Stochastic make-to-stock inventory deployment problem: an endosymbiotic psychoclonal algorithm based approach

Integrated steel manufacturers (ISMs) have no specific product, they just produce finished product from the ore. This enhances the uncertainty prevailing in the ISM regarding the nature of the finished product and significant demand by customers. At present low cost mini-mills are giving firm competition to ISMs in terms of cost, and this has compelled the ISM industry to target customers who want exotic products and faster reliable deliveries. To meet this objective, ISMs are exploring the option of satisfying part of their demand by converting strategically placed products, this helps in increasing the variability of product produced by the ISM in a short lead time. In this paper the authors have proposed a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm named endosymbiotic-psychoclonal (ESPC) to decide what and how much to stock as a semi-product in inventory. In the proposed theory, the ability of previously proposed psychoclonal algorithms to exploit the search space has been increased by making antibodies and antigen more co-operative interacting species. The efficacy of the proposed algorithm has been tested on randomly generated datasets and the results compared with other evolutionary algorithms such as genetic algorithms (GA) and simulated annealing (SA). The comparison of ESPC with GA and SA proves the superiority of the proposed algorithm both in terms of quality of the solution obtained and convergence time required to reach the optimal/near optimal value of the solution.     

Identifying inventory problems in the aerospace industry using the theory of constraints

In the aerospace industry, where each component is time-critical, many operation management tools are applied to improve material management efficiency. By using the theory of constraints (TOCs), this study diagnoses the undesirable effects (UDEs) of material management systems and identifies root problems or conflicting material management actions. In the second step, via UDEs, this study constructs a current reality tree (CRT) to identify a company's material management objectives and requirements, and the actions it takes to meet these objectives. In addition, the UDEs and CRT are applied to redesign the future reality tree (FRT) to develop strategies and eliminate the problems in the case company. By eliminating the conflicting inventory management activities of different departments, inventory management performance for the entire system is improved.     

我国生物质能产业发展战略的思考

我国生物质能的发展战略目前总体上定位于对化石能源的替代,但我国国情有别于发达国家,解决农村能源需求的传统生物质能占我国能源总消费的第三位。文章提出,生物质能产业发展应分两步走,初期实施替代传统生物质能的战略,远期实施化石能源的替代战略。     

Infusing standardization into steel industry

正Advanced s t andards s ys tem is impor t ant to the supply-side reform and medium/high-end development of China's steel industry, said Li Xinchuang, President of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute(CMIPRI) at the First Standardization Forum on High-Quality Development of Steel Industry taking place in Beijing on November 9, 2019.     

Technology investment strategy in the presence of competitor entry: Broadband deployment in the US telecommunications industry

We evaluated the broadband deployment strategy of incumbent firms in the local exchange sector of the US telecommunications industry (1994–1998), each of which must devise strategies for dealing with new firms entering their markets. We found that incumbents consistently under-invested in fiber optics that would have enabled them to upgrade their broadband infrastructure in the face of competitive entrants. Contrary to theories of entry deterrence, this behavior did not signal accommodation by monopolistic incumbents. Rather, it was consistent with an entrapment strategy: when a new firm entered and invested in capacity, the incumbents used their monopoly power to deny access or to provide poor-quality access, thereby making the competitors’ product quality worse than the incumbent's, leading to customer dissatisfaction and revenue losses that could eventually weaken the rival.Yet, such a strategy was dysfunctional. A strategy of investment would have been best for the incumbents since the gains from triggering network externalities would have been substantial. As new competitors entered the incumbents’ markets, the best strategy for the incumbents would have been to reciprocate positively, invest in fiber capacity, and then play tit for tat. If the incumbents had invested in broadband and even more competitive entrants followed, which in turn caused greater broadband investment, and so on, the wiring of the entire United States by new entrants and incumbents with broadband technology would today be complete.     

A method for measuring strip temperature in the steel industry

In the steel industry, there are many processes that include measuring and control of temperatures. With higher demand on quality, increased production, and effective energy consumption, the use of noncontact temperature measuring techniques has increased. After the cooling section in a continuous annealing-pickling line, the strip temperature is estimated by using the grey box technique. Temperatures are measured in the cavity between the strip and the roller using radiation thermometers. A model is made for estimating strip temperature using the measured temperatures and knowledge of the physics of the process.     

Development of an optimal core steel slitting and inventory policy

The objective of this investigation is to develop an optimal slitting and inventory policy for a deterministic demand of steel over a finite planning horizon. The cost function includes the inventory carrying cost and the cost of scrap steel generated besides the usual fixed costs. The minimum of this cost function is obtained by using a combination of dynamic programming and integer linear programming which provides a practical and sound procedure. Actual data is used to determine the optimal solution for a planning horizon of ten weeks.     

Strategic supply chain management issues in the automotive industry: an Australian perspective

The automotive manufacturing industry is an extremely competitive one. Many companies are focusing on their supply chains for sources of competitive advantage. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study that examined contemporary issues related to supply chains in the Australian automotive manufacturing industry. Data from interviews with managers from vehicle manufacturers, component suppliers, peak industry bodies and government agencies enabled the articulation of 10 key issues. These issues were validated as being relevant to the industry by another group of managers from the industry. Review of these 10 issues showed that the relationships between the parties in supply chains are complex, and despite the success of the industry, there are a number of structural weaknesses. These issues, when taken individually, pose significant risks to the industry. When considered collectively, these risks are magnified several fold. This paper also presents research questions in the form of formal propositions associated with the 10 issues that need to be rigorously tested in order to assess the long-term viability and success of the industry. The issues that are raised can also be relevant to other industries with similar supply chain dynamics.     

Water management in the Flemish steel industry: the Arcelor Gent case

Steel production is an energy- and water-intensive process: large quantities of water are used for cooling, process and environmental-technical applications. In the mid-1990s, Arcelor Gent, a large integrated carbon steel producing company in Flanders (Belgium), started a number of water-related projects: the existing water infrastructure was adapted: the water from the coke plant was biologically treated; canal water was demineralised using reverse osmosis; waste water from the blast furnaces was neutralised with alkaline water from the steel plant. As a result of these projects, the quantity of discharged waste water was reduced by a factor of 2 (water recycling doubled from a factor of 10 to a factor of 20), and the discharge of pollutants decreased. Also resource consumption decreased: lime used in the steel plant, could be recovered to precipitate Zn in the waste water of the blast furnaces. Arcelor Gent obtained for these projects several Environmental Awards.     

服务业标准化的战略地位和未来发展

<正> 服务业标准化是个全新的领域,说它新不仅仅是因为它与工业标准化、农业标准化相比出现较晚,更主要的还在于无论是它涵盖的范围,还是它需要研究与寻求技术支持的理论深度以及实践难度都是前所未有的,已有的标准化手段或方法难以满足它的实际要求,必须不断探索和创新。什么是服务业标准化?简单地说,就是通过对服务标准的制定和实施,运用标准化的原则和方法开展对服务对象的有效服务,以达到服务质量目标化,服务方法规范化,服务过程程序化,从而获得优质服务的过程。这些定义说起来简单,也     

Logistics optimisation of slab pre-marshalling problem in steel industry

We study the slab pre-marshalling problem to re-position slabs in a way that the slabs are stored in the least number of stacks and each stack contains only the slabs of the same group, which can be utilised interchangeably. In this way, when a slab of any group is required, the topmost slab can always be picked up without shuffling. During pre-marshalling, however, at most two slabs can be moved by one operation. In this paper, we present a network model with three valid inequalities to solve this problem. With a small amount of labelled data from the model approach, a self-training technique is applied to train a function for predicting the best next move. Then, a new hybrid algorithm is developed to solve the practical problems by combining the self-training technique, heuristics, and the branch-and-bound algorithm with five dominance rules. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this network model and valid inequalities, and the performances of different components of this algorithm. The new algorithm produces high-quality solutions within seconds.     

