Special Session #12

The increase in global competitiveness challenges the manufacturing market to integrate design, manufacturing, and product to improve the quality of both the product and the process. In today’s market, even large companies need flexibility and also need to increase the level of sustainability of their systems and processes. Thus, in recent years, the focus on smart manufacturing systems is pushing companies toward a new variety of highly specific technical solutions. In the area of quality management, Zero Defect Manufacturing (ZDM) combines all the best features of traditional quality management methods but also incorporates all the new digital technologies that Industry 4.0 and 5.0 can offer. As no system is perfect or free from deviations, metrology (physical and virtual) plays a vital role in achieving ZDM. Companies still struggle to achieve the desired control and assurance of their manufacturing systems. More success stories on the application of automation and metrology are needed. The track session aims to host a selection of papers from researchers, academics, as well as practitioners providing significant insights in the context of Industry 4.0/5.0 on the usage of metrology equipment as well as virtual metrology in achieving ZDM.

Victor Azamfirei, is a Postdoc at Politecnico di Milano in the area of zero-defect manufacturing. He got his PhD in Innovation and Design from Mälardalen University, Sweden. More precisely, his PhD thesis, entitled “Robotic in-line quality inspection systems for Zero-Defect Manufacturing, Requirements and Challenges” focused on the usage of sensor technology in conjunction with industrial robotics for the detection of defects at the source of deviation, thus assuring that no defective products leave the manufacturing system. Such research tackled research areas such as “quality management trilogy (plan, control, improve)”, “application of automation”, and “sustainability”. As Peter Drucker said, “The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday's logic.”

Foivos Psarommatis, is a passionate engineer and a highly active researcher in the area of quality management in manufacturing systems. Currently, he is a Chief scientist at University of Oslo (UiO) and Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). More specifically is a pioneer in the area of Zero Defect Manufacturing (ZDM), as is the first who modernized and set the foundation of modern ZDM. His scientific interests, motivation and vision are around Industry 4.0 and on how ZDM can be applied efficiently to production systems, focusing on the decision making, scheduling and design of a system or a product, with ultimate goal to achieve true sustainable manufacturing. Regardless the young age he was listed in world’s top 2% of Scientists for 2022. He is actively involved in EU research programs in the area of Factories of the Future and Enabling ICT for Sustainable Manufacturing. Foivos holds a BSc and an MSc in Mechanical engineering with specialization on design and manufacturing engineering from the University of Patras. He has also a second MSc from National University of Athens in Automation systems with specialization on manufacturing and production systems. He did his PhD around the topic of Zero Defect Manufacturing École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne ‐ EPFL. Foivos is the chair on a CEN/CENELEC working group responsible for standardizing ZDM and a member of IOF (Industrial Ontologies Foundry) where he is the chair of the ZDM working group.