Production Control Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

2025, Soft Computing

In production systems, input materials (educts) pass through multiple sequential stages until they become a product. The production stages consist of different machines with various dynamic characteristics. The coupling of those machines is a non-linear distributed system. With a distributed control system based on a multi-agent approach, the production system can achieve (almost) maximum output, where lot size and lot sequence are the most important control variables. In most production processes high throughput and low stock are conflicting goals. In order to compare and compensate between these multiple goals, a fuzzy decision making approach is employed here that decides about the material flow and machine states, based on variables like working load or order queue length.

2025

2025, European Journal of Operational Research

Batch processing is becoming more important in the process industries, because of the increasing product variety and the decreasing demand volumes for individual products. In batch process industries it is difficult to estimate the completion time, or makespan, of a set of jobs, because jobs interact at the shop floor. We assume a situation with hierarchical production control consisting of a planning level and a scheduling level. In this paper we focus on the planning level. We use two different techniques for estimating the makespan of job sets in batch process industries. The first technique estimates the makespan of a job set by developing regression models, the second technique by training neural networks. Both techniques use aggregate information. By using aggregate information the presented techniques are less time consuming in assessing the makespan of a job set compared with methods based on detailed information. Tests on newly generated job sets showed that both techniques are robust for changes in the number of jobs, the average processing time, a more unbalanced workload and for different resource configurations. Finally, the estimation quality of the neural network models appears significantly better than the quality of regression models.

2025

Nos últimos anos, houve uma evolução clara nos fornecedores da indústria automotiva, a qual se deve às constantes exigências impostas pelas OEMs (Fabricantes de Equipamentos Originais). É exigido um nível de qualidade bastante elevado, com uma competitividade dos produtos cada vez maior, existindo também um claro aumento da produtividade neste setor. Assim sendo, existe a necessidade de fazer evoluir os processos com a utilização de tecnologia, acompanhada de uma constante monitorização de dados e informações. A evolução dos métodos de trabalho é então um processo chave nas empresas mais tradicionais, sendo esse progresso gradual, para que os trabalhadores possam ter a oportunidade de evoluir as suas capacidades, promovendo uma simbiose entre mudança tecnológica, conhecimento e mudança de mentalidade. Esta dissertação apresenta uma proposta de implementação de sistemas de controlo da produção segundo requisitos da 4ª Revolução Industrial, na empresa Ficocables, Lda. Estes sistemas r...

2025, 9th National Conference on Management, Economy & Islamic Science

This study introduces an innovative KPI-based framework for assessing doctrinal convergence and divergence between the Hanafi and Shia (Jaʿfarī) legal schools, aiming to advance practical strategies for inter-sectarian rapprochement in Islamic law. Anchored in the Twelve-Pillar Framework for Comparative Jurisprudence (TPF-CJ), the model operationalizes 240 key performance indicators (KPIs) across diverse doctrinal domains including legal reasoning, ritual practices, civil law, and digital transformation. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, the research integrates qualitative doctrinal analysis with quantitative validation via Delphi surveys, regression, and principal component analysis. The findings reveal that, while both schools share a common scriptural foundation, the Shia tradition exhibits greater flexibility by emphasizing rational deduction (ʿaql) and the integration of maqāṣid al-Sharīʿah, and demonstrates a higher readiness for digital innovations (e.g., AI-driven analytics and blockchain) compared to the more traditional Hanafi approach. Drawing on the seminal works of MoghadasNian (2022, 2023, 2024, 2025; MoghadasNian et al., 2024; MoghadasNian et al., 2025), this framework not only bridges classical fiqh analysis with modern evaluative practices but also provides actionable insights for policy reforms, institutional efficiency, and sustainable inter-sectarian dialogue. Moreover, the model’s applications extend to sectors such as airline management and tourism, where digital transformation is integral to operational excellence.

