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Smart CPSs (S-CPSs) have been evolving beyond what was identified by the traditional definitions of CPSs. The objective of our research is to investigate the concepts and implementations of S-CPSs, and more specifically, the frameworks proposed for the fuzzy front end of their reasoning processes. The objectives of the paper are: (i) overview of the various framework concepts and implementations in the context of S-CPS, and (ii) analyze the presented frameworks from the points of view of reasoning processes of S-CPSs that included the concepts of structuring knowledge, building awareness, situated reasoning, decision making, and system adaptation. Our major findings are: (i) model-based and composability approaches do not support a development of S-CPSs; (ii) awareness and adaptation behaviors are considered as system level characteristics of S-CPSs that are not achieved by traditional design approaches; (iii) a new framework development should support a compositional design for reasoning in S-CPS. Based on the findings above, we argue that a development of S-CPSs should be supported by a proper framework development for compositional design of smart reasoning and coping with the challenges of compositionality requires both software-level integration and holistic fusion of knowledge by means of semantic transformations. It needs further investigation if a compositionality enabling framework should appear in the form of a meta-framework (abstract) or in the form of a semantically integrated (concrete) framework.

Companies are getting increasingly interested in learning how different customers use their products. Collecting data about the use of products provides useful insights and facilitates design enhancements. Effective data analytics needs dedicated tools. In this paper, we summarize the results of our literature research done with special attention to existing tools. We observed that everything is changing rapidly and getting more complex in terms of data and processing methods and tools. While remarkable attention has been paid to processing big data, much less is being devoted to effective semantic progressing of middle-of-life (MoL) data. One of our findings is that commercialized data analytics tools have not addressed extraction, aggregation, and handling genuine MoL data adequately. Another one is that the currently available tools are in the lack of the capability to adapt themselves to designers needs and to produce results that could be reused in multiple design tasks. Nowadays products are equipped with smart capabilities and this offers new opportunities for exploiting middle-of-life data. The knowledge aggregated in this study will be used in the development of a sophisticated toolbox. This will: (i) integrate various tools under a unified interface, (ii) implement various semantics orientated and smart reasoning-based functions, and (iii) facilitate data transformations by practicing designers in contexts.

The system concept is a widely-used concept in research and practice. Already in the 50s of the previous century, a community was created to investigate interrelationships between domains and create a theory surpassing and comparing domains. The General Systems Theory (GST) community has tried to come up with such a theory for several decades. The ambition has grown more realistic in the years after, recognizing that an all-encompassing theory would not be possible. Since then, systems research was aimed at generating useful and usable approaches to compare and interrelate domains, thus creating a trans-disciplinary approach to enable description and analysis of large, and even complex, systems. The concept of systems, however, is often loosely used. Levels of abstraction are neglected, and interrelationships between systems ignored. In this paper, the concept of system is put in historical context, and further elaborated upon in the context of complex and trans-disciplinary systems. Two examples of transdisciplinary systems are presented and discussed to illustrate the use of the system concept.

Costs associated with unscheduled and preventive maintenance can contribute significantly to an airline's expenditure. Reliability analysis can help to identify and plan for maintenance events. Reliability analysis in industry is often limited to statistically based approaches that incorporate failure times as the primary stochastic variable, with additional strict assumptions regarding independence of events and underlying distributions of failure phenomena. This foregoes the complex nature of aircraft operations, where a whole range of operational factors may influence the probability of occurrence of a maintenance event. The aim of this research is to identify operational factors affecting component reliability and to assess whether these can be used to reduce the number of unscheduled occurrences (i.e. failures). To do so, a data-driven approach is adopted where historical operational and maintenance data is gathered and analysed to identify operational factors with a measurable influence on maintenance event occurrence. Both time-independent and time-dependent Proportional Hazard Models (PHMs), models which incorporate operational factors as covariates, are employed to generate reliability estimates. Results obtained from analysing historical data of a set of ten components with respect to unscheduled removals indicates that adopting new maintenance schedules, derived from the proposed reliability models, could reduce the number of unscheduled occurrences by approximately 37%. The potential benefits of adopting the proposed strategy are extensive. Nonetheless, numerous assumptions have been introduced to overcome challenges imposed by the complex nature of the data. To overcome these challenges, recommendations are made for future development of the proposed approach

The aircraft dispatch decision is a complex analysis based on many factors related to airworthiness regulations, aircraft health status, resource availability at current and future stop(s) and operational preferences of the operator. Within the turnaround time (TAT) a decision has to be made whether the aircraft can return to service, defects have to be deferred, operational restrictions apply, maintenance has to be performed, or if the aircraft is unable to safely perform the next flight. This paper presents a framework for automated dispatch decision support and, as a first step of implementation of the framework, a proof of concept for automated root cause identification by means of a case study on a Airbus A320 wing anti-ice valve. A decision tree algorithm has been applied to a synthetic dataset, representing historical failure data with associated root causes and observed symptoms, achieving correct classification of the root cause for 40% of the cases. Analysis of the results show that the accuracy of the method increases with an increasing number of symptoms associated to a root cause. Furthermore, the method cannot distinguish between root causes with similar symptoms. Although the use of synthetic data restricts conclusions that can be drawn from the results, the work shows a proof of concept for automated root cause identification and leads to initial findings that are essential for future implementation and optimisation of the method. Eventually, the framework will be operationalised in the form of a mobile tool to assist stakeholders in on-site aircraft dispatch decision support.

