Line balancing in a just-in-time production environment: balancing multiple U-lines

The introduction of multiple, independent production lines has helped many firms to increase their production flexibility, provide for redundancy when equipment breaks down, reduce idle time and labor costs, and achieve many other benefits. This paper introduces and formalizes the multiple U-line balancing problem. Optimal solution methodologies are provided for Type I (minimize the number of stations for a given cycle time), Type II (minimize the cycle time for a given number of stations), and cost-minimization line-balancing problems. A branch-and-bound algorithm is also developed for the situation in which equipment requirements are dependent on the line configuration and the task assignment to stations. Computational results indicate that the greatest benefit of exploiting multiple lines occurs for smaller cycle-time problems that require higher output.     

Preparation and properties of water‐soluble polyester surfactants. II. Preparation and surface activity of silicone‐modified polyester surfactants

We prepared a novel series of water‐soluble silicone‐modified polyesters [poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)–silicone polyesters] by reacting organopolysiloxane with a hydroxy‐terminated polyester. The polyesters were obtained by the polymerization of maleic anhydride and PEGs (molecular weights = 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000, and 10000). These water‐soluble PEG–silicone polyesters can be used as auxiliaries in dyeing process because they exhibit good surface activities such as surface tension, low foaming, and wetting power. The presence of these surfactants also retarded the rate of nylon dyeing with acid dyes. The retarding effect and low‐foaming property of these novel PEG–silicone polyesters make it possible for these surfactants to be used as leveling agents for modern nylon dyeing with acid dyes. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 86: 3005–3012, 2002     

Preparation and properties of (BATB–ODPA) polyimide–clay nanocomposite materials

A series of polymer–clay nanocomposite (PCN) materials consisting of 1,4‐bis(4‐aminophenoxy)‐2‐tert‐butylbenzene–4,4′‐oxydiphthalic anhydride (BATB–ODPA) polyimide (PI) and layered montmorillonite (MMT) clay were successfully prepared by an in situ polymerization reaction through thermal imidization up to 300°C. The synthesized PCN materials were subsequently characterized by Fourier‐Transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, wide‐angle powder X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The effects of material composition on thermal stability, mechanical strength, molecular permeability and optical clarity of bulk PI and PCN materials in the form of membranes were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), molecular permeability analysis (GPA) and ultraviolet‐visible (UV/VIS) transmission spectra, respectively. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 1072–1079, 2004     

Isothermal crystallization kinetics and melting behavior of nylon/saponite and nylon/montmorillonite nanocomposites

DSC thermal analysis and X‐ray diffraction have been used to investigate the isothermal crystallization behavior and crystalline structure of nylon 6/clay nanocomposites. Nylon 6/clay has prepared by the intercalation of ε‐caprolactam and then exfoliating the layered silicates by subsequent polymerization. The DSC isothermal results reveal that introducing saponite into the nylon structure causes strongly heterogeneous nucleation induced change of the crystal growth process from a two‐dimensional crystal growth to a three dimensional spherulitic growth. But the crystal growth mechanism of nylon/montmorillonite nanocomposites is a mixed two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional spherulitic growth. The activation energy drastically decreases with the presence of 2.5 wt % clay in nylon/clay nanocomposites and then slightly increases with increasing clay content. The result indicates that the addition of clay into nylon induces the heterogeneous nucleation (a lower ΔE) at lower clay content and then reduces the transportation ability of polymer chains during crystallization processes at higher clay content (a higher ΔE). The correlation among crystallization kinetics, melting behavior, and crystalline structure of nylon/clay nanocomposites is also discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 2196–2204, 2004     

Active steering control strategy for articulated vehicles

To improve maneuverability and stability of articulated vehicles, we design an active steering controller, including tractor and trailer controllers, based on linear quadratic regulator (LQR) theory. First, a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) model of the tractor-trailer with steered trailer axles is built. The simulated annealing particle swarm optimization (SAPSO) algorithm is applied to identify the key parameters of the model under specified vehicle speed and steering wheel angle. Thus, the key parameters of the simplified model can be obtained according to the vehicle conditions using an online look-up table and interpolation. Simulation results show that vehicle parameter outputs of the simplified model and TruckSim agree well, thus providing the ideal reference yaw rate for the controller. Then the active steering controller of the tractor and trailer based on LQR is designed to follow the desired yaw rate and minimize their side-slip angle of the center of gravity (CG) at the same time. Finally, simulation tests at both low speed and high speed are conducted based on the TruckSim-Simulink program. The results show significant effects on the active steering controller on improving maneuverability at low speed and lateral stability at high speed for the articulated vehicle. The control strategy is applicable for steering not only along gentle curves but also along sharp curves.     

BASE: an assistant tool to precisely simulate energy consumption and reliability of energy‐efficient storage systems

The concept of green storage in cluster computing has recently attracted enormous interest among researchers. Consequently, several energy‐efficient solutions, such as multi‐speed disks and disk spin down methods, have been proposed to conserve power in storage systems and improve disk access. Some researchers have assessed their proposed solutions via simulations, while others have used real‐world experiments. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages. Simulations can more swiftly assess the benefits of energy‐efficient solutions, but various measurement errors can arise from procedural shortcomings. For instance, many power simulation tools fail to consider how heat increases the power overhead of disk operations. Some researchers claim that their modeling methods reduce the measurement error to 5% in the single disk model. However, the demand for large‐scale storage systems is growing rapidly. Traditional power measurement using a single disk model is unsuited to such systems because of their complex storage architecture and the unpredictability of numerous disks. Consequently, a number of studies have conducted real machine experiments to assess the performance of their solutions in terms of power conservation, but such experiments are time consuming. To address this problem, this study proposes an efficient simulation tool called Benchmark Analysis Software for Energy‐efficient Solution (BASE), which can accurately estimate disks' power consumption in large‐scale storage systems. We evaluate the performance of BASE on real‐world traces of Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and Florida International University. BASE incorporates an analytical method for assessing the reliability of energy‐efficient solutions. The analytical results demonstrate that the measurement error of BASE is 2.5% lower than that achieved in real‐world experiments involving energy‐estimation experiments. Moreover, the results of simulations to assess solution reliability are identical to those obtained through real‐world experiments. Copyright © 2015 Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Application of trembling-hand perfect equilibrium to Nash nonlinear Grey Bernoulli model: an example of BRIC’s GDP forecasting

The traditional Grey forecasting model, GM(1,1), is characterized by its linear property. The Nash nonlinear Grey Bernoulli model further increases the forecasting accuracy by considering two governing parameters in the model. Because of the multiple Nash solutions, this study uses trembling-hand perfect equilibrium to refine the NNGBM and then obtains higher forecasting accuracy. This study mathematically proves that the proposed model is feasible and efficient. Finally, NNGBM with trembling-hand perfect equilibrium is used to forecast GDP of four fast-growing countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China, which are abbreviated as BRIC. The results show that BRIC’s GDP is keeping on growing.

     

Recovery of online service: Perceived justice and transaction frequency

Recovery of online service is an issue in need of study. The current study empirically examines (1) the relationships among perceived justice, satisfaction with recovery of online service and repurchase intention of online service/failure encounters; and (2) the moderating effects of transaction frequency on these relationships. The current study collects 187 self-administered questionnaires to gather customers’ perceptions of actual online service/failure encounters. Research findings demonstrate that distributive justice, interactional justice and procedural justice can positively lead to satisfaction with recovery of online service and repurchase intention toward online service. These results further show that customers with low transaction frequency tend to focus more on interactional justice to establish their satisfaction with recovery of online service. On the other hand, customers with high transaction frequency focus more on procedural justice.