Achieving manufacturing excellence through the integration of enterprise systems and simulation

This paper discusses the significance of the enterprise systems and simulation integration in improving shop floor’s short-term production planning capability. The ultimate objectives are to identify the integration protocols, optimisation parameters and critical design artefacts, thereby identifying key ‘ingredients’ that help in setting out a future research agenda in pursuit of optimum decision-making at the shop floor level. While the integration of enterprise systems and simulation gains a widespread agreement within the existing work, the optimality, scalability and flexibility of the schedules remained unanswered. Furthermore, there seems to be no commonality or pattern as to how many core modules are required to enable such a flexible and scalable integration. Nevertheless, the objective of such integration remains clear, i.e. to achieve an optimum total production time, lead time, cycle time, production release rates and cost. The issues presently faced by existing enterprise systems (ES), if properly addressed, can contribute to the achievement of manufacturing excellence and can help identify the building blocks for the software architectural platform enabling the integration

Discrete Event Simulations

Considered by many authors as a technique for modelling stochastic, dynamic and discretely evolving systems, this technique has gained widespread acceptance among the practitioners who want to represent and improve complex systems. Since DES is a technique applied in incredibly different areas, this book reflects many different points of view about DES, thus, all authors describe how it is understood and applied within their context of work, providing an extensive understanding of what DES is. It can be said that the name of the book itself reflects the plurality that these points of view represent. The book embraces a number of topics covering theory, methods and applications to a wide range of sectors and problem areas that have been categorised into five groups. As well as the previously explained variety of points of view concerning DES, there is one additional thing to remark about this book: its richness when talking about actual data or actual data based analysis. When most academic areas are lacking application cases, roughly the half part of the chapters included in this book deal with actual problems or at least are based on actual data. Thus, the editor firmly believes that this book will be interesting for both beginners and practitioners in the area of DES

The Apollo spacecraft: A chronology volume 4, 21 January 1966 - 13 July 1974

This final volume of the chronology is divided into three parts: (1) preparation for flight, the accident, and investigation; (2) recovery, spacecraft redefinition, and the first manned flight; and (3) man circles the moon, the Eagle lands, and manned space exploration. Congressional documents, official correspondence, government and contractor reports, memoranda, working papers, and minutes of meetings were used as primary sources. A relatively few entries are based on press releases and newspaper and magazine articles

The 1992 Research/Technology report

The 1992 Research & Technology report is organized so that a broad cross section of the community can readily use it. A short introductory paragraph begins each article and will prove to be an invaluable reference tool for the layperson. The approximately 200 articles summarize the progress made during the year in various technical areas and portray the technical and administrative support associated with Lewis technology programs

Application of Simulation Modelling to Machine Breakdown

Industrial technology has excelled profoundly in the past few decades, helping organisations throughout the world to be more efficient in all processes and keeping costs down. However, despite the abundance of several IT solutions, there exist many problems where more than one decision has to be made. Among the techniques supporting a multi-decisional context, simulations can undoubtedly play an important role as they provide what-if analysis and hence help to evaluate quantitative benefits. This thesis develops a simulation model for breakdown in an industrial machine, the main crusher in a cement factory. It also examines three important parameters (Drill Head, Dusting and Lubrication) of the crusher machine with the use of Bayesian network modelling which allows determination of suitable influencing factors in a precise and dynamic manner. The model also supports integration with management systems such as J.I.T, and MRPII. Witness simulation software has been used in this work to model the breakdown frequency of the Crusher machine and the associated parameters. The Bayesian Network Modelling is used to consider historical data and expert opinions; the Bayes’ approach takes into consideration off all existing parameters that affect the machine breakdown directly or indirectly. This tool is capable of establishing a probability based on the information gathered about the parameters. The simulation model is developed further to enable the Bayesian Network Modelling to be applied via the Chain Rule to calculate the probability of failure. The findings of this research show the approach developed in this work, where the Bayesian probability development process is integrated into the simulation model. This provides a unique and dynamic tool to aid decision making in understanding machine breakdowns. The resulting simulator is a decision making tool capable of analysing the status of the machine and the associated influencing factors. This uses an approach based on multiple performance measures and a user-defined set of inputs based on historical and expert opinion. This work provides a methodology to study the importance of key parameters of the crusher machine. This in effect highlights the correlation between the governing parameters and the occurrence of breakdown

Supply Chain

Traditionally supply chain management has meant factories, assembly lines, warehouses, transportation vehicles, and time sheets. Modern supply chain management is a highly complex, multidimensional problem set with virtually endless number of variables for optimization. An Internet enabled supply chain may have just-in-time delivery, precise inventory visibility, and up-to-the-minute distribution-tracking capabilities. Technology advances have enabled supply chains to become strategic weapons that can help avoid disasters, lower costs, and make money. From internal enterprise processes to external business transactions with suppliers, transporters, channels and end-users marks the wide range of challenges researchers have to handle. The aim of this book is at revealing and illustrating this diversity in terms of scientific and theoretical fundamentals, prevailing concepts as well as current practical applications

Customizing Experiences for Mobile Virtual Reality

A criação manual de conteúdo para um jogo é um processo demorado e trabalhoso que requer um conjunto de habilidades diversi cado (normalmente designers, artistas e programadores) e a gestão de diferentes recursos (hardware e software especializados). Dado que o orçamento, tempo e recursos são frequentemente muito limitados, os projetos poderiam bene ciar de uma solução que permitisse poupar e investir noutros aspectos do desenvolvimento. No contexto desta tese, abordamos este desa o sugerindo a criação de pacotes especí cos para a geração de conteúdo per sonalizável, focados em aplicações de Realidade Virtual (RV) móveis. Esta abordagem divide o problema numa solução com duas facetas: em primeiro lugar, a Geração Procedural de Conteúdo, alcançada através de métodos convencionais e pela utilização inovadora de Grandes Modelos de Lin guagem (normalmente conhecidos por Large Language Models). Em segundo lugar, a Co-Criação de Conteúdo, que enfatiza o desenvolvimento colaborativo de conteúdo. Adicionalmente, dado que este trabalho se foca na compatibilidade com RV móvel, as limitações de hardware associadas a capacetes de RV autónomos (standalone VR Headsets) e formas de as ultrapassar são também abordadas. O conteúdo será gerado utilizando métodos actuais em geração procedural e facilitando a co-criação de conteúdo pelo utilizador. A utilização de ambas estas abordagens resulta em ambi entes, objectivos e conteúdo geral mais re-jogáveis com muito menos desenho. Esta abordagem está actualmente a ser aplicada no desenvolvimento de duas aplicações de RV distintas. A primeira, AViR, destina-se a oferecer apoio psicológico a indivíduos após a perda de uma gravidez. A se gunda, EmotionalVRSystem, visa medir as variações nas respostas emocionais dos participantes induzidas por alterações no ambiente, utilizando tecnologia EEG para leituras precisas

Sustainable Mobility and Transport

This Special Issue is dedicated to sustainable mobility and transport, with a special focus on technological advancements. Global transport systems are significant sources of air, land, and water emissions. A key motivator for this Special Issue was the diversity and complexity of mitigating transport emissions and industry adaptions towards increasingly stricter regulation. Originally, the Special Issue called for papers devoted to all forms of mobility and transports. The papers published in this Special Issue cover a wide range of topics, aiming to increase understanding of the impacts and effects of mobility and transport in working towards sustainability, where most studies place technological innovations at the heart of the matter. The goal of the Special Issue is to present research that focuses, on the one hand, on the challenges and obstacles on a system-level decision making of clean mobility, and on the other, on indirect effects caused by these changes