Industrial Engineering & Management

Cotton logistics warehouses have increased unceasingly along with the development of society. Firstly, referring to a hundred cotton logistics warehouse fires, based on the relevant provisions of the cotton logistics warehouse, and fire safety issues are summarized in this paper. Secondly, according to the physical and chemical characteristics of cotton, the fire risk of cotton logistics warehouse is analyzed, and the fire hazard sources are identified. Thirdly, Event and Fault Tree Analysis (EFTA) is used to explore the disaster mechanism of cotton logistics warehouses to obtain disaster reducing factors. In the end, based on the above analyses, a set of fire prevention measures against the cotton logistics warehouse are put forward. The result shows that the probability of moisture absorption and heat release is the highest of all causes of smoldering fire, so it is essential to control the temperature below 343 K and the humidity below 70% when keeping in storage. Lacking of spaces between shelves is an important factor leading to the spread of fire. In the process of fire-fighting, water supply is the key factor, so appropriate water storage facility for fire-fighting is necessary before the establishment of the cotton logistics warehouse.

Single objective decision models are sufficient for some decision making processes, but there are many situations, where the decisions depend upon multiple objectives. Present the multi objective analysis of the multistage multi echelon production-inventory-distribution supply chain networks different sets of objectives. The performance analysis is performed using weighted sum approach, and trade-off solutions between the sets of objectives are proposed for managerial decision making we have developed An PSO Algorithm for Multi Objective Optimization of Multi-Echelon Supply Chain Network Architectures.

Background: Ergonomic interventions and ergonomic redesign are researched upon today in the realms of 'Prevention through Design' towards addressing the occupational health and safety concerns of the industry. Objective: To review the developments over the past ten years relating to computer aided ergonomic design, and propose an ergonomic intervention framework for manufacturing systems. Methods: The literature was selected from ergonomics journals indexed in the SCOPUS bibliographic database, by filtering abstracts and titles using select words such as 'ergonomic design', 'ergonomic evaluation', 'ergonomic intervention', 'virtual reality' and 'digital human model'. Results: The three areas reviewed include: Ergonomic interventions and Ergonomic Design, Ergonomic analysis and tools, and Digital human model (DHM) and Virtual Ergonomics. The DHM modeling approach is favored by designers towards ergonomic redesign of products and systems. DHM software is being integrated with ergonomic analysis tools and human features. A DHM based intervention framework is proposed that attempts to integrate human and machine performance metrics in making interventions, thereby making a sustainable human compatible system. Conclusions: The review has emphasized on design focus in intervention strategy. An ergonomic intervention framework has been proposed. Participative ergonomic approach with multiple stakeholders is suggested for implementation of interventions.

Federal highways and state roads in Malaysia are sites of most traffic accidents. One contributing factor is the lack of or low visibility of road signage at dangerous bends or road corners. It is very important to have safety warning signage at strategic locations to warn drivers on conditions or hazards ahead by cautioning maximum allowable vehicle speed limit. However, signage boards alone by themselves are not enough. The relevant authorities have added flashing beacons to enhance visibility but the availability of on-grid power supply often hinders their installation. This is now a non-issue with the advent of solar power. With emerging flashing beacon signage scattered over a wide area, there is an operational need to monitor their performance status remotely for timely effective maintenance and repair. This paper describes the development of a smart self-diagnostic algorithm for a wirelessly monitored autonomous solar powered highway flashing beacon.

Mirzahosseinian develop a closed-loop inventory system consisting of a repair facility and a single warehouse, for a repairable parts system operating under a Performance-Based Logistics contract. They model the closed-loop inventory system as a multi-server queueing model (M/M/m queue) where component failures follow Poisson distribution and the repair times at the service facility are exponential. The model sets up the balance equations of the steady-state probability distribution of inventory level. This paper extends their model. A recursive method is utilized and an analytic steady-state probability distribution of inventory level is derived. It also demonstrates by numerical experiments that the analytic steady-state probability distribution is correct. We obtain the analytic system performances and the metrics, which contribute to system cost optimization.

The objective is to investigate a well-known scheduling problem, namely the Permutation Flow-Shop Scheduling with the makespan as the objective function to be minimized. Various techniques, ranging from the simple constructive algorithms to the state-of-the-art techniques, such as Genetic Algorithms (GA), have been cited in the pertinent literature to solve this type of scheduling problem. A new GA-based solution methodology was developed and implemented. In this context, the performance of a stand-alone genetic algorithm (referred to as the non-hybrid genetic algorithm) and a novel hybridized genetic algorithm amalgamated with an iterative greedy algorithm were studied. The parameters of the hybrid and the non-hybrid genetic algorithms were tuned using a Full Factorial Experimental Design and Analysis of Variance. The performance of the properly tuned hybridized GA-based algorithm was examined on the existing standard benchmark problems of Taillard and it was shown that the proposed hybridized genetic algorithm performs very well on the benchmark problems.

