Impact of Lean management at EDP Produção

Nowadays, companies are in an environment of constant change and competitiveness, especially given the financial instability of some economies and the consumer´s awareness of their power and demanding in product and service specifications. Therefore, organizations are increasingly seeking recognition in the market not only for their quality but also for their efficiency and rapid response to changes. In this context, many methodologies have emerged to address the external factors that make markets extremely volatile. Of these various methodologies, Lean stands out as a form of management, consisting of practices and concepts of continuous improvement and waste reduction throughout the value chain, aiming at consumer satisfaction. Lean is also a way of thinking, with the goal of developing people's skills by creating a culture where everyone is encouraged to use their thinking, knowledge and skills to solve problems and to improve constantly and continuously. But even if Lean can be applied across all industries and services, it is not a simple change. To achieve this, there must be a strong sense of leadership from top management to the end of the hierarchical structure. It is also important to evaluate and monitor their performance in organizations. In this context, the objective of this Case study is to understand how such a developed company as EDP (Energias de Portugal), more specifically EDPP (EDP Production), applies and monitors the Lean methodology. It is intended to evaluate the balance between the results obtained from this methodology in a developed company and the investment required.Atualmente, as empresas encontram-se num ambiente de contante mudança e competitividade, dado sobretudo à instabilidade financeira de algumas economias e da consciência dos consumidores do seu poder nas especificações de serviços e produtos. Deste modo, são cada vez mais as organizações que procuram ser reconhecidas no mercado não só pela sua qualidade, mas também, pela eficiência e rápida resposta às mudanças. Neste contexto surgiram, muitas metodologias que têm como objetivo fazer face aos fatores externos. Destas metodologias várias destaca-se o Lean, constituída por práticas e conceitos de melhoria contínua e redução de desperdícios em toda a cadeia de valor, visando a satisfação do consumidor. O Lean é também uma forma de pensar, com o objetivo de desenvolver as competências, através da criação de uma cultura onde todos são encorajados a usar o pensamento, conhecimento e capacidades adquiridas para resolver problemas e melhorar constantemente. Mas apesar do Lean ser passível de se aplicar em todas as indústrias e serviços, não é uma mudança simples. Para tal, deve existir um sentido forte de liderança desde a gestão de topo até ao fim da estrutura hierárquica. É também de extrema importância a avaliação e monitorização de desempenho desta aplicação Neste âmbito, o objetivo do presente Case Study é perceber a forma como uma Empresa tão desenvolvida, como a EDP (Energias de Portugal), mais concretamente EDPP (EDP Produção), aplica e monitoriza a metodologia Lean. Pretende-se, desta forma, avaliar o balanço entre os resultados obtidos desta metodologia numa grande empresa e o investimento necessário

Methodological guide to deploy Functional Analysis into CODAC Systems for the Tritium Processing in ITER

The present document is focused on the a nalysis of the ITER - TBM‘s Proto - CODAC system. ITER is considered to be the first nuclear fusion reactor to be energetically feasible for a sustained period of time with a rated fusion power of 500 MW. ITER Project involves 35 countries with a total est imated budget of some 15.000 M€; being the first of its kind from the point of view of international collaboration, engineering and supply sources; where every country participate with the best of its possibilities. The hearth of the fusion reactor is a giant Tokamak (6.2 m plasma major radius) with a se ries of ancillary buildings and facilities that might complete the whole p roject. The operation of ITER is scheduled to operate along the next 50 years , after completion of the facilities construction and commissioning of the plant, considering first to b e operated in D - D and further in a D - T modes. In this sense, the activity that supports the development of the present work was stated to be necessary to consider a tritium balance for the self - sufficient reaction and operation of the whole. Tritium is a v ery scarce element being its global sto cks to the present date of 2016 of some 20 kg, being produced mainly collected from the operation of Candu reactors in Canada [Raeder, 1986] . Also the operation of the ITER reactor might produce Tritium at a rate that might b e able to support the fusion reaction indefinitely on a time basis. Because of the tritium balance it is difficult to state due to its highly permeation throughout confinement of first walls and joint materials . Not to mention its high ly dangerous potential to human health, according to radiologic al properties . This is why it is necessary to establish predictive tools that might indicate the concentration and inventory across the facility, including emissions to the environment. In this sense, ITER Instrumentation and Control systems for Control and Data Acquisition (DACS) mainly constitute the layers between the users (Control Room) and the field Instrumentation (sensors and actuators). This is nam ed as ITER CODAC, which is the primary global system analyzed in the present document. The control philosophy it is stated to be predictive and from the author‘s point of view must include the comparison between field measurement and advanced modeling, including machine learning utility system that might be deployed in computational base

