KITARA research project report for year 2007 Project: ICT in the New Business and Service Concepts of the Foundry Industry, FC-ICT The main participants of the consortium FC-ICT are: Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Foundry Engineering, prof. Juhani Orkas (in charge of the project) Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Machine Design, prof. Kalevi Ekman Helsinki University of Technology, Software Business and Engineering Institute (SoberIT), prof. Marko Nieminen The names and tasks of each researcher are described in subproject reports. Abstract These three research groups cover all the critical aspects of the service quality and substance: Business environment and service concept development, ICT support for product development and design work, ICT support for life-cycle-management and ICT architecture and solutions compatible with the business and service concept. The project will carry out necessary state-of-the-art analysis and benchmarking work, present an assessment of the future foundry business environment, analyse the customer service concepts, cast product development and production processes and methods for related co-operation between customers and the various operators in the enterprise networks of foundry production subcontractors and also identify needs for changes and development in the ICT support architecture. The goal of the project is to generate models and concepts for ICT support solutions, compatible with the service concept, to be applied by the industry in order to overcome the top European and global competition and to avoid further decay of the profitability of the foundry business. This project will also result a major boost in the academic research culture in the field of foundry engineering by supporting post-graduate research and education. Influence: The whole research consortium participated on the annual Valunkäytön seminaari Use of Castings seminar organized by Finnish foundry group. The researchers had three presentations in the seminar thus providing good possibilities for discussions with the industry. During year 2007, half-day workshops were organized with managing directors of Uudenkaupungin Rautavalimo and Alteams. In August, a visit was organized to Componenta Karkkila foundry. All organized industry meetings provided the researchers the possibility to study future aspects of Finland s foundry industry to guide the research work. In September, most researchers participated on the yearly KITARA seminar. Several researchers participated and presented their research on international scientific conferences. Some interviews were conducted in industry, mainly to verify some issues of prior interviews while preparing scientific publications.
Prof. Juhani Orkas has presented results of the studies also in yearly meeting of the Finnish Workshop Engineers, February 2007, and also during the board meeting of the Finnish Foundry Association on November These and Publications: Coatanéa E., Kuuva M., Nordlund H., Makkonen P. E., Saarelainen, T., A uniform environmental metric based on exergy for early design evaluation, International Journal of Environmentally Conscious Design & Manufacturing, Vol. 13, No.2, 2007, ECM Press, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 23 pages. Coatanéa E., Christophe F., Yannou B., Saarelainen T., Makkonen P. E., Comode: a method for early and flexible design selection by use of dimensional analysis, International Journal of Product Development (IJPD), Vol. x, No. x, xxxx (submitted), Indersciences publishers. Coatanéa E., Yannou B., Honkala S., Saarelainen T., Makkonen P. E., Lajunen A. Measurement theory and dimensional analysis: methodological impact on the comparison and evaluation process, In Proceedings of ASME design engineering technical conferences DETC 2007, Las Vegas, USA, 10 p. Coatanéa E., Yannou B., Boughnim N., Makkonen P. E., Lajunen A., Saarelainen T., & Bertoluci G. Combining analysis of different performances through the use of Dimensional Analysis. In proceedings of International Conference on Engineering Design, ICED 07, 28-31 august 2007, Cité des Sciences et de l'industrie, Paris, France. 12 p. Coatanéa E., Kuuva M., Makkonen P.E., Saarelainen T. Early design evaluation of products artifacts : An approach based on dimensional analysis for combined analysis of environmental, technical and cost requirements, Proceedings of the 14th CIRP International Conference on Life Cycle Engineering Conference, Tokyo, Japan, June 11th-13th, Jokinen, J., Makkonen, P., Saarelainen, T. and Coatanea E. A strategy for cast part shape design. Proceedings of the 16 th International Conference on Engineering Design ICED' Paris, France, August 28-31, 12 p. Jokinen, K. Service-oriented architecture for supporting networked product development. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Engineering and ICT (ICEI 2007), Melaka, Malaysia, Nov 27-28, Kollanus, J., Nieminen, M., Orkas, J. ERP IN FOUNDRIES Towards Optimized Cast Production with Order-Driven DES. Proceedings of the 68th World Foundry Congress 2008. Chennai, India, February 6-11, 2008. Kotinurmi, P. E-Business Framework Enabled B2B Integration. Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology at Helsinki University of Technology TKK.
