joint supervision of PhD students). The work consists of:

Encouragement of mobility - Exchange of personnel and cooperation on

diploma student projects and master projects are important integration as-

pect that has a great interest for all the network members.

Co-ordination of PhD topics, initiation of joint supervision of PhD stu-

dents - To facilitate the exchange of PhD students a database of subjects and

candidates for PhD research is created. This will support joint supervision of

students’ projects and the PhD thesis presentation in the network frame.

4 Initiation and Development of Jointly Executed Research Activities

4.1 Develop New Research Tools and Platforms for Common Use

This activity is the base for future collaborations and synergies by integrat-

ing the partners in the network. The work phases are:

To develop a common knowledge base to support collaborative RDI ac-

tivities within the network - The methods and tools that will be focused on

the inventory of the actual resources of the partners and a database crea-

tion, which will be available to all partners on Internet.

7

To provide knowledge management and engineering tools - We shall

buy and install specialized software tools as: MindManager, TextMining.

To contribute to different content aspects of the common toolbox -

process knowledge for early design evaluation, cost modeling frameworks

and re-use knowledge and other. There will be created software applica-

tions for knowledge management and integrated design.

4.2 Analyze and Development of Product Models and Manufacturing Processes

These two basic concepts will be the support for knowledge modeling. The

modeling final step will concern the complete life-cycle processes of prod-

uct and the corresponding knowledge, in order to allow a fast performance

evaluation of the product during the design process [8, 9]. In addition, this

work will focus on a large and complete state-of-the-art survey in many

technological fields of production, processes, strategies and practices, with

respect to both scientific and industrial reference. The work phases are:

The definition of a product life cycle model with integration of external

service partners - The goal is to made a critical analyze of the existing

models (double cube, multi-view, integrated product etc.) and in an origi-

nal manner, by integration and extensions, we will obtain a new model.

Development of life cycle controlling models to analyze the economic,

environmental and social impacts - Methods and tools to analyze the mate-

rial and energy consumption, the generated losses, the needs of mainte-

nance, repair, re-cycling and re-use in economics terms will be developed.

These methods will be held for the economical life-cycle impact evalua-

tion and they will be tested and validated by the industrial partners.

To take into consideration rapid prototyping processes such as Reverse

Engineering (RE), Rapid Prototyping (RP) for tele-engineering and rapid

manufacturing - The goal is to study and investigate the existing RE and

RP methods and processes used by the partners and develop new applica-

tions.

4.3 Knowledge Management

This is an activity developed based on the ICT techniques in order to con-

stitute a very innovative network for future dissemination, both in Roma-

nia and at a European level. Knowledge management related to production

fields will have to be implemented in a distributed web-based platform ac-

cessible to the network partners. The work phases are:

8

To collect and formalize knowledge about production processes by de-

fining the actual limits (related to cost), publishing examples of use, good

practices etc. - The knowledge collection will be done by communication

methodologies, using questionnaires, and the formalization. In the same

manner there will be developed the collection and formalization of knowl-

edge about virtual design and manufacturing and the process of providing

knowledge in process simulation, remote analysis, simulation and visuali-

zation of process parameters.

Definition of knowledge management methodologies and tools for shar-

ing knowledge and applications for demonstration inside the Network,

such as: ontology based systems, tools for knowledge management in pro-

duction, including data mining and machine learning techniques. For

knowledge capitalizing, using and disposal, web tools will be used.

Development of new working methods based on new methods for knowl-

edge and communication management - We will elaborate new work

methods regarding the ICT tools and Internet platform. New methods for

process optimization will be developed that will allow the interoperability

of the application for the product development.

5 Spreading of Excellence

5.1 Joint Program of Training for Network Members

Advanced training and educational procedures, which will address stu-

dents, researchers and key staff of the network’s members will be devel-

oped using the VC system. The work phases are:

Creation of a cycle of distributed conferences using the VC technique -

Minimum 3 VC section per partner each year, alternatively hosted by each

Pole centers of the network will be organized. Each year there will be

made a CD (distributed in the network) with all the VC presentations.

Harmonization of curricula in the specific domains of manufacturing en-

gineering, through the review of the curricula in order generalized the experi-

ence gained by each partner.

9

5.2 Dissemination of the Research Results

This task will be held into national and international scientific community.

The participation to international conferences in VRL-KCiP NoE will be

encourages. The work consists of:

To support the interaction between the national network and interna-

tional networks and programs - The network members will have access at

the organized VC in the VRL-KCiP NoE.

Organization of seminars or international conferences with academic or

industrial destination - INPRO network partners will co-organize each

year an international conference.

Dissemination of the results in prestigious scientific organizations - The

INPRO members will be ambassadors in national and international scien-

tific organizations.

5.3 Knowledge Transfer to Industry

During this activity the knowledge transfer to the industrial community

will be encouraged. The work consists of:

Creation of a roadmap for technology transfer - The local Chambers of

Commerce and Industry will sustain the knowledge transfer to industry in

each partner’s area. Industrial workshops will be organized where specific

INPRO’s research results will be presented.

Creation of a common inheritance and installation of the tools for the

evaluation of the potential openings to industry - On the INPRO network

web site there will be created a database consists of the practical results

and the research themes that were solve for industry by each partner. This

database will be up-date each year.

Definition of a policy for the intellectual protection and the defense of

the rights of ownership - We shall create a guide for the intellectual prop-

erty rights protection.

6 Conclusion

Setting up of the national research network in the field of Integrated Prod-

uct and Process Engineering (INPRO) attend the strategic objectives in

high RDI. Also, it derive from the need of reducing the research fragmen-

tation in the field, for building of a common resource (material and human)

base that assure the possibility for complex researches in modeling and

simulation of product and processes associated with their life cycle. It will

10

be create a dynamic structure and a collaborative platform in integrated de-

sign that will allows its members to participate in cooperative design pro-

jects with industrial applications.

The share information process needs the information change into

knowledge. Their variety is from the determination of the product specifi-

cation to the end of lifecycle, including the processes and the manufactur-

ing systems design [4]. The integration inside the network will be the base

for the communication system development between the partners and for

the establishment of a knowledge community.

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