Investigating the value of integrated operations planning: A case-based approach from automotive industry

During the last decade, many researchers have focused on joint consideration of various operations planning aspects like production scheduling, maintenance scheduling, inventory control, etc. Such joint considerations are becoming increasingly important from the point of view of current advancement in intelligent manufacturing, also known as Industry 4.0. Under the concept of Industry 4.0, advanced data analytics aim to remove human intervention in decision-making. Thus, the managerial level coordination of decisions taken independently by various departments will be out of trend. Therefore, developing an approach that optimises various operations planning decisions simultaneously is essential. Available literature on such joint considerations is more of the exploratory in nature and is limited to simplistic production environments. This necessitates the investigations of value of integrated operations planning for wide range of manufacturing scenarios. Present paper adopts a case-oriented approach to investigate the value of integrated operations planning. First, an integrated approach for simultaneously determining job sequencing, batch-sizing, inventory levels and preventive maintenance schedule is developed. The approach is tested in a complex production environment of an automotive plant and substantial economic improvement was realised. Second, a comprehensive evaluation is performed to study the robustness and implications of proposed approach for various production scenarios. Results of such pervasive performance investigations confirm the value of proposed approach over conventional approaches.     

A Current-Mode based Field-Programmable Analog Array for Signal Processing Applications

This paper presents a new approach to develop Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAAs),¹ which avoids excessive number of programming elements in the signal path, thus enhancing the performance. The paper also introduces a novel FPAA architecture, devoid of the conventional switching and connection modules. The proposed FPAA is based on simple current mode sub-circuits. An uncompounded methodology has been employed for the programming of the Configurable Analog Cell (CAC). Current mode approach has enabled the operation of the FPAA presented here, over almost three decades of frequency range. We have demonstrated the feasibility of the FPAA by implementing some signal processing functions.     

Production of gluconic acid using Micrococcus sp.: optimisation of carbon and nitrogen sources

A process for production of gluconic acid from glucose by a Micrococcus sp. is described. More than 400 bacterial cultures isolated from local soil were tested for gluconic acid production. Three isolates, were selected on basis of their ability to produce gluconic acid and high titrable acidity. These were identified as Micrococcus sp. and were named M 27, M 54 and M 81. Nutritional and other parameters for maximum production of gluconic acid by the selected isolates were optimised. It was found that Micrococcus sp. isolate M 27 gave highest yield of 8.19 g gluconic acid from 9 g glucose utilised giving 91% conversion effeciency.     

Flux Tracking Methods for Direct Field Orientation

Numerous techniques have been reported in the literature to accomplish the task of locating the rotor flux axis for the purpose of direct field orientation. This paper first summarizes the existing sensorless techniques using high-frequency test signal injection to determine the flux spatial location in an induction machine. A novel approach employing balanced and unbalanced excitation is then investigated to track the flux. It is first demonstrated that the rotating flux vector in the machine causes saturation-induced saliency in the phases under normal operating conditions. By employing high-frequency test signals, this saliency is monitored and then used to track the flux in the machine under test. The feasibility of the proposed approach is verified with experimental results.     

Hybrid multilevel power conversion system: a competitive solutionfor high-power applications

Trends in power semiconductor technology indicate a tradeoff in the selection of power devices in terms of switching frequency and voltage-sustaining capability. New power converter topologies permit modular realization of multilevel inverters using a hybrid approach involving integrated gate commutated thyristors (IGCTs) and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) operating in synergism. This paper investigates a hybrid multilevel power conversion system typically suitable for high-performance high-power applications. This system, designed for a 4.16 kV⩾100 hp load is comprised of a hybrid seven-level inverter, a diode bridge rectifier, and an IGBT rectifier per phase. The IGBT rectifier is used on the utility side as a real power flow regulator to the low-voltage converter and as a harmonic compensator for the high-voltage converter. The hybrid seven-level inverter on the load side consists of a high-voltage slow-switching IGCT inverter and a low-voltage fast-switching IGBT inverter. By employing different devices under different operating conditions, it is shown that one can optimize the power conversion capability of the entire system. A detailed analysis of a novel hybrid modulation technique for the inverter, which incorporates stepped synthesis in conjunction with variable pulsewidth of the consecutive steps is included. In addition, performance of a multilevel current-regulated delta modulator as applied to the single-phase full-bridge IGBT rectifier is discussed. Detailed computer simulations accompanied with experimental verification are presented in the paper     

Antimicrobial activity of neutralized extracellular culture filtrates of lactic acid bacteria isolated from a cultured Indian milk product (‘dahi’)

Neutralized extracellular culture filtrate obtained from isolates of Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus delbruecki ssp. bulgaricus, Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactococcus lactis ssp. lactis from ‘dahi’ showed weal to moderate inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus brevis, Bacillus circulans, Bacillus coagulans, Bacillus laterosporus, Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa when tested by the diffusion agar well assay method. The effective minimum quantity of lactic culture filtrates required to obtain complete inhibition of an inoculum of 10³ cfu/ml of the bacteria tested was between 20 and 26% (vol/vol), as determined by the agar incorporation method. Neutralized extracellular culture filtrate of these lactic cultures added at a level of 10% in sterile, 10% reconstituted non-fat dry milk was able to either suppress or retard growth of selected bacterial cultures when incubated at 37°C for 24 h. This study indicated the antimicrobial activity of dahi and the potential of using neutralized extracellular culture filtrate of lactic acid bacteria in the biopreservation of foods.