About Methodology
The AHP Methodology is applied in two desk studies to obtain quantitative data and considerations, on the one hand from the study carried out by each partner on the “current status and potential in the Adrion area”, on the other hand from the study carried out by each partner on the “Enabling technologies of industry 4.0”.
The first step in AHP consists of the Structure of the Problem and differs between the two desk studies.
AHP applied to macroeconomic and technological megatrends
For the first study the first step is applied to understand how economic and technological megatrends influences the manufacturing sectors. The defined criteria considered in the analysis are Professional skills, Productivity, and Improvement of sustainability. In addition, the alternatives of the problem are the phenomena that influence the defined criteria:
- demographic change (global population increase, ageing society, urbanisation);
- new emerging markets (globalisation, exports ‘growth, growth of developing countries);
- scarcity of resources (energy, water, raw materials, others);
- climate change (e.g.CO2 increase, global warning);
- acceleration of technological progress (exponential growth of technologies, cost reductions, pervasiveness);
- and financial environment.
AHP applied to Enabling technologies of industry 4.0
For the second study the first step is applied to obtain quantitative data and considerations from the study carried out by each partner on the “Enabling technologies of industry 4.0”.
The defined criteria are Professional skills; Short-term economic benefit; Long-term economic benefit; Initial costs; Operating costs; Improvement of sustainability.
In addition, the alternatives of the problem are: Advanced Manufacturing Solutions; Augmented Reality; Cloud Computing; Additive Manufacturing; Big Data and Analytics; Cyber-security.
In the second step of AHP every partner exploiting the results of the desk study has achieved tables useful for making pairs comparisons and generating the judgments matrix of the AHP.