Marcello Fera

Università degli Studi della Campania "Luigi Vanvitelli" · Department of Engineering

This study proposes a methodology for integrating the use of the Bees Algorithm (BA) and simulation to reduce the workload for workers on production and assembly lines. Simulation is first employed for retrieving ergonomics data for different workers. Then, the BA is used as a tool for optimising the job rotations of the workers among the workstati...

Prognostic and Health Management (PHM) is an emerging maintenance concept that is highly regarded by the scientific community and practitioners, as its adoption can bring economic, technical and environmental benefits to a company. PHM fully reflects the smart maintenance paradigm encompassing data collection, data manipulation, state detection, he...

This book features the papers presented at IWAR 2023. The overall objective of the event was to bring together international scientists and engineers to bridge the academic and industrial worlds in the field of remanufacturing. Various themes related to remanufacturing, including methods for operations management, methodologies for quality assessme...

This paper presents the results of an experimental study conducted in the field of human–robot interaction (HRI) aimed at evaluating the impact of the presence of a robot on human performance. Experiments were carried out in a virtual reality (VR) environment and were about a disassembly-reassembly task in the aerospace field. A sample of 78 engine...

In the era of the circular economy (CE), more and more attention is paid to some production strategies such as Remanufacturing. This strategy aims to promote the creation of new lives for products considered at the end of their life and, therefore, reduce the industrial impact on the sustainability matrixes. Remanufacturing has grown in importance...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) technologies, also known as 3D printing, are increasingly used to produce usable and appealing end products. Besides allowing greater design freedom, 3D printing can increase material efficiency and drastically reduce production time. However, processes are still lacking in the quality of products. Among dozens of parame...

This paper presents a novel reliability-based parametric methodology for quantifying the reliability of cost estimates for new composite aircraft components. In recent years, the aircraft production sector has increased its attention on optimizing their composite manufacturing operations. It has become clear that a key factor in the success of thes...

This paper proposes an empirical investigation for evaluating the sustainability of different degrees of Human-Robot cooperation (HRC) considering economic, environmental, and social pillars. A connection between human factors and sustainable goals has been defined for integrating human-centricity, sustainability, and Industry 4.0 paradigms. To sho...

The use of additivemanufacturing (AM) can improve the green performance of supply chains.However, adopting a centralized or a decentralized supply chain remains an open issue. A decision supportmodel, that integrates Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies, is proposed in this paper. The lifecycle of a printed product is...

Spare parts inventory management represents a strategic but critical process in many manufacturing companies, which have to handle a high amount of different items. This work aims at developing a simulation model to manage the inventory level of spare parts of an ETO (engineering to order) company. First, heterogeneous items have been analysed and...

Vaccination is one of the most effective ways to prevent and control the outbreak of infectious diseases. The vaccine supply chain differs from the traditional supply chains because of the perishability of the products, which need strict transport and warehousing conditions to guarantee the health and safety of people. In addition, in case of pande...

RemanufacturingRemanufacturing represents one of the most promising strategies for reaching economic and environmental sustainabilitySustainability goals. The implementation of cloud technologies in the classical remanufacturingRemanufacturing process provides an opportunity to define a novel approach called cloudCloudremanufacturingRemanufacturing...

This paper deals with the tricky issue of forecasting the number of daily orders received by a delivery company that operates through the internet. The research tries to address the problem through the Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP). The more important step of the methodology is the identification and characterization of the features to...

This paper aims at conducing a bibliometric literature review targeting some key themes of sustainability in the manufacturing and production sector. A first sample of 631 papers was found by using an appropriate combination of keywords in the SCOPUS database over a 22 year period (2000-2021). The sample was then reduced to 563 manuscripts, by remo...

The aim of this paper is to propose a simulation study to assess the advantages deriving from associating plant layout (PL) modifications and the introduction of some key technologies of the fourth industrial revolution in a production and assembling environment of bus transportation vehicles. The software Simul8® was used to design and realize a s...

Remanufacturing represents one of the most promising strategies for promoting circular economy (CE) principles and achieving economic and environmental sustainability goals. The implementation of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) enabling technologies such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things in the classical remanufacturing process provides the opportu...

In the era of smart factories, digital twin may be a key for improving ergonomics analyses related to manual assembly activities. The use of digital technologies can help in bypassing some biases related to observational methods and speeding up the ergonomics analyses. This paper proposes a framework based on the development of a digital environme...

In the last few decades, studies have demonstrated the correlation between worker well-being and the performance of production systems. This paper addresses the problem of assigning workers to tasks in a workshop system. In this context, recent researches have focused on the ergonomics assessment, often neglecting the evaluation of the workers’ per...

Maintenance represents a critical aspect of manufacturing systems. Its optimization may lead companies to save costs related to production losses and can extend the whole lifecycle of assets or components. This paper aims at proposing a methodology for evaluating the behavior of systems for maintenance purpose by means of analysis carried out on re...

Since years, researchers have proposed job rotation as a solution to balance physical workload and reduce ergonomic risk among operators. Simulation is a strong tool for rapid ergonomic analysis, which allows testing different configurations and evaluating the characteristics of different operators. Thanks to such tool, this study proposes a new ap...