2025

Victor 0800739114 ABSTRAK OLT. Metal Works saat ini memproduksi dua jenis safety belt, tipe ETA-100 dan UFS-5, akan tetapi untuk saat ini, perusahaan mengalami kendala pada lantai produksinya, terutama pada layout lantai produksi, perancangan dan peletakan mesin, buffer yang sembarangan, adanya mesin yang rusak tetapi tidak dipindahkan, sehingga hal menyebabkan terganggunya aliran material atau perpindahan bahan, biaya penanganan material yang tinggi, dan secara tidak langsung akan mempengaruhi kapasitas produksi perusahaan. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk merancang usulan layout bagi perusahaan dengan meningkatkan kapasitas produksinya serta dapat meminimasi hambatan-hambatan yang muncul. Dalam merancang layout ini menggunakan metode systematic layout planning , dimana layout dirancang sesuai dengan aliran dan urutan proses produksinya dengan mempertimbangkan beberapa hal seperti routing sheet, flow to chart inflow dan outflow, skala prioritas, activity relationship chart, activity relationship diagram, area allocation diagram. Setelah itu akan dianalisa mengenai biaya penanganan material dengan material handling planning sheet dan material handing evaluation sheet. Maka berdasarkan hasil penelitian didapat biaya penanganan material untuk saat ini sebesar Rp 60.156,13 dengan kapasitas produksi per hari 218 unit. Sedangkan untuk layout usulan, maka didapat biaya penanganan material sebesar Rp 37.423,36 dengan kapasitas produksi per hari 274 unit. Jadi diharapkan dengan metode penelitian diatas, maka akan didapat suatu usulan layout yang memiliki biaya penanganan material lebih rendah dan aliran produksi yang lebih teratur serta meningkatnya kapasitas produksi perusahaan yang sesuai dengan target.

2025

Since the dawn of independence in 1950s, the founding fathers pledged the ideology of Africanisation which carried such agendas as nationalism, unification and cultural preservation. However, despite of its demise in late 1970s, the ideology is still reverberating in the minds of post-independence Africa. Hence the paper to address what is missing in the Africanisation movement.

2025, Simulación

El proyecto tiene como objetivo optimizar tiempos improductivos mediante la utilización del programa FLEXSIM donde se ejecutará un análisis logístico del área de reempaque. Este estudio busca entregar una propuesta de mejora para esa área de tal manera que se optimice el proceso a corto plazo generando beneficios para la empresa.
El proyecto planea la optimización de tiempos de reempaque en la bodega de la Importadora desde que ingresa la orden de venta al proceso hasta que está lista para enviarse al cliente. El proyecto se realizará en una Importadora de productos escolares y de bazar que está ubicada en la ciudad de Guayaquil.

2025, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

2025, HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe)

2025, Conference: Conference on Structural Engineering

In recent years, studies have focused on alternative materials for structural reinforcement, and much attention has been devoted to the use of fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP). This material has high strength, low weight, corrosion resistance and electromagnetic neutrality, which makes FRP a suitable candidate in many structural applications, especially the reinforcement of timber beams. This article was carried out to study the effect of reinforcing timber beams with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) on their bending behavior, such as ultimate bending strength, bearing capacity, deflection ductility and rigidity. The results provided through the literature review showed that the ultimate bending strength of the beam increases to 63% (it depends on the technique of reinforcing FRP with timber). In contrast, mid-span defection decreases, resulting in higher stiffness values (between 31% and 64%). On the other hand, the deflection ductility of a reinforced timber beam is increased to 51% when the FRP/timber beam ratios are respected.

2025

Batch processing machines are commonly used in metal working, chemical processing, and electronics manufacturingto name a few. Scheduling these machines optimally is a hard task; the number of decision variables used in the mathematical formulations grow exponentially. Consequently, commercial solvers used to solve the formulations require prohibitively long run times. Schedulers struggle to make good decisions due to the complexity of the problem. This research considers the problem of scheduling a single batch processing machine such that the total number of tardy jobs is minimized. The machine can simultaneously process several

2025, Northern Illinois University

2025, Průmyslové inženýrství 2021: Sborník příspěvků

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of algorithms, calculations, learning that support the latest advances in process control and operations in modern manufacturing. The aim of this review is not only to offer interested readers information on the latest state of control in production methods and applications in production, but also to provide scientists and experts with a vision of where the future is heading.

2025

The customer order decoupling point (CODP) is commonly used to develop a simplified range of supply chain structures, ranging from standardised ship-to-stock to customized 'engineer-to-order' supply chains. This paper focuses on the latter category, with the purpose being the exploration of CODP concepts in design and engineering activities. The methodology follows a two phase approach. In the first phase, a collaborative form of inquiry as the means for producing knowledge is adopted, whereby academics and practitioners co-operated to develop a conceptual framework. The second phase includes three exploratory case studies, using interviews and site visits to gather data. The framework results in a classification of nine potential engineering subclasses. Through the exploratory case studies insight is given into the subclasses.

2025

The terms pull and lean production have become cornerstones of modern manufacturing practice. But, although they are widely used, they are less widely understood. In this paper, we argue that while the academic literature has steadily revealed the richness of the pull/lean concepts, the practitioner literature has progressively simplified these terms to the point where serious misunderstandings now exist. In hopes of reducing confusion, we offer general but precise definitions of pull and lean. Specifically, we argue that pull is essentially a mechanism for limiting WIP and lean is fundamentally about minimizing the cost of buffering variability.

2025, Intelligent Systems for Manufacturing

This contribution summarizes several own developed industrial applications where computer vision-based sensors were used for control and visual appearance check. The knowledge-based systems in manufacturing often lack the on-line information about the production. Cameras as sensors are flexible and mature enough to provide a feedback in very varying tasks. The hope is that the list of specific applications may enable to bridge the gap between the knowledge-based systems in manufacturing community and computer vision people.

2025

For multi-story apartment buildings, the "product" that customers value has two distinct components: shared (exterior and shared internal spaces) and private (individual apartments). The basic elements are the same (flooring, plumbing, etc.), and they are installed by the same trades using the same work methods. Yet the shared and private components are fundamentally distinct; the former entails repetitive work packages with stable design and process information, whereas the latter has high variation between products, for which information arrives in an unpredictable fashion as customers make final decisions about interior finishes. Although this dichotomy has been identified in the literature and its deleterious effects studied, construction management has ignored it and attempted to manage both project types within the same production system and by using similar management tools. In this paper, we explicate the shared/private delineation drawing on analogies from manufacturing processes (such the Mass vs. High-Mix, Low-Volume distinction) and discuss appropriate management tactics to address the inherently dual nature of the integrated final product.

2025

While much is written in the literature about the benefits and strategic impact of form postponement (FPp), little is still known about its application. We address ‘how ’ FPp is applied in terms of its operational and logistics implications within manufacturing facilities. This paper is a retrospective study of the application of FPp in three diverse manufacturing environments: a manufacturer of specialist high voltage cabling equipment we call ‘Electrico’; a manufacturer of industrial electric motors we call ‘Motorco’; and a manufacturer of control systems and components mainly for automated telling machines we call ‘Controlco’. Our findings show that FPp improved responsiveness of manufacturing in all cases, but that none of the applications of FPp was ideal from a theoretical perspective. The production planning system must be both responsive and flexible to support the application. For highly customised products, the customer order decoupling point (CODP) must be located suffici...

2025, Economic Alternatives

The present paper presents the results of an empirical study conducted among Bulgarian customers of furniture sector on the influence of the degree of customers’ participation (according to the position of Customer Order Decoupling Point)... more

2025, Production and Operations Management

T hroughout its history, the industrial engineering/operations management (IE/OM) field has relied heavily on axio- matic models and empirical studies of individual systems. But, unlike other engineering and management disciplines, it lacks a clear foundation in a descriptive science. Exceptional results like the famous "bullwhip effect" paper by hint at the powerful potential for a descriptive science of operations. But the very fact that such works are exceptional suggests that they are held to a high bar in the publishing process. This may be symptomatic of the cultural norms that have prevented our field from producing a rigorous scientific foundation. In this study, we make a case for why developing a unified science of operations is essential for IE/OM education, practice and research. We provide examples and a tentative framework to illustrate what such a science might look like and use this framework to generate a testable hypothesis about a powerful relationship between variability buffers in and operations system. We conclude with suggestions of measures we can take collectively to promote development of the science of operations.

