Additive Manufacturing (AM) is well-known for its ability to construct 3D objects by successively depositing material in layers. Although AM has been recently widespread for industrial application, an application in an educational sector is still relatively limited. Inspired by AM capability, we aim to evaluate healthcare educational media from using AM technology in this study. Initially, healthcare model is fabricated using 3D printer. Then, given multiple, conflicting criteria based on education, cost, appearance, and realism; the printed model is compared against gross anatomy and textbook alternatives using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique. Analyzed results collected from medical students show that 3D printed healthcare model is promising in terms of appearance criterion. In addition, whereas gross anatomy is superior in terms of education and realism criteria, textbook is preferred when cost criterion is desired. The overall analysis suggests that 3D printed model can be used together with gross anatomy and textbook for healthcare education.
The last-mile delivery is an attractive transportation service for many organizations since a main operation to deliver goods from retailers to customers' selected locations. Even though the literatures have reviewed on the suitability of last-mile delivery in different organizational structures, only few have identified the common factors of organizational characteristics. This paper aimed to study the common organizational characteristics for last-mile delivery adoption in different modes. A total of 300 questionnaires were collected from different firms in the central of Thailand. Based on the descriptive analysis, the important results showed that last-mile delivery was widely used in medium-size organizations which had semi-automation level and mixed distribution channel. Attended home delivery, unattended home delivery, same-day delivery and on-demand delivery were the discussed last-mile delivery types. Attended home delivery was the most popular last-mile delivery in Thailand. On-demand delivery was an innovative type of last-mile delivery; however, it was still widely used in a specific industry which was food industry. Based on significant tests, the important factors affecting the choices of last-mile delivery were type of industry, type of product, automation level and distribution channel while size of organization shows no influence on the selection of last-mile delivery types.
Using the massive data of user requirements on the crowdsourcing platform to unearth potential user requirements, and solve problems about the lack of product conceptual design inspirations and low efficiency, a method for analyzing and evaluating massive user requirements based on the crowdsourcing platform is proposed. This research uses Semantic Discrimination Lexicon (SDL), combining with the KANO model and entropy method, to perform analysis of attribute categories and evaluation of importance on user requirement items extracted from user requirements of a crowdsourcing platform. And then, it helps product designers unearth potential user requirement items from massive data of user requirements, obtain design inspirations, and support concept design of products.
Sustainable agriculture production has been recently one of the required changes in many countries. In this paper, an optimization model is presented for stimulating the crop rotation problem with industrial-related decisions in the agro-food supply chain. The current study's main purpose is to identify the optimal rotation schedules in a restricted area while satisfying the required demand in the industrial sector. The combinatorial nature of the agricultural problem is due to several factors that must be considered simultaneously. These factors include but are not limited to the succession of crops, irrigation amount, fallow periods, and space limitation. The mentioned factors make crop rotation a complex problem, so combining this problem with the tactical industrial problem leads to a challenging integrated problem in the agro-food supply chain. Set of instances for exploring the problem's complexity are solved to optimality. From the results, the associated number of variables and the computational time were outlined within the rotation planning horizon. The solutions for the production and logistics plans were discussed along the supply chain.
In a globally competitive environment with high innovation pressure and decreasing response time to customer requirements, companies are faced with having to improve their logistics system. This optimization is strongly supported by growing digitalization and autonomization of logistics within Industry 4.0 and leads to a fundamental change in the entire logistics processes of companies. While previous methods of process analysis do not comprehensively consider the transformation of the logistics system, this paper presents an approach for task-oriented modeling of current and future logistics processes in consideration of the socio-technical system. Based on literature research, expert interviews, and workshops, logistics process modules for modeling automotive logistics are derived. These modules can be configured via parameters and values, similar to morphological boxes. The validation of the developed process modules occurred in the logistics processes of a commercial vehicle manufacturer. Using the process modules, both the current process flow and future scenarios can be modeled, and process changes can be revealed transparently in terms of people and technology.