Nordlund, H., Saarelainen, T., Piha, O., Orkas, J., Makkonen, P. And Niini, E. Enhancing competitiveness of European SME iron foundries by full customer service concept fitting together local production and outsourcing. Proceedings of the 68th World Foundry Congress 2008. Chennai, India, February 6-11, 2008. Orkas, J., Saarelainen, T. and Piha, O. Valunkäyttäjien kokemuksia suomalaisista valimoista - Suomen Akatemian FC-ICT projektin haastatteluiden tuloksia. Valun Käytön Seminaari Turku, Suomi, Huhtikuu 12-13, Orkas, J., Nieminen, M. Valutuotteen valmistus ja hankinta Näkökulmia tulevaisuuteen (Production and purchase of the castings some future aspects). Valun Käytön Seminaari Turku, Suomi, Huhtikuu 12-13, Raatikainen, M., Jokinen, K., Kotinurmi, P. and Myllärniemi, V. Service Composition Using Product Configuration Technology. In Proceedings of the Third IEEE International Workshop on Service-Oriented System Engineering, Hong Kong, China, Oct. 24-26, Rauta, V., Orkas, J. Process control and data analyzing methods in automatic sand casting foundries. Giessereiforschung 59 (2007) No.1, 12 p. Saarelainen, T., Makkonen, P. and Coatanea E. Industrial study of cast part development. Proceedings of the 16 th International Conference on Engineering Design ICED' Paris, France, August 28-31, pp. 757-758 + CD-rom. Saarelainen, T., Piha, O., Makkonen, P., Coatanea, E. and Orkas, J. Current and future practices in Finnish foundry industry - questionnaire study. Proceedings of the 47 th International Foundry Conference. Portorož, Slovenia, September 12-14, Organised by Slovenian foundrymen society. Pp. 18-19 + CD-rom, ISSN 1318-9123. Saarelainen, T., Piha, O., Makkonen, P. and Orkas, J. Customer perspectives of foundries as suppliers: How Finnish foundries remain competitive? International Foundry Research (submitted). Subprojects: This research consortium FC-ICT consists of three subprojects: Life-Cycle-Management ICT Cast Product Development and Design ICT Service Concept ICT Subproject: Life-Cycle-Management ICT Personnel and tasks: Juhani Orkas, professor, subproject leader Olavi Piha, M.Sc.(Tech.), researcher
Harri Nordlund, M.Sc. (Tech.), researcher Veijo Rauta, M.Sc. (Tech.), researcher Eero Niini, M.Sc. (Tech.), laboratory manager Janne Kollanus, research assistant Researcher carriers: Researcher Olavi Piha and Harri Nordlund work as full time researchers on the project and they continue towards a doctoral thesis. Reseacher Veijo Rauta works as a part time researcher (10 %) on the project on the field of process control. Laboratory manager Eero Niini has helped this consortium a lot asa backround reseacher. Research assistant Janne Kollanus has worked as a part time researcher in this project and his goal is to have his Master thesis on the year 2008. Results: The sub-project handled by the life cycle management team has produced several scientific papers. Several company/tekes projects with FC-ICT theme are under construction. Subproject: Cast Product Development and Design ICT Personnel and tasks: Kalevi Ekman, professor, subproject leader Petri Makkonen, D.Sc.(Tech.), teaching researcher Eric Coatanéa, D.Sc. (Tech.), researcher Tanja Saarelainen, M.Sc. (Tech), researcher Researcher carriers: Researcher Petri Makkonen works as part time on the project (25%) administrating and conducting the project. Researcher Eric Coatanéa: The results of his PhD on dimensional analysis used for early design considerations have been utilized in the theoretical framework of this research. He continues as a post-doc researcher in this project. Extra results related to material consumption and environmental analysis linked with foundry industry has been developed during These results are based on the concept of exergy. This new developments has lead to one journal article in In addition, a multi-objective comparison and evaluation method has been developed and has lead to 3 articles published and one article submitted to journal in Researcher Tanja Saarelainen: During year 2007, she has mainly been working with writing scientific papers. She has also presented the interview results to industry. Currently she is writing her licentiate thesis titled as Analysis of present state of foundry industry and development needs. She expects to gain licentiate s degree year 2008. The research work has proceeded according to plans. The research scope has been more in business operations than cast part development as was initially planned. Results: The sub-project handled by the cast product development and design team has produced several scientific papers. In addition, a patent application is coming. The scope of the application is a method for reconfigurable pattern for casting. TEKES, via Proof of Concept (POC) fundings, has provided financial support of 30 000 for the development of a working prototype of the concept. Subproject: Service Concept ICT Marko Nieminen, professor, subproject leader
Toni Koskinen, Lic.Sc.(Tech.), researcher Jukka Borgman, M.Sc. (Eng.), researcher Paavo Kotinurmi, M.Sc. (Eng.), researcher Katrine Jokinen, M.Sc. (Econ.), researcher Martin Hajda, M.Sc. (Eng.), researcher Taneli Eisto, research assistant Venlakaisa Hölttä, research assistant Researcher carriers: Researcher Jukka Borgman continued as the coordinator of the subproject. The modelling of product and manufacturing data in this interaction and is mainly on the responsibility of product data management researchers. Paavo Kotinurmi completed his PhD work and is now working on different projects. Katrine Jokinen and Martin Hajda continued their post-graduate studies during Taneli Eisto and Venlakaisa Hölttä began their work as research assistants. Researcher Janne Kollanus started working as a joint researcher between research groups. Results: The results from the empirical findings have been reported in national and international seminars and conferences. Paavo Kotinurmi completed his PhD thesis as part of the results from the project. Changes in resources during 2007 The following researchers do not work for FC-ICT anymore: There have been substantial changes in the personnel of the subproject in 2007 that has had major effect on the performance of the project in Project coordinator Toni Koskinen is not working anymore at TKK (since March 2007), as well as researcher Martin Hajda (since June 2007). Both researchers moved to work in the industry pointing out the competitiveness of the skills gained in the research projects. The loss of these two key persons has meant a significant delay in the publishing of the results in the academic forum. However, during fall 2007, papers from the project were accepted for publication in international conferences.