2025, Springer eBooks

With regard to the overall vision of the IoP, the developed applications contribute significantly to the intended interdisciplinary of production and information technology. For example, application-specific digital shadows are drafted... more

2024, 2016 Winter Simulation Conference (WSC)

The increasing customization of products, which leads to greater variances and smaller lot sizes, requires highly flexible manufacturing systems. These systems are subject to dynamic influences and demand increasing effort for the generation of feasible production schedules and process control. This paper presents an approach for dealing with these challenges. First, production scheduling is executed by coupling an optimization heuristic with a simulation model. Second, real-time system state data, to be provided by forthcoming cyber-physical systems, is fed back, so that the simulation model is continuously updated and the optimization heuristic can either adjust an existing schedule or generate a new one. The potential of the approach was tested by means of a use case embracing a semiconductor manufacturing facility, in which the simulation results were employed to support the selection of better dispatching rules, improving flexible manufacturing systems performance regarding the average production cycle time.

2024, CIRP Annals

Today's highly dynamic market with its rapid changing demand requires highly dynamic order processing in very flexible production systems. Most conventional production planning and control methods do not support such fast-moving activities. A dynamical approach is introduced for modelling and control of production systems. It was developed from concepts of the Nonlinear Dynamics Theory. Manufacturing processes as well as planning and control mechanisms are seen as one unit toward the establishment of a dynamical system. The dynamical approach includes an analysis of the dynamic behaviour of the production system as well as the control of the manufacturing process by a continuous adjustment because of changes or disturbances in the environment or in the production system itself.

2024

Due to the dynamic and structural complexity of today's logistics systems and networks, central planning and control of logistic processes becomes increasingly difficult. Thus, decentralised and autonomous control of logistic processes is required. Based on recent IC technologies such as RFID and wireless communication networks, intelligent items, which can communicate and coordinate each other, are possible. These technological developments require novel concepts and strategies to implement autonomy in logistic processes. This paper sketches the vision of autonomy in logistics, describes the new demands on autonomous logistic processes and introduces a new German Collaborative Research Centre, which investigates autonomy as a new control paradigm for logistic processes.

2024, Notiziario Società Reggiana Scienze Naturali

A specimen of Heterobrissus montesi Manzoni & Mazzetti, 1878, the type-species of the genus Heterobrissus Manzoni & Mazzetti, 1878, has been recently recognised in the ancient “Issel collection” housed at the University of Genova. This new finding enables to extend the crono-stratigraphic range of this echinoid to the Argille di Ortovero formation, dated to the Zanclean. The specimen under study was collected towards the end of the '800 - beginnings of the '900 in the metropolitan area of Genova, together with several specimens of Schizaster braidensis, Brissopsis lyrifera and Holanthus ovatus, an echinoid association typical of muddy bathyal environments. The discovery of Heterobrissus montesi in the lower Pliocene of Genova and the Recent citation of Mazettia pareti (Manzoni, 1879) in the Zanclean of San Michele dei Mucchietti (Borghi et al., 2022), two species so far considered as extinct in the middle Miocene, indicate that our knowledge of the deep-water echinoid-fauna of the Mediterranean Pliocene is still incomplete and enable to increase the number of the Miocene echinoids surviving the MSC (Messinian Salinity Crisis) event in this Basin.

2024, Capital & Class

Despite the recent upsurge of global economic instability and anti-capitalist protest, many left economists and progressive policy programs continue to draw their main inspiration from the purported equity and efficiency of particular varieties of capitalism. This tendency derives its legitimacy in large part from ‘progressive competitiveness' interpretations of the postwar Japanese experience. Unfortunately, these interpretations and the politics they encourage are based on a faulty understanding of Japanese history. To help correct this bias, we revisit the struggle to reshape the Japanese political-economy immediately after World War II. During this period, Japanese workers —under highly repressive and economically difficult conditions—responded to a severe capital strike by taking direct control over important sectors of production and posing a new vision of worker-community based democracy. We examine the development of this popular effort to remake Japanese society and the...

2024, International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence

Over tting is a well-known problem in the elds of symbolic and connectionist machine learning. It describes the deterioration of generalisation performance of a trained model. In this paper, we investigate the ability of a novel arti cial neural network, bp-som, to avoid over tting. bp-som is a hybrid neural network which combines a multi-layered feed-forward network (mfn) with Kohonen's self-organising maps (soms). During training, supervised back-propagation learning and unsupervised som learning cooperate in nding ...

2024, Computers & Operations Research

Production Scheduling 114 high customer involvement. (2) Operator absence or machine breakdown needs to be carefully controlled to fulfill the critical due dates. (3) Variation in processing times usually happens to an operation, because a highly customized product is rarely repeated. (4) The overflow of work-in-process (WIP) inventories occurs. (5) Production delay on the previous day will affect the production on the current day; so will production earliness. When these problems dynamically happen to an OKP company, the daily production has to be adjusted online, i.e. adaptive production control. Therefore, OKP companies are continuously seeking new methods for adaptive production scheduling and control on shop floors. 1.2 Former research of flow shop production scheduling and control Flow shop production scheduling has been researched for more than five decades since 1954 (Gupta & Stafford, 2006). Early research of flow shop production scheduling was highly theoretical, using optimization techniques to seek optimal solutions for n-job m-machine flow shop scheduling problems. However, the emergence of NP-completeness theory in 1976 (Garey et al., 1976) profoundly influenced the direction of research in flow shop production scheduling. NP-completeness implies that it is highly unlikely to get an optimal solution in a polynomially bounded duration of time, for a given complex problem in general. That is why heuristics are required to solve large problems. Adaptive production control acutely challenges the research of flow shop production scheduling, because the relationship has not been completely revealed, among the number of jobs, the number of machines, job processing times and scheduling objectives. Moreover, the research of flow shop production scheduling is often based on strong assumptions, such as no machine breakdown or operator absence, processing times and some constraints are deterministic and known in advance (MacCarthy & Liu, 1993). During real production, disturbances are manifested in such occurrences as machine breakdown, operator absence, longer than expected processing times, new emergent orders, and so on (McKay et al., 2002), all of which may fail the original offline schedule and then require online rescheduling for adaptive production control. Consequently, heuristics based on strong assumptions are not robust, making production scheduling systems inflexible (Kouvelis et al., 2005), and a large gap exists between theoretical research and industrial applications (Gupta & Stafford, 2006; MacCarthy & Liu, 1993). 1.3 Status of production scheduling and control in OKP Currently, OKP companies primarily use priority dispatching rules (PDRs) to deal with disturbances. It is fast and simple to use PDRs to control production online, but PDRs depend heavily on the configuration of shop floors, characteristics of jobs, and scheduling objectives (Goyal et al., 1995), and no single specific PDR clearly dominates the others (Park et al., 1997). Moreover, the performance of PDRs is poor on some scheduling objectives (Ruiz & Maroto, 2005), and inconsistent when a processing constraint changes (King & Spachis, 1980). Consequently, there is a considerable difference between the scheduled and actual production progress (Ovacik & Uzsoy, 1997), and production may run into an "ad hoc fire fighting" manner (Tu, 1996a, 1996b).

2024, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A

The creep properties of a nuclear-grade type 316(L) stainless steel (SS) alloyed with nitrogen (316L(N) SS) and its weld metal were studied at 873 and 923 K in the range of applied stresses from 100 to 335 MPa. The results were compared with those obtained on a nuclear-grade type 316 SS, which is lean in nitrogen. The creep rupture lives of the weld metals were found to be lower than those of the respective base metals by a factor of 5 to 10. Both the base and weld metals of 316L(N) SS exhibited better resistance to creep deformation compared to their 316 SS counterparts at identical test conditions. A power-law relationship between the minimum creep rate and applied stress was found to be obeyed for both the base and weld metals. Both the weld metals generally exhibited lower rupture elongation than the respective base metals; however, at 873 K, the 316 SS base and weld metals had similar rupture elongation at identical applied stresses. Comparison of the rupture lives of the two steels to the ASME curves for the expected minimum stress to rupture for 316 SS base and weld metals showed that, for 316L(N) SS, the specifications for maximum allowable stresses based on data for 316 SS could prove overconservative. The influence of nitrogen on the creep deformation and fracture behavior, especially in terms of its modifying the precipitation kinetics, is discussed in light of the microstructural observations. In welds containing ␦ ferrite, the kinetics of its transformation and the nature of the transformation products control the deformation and fracture behavior. The influence of nitrogen on the ␦ ferrite transformation behavior and coarsening kinetics is also discussed, on the basis of extensive characterization by metallographic techniques. G. SASIKALA, Scientific Officer, and S.L. MANNAN, Associate Direc-highly unstable at high temperatures. The ␦ ferrite acts as tor, Materials Development Group, and M.D. MATHEW, Scientific Officer, a preferential site for many of the precipitation reactions in and K. BHANU SANKARA RAO, Head, Mechanical Metallurgy Division, this material. It transforms to carbides and brittle intermetalare with the Materials Development Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic lic phases such as and consequently reduces the ductility Research, Kalpakkam-603 102, India.