Human-Robot Collaboration in Automotive Industry

Human–Robot Collaboration is a new trend in the field of industrial and service. Application of human-robot-collaboration techniques in automotive industries has many advantages on productivity, production quality and workers’ ergonomic; however, workers’ safety aspects play the vital role during this collaboration. Previously, the machine is allowed to be at automatic work only if operators are out of its workspace but today collaborative robots provide the opportunity to establish the human robot cooperation. In this thesis, efforts have been made to present innovative solutions for using human-robot collaboration to develop a manufacturing cell. These solutions are not only used to facilitate the operator working with collaborative robots but also consider the worker safety and ergonomic. After proposing different solutions for improving the safety of operations during the collaboration with industrial robots, the efficiency of the solutions is tested in both laboratory and virtual environments. In this research, firstly, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) has been used as a potential decision maker to prove the efficiency of human-robot collaboration system over the manual one. In the second step, detailed task decomposition has been done using Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA) to allocate operational tasks to human and robot reducing the chance of duty interference. In the International Organization of Standardization's technical specification 15066 on collaborative robot safety four methodologies have been proposed to reduce the risk of injury in the work area. The four methods implied in ISO/TS 15066 are safety-rated monitored stop (SMS), hand-guided (HG), speed and separation monitoring (SSM) and power force limiting (PFL). SMS method reduces the risk of operator’s injury by stopping the robot motion whenever the operator is in the collaborative workspace. HG method reduces the chance of operator’s injury by providing the possibility of having control over the robot motion at all times in the workstation using emergency system or enabling device. The SSM method determines the minimum protective distance between a robot and an operator in the collaborative workspace, below which the robot will stop any kind of motion and PFL method reduces the momentum of a robot in a way that contact between an operator and the robot will not cause any injury. After determining the requirements and specifications of hybrid assembly cell, few of the above-mentioned methods for evaluating the safety of human-robot-collaboration procedure have been tasted in the laboratory environment. Due to the lack of safety camera (sensors) in the laboratory workstation, the ISO methods such as SSM, that needs sensors in the workstation, have been modeled in virtual environment to evaluate different scenario of human-robot-interaction and feasibility of the assembly process. Implementing different scenarios of ISO methods in hybrid assembly workstation not only improves the operator safety who is in interaction with the collaborative robot but also improves the worker ergonomic during the performing of repetitive heavy tasks

Robotic Maintenance and ROS - Appearance Based SLAM and Navigation With a Mobile Robot Prototype

Robotic maintenance has been a topic in several master's theses and specialization projects at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics (ITK) at NTNU over many years. This thesis continues on the same topic, with special focus on camera-based mapping and navigation in conjunction with automated maintenance, and automated maintenance in general. The objective of this thesis is to implement one or more functionalities based on camera-based sensors in a mobile autonomous robot. This is accomplished by acquiring knowledge of existing solutions and future requirements within automated maintenance. A mobile robot prototype has been configured to run ROS (Robot Operating System), a middleware framework that is suited to the development of robotic systems. The system uses RTAB-Map (Real-Time Appearance Based Mapping) to survey the surroundings and a built navigation stack in ROS to navigate autonomously against easy targets in the map. The method uses a Kinect for Xbox 360 as the main sensor and a 2D laser scanner to the surveying and odometry. It is also developed functional concepts for two support functions, an Android application for remote control over Bluetooth and a remote central (OCS) developed in Qt. Remote Central is a skeletal implementation that is able to remotely control the robot via WiFi, as well as to display video from the robot's camera. Test results, obtained from both live and simulated trials, indicate that the robot is able to form 3D and 2D map of the surroundings. The method has weaknesses that are related to the ability to find visual features. Laser Based odometry can be tricked when the environment is changing, and when there are few unique features. Further testing has demonstrated that the robot can navigate autonomously, but there is still room for improvement. Better results can be achieved with a new movable platform and further tuning of the system. In conclusion, ROS works well as a development tools for robots, and the current system is suitable for further development. RTAB-Maps suitability for use on an industrial installation is still uncertain and requires further testing

