Product Segmentation and Sustainability in Customized Assembly with Respect to the Basic Elements of Industry 4.0

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

the paper reads as a description/proposal for a research project, and not so much as the presentation of a clear research work with its relevant methodology, results, analysis/discussion and conclusions. The authors are advised to rework the whole of the paper, focus to one specific aspect and present independently to whatever the project that work was part of is. Sections 1-4 should be rewritten focusing only on what the study is about.

Introduction could be better elaborated, in order to bring all the elements of the work together. For example the reader only finds out about Industry 4.0 and machinery 4.0 when the authors are presenting the structure of the paper.  These concepts somehow would need to be in context in the introduction.

In problem definition section, authors state that "The main scientific objective of the project is based on scientific research to design the innovative approach of products segmentation in the assembly processes in customized production resulting from the requirements of the fourth industrial revolution".  The authors should try first to simplify what their paper is about, and to clarify if the I4.0 is central in their work.  If it is, then this should be reflected in the abstract, in the LR and maybe also in the title of the paper. 

Section 3: what is the added value of using figure 3 and how is this contributing to the work presented?

Section 4: the authors state "The project methodology complements the workplaces in Department of Industrial Engineering (Fig. 5):" which department? how is this relevant to the study?

Case study is interesting and the whole paper should be around this.  Intro, LR and methodology should be written specifically to the 

 In the segmentation exercise, one key element is deciding which characteristics/features to include in the analysis.  How do the authors handle this? do they have a structured method of doing so, or is it done intuitively? if the latter, how can then be confident about the repeatability of the proposed method?

Some minor comments:

line 46 "be" maybe should be replaced by "by"

line 64, define IMS before using the abbreviation

line 223, do they mean “characteristics” and not “character”?

all decimals should be with a dot and not with a comma

Author Response

I would like to thank the reviewer for the comments. We made changes based on your comments. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The presented concept is not clearly described. There are errors in the paper.

- the description of strategic objectives and targets of sustainable development in lines from 88 to 104 mentions the year 2010 – probably a mistake;

- reference position 12 mentioned by authors in line 104 applies to different issues;

 - figures are carelessly made (disproportionate scaling, various fonts);

Figure 2 includes an additional description as Figure 1; Figure 7 – illegible descriptions;

 

 

 

- Section 3, lines 167-177: the description is too general. Please describe the structure of the proposed system and tasks to be fulfilled by agents. What about the system capability of acting rationally in case of disturbance or failure?

 

-Figure 11 – pictures do not contribute anything to the paper;

 

-Figure 12 and Figure 13 – incorrectly formatted tables – the text is clipped in the first column.

Author Response

I would like to thank the reviewer for the comments. We made changes based on your comments. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Previous remarks of the reviewer have been included in the current version of the paper.

I should suggest that in Section III the authors develop the concept briefly and focus on the main tasks of the proposed control system. Examples of the tasks that the control systems should execute:

allocate the resources to perform the activities; initiate the activities; coordinate the cooperation of production equipment during the execution of the activities; gather data and monitor the processes being executed; release the resources when the activity is completed; respond to disturbance; cooperate with the master system.

Author Response

 We would like to thank the reviewer for the comments. We made changes based on your comments. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx