Introducing randomness into univariate control chart sampling strategies for enhancing security against cyber-physical attacks in production systems

With recent technological advancements, production systems have become more susceptible to cyber-physical attacks. Such attacks can be intelligently designed to both alter product dimensions and avoid detection by current Quality Control (QC) tools. The objective of this work is to assess the performance of random sampling strategies for control charting in detecting cyber-physical attacks. More specifically, the methodology adopts traditional random sampling approaches used for inspection and applies them to univariate control charts. Different random sampling strategies are discussed and their performances under varying attack scenarios are evaluated. In addition, new control chart performance metrics were developed for a more in-depth analysis, to guide practitioners in assessing how well these control charts increase their robustness to cyber-physical attacks.     

Biochar systems: Developing a socio-technical system framework for biochar production in Norway

Biochar is charcoal produced from feedstock under pyrolysis. It has gained interests among researchers in recent years because of its agronomic and environmental benefits. It is considered to increase soil fertility and crop productivity, and biochar might play an important role as a climate mitigation tool that is able to capture carbon in the soil.However, although research has focused on the chemical, biological, and technical aspects of biochar, we seem to be far away from the implementation of a functioning biochar system. One key aspect needed for the actual use of biochar technologies is increased awareness and emphasis on the social and organizational aspects of its implementation. As there are no functional markets for the services and products needed to ‘produce’ a biochar system, political and market devices are needed. This paper contributes to this debate by introducing a socio-technical framework that investigates the implementation of different biochar technologies in Norway. Based on this socio-technical system framework, we discuss necessary components of a sustainable biochar socio-technical system, and we outline variations of this system based on different levels of biochar production scaling.     

Development of a financial management system in a CIMS environment

This research is based on the Anshan Project, a cool strip millwork computer integrated manufacturing system (LZ-CIMS). The study describes the design and completion of a LZ-CIMS financial management system that was developed using an Oracle database with client/server architecture and Developer/2000. During the development of the system, the study explores the use of both software engineering and database theory and Oracle RDBMS to discuss the integrating methods of financial information.     

Congruence of manufacturing decision areas in a production system: a research framework

A well designed production system secures environmental and internal fit. Environmental fit in a production system refers to alignment of manufacturing decisions to the external settings such as product and market. Internal fit implies that manufacturing decisions are mutually supportive. This paper develops a framework to analyse congruence of manufacturing decision areas in a production system. The framework considers six broad manufacturing decision areas. Based on the literature review, 54 decision types and alternative decision choices for each decision type are identified. The subjective and/or objective constructs to measure decision type are presented which should be useful in designing construct and in data gathering to conduct empirical research. Using the proposed framework, many research questions concerning the settings of several decision types for a specific type of production system can be generated and empirically tested.     

A quantitative investigation of the role of information and communication technologies in the implementation of a product-service system

This paper reports evidence from a survey, aimed at testing whether and how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which enable the adoption of product-service systems, can contribute to value creation. This analysis builds on previous contributions, according to which companies that are enriching their product offering through value-added services (the so-called servitisation strategy) often report lower levels of profitability, owing to the poor performance of their operating process. A wide stream of research claims that companies that invest in ICTs can enjoy valuable outcomes, since the adoption of such technologies results in processes that are more efficient and more responsive. Our hypothesis concerns the possibility of leveraging ICTs at operating process level so as to pursue a servitisation strategy. The in-field analysis presented in this paper concerns a sample of 109 companies located in Italy; data collected through the survey have been analysed using the structural equation modelling approach. The evidence presented demonstrates that ICTs can have a relevant impact on value creation because they lead to superior responsiveness of operating processes and to sound improvements in the product offering. In particular, companies that are able to embed such superior responsiveness into their product offering can further boost value creation.     

高压输电塔-线体系振动台模型非等比例问题研究

高压输电塔-线体系模型进行振动台试验时,由于模型跨度大以及实验室尺寸等条件限制,输电塔-线体系中塔与线的比例因子很难保持相同,此时需要将导（地）线的比例进行修正。从数值分析的角度出发,以辽宁盖州500kV输电线路的一段输电塔-线体系为例,输电塔的比例保持不变,导（地）线的修正系数分别取为1.0、0.5和0.4的情况下进行纵向和侧向下的一致和多点地震响应时程分析。研究结果表明,导（地）线的比例进行修正后,输电塔-线体系的地震响应与原模型保持一致,因此这种修正模型的振动台试验的精度满足工程要求。     

Design and implementation of an information system for performance assessment of management and organization in a gas refinary

Abstract

The objective of this study is to present an information system for assessment of management and organization in a gas refinery. To achieve the objective of this study, Balanced Score Card (BSC) methodology was utilized to categorize management and organization indicators into four categories. The data related to a five year period was then collected to provide a benchmark for the refinery. Furthermore, the data from 19 developed and developing countries were collected for the purpose of benchmarking. A t‐test was then introduced to benchmark the refinery's management and organization indicators. Moreover, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used to analyze and further assess the violated indicators. Finally, an integrated information system was designed in .Net environment by C#. It was introduced to facilitate the assessment of management and organization indicators. This is the first study that introduces an information system for performance assessment of management and organization in a gas refinery by integration of BSC, DEA and t‐test.     

Optimization of the inspection intervals of a safety system in a nuclear power plant by Multi-Objective Differential Evolution (MODE)

In this paper, we consider the problem of the optimization of the inspection intervals of the High Pressure Injection System (HPIS) of a Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR). For its solution, we investigate the use of Differential Evolution (DE) and compare it to another popular Evolutionary Algorithm (EA), the Genetic Algorithm (GA). In the comparison, we look in particular at the computation time and at the characteristics of the Pareto frontier. The problem is first treated as a single-objective optimization (SO) and then as a multi-objective optimization (MO). For this latter, a Multi-Objective Differential Evolution (MODE) code has been purposely developed, in Matlab.     

An integrated decision support system for strategic supply chain optimisation in process industries: the case of a zinc company

We introduce a menu-driven user-friendly decision support system (DSS) for supply chain planning based on optimisation. The DSS is based on a multi-source (supplier), multi-destination (warehouse) network having multiple manufacturing facilities, with multiple materials and multiple storage areas. This integrated supply chain model performs multiple period planning. The use of this DSS requires little knowledge of management sciences tools. We discuss the need for an integrated approach towards supply chain modelling for the process industry. We present the integrated model in the form of a database structure. We validate the model with the real data of a zinc company and demonstrate the impact of optimisation in terms of percentage improvement. The result shows that it is possible to improve unit contribution to profit from 1.89 to 4.66%.     

Assessment of failure pressure of a GFRP composite repair system for wall loss defect in metallic pipelines

The present paper is concerned with the failure pressure assessment of a newly developed GFRP matrix laminated composite repair of metallic pipelines with 80 % wall loss defect. The main motivation is to validate the experimental failure pressure with the theoretical one. Wall loss defects were manufactured into the tube specimen and the performance of the repaired pipe was assessed by hydrostatic tests as per ISO/TS 24817 standard. Results reveal that the theoretical failure pressure as per ISO/TS 24817 standard is found to be conservative. A wide range of failure pressure values was obtained using different criteria. Only RSTRENG 0.85* modified criterion provides a closer value towards the experimental one. However, the criterion selection for damage factor and flow stress condition is an open question as it gives dispersed values of failure pressure. The prediction of the failure pressure must be accurate without being overly conservative. Plastic deformation of the tube occurs towards the end of the tube, consequently, it is necessary to account for this behavior in failure pressure analysis for an accurate prediction. The application of loading‐unloading cycles before the failure burst test should be also accounted in order to predict the failure pressure.