Strategic framework for industrial product-service co-design: findings from the microsystems industry

Co-design represents an approach to the concurrent and collaborative design of systems. In an industrial context, firms adopt this approach to minimise risks/costs of new product development and to improve interactions along supply chains. For an industrial firm that delivers integrated product and service offerings i.e. an industrial product-service system (IPS²), co-design needs to be strategised in line with: (i) the IPS² logic that challenges firms to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operations and (ii) customer needs during life cycles. This article presents a multi-methodology-based study of the management of co-design within the context of an IPS². It adopts a multi-case logic supplemented with key informant semi-structured interviews to capture implementations of co-design and how an IPS² can be strategised to leverage the benefits of co-design. The article also highlights and discusses the resulting implications of the findings of the study for researchers and practitioners and potential future research directions.     

Strategic analysis of China’s geothermal energy industry

China is an early user of geothermal energy, and its direct use ranks first in the world. Recent national strategies and policies have enabled China’s geothermal energy industry to enter a new era with important development opportunities. This paper investigates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) to China’s geothermal energy industry from political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) perspectives. SWOT–PEST analysis indicates that the resources, market, and technological foundation exist for the large-scale development of China’s geothermal energy industry. However, it experiences constraints, such as unclear resource distributions, incomplete development of government regulations, incomplete implementation of national policies, unclear authority between governmental administrative systems, and lack of uniform technical standards and codes. Therefore, future development strategies have been proposed to provide technical support and policy tools for geothermal energy development. The recommendations to ensure its healthy and sustainable development include improving resource exploration, rationalizing administration systems, enhancing policy guidance and financial support, and cultivating geothermal talent.     

Erosion-corrosion of a stainless steel distillation column in food industry

Unusual extended corrosion phenomena were detected in a distillation column made in AISI type 316 stainless steel (UNS S31600) of a plant for natural pectins extraction from citrus. The column was the first of a series of two distillation columns representing the unit core. Corrosion problems were observed only in that column and mainly along the surface of the trays located in the lower section of the column. The phenomenon was observed subsequently to a modification of the original plant layout that caused an increase of the operating temperatures and turbulence of the process stream inside the column.     

An integrated formulation for hierarchical cast design problems in the steel making industry

Production design is a key decision problem of steel making industry but due to its complexity, solution properties are not well understood. The design problem can be viewed as a multi-stage problem of bin packing, matching and sequencing sub-problems. Traditionally a sequential approach which treats each sub-problem separately has been applied to the simple case where mould width change is not allowed. However, for more general cases where casting with width change and different width is allowed, the sequential approach fails to generate good solutions. In this paper, we propose a mathematical programming formulation which can solve the design problem in an integrative way. By introducing multi-layer network representation of the cast design problem, it is now possible to generate an integrated formulation for the proposed problem. Based on the formulation, we derive a heuristic algorithm. The algorithm is adopted and tested at a large international integrated steel mill. The computational tests with real data-sets show that the proposed algorithm is quite effective and practical.     

钢铁等行业发展形势及气体分离设备行业的机遇

论述了钢铁等行业的发展形势,各行业迅猛的发展势头给气体分离设备行业的发展提供了机遇:服务好各行业的快速发展,看好能源领域,追踪朝阳行业,做大做强,拓展国内和国际两大市场。     

Modelling and a tabu search solution for the slab reallocation problem in the steel industry

This paper considers a slab reallocation problem arising from operations planning in the steel industry. The problem involves reallocating steel slabs to customer orders to improve the utilisation of slabs and the level of customer satisfaction. It can be viewed as an extension of a multiple knapsack problem. We firstly formulate the problem as an integer nonlinear programming (INLP) model. With variable replacement, the INLP model is then transformed into a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model, which can be solved to optimality by MILP optimisers for very small instances. To obtain satisfactory solutions efficiently for practical-sized instances, a heuristic algorithm based on tabu search (TS) is proposed. The algorithm employs multiple neighbourhoods including swap, insertion and ejection chain in local search, and adopts solution space decomposition to speed up computation. In the ejection chain neighbourhood, a new and more effective search method is also proposed to take advantage of the structural properties of the problem. Computational experiments on real data from an advanced iron and steel company in China show that the algorithm generates very good results within a short time. Based on the model and solution approach, a decision support system has been developed and implemented in the company.