This paper provides a model to help decision-makers to choose the daily maintenance strategy for geographically distributed assets (GDA) where sites are located in a wide geographical area and a single maintenance centre is involved in managing the maintenance. A hierarchical structure has been used to represent the Multi-System Multi-Component net...

During the last decades, Information Sharing has gained a global attention among academic researchers. It has been widely demonstrated that such strategy improves the supply chain management and mitigates the bullwhip effect. In this research, the information distortion and its impact on a Fast Fashion Supply Chain has been modeled. The aim of this...

The structural health monitoring (SHM) represents an evolution of the traditional way to design and maintain mechanical structures. SHM systems allow to continuously (or discretely) monitor the structural integrity of an asset, not waiting for the planned check. This result implies an important reduction of inspection time and guarantees an improve...

The aerospace manufacturing is looking at ways to change their production processes in order to improve costs, flexibility and efficiency. The LABOR project, acronym for Lean robotized AssemBly and cOntrol of composite aeRostructures , aims at introducing robotic solutions for the assembly line of fuselage panels adopting medium size robots equippe...

Additive Manufacturing is a production technology, which completely differs from the traditional subtractive approach. Because its different nature, its application could cause strong changes in supply chains and it could affect the relationship between the supply chain players. This paper proposes a quantitative evaluation of the Additive Manufact...

Aircrafts are responsible for a significant environmental impact mainly due to the air pollution caused by their motors. The use of composite materials for their production is a way to significantly reduce the weight of the structures and to maximise the ratio between the payload weight and the gasoline consumption. Moreover, the design phase has t...

Within the era of smart factories, concerning the ergonomics related to production processes, the Digital Twin (DT) is the key to set up novel models for monitoring the performance of manual work activities, which are able to provide results in near real time and to support the decision-making process for improving the working conditions. This pape...

The aging issue in the work context is becoming a significant element of the future sustainability of service and industrial companies. It is well known that with increasing worker age the problem of maintaining the performance and the safety level when fatigue increases is a crucial point, and fatigue increases with the age. Due to social and poli...

In recent years, the concept of sustainability is emerging as one of the main concerns in modern society. In this context, industrial production processes are changing thanks to the development of green strategies. The selection of a new production solution is a crucial strategic decision and the introduction of new technologies could cause deep ch...

In current industrial systems, automation is a very important aspect for assessing manufacturing production performance related to working times, accuracy of operations and quality. In particular, the introduction of a robotic system in the working area should guarantee some improvements, such as risks reduction for human operators, better quality...

The Additive Manufacturing (AM) scheduling problem is becoming a very felt issue not only by the scholars but also by the practitioners who are looking to this new technology as a new integrated part of their traditional production systems. They need new scheduling models to adapt the traditional scheduling rules to the changed ones of the additive...

This study proposes a methodological review and an illustrative example for the Human Reliability Analysis. The paper deals with work-related stress and It discusses about the role of humans into manufacturing systems over automation control. A causal loop methodology is used to report the dynamic responses over time of humans at work. The Causal L...

In the era of Industry 4.0, automation plays a key role in improving manufacturing production processes in terms of working times, accuracy of operations, products’ quality, and so on. With focus on the working tasks on composite components, drilling and riveting operations require particular attention due to the possibility of damage to the final...

In the era of Industry 4.0, several advantages for industries come by the implementation of new technologies that play a key role for improving production processes, focusing on working times, product quality, accuracy of operations and other important parameters of the production systems. In order to evaluate these parameters, simulation may be us...

The optimization of production processes has always been one of the cornerstones for manufacturing companies, aimed to increase their productivity, minimizing the related costs. In the Industry 4.0 era, some innovative technologies, perceived as far away until a few years ago, have become reachable by everyone. The massive introduction of these tec...

According to the international literature postures, exerted forces, manual handling and repetitive actions with upper limbs must be considered in order to estimate the workers’ exposure to biomechanical overload risk, but also a preventive ergonomic approach in the design phase is possible. Within the Industry 4.0, the digitalisation of manufacturi...

Recently, human-centered design has become one of the most promising approaches for improving the entire production process design. During the design phase, among the main important aspects to investigate, ergonomic performance of the workplace (WP) plays a key role. It is well known that design errors can lead to significant delays in the design a...

Among the technologies included in Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, Digital Manufacturing (DM) represents a new approach to evaluate the performance of production processes in a virtual environment.

The term Additive Manufacturing (AM) refers to different kinds of technologies and applications that have in common the ability to build an item starting from a 3D CAD model of the component and by adding materials layer by layer until the product is realised. This paper aims at analysing the existing literature dealing with the use of Metal Additi...

This paper discusses the implications of Additive Manufacturing processes on sustainability. It evaluates energy consumption in Additive Manufacturing (AM) for relevant technologies as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) and Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) under different products and process specification. A comparison between traditional Subtract...

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer by layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies. Selective Laser Melting, commercially known as Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS®), is the most diffused additive process in today’s manufacturing industry. Introduction of...

