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Until now, the size range of most machines for precision assembly was much larger than the size of the pieces to be handled or the necessary workspace. Flexibly scalable miniaturised production machines can help to develop much more flexible micro production systems. The paper aims to describe the development of a micro‐parallel‐SCARA robot adapted in size to MEMS products.

The robot consists of a miniaturised parallel structure, which provides a high level of accuracy in a workspace of 60 × 45 × 20 mm³. It has a base area of 130 × 170 mm² and offers four degrees of freedom.

Based on simulations, the degree of miniaturisation in terms of a smaller structure and a high level of accuracy is determined. The results show that a miniaturised hybrid robot with a plane parallel structure driven by miniaturised zero‐backlash gears and electric motors can reach a theoretical repeatability better than 1 μm.

The first prototype provides good prospects that the concept will be used in a visionary desktop‐factory. As regards the accuracy parameters of the robot, there will be further efforts to optimise the robot's structure and drive mechanism.

The repeatability of this first prototype is better than 14 μm. A better stiffness of optimised micro‐gears and joints of the structure will guarantee a much better repeatability.

The paper illustrates that the Parvus is one of the smallest industrial robots for micro assembly equipped with a full range of functionalities like conventional industrial robots.

Economic, flexible and efficient micro production needs new miniaturized automation equipment (desktop factories). Micro assembly processes make demands on precision of miniaturized robots used in desktop factories and the driving concepts, as well as miniaturized machine elements. The purpose of this paper is to investigate miniaturized drives using micro harmonic drive gears, which are promising driving concepts.

The analysis of the miniaturized precision robot Parvus (using micro harmonic drive gears) shows a good repeatability but also room for improvement concerning the path accuracy. Thereby the transmission error of the micro gears is identified as main disturbing influence concerning the robot's precision characteristics. Owing to the size reduction of the micro harmonic drive gear and the slightly different working principle compared to larger harmonic drive gears, the transmission error are more pronounced. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss approaches to compensate for this effect.

A very promising approach is the use of a simplified model of the kinematic error within the robot control to compensate for this disturbing effect. Measurement data of the transmission error is mathematically transformed into the frequency domain and filtered to the most important frequency modes of the function. These modes are used to build up a simplified mathematic model of the gear transmission error. A final test using this model as compensation function demonstrates that it is possible to reduce the transmission error of the micro gears by more than 50 percent.

The paper presents the first investigation into compensation of the transmission error of micro harmonic drive gears.

Retailing thought and practice is premised on the assumption that consumers visit retailers to search for and acquire objects produced by manufacturers. In essence, we assume that the acts of consuming and producing are conducted by separate entities. This unspoken yet familiar premise shapes the questions retail scholars ask and the way retail practitioners think about their industry. Although this assumption accurately depicted retailing since the Industrial Revolution, its relevance is being challenged by a growing set of individuals who are equipped with new digital tools to engage in self-manufacturing. In this chapter, we examine self-manufacturing with a particular focus on the recent rise of desktop 3D printing. After discussing this new technology and reviewing the literature, we offer a conceptual classification of four distinct types of 3D printed objects and use this classification to inform a content analysis of over 400 of these objects. Based on this review and analysis, we discuss the implications of self-manufacturing for retailing thought and practice.

This article explores a particular on-demand fabrication unit, the microfactory (MF). It identifies and contrasts several MFs and proposes a taxonomy. This research also explores online manufacturing platforms (OMP) that complement certain MFs.

This research implements a multiple case study (71 cases in 21 countries), triangulating data available on the web with interviews, virtual/physical tours and experiential research.

The results suggest that automation and openness are the main dimensions that differentiate the MFs. Using these dimensions, a taxonomy of MFs is created. MFs with relatively low automation and high openness tend to be innovation-driven microfactories (IDMFs). MFs with high automation and low openness levels tend to be customization-driven microfactories (CDMFs). And MFs with relatively low automation and low openness tend to be classic machine shops (MSs). There are two types of OMP: closed (COMPs) and multisided (MOMPs). MOMPs can be low-end or high-end.

In a world where online platforms are becoming central to the reinvention of manufacturing, multisided online platforms and small fabricators will become strongly symbiotic.

This paper offers a clearer conceptualization of MFs and OMPs, which may help to better understand the reality of local on-demand fabrication. Moreover, it explores a new type of experiential research, which tries to describe and interpret firms through transactional activities. Many details of a firm that are difficult to capture via interviews and netnography can be revealed this way.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic bibliometric analysis of reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) articles using VOSviewer to identify their research themes and future research trends and investigate their interconnectivity. This paper also aims to identify prominent authors, publishers, organizations, countries and their collaborations in the RMS domain.

In this study, the Scopus database is used to retrieve 454 RMS articles published between 1988 and 2020. These articles are then investigated using VOSviewer to determine their interconnectedness, clusters and citations, as well as to generate a map based on text data. The network visualization diagrams and clusters obtained for documents, authors, sources, organizations and countries are explored to determine the current state and future trends in RMS research.

A bibliometric analysis of selected articles is performed, and current research hotspots in this domain are identified. This work also investigates the current status and future research trends in this domain. The work presented also identifies top researchers, journals, countries and documents in RMS.

This paper can provide academics, researchers and practitioners with additional research insights. At the same time, the research trends identified here can help to direct research and benefit researchers.

The study is the first attempt to review selected documents in the RMS domain using bibliometric analysis tools, and it presents a method for collecting articles, organizing them and analyzing the data.

This paper aims to present the results of an empirical study identifying desktop managers who spend all of their time engaged with the computer and the effects this has on organizations.

A survey was administered to 30 organizations in a southwestern US state to determine the presence of desktop managers.

The paper finds that desktop managers in an organization negatively impacted job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship, and the zest and vitality of subordinates.

Only employees from 30 organizations were surveyed, and all were located in a specific geographic area of the USA.

The negative impact of desktop managers on organizational members points to a disturbing trend, that knowledge workers are not having their interactive communication needs with managers met.

The original scale developed for the study shows promise in identifying the presence of desktop managers in organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the resistance behavior of smart factories in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing upon dual factor perspective, this study examines how two types of quality and perceived usefulness impact user resistance as enabling factors and how switching cost, skepticism, habit and inertia contribute to user resistance as inhibiting factors. Additionally, multi-group analysis is employed to compare small and medium enterprises.

Purposive sampling technique was employed to collect 460 Korean SMEs employees, consisting of 235 small enterprises and 225 medium enterprises. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

The results reveal that all three inhibiting factors, switching cost, skepticism and habit, are key antecedents of inertia. In small enterprises, skepticism has a greater impact on inertia, which in turn strongly affects resistance. Additionally, system quality is more crucial for small enterprises, whereas information quality holds more importance for medium enterprises in mitigating resistance. Moreover, when the implementation level of a smart factory is high, the effect of perceived usefulness on user resistance diminishes.

This study has revealed the importance of considering both enabling and inhibiting factors for the adoption of smart factory systems in the context of SMEs. Additionally, it has provided evidence that as the level of the smart factory system increases, the effect of perceived usefulness on user resistance decreases, thus making the transition to smart factory systems more challenging.