Safety function analysis in an industrial production process

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão IndustrialAim: The purpose of this work was to identify and assess safety features on a production line of paper manufacturer called Renova. The assessment includes technical as well as organisational factors. The study was carried out through the evaluation of safety functions (SF), either present or absent in the system analyzed. Methods: The methodology applied was the SFA (Safety Function Analysis), which was developed by Harms-Ringdahl in 2001 and was updated further, in 2011 (draft version). The analytical framework was applied in two processes (raw material loading and transversal cut of log) of a production line (Line H4) of Renova. Results: In the first process analyzed (raw material loading), 47 safety functions (SF) were identified and evaluated, whereas 36 SF were assessed in the second case (transversal cut of log). The evaluation has shown that most of the SF considered are in good condition and being well monitored, therefore they do not need any improvements. In contrast, this work has also identified a number of safety functions that need essential improvements. Conclusions: As a consequence of this SFA analysis, the author proposes a number of specific recommendations to improve safety and the system’s performance in general. Since Renova is a manufacturer of paper products, fire safety is of paramount importance and one of the most relevant recommendations is perhaps the implementation of thermo graphic tests to identify possible hot spots that may originate a fire

KALwEN: A New Practical and Interoperable Key Management Scheme for Body Sensor Networks

Key management is the pillar of a security architecture. Body sensor networks(BSNs) pose several challenges -- some inherited from wireless sensor networks(WSNs), some unique to themselves -- that require a new key management scheme to be tailor-made. The challenge is taken on, and the result is KALwEN, a new lightweight scheme that combines the best-suited cryptographic techniques in a seamless framework. KALwEN is user-friendly in the sense that it requires no expert knowledge of a user, and instead only requires a user to follow a simple set of instructions when bootstrapping or extending a network. One of KALwEN's key features is that it allows sensor devices from different manufacturers, which expectedly do not have any pre-shared secret, to establish secure communications with each other. KALwEN is decentralized, such that it does not rely on the availability of a local processing unit (LPU). KALwEN supports global broadcast, local broadcast and neighbor-to-neighbor unicast, while preserving past key secrecry and future key secrecy. The fact that the cryptographic protocols of KALwEN have been formally verified also makes a convincing case

Identifying Appliances using NIALM with Minimum Features

Government of India has decided to install smart meters in fourteen states. Smart meters are required to identify home appliances to fulfill various tasks in the smart grid environment. Both intrusive and non-intrusive methods have been suggested for identification. However, intrusive method is not suitable for cost and privacy reasons. On the other hand, techniques using non-intrusive appliance load monitoring (NIALM) are yet to result in meaningful practical implementation. Two major challenges in NIALM research are the choice of features (load signatures of appliances), and the appropriate algorithm. Both have a direct impact on the cost of the smart meter. In this paper, we address the two issues and propose a procedure with only four features and a simple algorithm to identify appliances. Our experimental setup, on the recommended specifications of the internal electrical wiring in Indian residences, used common household appliances’ load signatures of active and reactive powers, harmonic components and their magnitudes. We show that these four features are essential and sufficient for implementation of NIALM with a simple algorithm. We have introduced a new approach of ‘multi point sensing’ and ‘group control’ rather than the ‘single point sensing’ and ‘individual control’, used so far in NIALM techniques.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v4i6.671