Since the early days of industrial manufacturing, decisions like the analysis of economic or financial break even and the determination of optimal production level and similar problems were taken using the number of parts as the main decision driver. While in the last years the manufacturing community was simply observing the evolutions of the addi...

In last years several assessment methodologies were applied to evaluate the risks connected manufacturing and maintenance practices. The law and the best practices in industry are growing up in importance and relevance. Many times the assessment is related only to the expert opinion. This paper deals with the presentation of a new assessment method...

This study deals with the Human Reliability Analysis. A causal methodology is used to report the dynamic responses over time of humans at work. This structure is mounted inside a main framework which includes multi criteria decisions about main and subsidiaries concepts that influence the work-stress and the operations management. Factors and varia...

Additive manufacturing (AM) maturity allows diffusion of this technology in conventional production environments. In the decision to adopt a new technology, production costs are one of the most important factors to analyse, even if they are not developed enough yet. In the last decade, several cost models for AM have been proposed, but each of them...

This paper presents a hybrid Genetic-Bees Algorithm based optimised solution for the single machine scheduling problem. The enhancement of the Bees Algorithm (BA) is conducted using the Genetic Algorithm’s (GA’s) operators during the global search stage. The proposed enhancement aims to increase the global search capability of the BA gradually with...

The wind energy production grew up in the last years rapidly. In fact, the project management of these kind of initiatives has found, only recently, some practical references about the time, cost and quality management, stating some reference values (Fera, Macchiaroli, & Miranda, Project management for small wind turbines: An experimental survey on...

In recent years, the importance of the RFId technology within the operations management environment has become more evident. In particular, the RFId technology is recognised as an accelerator of the change towards a more efficient way to manage operations in an industrial context. The aim of this paper is to present a case study for the application...

From the past decades, increasing attention has been paid to the quality level of technological and mechanical properties achieved by the Additive Manufacturing (AM); these two elements have achieved a good performance, and it is possible to compare this with the results achieved by traditional technology. Therefore, the AM maturity is high enough...

Fashion and Apparel (F&A) market, characterized by fast changes in trends and demand, by short product life-cycles and by broad assortments, requires a responsive/demand driven Supply Chain (SC) focused on products availability, real-time information sharing and speed in matching customers requests (Iannone et al. 2013). In this context, the presen...

The uncertainty in the supply chains (SCs) for manufacturing and services firms is going to be, over the coming decades, more important for the companies that are called to compete in a new globalized economy. Risky situations for manufacturing are considered in trying to individuate the optimal positioning of the order penetration point (OPP). It...

Fashion and Apparel (F&A) market, characterized by fast changes in trends and demand, by short product life-cycles and by broad assortments, requires a responsive/demand driven Supply Chain (SC) focused on products availability, realtime information sharing and speed in matching customers requests (Iannone et al. 2013). In this context, the present...

In today’s global markets, characterized by extremely fast changes in technology and customer’s demand, and by product life cycle getting shorter and shorter, a single firm has not the ability to be competitive if it is not included in a network that, operating as a single entity, is able to react to demand dynamism and volatility. Therefore, exist...

Risk of human error in measurement and testing is the result of the causal combination of factors and events that are involved in the process. This paper presents how to model technical and human errors and how these could interact in order to influences the reliability of measurement/test. Human errors were designed according with a System Dynamic...

The new technology named additive manufacturing (AM) is gaining significance in the industrial sector due to its capacity to define new improvements in the design, production and logistical issues related to a specific product. This new area in industrial engineering is becoming operative but is still not easily applicable to all types of productio...

The need for new solutions for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity has become apparent with advancements of technology worldwide. This disposition has been revealed by the deregulation of the electricity market, the technological processes in constant evolution, the focus on environmental problems, and the need to manage a...

In a Multi Agent System (i.e., MAS) several decision agents, with an internal knowledge and reasoning engine, can negotiate for resources and assignment by exchanging register messages based on communication rules. The interaction mechanism between agents, sharing common transmission channels, can be modelled as a cooperative payoff process using a...

The present paper shows the improvements of an alternative approach for the calculation of the multi-item Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) in presence of space restrictions. The approach, already presented in literature, has been improved in order to make more efficient the calculation algorithm. This newly modified approach, with different variations...

In the last decades, fire safety engineering (FSE) has been extensively used to improve the design of many industrial systems. In this study, the FSE approach is applied to determine the optimal vertical distance between pallets allocated in a warehouse containing plastic materials in order to control and reduce typical fire parameter such as the h...

In today’s global markets, characterized by extremely fast changes in technology and customer’s demand, and by product life cycle getting shorter and shorter, a single firm has not the ability to be competitive if it is not included in a network that, operating as a single entity, is able to react to demand dynamism and volatility. Therefore, exist...

The fire safety engineering (FSE) has improved the design of many industrial systems. In this study, the FSE approach is applied to an inventory of plastic materials to determine the best design solutions for the sprinklers nozzles used. In particular it is demonstrated the safety equivalence between the sprinklers' nozzles imposed by the European...