In most cases, the complexity of installation work, such as the induction of a collaborative robot at metal-working enterprises exceeds the complexity of machining and significantly exceeds the labour costs for all other types of production. Today the most assembly jobs in the manufacturing domain of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are still performed by hand due to high mix and low volume orders. The interaction of humans and robots may increase the efficiency in complex assembly processes. The flexibility and variability of assembly processes require close cooperation between the worker and the automated production system. Automation of production is not an easy process for an enterprise, which requires high investment and additional skills, but it is necessary to improve working conditions and product quality. This article provides an efficiency analysis of collaborative robots usage in one of the Estonian enterprise.

In recent years, there has been a constant deficit of students in technical specialities in higher educational institutions. This problem is especially significant for industrial engineering area. To solve this issue, the authors initiated the joint project with participation of three universities in the Baltic region. This project aims to develop a new approach for preparing schoolchildren to choose the right profession through collective efforts of university, schools and enterprises. Authors address the critical issue in this paper, the gap between the needs of companies in the region and university education. Authors introduce this problem based on the questionnaire answers provided by the metal and machinery industries of the Baltic countries. Results of the current analysis may be useful to other nations and readers can apply them to other sectors.

Multitier Digital Twin approach for agile supply chain management validated in the research lab. In the long run, the solution will ultimately help to reduce resources costs in production processes and throughput time of the supply chain. The Digital Twin approach can be applied in the manufacturing company and the supply chain and makes recommendations for making changes to the physical environment to meet the requirements of various specific orders. The Multitier Digital Twin approach is validated by modelling four tiers of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) company: business processes, operations workflow processes and work cells operations. The simulation study is performed to evaluate the achieved results. The guidelines are developed to connect and integrate business process tier models with operations workflow and work cell tiers models. The authors defend that the current research will help to create new digital solutions to increase manufacturing flexibility by moving toward the company’s strategic goals directly from the offer preparation stage. The authors have validated the Digital Twin approach for agile supply chain management in the fields of manufacturing. Nevertheless, the proposed approach is adaptable to other fields also, whereas the focal player or project owner selects the best KPIs that support the implementation of the chosen strategy. The paper includes a feasibility case study for the approval of findings, where small and medium enterprise (SMEs) from the manufacturing field business processes are connected to manufacturing processes and work cell models to achieve a common strategic goal of the company.

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