2024, Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing

This paper presents the development-by the IMS Network of Excellence)-of a web-based benchmarking service for manufacturing control systems. The paper first discusses the rationale behind this development. Next, the architecture and usage of the benchmarking service is presented and illustrated. Finally, the paper addresses the current status of the benchmarking service.

2024, CIRP Annals

The paper discusses manufacturing enterprises' compelling challenges that are directly stemming from generic conflicts between competition and cooperation, local autonomy and global behavior, design and emergence, planning and reactivity, uncertainty and a plethora of information. Responses in product and service design, organization of production networks, planning and management of operations, as well as production control are surveyed. As illustrated through industrial case studies, production engineering should integrate a rich body of interdisciplinary results together with contemporary information and communication technologies in order to facilitate cooperation and responsiveness that are vital in competitive, sustainable manufacturing.

2024

In this paper we shortly review the literature on buffer stock allocation strategies in serial production lines. A large number of experiments are conducted to analyze the behaviour of work-in-process given that the objective is to maximize throughput. Both balanced and unbalanced lines are examined. A key concept in this paper is the "long Pull" Kanban system. [1), [5), , [8).

2024, 8th National Conference on Interdisciplinary Research in Engineering and Management

In the rapidly evolving aviation industry, the efficiency, safety, and compliance of airline maintenance operations are paramount. This paper explores the development and application of a Key Performance Indicator (KPI)-driven framework tailored for airline maintenance management. Through a comprehensive methodology encompassing a literature review, expert interviews, and data analysis, the study identifies critical KPIs across various dimensions of maintenance operations, including production planning and control, maintenance and quality control, inventory and supply chain management, cost management, operational efficiency, employee management and training, safety and compliance, and sustainability and environmental impact. Findings reveal that a KPI-driven approach significantly enhances operational efficiency, safety compliance, and cost optimization, supported by real-world case studies. The research contributes to both the theoretical understanding and practical application of KPIs in airline maintenance, offering a strategic tool for Chief Production Control Officers (CPCOs) to achieve operational excellence. The paper concludes with practical recommendations for implementing the KPI framework and suggests directions for future research, emphasizing the need for continuous innovation, adaptation, and strategic oversight in airline maintenance management.

2024, International Dairy Journal

Streptococous macedonicus ACA-DC 198 was used both as an adjunct (Cheese B) and as sole starter (Cheese C) in Kasseri cheese production. Control cheese (Cheese A) was prepared using a commercial starter culture. In all cheeses, numbers of all microbial groups examined initially increased, but declined after Baski scalding and remained practically stable up to day 90. The presence of S. macedonicus was confirmed until the end of ripening (Cheeses B and C); this was also the case for the bacteriocin produced by S. macedonicus ACA-DC 198. X-propyl-dipeptidyl-aminopeptidase activity was detected in all cheeses after day 15. The physicochemical characteristics of the mature Cheese C were in agreement with those defined by the Greek legislation. The sensory properties of all mature cheeses corresponded with the ones characterizing the traditional Kasseri cheese. It was concluded that S. macedonicus ACA-DC 198 can be used as an adjunct in Kasseri cheese production.

