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This paper represents a continuation of the earlier work as reported in Refs. More realism has been achieved and an increasing number of basic robots and “building blocks” have been developed. The rapidity with which Robot/ Workplace situations can be analyzed and performances evaluated ensures that this method is a practical tool for assisting the exploitation and promotion of Industrial Robot Technology.

Flexibility is widely recognized, in research literature and in more popular publications, as being of crucial importance in manufacturing. However, there is evidence of confusion among the numerous definitions of flexibility and it is arguable that, even now, the concept is not well understood. Furthermore, there is no simple approach for the systematic incorporation of flexibility level by level within the hierarchy of a conventional manufacturing system. Introduces a unifying and simple set of concepts for flexibility from a management perspective. The purpose of this “capability and capacity” approach is to interpret and integrate various types of flexibility throughout the manufacturing system. Use of this approach leads to four important principles for the integration of a system’s overall flexibility. Analyses flexibility types within manufacturing using the proposed approach.

This paper surveys the work on robot forging which has been taking place at the University of Nottingham over the last two years, initially using a Versatran D301 as a base for a feasibility study. Also it seeks to describe and put into perspective the current work using an A.S.E.A. robot and introduce intended future developments, particularly those related to computer control.

Based on case studies collected at two UK factories, the issues which arise during JIT implementation are examined. These cases show that the changes involved in a move towards JIT have a political dimension. The implication is drawn that, in implementing a JIT system, production managers need to consider the strategic aspects of the change as much as they do the machines and materials aspects. An equally strategic approach to human resource management is indicated.

Industrial robots bear little resemblance to the science fiction concept of futuristic machines — they are little more than machine tools except that their prime function is handling not making components. Being designed to replace a human operator, many of the machines currently available are somewhat similar in scale to a human being although their continuous weight lifting abilities can be much in excess of a human. They generally have one manipulating arm and there are three classical types of robot architecture:

Suggests that there is a need to develop a process to enable manufacturing managers to formulate and implement effective manufacturing strategies. Describes research aimed at identifying those characteristics of manufacturing strategy formulation performance measures which were considered by practitioners to lead to successful creation of strategies. Proposes a viable tool which can help businesses to identify current levels of flexibility, hence enabling them to improve manufacturing flexibility in accordance with strategic objectives.

Reports some of the findings of two years′ research work carried out within a number of manufacturing engineering companies both in the United Kingdom and Brazil. All the companies belong to the automotive industry. The objective of the overall research was to analyse the relationships between the variables of uncertainty, variability of outputs and flexibility in manufacturing systems. The findings are a co‐product of the overall research and are related to the flexibility of the structural (human and technological) manufacturing resources. Derives a new way of looking at stocks and its role in the manufacturing system′s flexibility.

Following the increasing need for faster construction, improved quality and evidence value propositions, offsite construction is increasingly being proffered as a viable contender to “traditional” construction approaches. However, whilst evidence supports the move towards offsite, its uptake has been lower than expected. Whilst the precise reasons for this seem to be influenced by a number of issues, including contextual drivers and market maturity; some project stakeholders also view offsite as carrying greater risks. The purpose of this paper is to report on the quality of information flow, in particular, the impact and influence of this on design risks in offsite construction projects.

An existing design risk framework is used as the point of departure for this research. This is further expanded into a specific model for evaluating offsite construction projects design risks, the rubrics of which were informed by two case studies of offsite construction projects in Australia and the UK analysed with a process-tracing technique. Whilst these cases were geographically separated, the constructs were aligned to uncover fundamental design information requirements and concomitant risks associated with offsite.

The findings of the research reported in this paper include the crucial information feeding into the design process emanating from the lifecycle of offsite construction projects, namely, design, offsite (manufacturing), handling and transporting, site works and installation and also occupancy. These are contextualised within the four categories, namely, client requirements, project requirements, regulation aspects and social aspects and the final outcomes were summarised into a holistic diagram.

Given that the offsite construction has shifted the working paradigm into assigning a significant level of efforts and emphasis at the front end of the construction projects, the importance of its design process and hence design risks management has gone up significantly in construction projects delivered using this technique. This research and paper contributes significantly to the built environment domain by identifying the crucial aspects along the project lifecycle to be considered to minimise the potential occurrence of design risks and hence increasing the confidence of project stakeholders in adopting offsite construction techniques in their projects.

The aim of this study is to identify key factors limiting efficiency of pumped heat energy storage systems and determine some general features of transient behavior of solid state, sensible heat storages. Moreover, it aimed at establishing a feasible approach to transient conjugate heat transfer (CHT) analyses for such applications.

A zero-dimensional analytical model is used to determine the system efficiency sensitivity to efficiency of its components. Analysis of argon gas flow in an exemplary configuration of layered bed thermal energy storage is presented. The analysis incorporates a unsteady reynolds averaged navier stokes model with conjugate heat transfer between gas and solid storage core.

It is established that exergetic efficiency of the heat storage is one of the key factors for the system’s overall performance. Three full cycles of storage charging and discharging having 17 h physical time in total are simulated, with calculation of exergetic efficiency for each of the cycles. From standpoint of the system efficiency, it is concluded that the presented heat storage kind has limited exergetic efficiency because of severe temperature drop at the solid–fluid interface in comparison to granular kind of heat storage devices. From the methodological standpoint, it is concluded that calculating the exergetic efficiency of the heat storage by direct computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis requires significant amount of walltime and computational resources.

The paper presents unconventional approach to using standard CFD tools by exploiting numerical diffusion to numerically suppress high-frequency solution oscillations. This strategy grants that the analysis, otherwise requiring impractically long computation walltime, is completed within a practical time.

Examines the research of integrated product design. Several design strategies and methodologies have been proposed, yet none of them is particularly suitable for small‐to medium‐sized enterprises. Develops strategies of integrated product design for small‐ to medium‐sized companies through the studies of the Hong Kong toy manufacturing industry. These include strategies for the product design, the assembly system design and computer‐aided tools. Uses a case study to illustrate some of the concepts of the integrated product design. Finally, discusses the application and limitations of the proposed integrated product design methodology.