Smart and automation technologies for ensuring the long-term operation of a factory amid the COVID-19 pandemic: an evolv
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Smart and automation technologies for ensuring the long-term operation of a factory amid the COVID-19 pandemic: an evolving fuzzy assessment approach Toly Chen 1 & Chi-Wei Lin 2 Received: 16 July 2020 / Accepted: 14 September 2020 / Published online: 13 November 2020 # Springer-Verlag London Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted factories all over the world, which have been closed to avoid the spread of COVID-19. As a result, ensuring the long-term operation of a factory amid the COVID-19 pandemic becomes a critical but challenging task. To fulfill this task, the applications of smart and automation technologies have been regarded as an effective means. However, such applications are time-consuming and budget-intensive with varying effects and are not necessarily acceptable to workers. In order to make full use of limited resources and time, it is necessary to establish a systematic procedure for comparing various applications of smart and automation technologies. For this reason, an evolving fuzzy assessment approach is proposed. A case study has been conducted to demonstrate the effectiveness of the evolving fuzzy assessment approach in ensuring the long-term operation of a factory amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Keywords COVID-19 pandemic . Fuzzy assessment approach . Long-term operations . Factory
1 Introduction
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An outbreak of COV-19 was discovered in Wuhan, China [4]. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely affected factories all over the world. Many factories were forced to close or operate on a smaller scale. On the contrary, during the COVID-19 pandemic, some factories have received more orders. For example, the necessity of working from home, distance teaching, and video conferencing has increased the demand for notebooks or tablets [29]. Other factories that have also benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic include factories that manufacture masks and thermometers [56]. A few months after the outbreak, the COVID-19 pandemic eased in some areas. However, it is still difficult for factories to resume normal operations due to the following problems:
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* Chi-Wei Lin [email protected] Toly Chen [email protected] 1
Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
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Department of Industrial Engineering and Systems Management, Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan
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Workers need to be quarantined for several weeks before returning to a factory [3]. The demand for a product has shrunk and may not recover, that is, the consumption was not delayed but has been canceled [30]. The demand for a product has been advanced. As a result, the future demand may disappear [29]. Due to insufficient transportation capacity, products manufactured by a factory cannot be delivered to customers [22].
Since no one can estimate when the COVID-19 pandemic can be successfully resolved, how to ensure the long-term operation of a factory amid the COVID-19 pandemic has become a critical issue. This re
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