The use of industrial engineering in Hong Kong manufacturing industry

This paper reports the results of a survey of the use and place of industrial engineering techniques in 29 manufacturing establishments in the light engineering, electronics, garment, and scientific equipment sectors of Hong Kong industry. The results are compared with those of similar surveys in Europe and North America. The conclusions are that the number and use of industrial engineering techniques and their place in the organization of manufacturing industry in the newly industrialized city-state of Hong Kong is comparable with that found some seven to ten years previously in the U.S.A. and Europe.     

The firms that feed industrial districts: A return to the Italian source

Italian industrial districts comprise a great variety of firmsand are criss-crossed by various networks and business groups.Although the vast majority of industrial district firms arerelatively small, it is a mistake to assume that they are organizationallysymmetrical and that they mimic the supposedly dominant normsof the communities in which they are located. Larger firms frequentlyorganize production among groups of smaller firms, introducetechnological innovations and expand existing markets.     

Stochastic mathematical modelling and manufacturing cost estimation in uncertain industrial environment

In the present day high-tech uncertain industrial environment, there is often a need for determining expected cost per piece or per batch in advance of production. A mathematical model for stochastic cost optimization has been developed. If an exact solution is desired, a two stage stochastic geometric program has to be solved. This is tedious and requires great computational effort. However, managers are often concerned with a policy decision which can be based on the probable lower and upper bound on the stochastic cost function. This paper deals with estimating the probable cost range and also calculating the exact expected cost. The probability level on the lower bound of cost has been calculated through the theory of error propagation. A decomposition algorithm has been used to find the exact expected cost under a set of real-world constraints. The whole approach has been explained through an example     

Taxonomy of the manufacturing strategies of large Spanish industrial companies

This work presents a classification of the manufacturing strategies of large Spanish industrial companies in Spain. For this purpose the various international empirical studies on alternative manufacturing strategies have been taken as a reference, reviewed and compared. The database used in this study is made up of information on 114 factories and has been designed using the information from a survey mailed to the industrial companies which have production plants in Spain and which in the financial year of 1994 (reference date of this research) employed over 200 workers. Cluster analysis methodology has been used and the classification criterion taken was the competitive advantages or strengths of each factory concerning the five competitive priorities in manufacturing: efficiency, flexibility, quality, delivery and customer service. Finally, this work identifies a taxonomy of the manufacturing strategies of a sample of the largest industrial companies in Spain, differentiating three alternative production strategies: flexible marketoriented manufacturers, low-cost quality manufacturers and delivery-based manufacturers. Large industrial companies analysed compete in manufacturing, basically following a choice of three criteria: flexibility, quality or delivery. The companies belonging to each of the three categories identified maintain common and lasting manufacturing objectives and policies.     

从空分设备制造到工业气体供应

介绍杭氧最近几年在空分设备制造方面取得的进展以及逐步进入工业气体领域的情况。对中国工业气体行业的情况和发展前景做了初步分析,认为像中国这样一个工业领域齐全的大国,需要有本土化的大型工业气体供应公司。详细分析了将中国气体分离设备制造的龙头企业——杭氧建设成为一流工业气体公司的优势和即将开展的主要工作。     

A manufacturing system design framework for computer aided industrial engineering

This paper describes a framework that formalizes within a concurrent engineering approach the key steps in the process of manufacturing systems design. Many of the functions performed by industrial engineers, ergonomists and process planners are included in the framework and may be used iteratively as design detail is progressively added. The paper describes the framework and prototype software, indicates how the framework is evaluated and illustrates how a workplace may be designed. The emphasis of the work is the design of human centred manual assembly systems. The overall objective of the work is to improve the process of manufacturing systems design.     

Technological regimes and industrial dynamics: the evidence from Dutch manufacturing

Theoretical models of industry dynamics suggest a relationshipbetween the structural and dynamic properties of the firm populationof an industry and its underlying technological regime. Thispaper shows, on the grounds of a longitudinal firm-level databaseon the Dutch manufacturing sector, that differences betweenindustries with regard to their structural and dynamic propertiesare indeed strongly related to their underlying technologicalregimes.     

A genetic algorithms-based approach for design of manufacturing systems: An industrial application

This paper presents a design methodology and a genetic algorithm-based approach for redesign of a manufacturing system for a small steel pre-fabricated building manufacturer. Through the application of celular manufacturing principles, we discuss the application of the design methodology that takes a topdown approach to determine system needs and a bottom-up integrated design approach to develop the configurations of the manufacturing system. The integrated design approach uses a genetic algorithm and an AutoCAD interface to minimize the inter and intra cell material movements during cell formation. A selected set of solutions obtained are further analysed using discrete event modelling and simulation. The final results presented indicate a substantial improvement in overall performance compared to the original layout. The company has implemented a modified version of the final solution and has achieved the significant improvements in material handling and overall productivity.     

A genetic scheduling methodology for virtual cellular manufacturing systems: an industrial application

Effective solutions to the cell formation and the production scheduling problems are vital in the design of virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMSs). This paper presents a new mathematical model and a scheduling algorithm based on the techniques of genetic algorithms for solving such problems. The objectives are: (1) to minimize the total materials and components travelling distance incurred in manufacturing the products, and (2) to minimize the sum of the tardiness of all products. The proposed algorithm differs from the canonical genetic algorithms in that the populations of candidate solutions consist of individuals of different age groups, and that each individual's birth and survival rates are governed by predefined aging patterns. The condition governing the birth and survival rates is developed to ensure a stable search process. In addition, Markov Chain analysis is used to investigate the convergence properties of the genetic search process theoretically. The results obtained indicate that if the individual representing the best candidate solution obtained is maintained throughout the search process, the genetic search process converges to the global optimal solution exponentially.

The proposed methodology is applied to design the manufacturing system of a company in China producing component parts for internal combustion engines. The performance of the proposed age-based genetic algorithm is compared with that of the conventional genetic algorithm based on this industrial case. The results show that the methodology proposed in this paper provides a simple, effective and efficient method for solving the manufacturing cell formation and production scheduling problems for VCMSs.     

New directions in spintronics

Conventional microelectronics exploits only the charge degree of freedom of the electron. Bringing the spin degree of freedom to bear on sensing, radio frequency, memory and logic applications opens up new possibilities for 'more than Moore' devices incorporating magnetic components that can couple to an external field, store a bit of data or represent a Boolean state. Moreover, the electron spin is an archetypal two-state quantum system that is an excellent candidate for a solid-state realization of a qubit.     

The influence of environmental and manufacturing conditions on lifetime and reliability predictions for industrial timing belt drives

Forschung im Ingenieurwesen - Timing belts are widely used for transmitting forces and torques. Despite the relatively simple design of timing belts, a lack of understanding of the respective...     

Isolation and identification of novel high strength phenol degrading bacterial strains from phenol-formaldehyde resin manufacturing industrial wastewater

Phenols are toxic to all types of organisms. Two bacterial strains capable of utilizing phenol as a sole carbon source were isolated from the phenol bearing industrial wastewater. Based on the biochemical test results the organisms were identified as Pseudomonas cepacia and Bacillus brevis. The organisms were very efficient in phenol degradation, the lag phase increased with increase in phenol concentration. The well-acclimatized cultures of P. cepacia and B. brevis degraded 2500 and 1750 mg l(-1) of phenol in 144 h, respectively. The organisms degrade phenol even in the presence of toxicants like thiocyanate, sulphide and cyanide. The organisms can be effectively used for treating high strength phenol containing thiocyanate, sulphide and cyanide. The P. cepacia degrades phenol with a faster rate than B. brevis. P. cepacia can be used effectively for treating high strength phenolic wastewater.     

Developing manufacturing ontologies for knowledge reuse in distributed manufacturing environment

The use of ontologies for knowledge sharing and distributed collaboration has been widely recognised in the knowledge modelling community, but the lack of a systematic and constructive methodology for developing manufacturing ontologies has impeded their wide usage for knowledge reuse in distributed manufacturing environments. This paper presents a constructive, two-level knowledge modelling approach to systematically develop manufacturing ontologies using both software engineering and Semantic Web paradigms. The UML/OCL (Unified Modeling Language/Object Constraint Language)-based object modelling is used first to serve as a graphical and structured basis for conceptual communication between domain experts and knowledge engineers. The OWL/SWRL (Web Ontology Language/Semantic Web Rule Language)-based ontology modelling then extends the UML/OCL-based object models with added semantics using a progressive, semantics-oriented knowledge acquisition method. An illustrative example for manufacturing ontology development in the manufacturing industry for producing electronic connectors is used to demonstrate the practicality of the proposed approach.     

New directions in fusion magnet development

As part of the ERDA Division of Magnetic Fusion Energy effort to achieve fusion power by the end of the century, superconducting magnet programs were established at several of the national laboratories with the support of numerous industries. Recently, these program goals have been reviewed and modified to reflect new directions in fusion research. The development of superconducting toroidal field coils has been assigned first priority for the Experimental Power Reactor. This effort, centered at ORNL, will have the extensive support of industry, so that large construction capability can be encouraged. Ohmic heating coils for tokamaks promise to be an even more difficult task, and an expanded effort will be initiated as funds become available. Magnets for mirror confinement systems should have the highest fields practical. Accordingly, LLL has been funded to develop multifilamentary niobium-tin for future might experiments. If successful, the material might complement the recent trend toward higher field tokamaks as well. Energy Storage development at LASL is concentrating on inductive storage for 1 msec discharge and a superconducting homopolar generator for 30 msec to 1 sec discharge times. The stainless steel structure is a major cost element of any magnet system. However, recent calculations have shown that a magnetic coil form affects the toroidal field ripple in the EPR by only a few parts in a thousand. Thus, an opportunity exists to characterize and develop less expensive alloys for low temperature magnet structures.     

New directions in liquid crystal science

While we are all familiar with liquid crystal displays, an industry currently worth more than US dollars 60 billion yr(-1) and growing rapidly, fewer people are aware of the breadth of the subject of liquid crystals--one that represents the study of the fourth state of matter. Liquid crystals are found as essential elements in biological systems, soaps and detergents, sensor technologies and in the manipulation of electromagnetic radiation of various wavelengths. This meeting was designed to highlight both the truly multidisciplinary nature of liquid crystal science and to feature those areas away from electro-optic displays; these issues are developed and summarized in more detail.     

Flexibility in manufacturing enterprises

A manufacturing enterprise is a collection of interrelated, flexible, optimized business processes delivering value to the customers through high quality products and services, faster than competition. This view of an enterprise enables one to consider the entire business system including the suppliers, product development, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and retailing and to smoothen out the interfaces between them. Performance measures and performance measurement are important for monitoring, control and management. We identify and discuss eight performance measures for generic business processes. These include lead time, customer service, dependability, quality, flexibility, cost, capacity, and asset utilization. In this paper, we concentrate on flexibility of business processes with special emphasis on the supply chain and order-to-delivery processes. We attempt to provide clear definitions and measures of various types of flexibilities as well as discuss the relationship between product structure and supply chain flexibility. The relationship between uncertainties, flexibility, technology, and product structure is clearly brought out in this paper.