The present study develops a method for the sake of evaluating Disposal and Recycle (D&R) cost in view of the increasing demand in aircraft retirement. Firstly, a process model is extracted. The subordinated cost elements are also identified. Next, the cost aggregations based on the D&R process steps are discussed. Moreover, it proposes an economic indicator to support the determination of the aircraft D&R strategies. The indicator is used to evaluate the economic performance and to facilitate the trade-off studies among different D&R scenarios. This analysis is demonstrated on two aircraft types with two scenarios. In addition, sensitivity analysis evaluating the impact of the salvage value, residual value, D&R cost, and the learning factor is performed. It is found that the engine D&R possesses more economic gains than that of the aircraft. The salvage value and residual value are the main factors which influence the D&R economic performance.

Sustainability of electronic products until recently mainly focused on improving the energy efficiency. Recently, resource efficiency has become of growing importance. Due to the use of relatively small amounts of many valuable and scarce materials, often intimately mixed, the design of electronic products deserves specific attention. From a materials perspective measures are needed to improve on recyclability. In addition to the use of recyclable materials, the ability to break connections between materials that are not compatible in recycling processes is crucial. Environmentally and economically more interesting than recovery of materials is the reuse of components or products. To enable multiple product lifecycles, product design should also explicitly address maintenance, upgradeability, modularity and disassembly. Design guidelines will be presented and challenges with respect to impact assessment and business model development will be discussed.

The use of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs) has expanded in many industries due to superior properties compared to traditional materials. Nevertheless, their recycling is challenged by immature recycling market and poor legislative support. This study evaluates the application and disposal of CFRPs within the different industries in Kazakhstan. The study adopted a market-based analysis approach to understand the up-to-date levels of application of CFRPs across manufacturing, construction, aviation, and other relevant industries of Kazakhstan. The study also considered CFRP markets and associated recycling practices in neighboring countries such as China and Russia which have a significant impact on Kazakhstan in terms of import and export of materials and waste. The research findings indicate that the application of CFRPs varies among industries, construction being the most prominent, however, their recycling is not as organized as in other waste types such as plastic, metals, etc. Russia and China will be generating thousands of tonnes of CFRP waste originating from the wind turbine and aviation sectors in future, from which Kazakhstan may also see some benefits. The findings of the study are deemed to be useful for the government of Kazakhstan and waste recycling associated stakeholders for future considerations.

This paper aims at conceptualising a digitised Shop Floor Management(SFM) visualisation board. The logic of inquiry throughout the study is an iterativeback and-forth approach between our theoretical conceptualisation of the digitisedvisualisation board and empirical data collected in three industrial companies. Thepaper shows that digitised visualisation boards should have malleable representationcapacities to transfer, translate and transform knowledge within and across SFMteams. A digitised visualisation board is suggested, which consists of; translatingpractices within SFM teams, translating practices across SFM teams, transformingpractices across SFM teams and translating practices within SFM teams. This paper aims at conceptualising a digitised Shop Floor Management(SFM) visualisation board. The logic of inquiry throughout the study is an iterativeback and-forth approach between our theoretical conceptualisation of the digitisedvisualisation board and empirical data collected in three industrial companies. Thepaper shows that digitised visualisation boards should have malleable representationcapacities to transfer, translate and transform knowledge within and across SFMteams. A digitised visualisation board is suggested, which consists of; translatingpractices within SFM teams, translating practices across SFM teams, transformingpractices across SFM teams and translating practices within SFM teams.

In the field of movement disorders, each disabled person is different for both motor performance for functional requirements and expectations. This paper describes the development of a personalized device for a student with spastic quadriplegia at Federico II. This device is an Alternative Augmentative Communication system and it consists of hardware and software, which have been adapted to the individual characteristics of the student. According to participatory design and using the task analysis, we proceed to the hardware prototyping and to the software interface improving. An approach based on Analytic Hierarchy Process and Multiple-Criteria Decision Analysis is used. Tests under laboratory conditions are performed for evaluating the usability index of the device. Considering the data analysis, some critical issues are identified. The knowledge acquired in the case study is a point of strength of the proposed paper because it can be re-used for other persons with severe motor disabilities to improve their inclusion, integration and participation and to carry out tasks in different areas of application with minimum stress and maximum efficiency and effectiveness.