Labour Protection and Civil Defense

Загальні питання безпеки, ідентифікація та класифікація потенційних небезпек,їх властивості, а також способи та засоби захисту від їх впливу, основи санітарно-гігієнічні умови праці, методи профілактики профзахворювання, загрози, що призводять до надзвичайних ситуацій, характер їх проявів і вплив на люди та господарські об'єкти, методи та засоби цивільного захисту населення та території на випадок надзвичайної ситуації, викладено принципи надання першої допомоги. Особлива увага приділяється питанням особистої та колективної безпеки на виробництві, в повсякденному житті та під час надзвичайних ситуацій та воєнного стану. Призначений для студентів вищих навчальні заклади, які здобувають технічні спеціальності в рамках комплексна дисципліна «Охорона праці та цивільний захист», пов’язана з питаннями безпеки на роботі, у побуті та надзвичайних ситуаціях.General safety issues, identification and classification of potential hazards,their properties as well as methods and means of protection against their impact, basics of sanitary and hygienic working conditions, methods of prevention of occupational diseases, threats leading to emergencies, the nature of their manifestations and effects on humans and economic objects, methods and means of civil protection of the population and territories in case of an emergency, the principles of first aid have been set out. Particular attention is paid to the issues of personal and collective safety at work, in everyday life and during emergencies and martial law. Designed for students of higher educational institutions acquiring technical specialties within the framework of the complex discipline “Labour protection and civil defense”, related to issues of safety at work, in everyday life and emergencies

New Trends in Development of Services in the Modern Economy

The services sector strategic development unites a multitude of economic and managerial aspects and is one of the most important problems of economic management. Many researches devoted to this industry study are available. Most of them are performed in the traditional aspect of the voluminous calendar approach to strategic management, characteristic of the national scientific school. Such an approach seems archaic, forming false strategic benchmarks. The services sector is of special scientific interest in this context due to the fact that the social production structure to the services development model attraction in many countries suggests transition to postindustrial economy type where the services sector is a system-supporting sector of the economy. Actively influencing the economy, the services sector in the developed countries dominates in the GDP formation, primary capital accumulation, labor, households final consumption and, finally, citizens comfort of living. However, a clear understanding of the services sector as a hyper-sector permeating all spheres of human activity has not yet been fully developed, although interest in this issue continues to grow among many authors. Target of strategic management of the industry development setting requires substantive content and the services sector target value assessment

Safe use of chemicals in the supply chain

this thesis aims to answer the question how the duties of a legal entity can be fulfilled, by acting both as an importer and as an industrial downstream user, regarding to raw materials as mentioned in REACH, as efficient and effective as possible in a unequivocal way

Non-Destructive Techniques for the Condition and Structural Health Monitoring of Wind Turbines: A Literature Review of the Last 20 Years

A complete surveillance strategy for wind turbines requires both the condition monitoring (CM) of their mechanical components and the structural health monitoring (SHM) of their load-bearing structural elements (foundations, tower, and blades). Therefore, it spans both the civil and mechanical engineering fields. Several traditional and advanced non-destructive techniques (NDTs) have been proposed for both areas of application throughout the last years. These include visual inspection (VI), acoustic emissions (AEs), ultrasonic testing (UT), infrared thermography (IRT), radiographic testing (RT), electromagnetic testing (ET), oil monitoring, and many other methods. These NDTs can be performed by human personnel, robots, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs); they can also be applied both for isolated wind turbines or systematically for whole onshore or offshore wind farms. These non-destructive approaches have been extensively reviewed here; more than 300 scientific articles, technical reports, and other documents are included in this review, encompassing all the main aspects of these survey strategies. Particular attention was dedicated to the latest developments in the last two decades (2000–2021). Highly influential research works, which received major attention from the scientific community, are highlighted and commented upon. Furthermore, for each strategy, a selection of relevant applications is reported by way of example, including newer and less developed strategies as well