Optimization of maintenance performance for offshore production facilities

Master's thesis in Offshore technologyNew technologies are becoming advanced and complex for offshore production facilities. However this advancement and complexity in technology creates a more complicated and time consuming forensic processes for finding causes of failure, or diagnostic processes to identify events that reduce performance. As a result, micro-sensors, efficient signaling and communication technologies for collecting data efficiently, advanced software tools (such as fuzzy logic, neural networks, and simulation based optimization) have been developed, in parallel, to manage such complex assets. Given the nature and scale of ongoing changes on complexities, there are emerging concerns that increasing complexities, ill-defined interfaces, unforeseen events can easily lead to serious performance failures and major risks. To avoid such undesirable circumstances, „just-in-time‟ measures of performance to ensure fully functional is absolutely necessary. The increasing trend in complexity creates a motivation to develop an integrated maintenance management framework to get real-time information to solve problems quickly and hence to increase functional performance (help the asset to perform its required function effectively and efficiently while safeguarding life and the environment). Establishing “just-in-time” maintenance and repairs based on true machine condition maximizes critical asset useful life and eliminates premature replacement of functional components. This thesis focuses on developing an integrated maintenance management framework to establish „just-in-time‟ maintenance and to ensure continuous improvements based on maintenance domain experts as well as operational and historic data. To do this, true degradation of components must be identified. True level of degradation often cannot be inferred by the mere trending of condition indicator‟s level (CBM), because condition indicator levels are modulated under the influence of the diverse operating context. Besides, the maintenance domain expert does not have a precise knowledge about the correlation of the diverse operating context and level of degradation for a given level of condition indicator on specific equipment. Efforts have been made in here to identify the true degradation pattern of a component by analyzing these vagueness and imprecise knowledge. Key words: effective and efficient maintenance strategy, ‘just-in-time’ maintenance, condition based maintenance, P-F interval

Success Factors for e-Court Implementation at Allahabad High-Court

This paper is an attempt to study the important factors responsible for successful implementation of Electronic Court (e-Court) at Allahabad High Court India, to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of e-Court at Allahabad High Court and to conduct a feasibility analysis of replication of e-Court in lower courts of India. A qualitative case study approach was adopted comprising in-depth literature review and structured interview to conduct the study. Subsequently, NVivo 11 Pro software is used to analyze the recorded data and to identify the Critical Success Factors (CSFs). The findings of the study identified 23 CSFs for efficient and effective implementation of e-Court at Allahabad High Court. Also, feasibility analysis explored replication of e-Court in lower courts of India is possible after resolving few issues. The outcome will be helpful for efficient and effective implementation of e-Court in various other High Courts and lower courts of India as well as to enhance the effectiveness of process

Factors causing variation between the LEED final and pilot checklists in green health-care projects

Among most of the LEED registered and LEED certified health-care facilities, there is a credit variation between the LEED pilot checklist and the final checklist. The credit variation between the LEED pilot and final checklists implies failure in achieving the pre-defined green objectives. Most of the credits were given up due to financial reasons. Although most of the credits in the LEED credit list emerge as design issues, accomplishing a LEED rating is primarily the owner??s responsibility. In order to minimize the variation between the LEED pilot checklist and LEED approved checklist, the owner needs to conduct significant project planning. The owner should integrate the LEED objectives early in the project and should include the cost of the LEED process in the capital budget. Since there are limited LEED certified health-care projects, adoption of the systems approach for planning and developing a green health-care facility using the IDEF0 method is recommended. The IDEF0 method can produce an outcome array which represents the matrix of all possible circumstances. This will give the owner and the project team the ability to better forecast cost and schedule decisions, even when there is a lack of historical data relating to green health-care projects. The approach will be beneficial in analyzing the various outcomes, cost, and feasibility of projects in terms of integrating LEED objectives early on. This could minimize the credit variation, as well as cost and schedule overruns during the project execution stage. Adequately defining the full development process upfront is vital to the overall success of any project, especially for green buildings, since they are a developing trend in the construction industry

From Workers to Owners: Survey Evidence on the Impact of Property Rights Reforms on Small Farmers in Two Regions in Romania

In Romania, the 1991 Land Reform marked the beginning of a series of transformations in the ownership structure and the production system in agriculture. Nevertheless, after recently joining the EU it became evident that the agricultural sector is in need of major improvements in performance. We present preliminary findings from a unique village-level panel data at household level. Preliminary findings suggest that there are wide regional differences in terms of agricultural performance and organizational forms. Also, we find that productivity levels do not differ significantly between farming arrangements, and that labor supply, capital endowment, and contractual arrangements might be more important.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/64427/1/wp905.pd