At Zaghouan locality, north eastern Tunisia, significant sedimentary ores took place (e.g. sand, clay, limestone…). This sedimentary ores were largely extended and covered partially by quaternary deposits. In this paper, multidiscipline approaches with petrographic, mineralogical, chemical and geotechnical analyses were involved to valorize these materials in various industrial uses. The carbonates of the Lower Jurassic (Oust Formation) present good criteria and higher quality to be use in engineering application moreover huge reserves. The gray carbonates of the Lower Jurassic (Oust Formation) are constituted by limestones with packstone or grainstone texture, with relatively abundant lithoclasts which are well coated by a micritic matrix. Mineralogical studies reveal the presence of calcite with a small content of quartz and dolomite. The major element compositions of this limestone show higher content in CaO, ranging from 53% to 55%, and from 94.65% and 98.21% expressed as CaCO3. The limestone of Oust Formation display low amount of Al2O3, SiO2 and Fe2O3 which ranging from 2% to 5%. Other minor elements (Na2O and K2O) are also detected. Geotechnical tests (e.g. Los Angles, Humid Micro Deval, Density Index) conducted on the Lower Jurassic limestone at studied area show dense materials (2,55 to 2,81 g/cm3) and well resistant to the fragmentation. Depending on the provenance of the limestone rock of the Oust Formation, different employments can be proposed. The Bent SaÑ—dane and Bou Garnine Mountains can be used to produce the aggregates while Rouas Mountains for marble manufactures. Either this applications, Lower Jurassic limestone from studied area can be used in the manufacture of Portland cement when mixed with Lower Cretaceous clay from the Zaghouan locality.

The Air Traffic Management (ATM) system has become steadily more complex due to rampant technological, procedural and societal developments and to the increase in traffic volume. These factors have become gradually more difficult to understand and manage, mainly because of tight couplings among functions and because of the continuous development characterizing everyday activities. According to this view, traditional safety analyses, basing on the belief that the systems are completely known and a causal-effect link could ever be easily detected may become ineffective. Furthermore, these methodologies can evaluate only linear causal dependencies. It is necessary therefore to evolve ATM risk assessment from its classic view of safety (Safety-I), to a new one, integrating the principles of resilience engineering (Safety-II). This editorial article presents the complexity and the outcomes deriving from resilience engineer methodologies, aiming at illustrating possible guidelines for managers and academics.

In quantitative forecasting models and tracking signal methods, input noise is often assumed to be normally and independently distributed. The goal of this research was to study the distribution of tracking signal and build new monitoring schemes for when the input noise distribution is not necessarily normal. A demand process in the Wilson inventory model was simulated using several input noise distributions. The effectiveness of a proposed tracking signal model was evaluated and compared to existing methods using an inventory cost model. It was found that it is not realistic to assume a normal distribution for the tracking signal even when the noise is normal. Because of the dependency of tracking signal elements, and since there is no specific distribution for it, we used simulation to estimate the best value for the standard deviation and suggest ±3 퐀 퐀퐀 as the control limits. We compared this value with those suggested by other papers, and showed that the proposed limits work better when the process is under control and also when there are different amounts of shifts in mean demand. We also studied different values for the tracking signal smoothing parameter and analyzed the inventory costs for each.

Management of Technology is interdisciplinary fields that integrate science, engineering and management knowledge also with practice. Technology Management is set of management disciplines that allow organizations to manage their technological fundamentals to create competitive advantage. The main focus on technology part for manager is to create wealth. Technology management requires deep understanding of life cycles of technology, product, process and system. Technology management is also a tool to catalyze R&D. By providing R&D team in R&D organization to an increased extent, it can generate more science from existing science and more technology from existing technology. Technology management involve technological tool for national defense, national development and economic growth by resolving to make country a self-reliant, strong and technology developed country. Technology management involving those features can therefore act as a catalyst in propelling R&D programmed to achieve faster rates of technological growth.

A helicopter service industry is concerned with component reliability, as poor component reliability jeopardizes the safe operation of aircraft. Currently the maintenance process used for component overhauls and replacements is typically based on the maximum intervals called Hard Time (HT) limits recommended by manufacturer without using the real-world reliability data. In this case study, an integrated component reliability modeling procedure using is proposed to identify proper component overhaul and replacement intervals for a leading helicopter service industry. This procedure considers analysis methods including removal rate analysis, mean time between failure (MTBF) analysis, average life analysis, data distribution analysis, and total quality management (TQM) shop survey which can be used as a framework to support reliability programs in the helicopter industry, working as a decision-support tool for the modification of manufacturer’s recommended intervals. An illustrative example is provided to show the use of this modeling procedure. Future work could be done to correlate inventory analysis using component reliability modeling leading to total productive maintenance.