Case portrays the Superior Manufacturing Group Europe (SMGE), Barendrecht (Netherlands), a small-sized company doing business in the matting industry; facing challenges of how to sustain and improve its performance, by balancing between entrepreneurial initiative, and a need for strategic planning and …

Already for many centuries shoemaking exists as a craft. Orthopaedic shoemaking is a relative new profession that has emerged and evolved during the last century. Originated from the craft of shoemaking it has developed into a profession on the intersection between healthcare and technology. Important …

Presentatie Technologische en sociale innovatie voor de Kamer van Koophandel/NPAL op 1 oktober 2015. Organiseren van primaire proces: Verdelen van het werk: functionele specialisatie Coördineren verdeelde werk: hiërarchische specialisatie Functioneel en team-based afwassen Hoe complexer de verdeling …

Lean Production (LP) can be regarded as a design approach in search of a theoretical foundation. In this paper we show that Lowlands’ Sociotechnical Design Theory (STSL) could function as such a foundation. To reach this goal, we first describe STSL as a system theoretical reformulation of Original Sociotechnical …

Paper for the WION - Werkgemeenschap Inkoop Onderzoek Nederland - 2015, 3rd version. Purchasing within Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) is important for the overall SME firm performance. However, purchasing within SMEs is not the same as purchasing within larger organisations and there is limited …

The commitment of the Fab Lab community to participate in processes of commons-based knowledge production thus also includes global knowledge sharing. For sharing back into the global commons, new knowledge needs however to be documented in a way that allows to share it by the means of information and …

Standard mass-production is a well-known manufacturing concept. To make small quantities or even single items of a product according to user specifications at an affordable price, alternative agile production paradigms should be investigated and developed. The system presented in this paper is based …

From the article: Manufacturing technology can improve the turnover of a company if it enables fast market introduction for volume production. Reconfigurable equipment is developed to meet the growing demand for more agile production. Modular reconfiguration, defined as changing the structure of the …

An effective option for companies to implement circular economy concepts is reuse and remanufacturing. It concerns the (re)use of modules and parts of used and discarded equipment in ‘as new’ or ‘first class’ reused equipment. It is not just an effective way to reuse materials; it is also economically …

When using autonomous reconfigurable manufacturing system, that offers generic services, there is the possibility to dynamically manufacture a range of products using the same manufacturing equipment. Opportunities are created to optimally scale the production using reconfiguration means and automatically …