Description:

The Group of Industrial Systems Engineering carries out research and educational activities within the typical topics of the scientific sector ING-IND 17. They concern the general criteria, methodologies and techniques that govern the different phases (i.e. planning, design, implementation, management, operation, maintenance, reconversion and decommissioning) of the life cycle of industrial systems addressed to the production of goods and services. Such systems are characterized by a high integration of plants, technologies, human resources and information.

To date, the main research areas of the Group are those listed below:

• Study of the technical-economic feasibility of plants and services.
• Design of the layout of manufacturing plants and assembly systems.
• Design and integrated management of logistic systems and logistic-production-distribution chains of goods and services (i.e. supply chain management), particularly with relation to the agro-industrial sector.
• Tools and techniques for Project Management (e.g. project scheduling, project performance evaluation and project risk analysis).
• Reliability analysis of plants, risk analysis and optimization of maintenance policies.
• Development of models and algorithms for the management of cyber physical systems promoted in Industry 4.0.
• Resolution of complex decision problems by means of multi-criteria decision methods (e.g. ELECTRE, VIKOR, Fuzzy TOPSIS and Fuzzy AHP) and uncertainty’s treatment (e.g. Dempster-Shafer Theory, Fuzzy Set Theory and Interval Analysis).

The Group collaborates with the following foreign Universities: Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain (with which there is an agreement for the attainment of the double Ph.D. in "Engineering of technological innovation" and "Matemáticas"); École Nationale Supérieure des Mines d'Albi-Carmaux, University of Toulouse, France; Ufa State Petroleum Technological University, Basque Country, Russia; Florida Atlantic University (FAO), Boca Raton, FL, United States; Jordan University of Science and Technology, Ramtha, Jordan; University of Malta.

Main research projects:

• “SHELF-LIFE Technological innovation to improve the shelf-life of products in the food supply chain" PON02_00667 - PON02_00451_3361909.http://www.ponrec.it/open-data/progetti/scheda-progetto?ProgettoID=5781
• “DI.ME.SA. - Enhancement of typical products of the Mediterranean diet and their use for health and nutraceutical purposes” PON02_00451_3361785. http://www.ponrec.it/open-data/risultati/distretti-laboratori/pon02_00451_3361785/
• “PESCATEC - Development of a sustainable and competitive Sicilian fishery through technological innovation” PON02_00451_3362121. http://www.ponrec.it/open-data/progetti/scheda-progetto?ProgettoID=5783
• Platform for Agrofood Science and Safety (PlASS) - PONa3_00053. http://www.ponrec.it/open-data/progetti/scheda-progetto?ProgettoID=5307
• “Asset Integrity of the Gela S.p.A. refinery”. Two-year agreement with the Gela S.p.A. refinery.
• “Design of a system for monitoring the technical and economic performance of maintenance activities of the Gela S.p.A. refinery”. Two-year agreement with the Gela S.p.A. refinery.
• Smart Operator 4.0 based on Simulation for Industry and Manufacturing Systems. PRIN 2017.

Keywords: industrial plants, supply chain management, project management, industrial safety, maintenance.