The wooden churches from Transylvania, Romania, are a unique and representative cultural heritage asset for rural communities, both in terms of architecture and the style of painting that defines them as monuments of national heritage. These churches are in danger of degradation because rural communities are beginning to abandon them for various motives (e.g., they are too small, are expensive to maintain, or are being replaced by modern churches, built of stone and modern materials). The reason behind their accelerated degradation is that they are covered with shingles that need to be periodically changed and repaired to prevent water from reaching the inner painting layer, a process that is, in many cases, ignored. Imperial gates are the symbol of these churches and separate the nave from the narthex. They are made entirely out of wood and were sculpted and painted manually by skilled craftsmen and still represent the central element of these churches, in terms of art and aesthetics. The digital preservation of these heritage assets is an interdisciplinary undertaking, which begins with the physico-chemical analysis of the pigments in the painting layer, continues with three-dimensional (3D) digitization of the monument and of the objects of interest (such as the imperial gates), and finishes with a digital restoration of these monuments and artefacts. This paper presents a working methodology, successfully applied in digitizing and digitally restoring imperial gates from wooden churches in Transylvania, namely from the wooden church of Voivodeni, Sălaj County, Romania (Transylvania region). X-ray fluorescence and FTIR spectroscopy were used to determine the pigments in the painting layer of these artefacts, and after they were identified, they were synthesized in laboratory conditions. The resulting color was digitized and used for digitally restoring the artefact(s) to its (their) pristine condition. To popularize these cultural heritage assets, the authors make use of virtual reality to mediate the interaction between the general public and heritage objects in their current state of preservation, in a digital environment. Moreover, to showcase how these heritage objects were degraded over time, a digitally restored version of the artefact in pristine condition is presented alongside a version in its current state (as is, digitized, but not yet digitally restored).

When knowledge is developed fast, as it is the case so often nowadays, one of the main difficulties in initiating new research in any field is to identify the domain’s specific state-of-the-art and trends. In this context, to evaluate the potential of a research niche by assisting the literature review process and to add a new and modern large-scale and automated dimension to it, the paper proposes a methodology that uses “Latent Semantic Analysis” (LSA) for identifying trends, focused within the knowledge space created at the intersection of three sustainability-related methodologies/concepts: “virtual Quality Management” (vQM), “Industry 4.0”, and “Product Life-Cycle” (PLC). The LSA was applied to a significant number of scientific papers published around these concepts to generate ontology charts that describe the knowledge structure of each by the frequency, position, and causal relation of associated notions. These notions are combined for defining the common high-density knowledge zone from where new technological solutions are expected to emerge throughout the PLC. The authors propose the concept of the knowledge space, which is characterized through specific descriptors with their own evaluation scales, obtained by processing the emerging information as identified by a combination of classic and innovative techniques. The results are validated through an investigation that surveys a relevant number of general managers, specialists, and consultants in the field of quality in the automotive sector from Romania. This practical demonstration follows each step of the theoretical approach and yields results that prove the capability of the method to contribute to the understanding and elucidation of the scientific area to which it is applied. Once validated, the method could be transferred to fields with similar characteristics.

Integrated management systems (IMSs) can already be considered a proven tool to help companies cope with the challenges associated with staying competitive in the face of dynamic stakeholder requirements. The present paper proposes a new instrument designed to evaluate and communicate the maturity achieved by an integrated management system (IMS) for responding properly to the requirements of its reference standards in a consolidated manner. The approach mainly aims to highlight the level of integration achieved on common requirements of the component standards and to determine the extent to which they work together as a whole. At the same time, it is useful to identify the needs for improvement in the system as a whole or in its sub-systems. The proposed methodology uses the transmutation in the RGB color space (red–green–blue) of the process audits’ results achieved under each standard, followed by the analysis of the IMS characteristics, with tools specific to the color space, based on the affinities between the two domains. To sustain the thoroughness of this approach, a case study of an integrated system for an industrial company is presented, analyzing the situation from two different evolution stages of the IMS. The approach is presented as a proof-of-concept, without large scale validation.

The process of documenting cultural heritage digitally has emerged with the recent technological developments. One of the direct consequences of using digital devices to promote cultural heritage is to educate the endusers and to exceed their initial expectations regarding their interaction and engagement with cultural heritage assets. Creativity is encour-aged and stimulated by technology; as a result, cultural heritage domain must use technologies and tools from various domains such as engineering (3D scanning), gaming industry (VR headsets), digital marketing (interactive screens) to create interactive exhibitions. These tools can be paired with classical cultural heritage exhibition methods to attract, engage and support end-users more efficiently and effectively by creating unprecedented interactive. For this endeavor more than 560 artifacts have been digitized, the monuments and the fortress have been digitally reconstructed and integrated in digital applications that were combined with classical museum exhibition methods. By doing so, the paper also brings contributions concerning the methodologies used for deploying state of the art scanning and digitizing technologies. The main motivation was to bring classic exhibition techniques to modern times and to attract the young audiences to museums, thus identifying how they can be more engaged, involved and educated within the mixed museum spaces.

This paper investigates the possible failure modes of the product development process in production companies that are active in the B2C markets with a focus on household products. Since these cases require short lead times and are difficult to differentiate, in many instances the result will not be the desired one and could affect profitability for a season or for good. A model of these possibilities is created and an approach to plan contingencies for their solutions is proposed in the article. The main guideline is to switch from failure probability determination to accepting failure as inevitable and using digital solutions to reinforce the development process to offset its impact. For this goal, an Industry 5.0 Abatement Factor (abbreviated IFAF) is introduced in the contingency planning approach, which factors in the evaluation of the low cost of digital instruments and the proper mix of Technology, Humans, and AI (abbreviated THAI). The new working procedure based on these concepts and their interlinkages is discussed based on specific examples.

This paper presents a case study both for individual process improvements and also for the improvement of the overall manufacturing flow, within an SME, using specialized simulation software called SigmaFlow Modeler. The improvements are done based on simulation results (accurate knowledge), meaning that by analyzing the process distribution charts, one can dispose measures for solving problems or even preventing potential failures. It has to be noted that by eliminating those bottlenecks the overall performance of the process will increase and the manufacturing flow will also be enhanced. The paper will also present an actual process simulation for the most complex process from the manufacturing cycle, i.e. the milling process, and a short analysis, focusing on possible improvements, will be performed on it. Moreover, further improvements will be done by closely reviewing and identifying every input and output and by introducing them into a cause-and-effect matrix, the importance of each input can be mathematically calculated and action can be taken for the critical ones in order to improve the process.