2024, Policy and Society

During the 1990s, states embraced legalised gambling as a means of supplementing state revenue. But gaming machines (EGMs, pokies, VLTs, Slots) have become increasingly controversial in countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand, which experienced unprecedented roll-out of gaming machines in casino and community settings; alongside revenue windfalls for both governments and the gambling industry. Governments have recognised that gambling results in a range of social and economic harms and, similar to tobacco and alcohol, have introduced public policies predicated on harm minimisation. Yet despite these, gaming losses have continued to climb in most jurisdictions, along with concerns about gambling-related harms. The first part of this article discusses an emerging debate in Ontario Canada, that draws parallels between host responsibility in alcohol and gambling venues. In Canada, where government owns and operates the gaming industry, this debate prompts important questions...

2024

DOI to the publisher's website. • The final author version and the galley proof are versions of the publication after peer review. • The final published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User Agreement:

2024

The durability of reinforced concrete structures is greatly affected by corrosion of steel reinforcement through chloride attack. The use of impregnates is the most widely employed method to tackle chloride attack for structures in the UK. Impregnate manufacturers and DMRB standards stresses the use of impregnates on dry surfaces, achieving a dry surface is easy however moisture below the surface exists and this can affect the performance of the impregnates. The Concrete cubes were cast and cured, before being submerged in a water bath to determine their moisture content at various times. The cubes were surface dried, water and silane based impregnates were applied and then submerged in salt solution. The cubes were dry drilled at various depths of 5-20 mm for dust samples, which were used to obtain chloride concentrations by the method of Volhards titration. The performance of impregnates is dependent on the quality of concrete, as it directly influences the pore structure which in...

2024

The following Dissertation is based on the development of a project entitled Ship to Line, carried out in the company Bosch Termotecnologia SA. At the present time, in order to improve its competitiveness, a company must be aware of opportunities that reduce its cost of production. Therefore Logistics has become a core issue with imminent improvement opportunities, especially with opportunities concerning production line material supply. There are several factors that should be considered and combined so that, simultaneously, the needs of production materials are fulfilled and costs of the supply chain are reduced. The aim of this study was to implement a supply process with a maximum of two handling steps. Deliveries are made to a supermarket already in the container and the quantity required by the production point of use. Activities that do not contribute added value to the final product are eliminated and as a consequence all the aggregate costs of these activities disappear. This allows the company to optimize their production processes. vii viii Agradecimentos Manifesto imensa gratidão pela ajuda, acompanhamento e completa disponibilidade de toda a equipa do departamento de Compras da Bosch Termotecnologia, um agradecimento especial à Eng.ª Cláudia Paiva e ao Eng.º Eduardo Dias. Um agradecimento a todos os professores que contribuíram para a minha formação académica, em particular ao Professor José Fernando da Costa Oliveira. A todos os amigos e familiares pela ajuda, força e constante apoio durante este período da minha vida. Aos meus pais e irmãos que me permitiram alcançar os meus sonhos pela dedicação e paciência ilimitada que em todos os momentos demonstraram. A todos os familiares com quem gostaria de partilhar este momento, em especial à minha avó Maria José, que sei que estaria hoje muito orgulhosa.

2024, Engineering Computations

In this paper we discuss the problem of defining the manufacturing route taken by parts in terms of their technological features. We look closely at the use of the new computer aided process planning (CAPP) systems, and at the need to define groups of operations which will facilitate the generation of the route sheet. Generating different alternatives must be made easier to avoid calculating a range of incoherent possibilities. Our aim was to define groups of precedence between machine operations, which would allow us to reduce the alternatives and therefore, calculate and study the truly plausible routes while ignoring those which, despite being mathematically computable, would not be technologically coherent. In order to determine these groups of precedence, we evaluated a range of parts, which are produced by metal removal using applied group technology. For each one of the parts we generated the possible manufacturing alternatives, and applying graph theory, we determined which operations generally preceded others. The results obtained allowed us to reduce considerably the computational possibilities and thus save time in generating the route sheet.

