Connected, Intelligent, Automated


Book Description

Quality 4.0 is for all industries, and this book is for anyone who wants to learn how Industry 4.0 and Quality 4.0 can help improve quality and performance in their team or company. This comprehensive guide is the culmination of 25 years of research and practice-exploring, implementing, and critically examining the quality and performance improvement aspects of what we now call Industry 4.0 technologies. Navigate the connected, intelligent, and automated ecosystems of infrastructure, people, objects, machines, and data. Sift through the noise around AI, AR, big data, blockchain, cybersecurity, and other rising technologies and emerging issues to find the signals for your organization. Discover the value proposition of Quality 4.0 and the leading role for Quality professionals to drive successful digital transformation initiatives. The changes ahead are powerful, exciting, and overwhelming-and we can draw on the lessons from past work to mitigate the risks we face today. Connected, Intelligent, Automated provides you with the techniques, philosophies, and broad overall knowledge you need to understand Quality 4.0, and helps you leverage those things for the future success of your enterprise. Chapter 1: Quality 4.0 and the Fourth Industrial Revolution Chapter 2: Connected Ecosystems Chapter 3: Intelligent Agents and Machine Learning Chapter 4: Automation: From Manual Labor to Autonomy Chapter 5: Quality 4.0 Use Cases Across Industries Chapter 6: From Algorithms to Advanced Analytics Chapter 7: Delivering Value and Impact Through Data Science Chapter 8: Data Quality and Data Management Chapter 9: Software Applications & Data Platforms Chapter 10: Blockchain Chapter 11: Performance Excellence Chapter 12: Environment, Health, Safety, Quality (EHSQ) and Cybersecurity Chapter 13: Voice of the Customer (VoC) Chapter 14: Elements of a Quality 4.0 Strategy Chapter 15: Playbook for Transformation




The Robotic Process Automation Handbook


Book Description

While Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has been around for about 20 years, it has hit an inflection point because of the convergence of cloud computing, big data and AI. This book shows you how to leverage RPA effectively in your company to automate repetitive and rules-based processes, such as scheduling, inputting/transferring data, cut and paste, filling out forms, and search. Using practical aspects of implementing the technology (based on case studies and industry best practices), you’ll see how companies have been able to realize substantial ROI (Return On Investment) with their implementations, such as by lessening the need for hiring or outsourcing. By understanding the core concepts of RPA, you’ll also see that the technology significantly increases compliance – leading to fewer issues with regulations – and minimizes costly errors. RPA software revenues have recently soared by over 60 percent, which is the fastest ramp in the tech industry, and they are expected to exceed $1 billion by the end of 2019. It is generally seamless with legacy IT environments, making it easier for companies to pursue a strategy of digital transformation and can even be a gateway to AI. The Robotic Process Automation Handbook puts everything you need to know into one place to be a part of this wave. What You'll Learn Develop the right strategy and planDeal with resistance and fears from employeesTake an in-depth look at the leading RPA systems, including where they are most effective, the risks and the costsEvaluate an RPA system Who This Book Is For IT specialists and managers at mid-to-large companies




Automated Vehicles and MaaS


Book Description

AUTOMATED VEHICLES AND MaaS A topical overview of the issues facing automated driving systems and Mobility as a Service, identifies the obstacles to implementation and offers potential solutions Advances in cooperative and automated vehicle (CAV) technologies, cultural and socio-economic shifts, measures to combat climate change, social pressures to reduce road deaths and injuries, and changing attitudes toward self-driving cars, are creating new and exciting mobility scenarios worldwide. However, many obstacles remain and are compounded by the consequences of COVID-19. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) integrates various forms of public and private transport services into a single on-demand mobility service. Combining trains, cars, buses, bicycles, and other forms of transport, MaaS promises a convenient, cost-effective, and eco-friendly alternative to private automobiles. Automated Vehicles and MaaS: Removing the Barriers is an up-to-date overview of the contemporary challenges facing CAVs and MaaS. Written in a clear and accessible style, this timely volume summarizes recent research studies, describes the evolution of automated driving systems and MaaS, identifies the barriers to their widespread adoption, and proposes potential solutions to overcome and remove these barriers. The text focuses on the claims, realities, politics, new organizational roles, and implementation problems associated with CAVs and MaaS—providing industry professionals, policymakers, planners, administrators, and investors with a clear understanding of the issues facing the introduction of automated driving systems and MaaS. This important guide and reference: Provides an overview of recent progress, the current state of the art, and discussion of future objectives Presents both technical background and general overview of automated driving systems and MaaS Covers political, commercial, and practical issues, as well as technical and research content, yet suitable for non-specialists Helps readers make informed decisions and realistic estimates for implementing mobility solutions and new business models for transport services Includes an extensive bibliography with direct links to in-depth technical engineering and research information Automated Vehicles and MaaS: Removing the Barriers is an essential resource for transport providers, vehicle manufacturers, urban and transport planners, students of transportation, vehicle technology, and urban planning, and transport policy and strategy managers, advisors, and reviewers.




Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work


Book Description

Workforce readiness is an issue that is of great national and societal importance. For the United States and other countries to thrive in a globally interconnected environment of wide-ranging opportunities and threats, the need to develop and maintain a skilled and adaptable workforce is critical. National investments in job training and schools remain essential in stimulating businesses and employment agencies to collaborate productively with educators who provide both training and vocational guidance. Workforce Readiness and the Future of Work argues that the large-scale multifaceted efforts required to ensure a reliable and strong supply of talent and skill in the U.S. workforce should be addressed systematically, simultaneously, and systemically across disciplines of thought and levels of analysis. In a four-part framework, the authors cover the major areas of: education in the K-12, vocational, postsecondary, and STEM arenas; economic and labor market considerations; employment, organizations, and the world of work; laws, policies, and budgets at the federal, state, local, and military levels. With contributions from leading scholars, this volume informs high-priority workforce effectiveness issues of current and future concern and concrete research, practice, and policy directions to generate novel insights of a multilevel and system-wide nature.




Bringers of Order


Book Description

Wearable technology, including smartwatches, biometric trackers, and body cameras, are often touted as helpful tools that record, produce, and analyze data about daily life to improve our individual habits and health or to solve serious public issues. In this book, James N. Gilmore argues that these lofty promises mask forms of surveillance and power. Charting the implementation of wearables in areas of accessibility, health, sports, labor, law enforcement, and infrastructure, Gilmore demonstrates how these devices have been positioned as authoritative means for producing knowledge about human activity. Drawing on news reporting, advertising, film and television, company reports, and legal policies, he shows how this knowledge production reproduces three distinct modes of power: normalcy, surveillance, and solutionism. Bringers of Order empowers readers to examine the complicated ways our devices reshape how we think about our lives and our ethics and why we should resist companies analyzing our personal data.




Preparing Students From the Academic World to Career Paths: A Comprehensive Guide


Book Description

In today’s educational field, to ensure students are prepared to make the transition from education to the workforce, students must develop skills that support them in the working world. Further research on these skills is required to assist learners moving forward. Preparing Students From the Academic World to Career Paths: A Comprehensive Guide provides a comprehensive guide to preparing minority and first-generation students to transition from the academic world into their chosen career path. The book also provides post-secondary educators and student support staff with suggestions to incorporate the recognition and development of transferrable skills in curriculum and advising. Covering key topics such as career readiness, minority students, and student success, this reference work is ideal for administrators, principals, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.




State of Readiness


Book Description

Accelerated Strategy Development and Execution The company of today has its supply chains and finances stretched further around the globe than ever before while simultaneously having increasing pressures to drive value across a complicated and fluid set of metrics and deliver innovations, products, and services more quickly and reliably. The competitive advantage belongs to the companies that can quicken their vision-building and strategy-execution efforts—the ones that can identify challenges more swiftly and accelerate their decision making so they are better able to formulate and deploy responses decisively yet with greater agility. To successfully accomplish this, companies will have to prioritize creating a culture of leadership that strengthens communication skills and emphasizes systems thinking by building capacity and capability that cuts across the business smokestacks and permeates the entire organization. In State of Readiness, Joseph F. Paris Jr. shares over thirty years of international business and operations experience and guides C-suite executives and business-operations and -improvement specialists on a path toward operational excellence, the organizational capability and situational awareness that is attained as the enterprise reaches a state of alignment for pursuing its strategies. In doing so, create a corporate culture that is committed to the continuous and deliberate improvement of company performance and the circumstances of those who work there—a precursor to becoming a high-performance organization.







The Fourth Industrial Revolution


Book Description

This book explores the core themes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) highlighting the digital transformation that has been occurring in society and business. Representing an interface between technologies in the physical, digital and biological disciplines the book explores emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing. The findings of collaborative research studies on the potential impact of the 4IR on the labour markets, occupations, future workforce competencies and skills associated with eight industry sectors in Australia are reported. The sectors are: agriculture and mining; manufacturing and logistics; health, medical and nursing; education; retail; financial services; government services and tourism.




Sustainable Production Through Advanced Manufacturing, Intelligent Automation and Work Integrated Learning


Book Description

Collaboration between those working in product development and production is essential for successful product realization. The Swedish Production Academy (SPA) was founded in 2006 with the aim of driving and developing production research and higher education in Sweden, and increasing national cooperation in research and education within the area of production. This book presents the proceedings of SPS2024, the 11th Swedish Production Symposium, held from 23 to 26 April 2024 in Trollhättan, Sweden. The conference provided a platform for SPA members, as well as for professionals from industry and academia interested in production research and education from around the world, to share insights and ideas. The title and overarching theme of SPS2024 was Sustainable Production through Advanced Manufacturing, Intelligent Automation and Work Integrated Learning, and the conference emphasized stakeholder value, the societal role of industry, worker wellbeing, and environmental sustainability, in alignment with the European Commission's vision for the future of manufacturing. The 59 papers included here were accepted for publication and presentation at the symposium after a thorough review process. They are divided into 6 sections reflecting the thematic areas of the conference, which were: sustainable manufacturing, smart production and automation, digitalization for efficient product realization, circular production, industrial transformation for sustainability, and the integration of education and research. Highlighting the latest developments and advances in automation and sustainable production, the book will be of interest to all those working in the field.