One of the most important issues in product planning is to identify customer needs and combine them with product technical and trade characteristics. Identification of customer needs was discussed, and product decomposition method was presented in the paper. The Quality Function Deployment method was suggested to be applied as a product and production process data integration tool, where engineering characteristics of a product are combined with its trade characteristics.

This paper adopts the concepts of observatory and competitive intelligence (CI) to model a system that will generate better insights for decision-makers in the solid waste industry. The first part of this work is to design and develop a data warehouse (DWH) of solid waste statistics using data assembled from disparate sources. Our methodology of design is the entity relationship diagram (ERD) and our implementation tool is MySQL running on phpMyAdmin. The second part of our work will be to turn our developed DWH into a Web application using the Yii PHP component framework. Our findings indicated that the application of both concepts of observatory and CI lead to better insights for decision-makers and hence better organizational performance.

The paper presents a computer program developed for the determination of the basic dynamic characteristics of the process of machining, numerical simulations of the dynamic system of the process of machining, and graphic presentations of the numerical simulations performed. Results of simu-lations of the runs of time and frequency characteristics of the process of machining with variable machining parameters are presented. High goodness-of-fit of the model with the actual process of turning was achieved.

This paper reports the results of a numerical analysis of buckling in a carbon-fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP). The analysis involved determination of the first buckling mode and critical forces for the tested composite. The composite was tested for six different ply orientations. The analysis was performed on a closed section composite column. The objective of the analysis was to determine critical forces affecting the composite profiles with the applied ply orientations and, thus, to determine the laminate ply orientations which can carry the heaviest loads. The numerical modelling and all computations were performed using the Abaqus 6.14 software. In the analysis, we took account of boundary conditions and performed a discretization process in order to obtain correct results.

This article deals with the economizer as one of the main parts of a boiler. Economizers and air heaters perform a key function in providing high overall boiler thermal efficiency by recovering the low level energy from the flue gas before it is exhausted to the atmosphere. The most common and reliable economizer design is the bare-tube, in-line, cross-flow type. To reduce capital costs, most boiler manufacturers build economizers with a variety of designs to enhance the controlling gas-side heat transfer rate. From this point of view it creates a lack for an investigation and modeling of these parts.

This article elaborates on the influence of motivational factors for workers in a manufacturing company in the context of the use of a knowledge management tool and is based on data obtained from 85 Polish and German Manufacturing Companies from the cross-border cooperation region of Lubuskie/Poland-Brandenburg/Germany. This is followed by a discussion of the results of empirical studies and of the supporting literature.

The paper presents results of the preliminary structural analysis of model of the endoprosthesis of the knee joint. Basics of anatomy and biomechanics of the knee joint were introduced. Based on data from computed tomo-graphy, the model of knee joint was constructed. The prototype of the endo-prosthesis of the knee joint was designed. After determining physical properties of structural materials, the Finite Elements Analysis of the model was conducted under various load conditions. Finally the results of analysis are presented.