2024, Annals of Operations Research

We consider a problem of optimal production control of a single unreliable machine. The objective is to minimize a discounted convex inventory/backlog cost over an infinite horizon. Using the variational analysis methodology, we develop the necessary conditions of optimality in terms of the co-state dynamics. We show that an inventorythreshold control policy is optimal when the work and repair times are exponentially distributed, and demonstrate how to find the value of the threshold in this case. We consider also a class of distributions concentrated on finite intervals and prove properties of the optimal trajectories, as well as properties of an optimal inventory threshold that is time dependent in this case.

2024

HAL is a multidisciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

2024, 2000 Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Workshop (Cat. No.00EX406)

Throughput rate and cycle time are two of the major production targets of a fab. As a fab is often operated under distributed production flow control, the overall delivery specifications can be achieved only when individual tool groups are operated to meet appropriate local performance requirements. In this paper, a control parameter extraction methodology is proposed to establish explicit relationship between production targets of a fab and local flow control parameters in terms of mean rates and upper bounds on variations of input processes for each tool group. These parameters can further be utilized to derive managerially tangible requirements for cycle times and wafer-in-processes and to create guidelines for distributed production control leading to the desired delivery specifications. Validations over two benchmark fab models demonstrate that our approach is mostly within 95% of accuracy and requires less than one millisecond of CPU time.

2024, Production Planning & Control

K eyw ords concurrent engineering, integration of manufacturing functions, production planning, product design, process planning A bstract. In manufacturing engineering, product design, process planning and production planning activities are often considered independently. However, in order to e ectively respond to changes in business situations, such as changes in demand forecast, product mix and technology, it is desirable to consider them concurrently. For this purpose, a large-scale linear programming model has been developed. The model considers minimization of the sum of processing cost, late shipment cost and inventory holding cost as the objective, and concurrently selects product designs, and generates process plans and production plans. The number of columns in the formulation can be large and, hence, an e cient column generation scheme is developed to solve the model. The model and solution procedure are illustrat ed with examples.

2024, Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to develop a pragmatic system of a production throughput forecasting system for an automated test operation in a hard drive manufacturing plant. The accurate forecasting result is necessary for the management team to response to any changes in the production processes and the resources allocations.Design/methodology/approach: In this study, we design a production throughput forecasting system in an automated test operation in hard drive manufacturing plant. In the proposed system, consists of three main stages. In the first stage, a mutual information method was adopted for selecting the relevant inputs into the forecasting model. In the second stage, a generalized regression neural network (GRNN) was implemented in the forecasting model development phase. Finally, forecasting accuracy was improved by searching the optimal smoothing parameter which selected from comparisons result among three optimization algorithms: particle swarm optimization (PS...

2024

This special issue is the outcome of a regional workshop entitled "Populism(s) and social cohesion in Southern Africa: a regional challenge, a global challenge?" that was held in Cape Town, South Africa, 11-12 May 2022. 1 The workshop was co-organized by the Research Institute Social Cohesion (RISC) and the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) and brought together a variety of researchers and practitioners from the Southern African region and Germany in the form of a South-South-North exchange. The central aim of the encounter was to create space and time for a much-needed exchange of experiences and empirical insights on the varieties of political populisms; the different strategies to strengthen social cohesion in Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe; as well as on the evolution of populist socio-political performances over the last years and their regional (and global) implications. The workshop was attended by scholars, practitioners, and activists from across the region, representatives of German political party foundations, and members of the Leipzig section of the RISC. This special issue brings together different workshop contributions, which were further elaborated and put into writing in the aftermath of the Cape Town meeting.

2024, Lecture Notes in Computer Science

The European research project INT-MANUS embedded in the I*PROMS European network of excellence addresses the increasing demand for flexibility and adaptivity, which is summarized by rapid reconfigurations of complete factories as well as related aspects in Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Software, and Production Systems. The project's main goal is to develop a new technology for the production plants of the future, the Smart Connected Control Platform (SCCP). This platform allows controlling a factory with the help of an open distributed learning agent platform that integrates machines, robots, and human personnel.

2024

The aim of this work is to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics produced by the variability of demand in a kanban cell, and influencing decision-makers within manufacturing strategies. In particular, in this study it was taken out of production context a single kanban cell, for which typically a production unit acts as a supplier and an assembly unit acts as a customer. For this cell a Virtual Kanban Strategy has been proposed and evaluated using a system dynamics simulation software.