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Publicações

Publicações por António Lucas Soares

2018

On the Use of Digital Platforms to Support SME Internationalization in the Context of Industrial Business Associations

Autores
Costa, E; Soares, AL; Pinho de Sousa, J;

Publicação
Advances in Business Information Systems and Analytics - Handbook of Research on Expanding Business Opportunities With Information Systems and Analytics

Abstract
The digital economy is creating disruptions in traditional industries and markets. Industrial business associations (IBAs) may face serious challenges in a near future to meet the needs and requirements of their members, particularly in supporting their growing international trade activities and internationalization processes. Digital platforms are already transforming different types of businesses across all markets. An IBA may use a digital platform, not only to keep up with the current technological trends of markets, but also to improve the internationalization support provided to their associate small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to present the view of these potential digital platforms' managers, by presenting the results of an exploratory field research based on 24 interviews with IBAs from Portugal, France, and the UK. Another goal is to identify current digital platforms that are being used by IBAs and to critically evaluate their potential for supporting internationalization processes of SMEs. By using these findings, a set of requirements and features for digital platforms supporting SME internationalization in the context of IBAs are derived in this chapter. These results can be used by platform designers and by IBAs for designing and developing more effective digital platforms that can meet the specific internationalization needs of their users and managers.

2019

Drivers Impacting Cobots Adoption in Manufacturing Context: A Qualitative Study

Autores
Simoes, AC; Soares, AL; Barros, AC;

Publicação
ADVANCES IN MANUFACTURING II, VOL 1 - SOLUTIONS FOR INDUSTRY 4.0

Abstract
Today's manufacturing environment is increasingly pressured to higher flexibility induced by uncertain production volumes as well as uncertain product lifetime. A way to improve productivity in a flexible production system is by using a safe and flexible cooperation between robot and operator. Therefore, manufacturing companies are experiencing an increase in human-robot interactions and in the use of collaborative robots (cobots). To make full use of cobots, it is essential to understand the drivers for their adoption as well as how these drivers are aligned with the companies' strategic objectives. By means of in-depth interviews in six companies in Portugal and France, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of the drivers that influence the intent to adopt, or the effective adoption, of cobots and the alignment of these drivers with the strategic objectives of the company. Empirical results reveal "operational efficiency" and "ergonomics and human factors" concerns as important drivers in the adoption intent. In terms of strategic objectives, it was found that drivers are aligned with productivity and flexibility improvement as well as quality improvement strategic objectives. Understanding these drivers can help in motivating manufacturing companies to adopt cobots, in facilitating their adoption, and in reaping the benefits of this technology.

2018

An Ontology Based Semantic Data Model Supporting A Maas Digital Platform

Autores
Landolfi, G; Barth, A; Izzo, G; Montini, E; Bettoni, A; Vujasinovic, M; Gugliotta, A; Soares, AL; Silva, HD;

Publicação
2018 9TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS (IS)

Abstract
The integration of IoT infrastructures across production systems, together with the extensive digitalisation of industrial processes, are drastically impacting manufacturing value chains and the business models built on the top of them. By exploiting these capabilities companies are evolving the nature of their businesses shifting value proposition towards models relying on product servitization and share, instead of ownership. In this paper, we describe the semantic data-model developed to support a digital platform fostering the reintroduction in the loop and optimization of unused industrial capacity. Such data-model aims to establish the main propositions of the semantic representation that constitutes the essential nature of the ecosystem to depict their interactions, the flow of resources and exchange of production services. The inference reasoning on the semantic representation of the ecosystem allows to make emerge nontrivial and previously unknown opportunities. This will apply not only to the matching of demand and supply of manufacturing services, but to possible and unpredictable relations. For instance, a particular kind of waste being produced at an ecosystem node can be linked to the requirements for an input material needed in a new product being developed on the platform, or new technologies can be suggested to enhance processes under improvement. The overall architecture and individual ontologies are presented and their usefulness is motivated via the application to use cases.

2019

Providing industry 4.0 technologies: The case of a production technology cluster

Autores
Dalmarco, G; Ramalho, FR; Barros, AC; Soares, AL;

Publicação
Journal of High Technology Management Research

Abstract
The concept of industry 4.0 (i4.0) encompasses the integration of different technologies into an autonomous, knowledge- and sensor-based, self-regulating production system. Our objective is to synthesize which are the challenges and opportunities of adopting i4.0 from the perspective of technology provider companies. A single-case research was conducted with ten companies at the Portuguese Production Technologies Cluster. Based on i4.0 technologies – Augmented reality; Additive Manufacturing; Big Data; Cloud Computing; Cyber-Physical Systems; Cybersecurity; Smart Robotics; Simulation; and System Integration – interviewees mentioned that the main adoption challenges are the analysis of data generated, integration of new technologies with available equipment and workforce, and computational limitations. The main opportunities are improvements in: efficiency; flexibility; productivity; cybersecurity; quality of products and services; and decision process due to data analysis. Interviewees have also foreseen changes in company's business model through the integration of internal resources with complementary activities of their partners and other cluster companies. © 2019 Elsevier Inc.

2018

Navigating in a sea of project supporting apps: how to get acceptance for managerial needs

Autores
Costa, JS; Soares, AL;

Publicação
CENTERIS 2018 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS / PROJMAN 2018 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT / HCIST 2018 - INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES, CENTERI

Abstract
Organizations are nowadays more and more structured in projects in the so-called project-based organizations (PBO). The advantages of PBOs - operational and managerial focus and effectiveness - are counterweight by difficulties in information / knowledge sharing and overall coordination. Project management (PM) applications have been adopted by PBOs with success, mostly at the project level. More innovation-oriented PBOs are keen to experiment and adopt a range of different project supporting applications to optimize several aspects of project management, resulting in “ecosystems” of PM related applications. This paper addresses the problems arising from the implementation of a global project coordination and collaboration application in a research center whose ecosystem of PM applications is extensive. The main challenge has been managing change. An action-research approach was followed to successfully implement the new application while reflecting theoretically on the process and results. The main conclusion is that the requirements elicitation and negotiation are as important as the management of change regarding processes and individual practices. © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd..

2019

A Digital Platform Architecture to Support Multi-dimensional Surplus Capacity Sharing

Autores
Silva, HD; Soares, AL; Bettoni, A; Francesco, AB; Albertario, S;

Publicação
COLLABORATIVE NETWORKS AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Abstract
The highly disruptive transformation that digital platforms are imposing on entire sectors of the economy, along with the broad digitalization of industrial business processes, is having an impact on supply chains around the world. To take advantage of this new aggregated market paradigm new business models with a heavy focus on servitization are changing the value proposition of businesses. In this paper, we describe a reference architectural framework designed to support a digital platform fostering the optimization of supply chains by the pairing of unused industrial capacity with production demand. This framework aims at harmonizing stakeholder requirements with specifications of different levels in order to set up a coherent reference blueprint that serves as a starting point for development activities. A four-layer approach is used to articulate between technical components, with the data and tools layers, and the ecosystem, with the business and interfaces layers. The overall architecture and component description is presented as extensions of the initial set of affordances.

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