This book presents the integration of new tools, the modification of existing tools, and the combination of different tools and approaches to create new technical resources for assisting the innovation process. It describes the efforts deployed for assisting the transformation of Product-Services Systems and explains the main key success factors or drivers for success of each tool or approach applied to solve an innovation problems. The book presents a set of case studies to illustrate the application of several tools and approaches, mainly in developing countries.

This book gathers the best contributions from the conference “Digital Transformation of the Economy: Challenges, Trends and New Opportunities”, which took place in Samara, Russian Federation, on May 29–31, 2018. Organized by Samara State University of Economics (Samara), Russia, the conference was devoted to issues of the digital economy.Presenting international research on the impact of digitalization on economic development, it includes topics such as the transformation of the institutional environment under the influence of informatization, the comparative analysis of the digitalization development in different countries, and modeling the dependence of the rate of change in the economy on the level of the digitalization penetration into various spheres of human activity. It also covers business-process transformation in the context of digitalization and changes in the structure of employment and personnel training for the digital economy. Lastly, it addresses the issue of ensuring information security and dealing with information risks for both individual enterprises and national economies as a whole. The book appeals to both students and researchers whose interests include the development of the digital economy, as well as to managers and professionals who integrate digital solutions into real-world business practice.

This book describes the adoption process of TRIZ under challenging conditions and under serious limitations. It presents the integration of TRIZ with other techniques to solve problems in the Latin America industry. The chapters contain some industrial cases that explain the adoption process of TRIZ. They also describe the restrictions or limits on the use and adoption of TRIZ. This book describes a strategy to apply the TRIZ tools for product or service design. Case studies from different universities and enterprises are presented to facilitate the assimilation of the TRIZ concepts and tools.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Business, ICSOB 2019, held in Jyväskylä, Finland, in November 2019. On the occasion of its tenth anniversary the conference theme this year was “The First Decade and Beyond” and focused on the development during the past decade, addressing the future of software-intensive business as well as studies on new and emerging ideas. The 18 full papers and 10 short papers presented together with 3 invited talks, 6 emerging research papers and a tutorial were carefully reviewed and selected from 52 submissions. They are organized in the following topical sections: software ecosystems; management of software products; continual improvement and product development; impacts of digitalization; software business education; software startups and digital business.

This book comprises select proceedings of the International Conference on Production and Industrial Engineering (CPIE) 2018. The book focuses on the latest developments in the domain of operations management and systems engineering, and presents analytical models, case studies, and simulation approaches relevant to a wide variety of systems engineering problems. Topics such as decision sciences, human factors and ergonomics, transport and supply chain management, manufacturing design, operations research, waste management, modeling and simulation, reliability and maintenance, and sustainability in operations and manufacturing are discussed in this book. The contents of this book will be useful to academics, researchers and practitioners working in the field of systems engineering and operations management.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 20th International TRIZ Future Conference on Automated Invention for Smart Industries, TFC 2020, held in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in October 2020 and sponsored by IFIP WG 5.4. The conference was held virtually. The 34 full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 91 submissions. They are organized in the following thematic sections: computing TRIZ; education and pedagogy; sustainable development; tools and techniques of TRIZ for enhancing design; TRIZ and system engineering; TRIZ and complexity; and cross-fertilization of TRIZ for innovation management.

“What might the futures of practice be like?” is far from a straightforward question. Emphasising "the" before the word future, implies one future. But futures thinkers have identified a range of futures that people think about. In this book we reflect on possible, probable, and preferable futures in relation to practice and work. Readers are invited to consider how their own engagement in shaping possible futures will support ways of working that they deem preferable, even those they can hardly imagine. Challenging Future Practice Possibilities also examines influences that are maintaining the status quo and others that are pushing interest-driven change. Authors consider the major challenges that practice and practitioners face today such as wicked problems, fears for the future and complex demands and opportunities posed by the digital revolution. A number of examples of future-oriented work directions such as protean careers and artificial intelligence enhancing or even replacing human workforces, are considered along with concerns like the vulnerability of many work situations and workers. In some cases workers and employers alike are unprepared for these challenges, while others see adapting to these situations as yet another pathway of practice futures evolution.

Never has the world been so heavily marked by the escalating challenges of climate change, dwindling natural resources, and escalating environmental crises. Finding viable solutions has become increasingly imperative as a result of these challenges. The daunting issue at hand is the dire need for financing sustainable initiatives that can effectively combat these global challenges. This financial gap often poses a significant roadblock, hindering progress towards a more environmentally conscious and sustainable future. Sustainable Investments in Green Finance serves as a resource to examine this issue and provide solutions. This meticulously researched book offers real-world case studies that not only highlight the gravity of these challenges but also present tangible solutions. Readers will explore a myriad of sustainable finance mechanisms, collaborative stakeholder efforts, and visionary project objectives that have successfully navigated these obstacles. The book also delves into topics such as the renewable energy revolution, sustainable infrastructure transformations, green bonds, climate finance, nature-based solutions, circular economy innovations, and socially responsible investing.

Quality control in pharmaceutical products and medical devices is vital for users as failing to comply with national and international regulations can lead to accidents that could easily be avoided. For this reason, manufacturing a quality medical product will support patient safety. Microbiologists working in both the pharmaceutical and medical device industries face considerable challenges in keeping abreast of the myriad microbiological references available to them and the continuously evolving regulatory requirements. Quality Control Applications in the Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Manufacturing Industry presents the importance of quality control in pharmaceutical products and medical devices, which must have very high-quality standards to not cause problems to the health of patients. It reinforces and updates the knowledge of analytical, instrumental, and biological methods to demonstrate the correct quality control and good manufacturing practice for pharmaceutical products and medical devices. Covering topics such as pharmaceutical nano systems, machine learning, and software validation, this book is an essential resource for managers, engineers, supervisors, pharmacists, chemists, academicians, and researchers.

The productization of emerging technologies related to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) is now getting more attention across different industries. Compared to the previous industrial transformations that the world has seen which relied on mechanical innovations, the ongoing FIR is seeing software and data-driven products as the foundation. Apart from that, topics such as circular and sustainable economy as well as climate change are also disrupting the industrial ecosystem. For a viable and successful productization of emerging technologies, collaborations between interdisciplinary stakeholders are a necessity. One of the elements that has been identified to facilitate this collaboration is service design. This book aimed to provide comprehensive service design discussions for practitioners in different fields and sectors. The aim is to bridge the knowledge gap between experts in academia, business and product development, among many others, to provide a unified understanding of the importance of service design for the productization of emerging technologies. The book consists of an overview of emerging technologies product development and service design, as well as perspectives from different sectors of the industry. The book is expected to benefit multi-disciplinary researchers, practitioners and general audiences with interests in Service Design for Emerging Technologies.