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- Collaborative approaches in sustainable and resilient manufacturingPublication . Camarinha-Matos, Luis M.; Rocha, Andre Dionisio; Graça, PaulaIn recent years, the manufacturing sector is going through a major transformation, as reflected in the concept of Industry 4.0 and digital transformation. The urge for such transformation is intensified when we consider the growing societal demands for sustainability. The notion of sustainable manufacturing has emerged as a result of this trend. Additionally, industries and the whole society face the challenges of an increasing number of disruptive events, either natural or human-caused, that can severely affect the normal operation of systems. Furthermore, the growing interconnectivity between organizations, people, and physical systems, supported by recent developments in information and communication technologies, highlights the important role that collaborative networks can play in the digital transformation processes. As such, this article analyses potential synergies between the areas of sustainable and resilient manufacturing and collaborative networks. The work also discusses how the responsibility for the various facets of sustainability can be distributed among the multiple entities involved in manufacturing. The study is based on a literature survey, complemented with the experience gained from various research projects and related initiatives in the area, and is organized according to various dimensions of Industry 4.0. A brief review of proposed approaches and indicators for measuring sustainability from the networked manufacturing perspective is also included. Finally, a set of key research challenges are identified to complement strategic research agendas in manufacturing.
- Aligning software engineering teaching strategies and practices with industrial needsPublication . Metrôlho, José Carlos; Ribeiro, Fernando; Graça, Paula; Mourato, Ana; Figueiredo, David; Vilarinho, HugoSeveral approaches have been proposed to reduce the gap between software engineering education and the needs and practices of the software industry. Many of them aim to promote a more active learning attitude in students and provide them with more realistic experiences, thus recreating industry software development environments and collaborative development and, in some cases, with the involvement of companies mainly acting as potential customers. Since many degree courses typically offer separate subjects to teach requirements engineering, analysis and design, coding, or validation, the integration of all these phases normally necessitates experience in a project context and is usually carried out in a final year project. The approach described in this article benefits from the close involvement of a software house company which goes beyond the common involvement of a potential customer. Students are integrated into distributed teams comprising students, teachers and IT professionals. Teams follow the agile Scrum methodology and use the OutSystems low-code development platform providing students with the experience of an almost real scenario. The results show that this approach complements the knowledge and practice acquired in course subjects, develops the students’ technical and non-technical skills, such as commitment, teamwork, and communication, and initiates them in the methodologies and development strategies used in these companies. The feedback from the teachers involved, software companies and students was very positive.
- Assessment of sustainable collaboration in collaborative business ecosystemsPublication . Graça, Paula; Camarinha-Matos, Luis M.Advances in information and communication technologies and, more specifically, in artificial intelligence resulted in more intelligent systems, which, in the business world, particularly in collaborative business ecosystems, can lead to a more streamlined, effective, and sustainable processes. Following the design science research method, this article presents a simulation model, which includes a performance assessment and influence mechanism to evaluate and influence the collaboration of the organisations in a business ecosystem. The establishment of adequate performance indicators to assess the organisations can act as an influencing factor of their behaviour, contributing to enhancing their performance and improving the ecosystem collaboration sustainability. As such, several scenarios are presented shaping the simulation model with actual data gathered from three IT industry organisations running in the same business ecosystem, assessed by a set of proposed performance indicators. The resulting outcomes show that the collaboration can be measured, and the organisations' behaviour can be influenced by varying the weights of the performance indicators adopted by the CBE manager.
- Preparing students for the software industry new demandsPublication . Metrôlho, José Carlos; Ribeiro, Fernando; Batista, Rodrigo; Graça, Paula; Pacheco, DiogoA solid preparation in terms of soft skills and state-of-the-art technical skills in Software Engineering (SE) is a goal for the academy. It also contributes to reducing the gap between Software Engineering education and the software industry's new demands. Generally, in computer science or computer engineering courses, there are separate subjects to teach requirements engineering, analysis, design, coding, or validation. However, integrating all these subjects usually requires experience in developing a complete project. This article describes aspects of an active and collaborative learning approach involving academia and industry actors. The approach presented in this article involved staff from a software company in collaboration with staff from an academic institution. It resulted in a student being involved in an entire software development project. The student was involved in an agile team of faculty and Information Technology (IT) professionals. The Scrum agile framework was followed, and the product was developed using a Low-code development platform. This article presents the approach, details of the project design and implementation, results achieved, lessons learned, and guidelines for the future. The results show that this agile, full-stack approach allows students to develop cutting edge technical and non-technical skills.
- Performance indicators for collaborative business ecosystems - literature review and trendsPublication . Graça, Paula; Camarinha-Matos, L. M.Nowadays, more and more enterprises are aware and motivated to adhere to collaborative platforms as business enablers, allowing groups of companies to improve their offer and competitiveness. As such, the concept of business ecosystem is becoming prominent. However, despite the evidences of collaboration benefits, for which some research efforts have been made, there is still a lack of Suitable performance indicators and associated metrics to assess those benefits, promoting sustainability and resilience of the members of a collaborative business ecosystem. The analysis of the literature shows that a number of contributions can be found in several research fields, such as enterprise performance indicators, collaboration benefits, value systems, supply chain collaboration, and social network analysis. The purpose of this paper is to survey these areas, highlighting their potential contributions concerning the assessment of collaborative benefits and performance. The analysis also identifies the strengths and weaknesses of current proposals regarding the establishment of adequate performance indicators for collaborative business ecosystems. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
- Evaluating and influencing the performance of a collaborative business ecosystem – a simulation studyPublication . Graça, Paula; Camarinha-Matos, Luis M.In a Collaborative Business Ecosystem, organisations collaborate to acquire and accomplish more innovative and challenging market opportunities. But the sustainability of collaboration requires continuous performance improvement. To this end, well-defined performance indicators can be used to both assess the collaboration level and act as an influence mechanism to induce an improvement in the collaborative behaviour of the participating organisations. By varying the importance (weight) of the adopted set of indicators, it is possible to study the variations in behaviour towards improvement, not only at organisations’ level but also at the level of the ecosystem as a whole. In order to assess this hypothesis, this paper contains a case study based on simulation and agent-based modelling whose behaviour is shaped according to actual data on collaboration collected from three companies in the area of the IT industry. Various scenarios are simulated and described.