A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste by 20 Percent

The magnitude of the food waste problem is difficult to comprehend. The U.S. spends $218 billion a year -- 1.3% of GDP -- growing, processing, transporting, and disposing of food that is never eaten. The causes of food waste are diverse, ranging from crops that never get harvested, to food left on overfilled plates, to near-expired milk and stale bread. ReFED is a coalition of over 30 business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders committed to building a different future, where food waste prevention, recovery, and recycling are recognized as an untapped opportunity to create jobs, alleviate hunger, and protect the environment -- all while stimulating a new multi-billion dollar market opportunity. ReFED developed A Roadmap to Reduce U.S. Food Waste as a data-driven guide to collectively take action to reduce food waste at scale nationwide.This Roadmap report is a guide and a call to action for us to work together to solve this problem. Businesses can save money for themselves and their customers. Policymakers can unleash a new wave of local job creation. Foundations can take a major step in addressing environmental issues and hunger. And innovators across all sectors can launch new products, services, and business models. There will be no losers, only winners, as food finds its way to its highest and best use

Development of an optimization model to determine sampling levels

As the complexity of multi-component products increases the quality of these products becomes increasingly difficult to control. The first step to manufacturing a quality product is making sure that the components of the product meet specifications. Product quality can be controlled through sampling inspection of the components. Two models were developed in this research to determine the optimal sampling levels for incoming lots containing parts for production and assembly of multi-component systems. The main objective of the first model is to minimize the expected cost that is associated with a nonconforming item reaching assembly. In this model the time available for inspection is limited. The main objective in the second model is to minimize total cost, which includes the appraisal cost (inspection cost) and the cost associated with nonconformance reaching assembly. In this model the time available is not a constraint. The distribution of defects is assumed to follow the binomial distribution, and the distribution of accepting the lot with defects follows the hypergeometric distribution. In addition, the inspection is considered to be accurate and, if a nonconforming item is found in the inspected sample, the entire lot is rejected. An example is given with real world data and the results are discussed --Abstract, page iv

Integration of production, maintenance and quality : Modelling and solution approaches

Dans cette thèse, nous analysons le problème de l'intégration de la planification de production et de la maintenance préventive, ainsi que l'élaboration du système de contrôle de la qualité. Premièrement, on considère un système de production composé d'une machine et de plusieurs produits dans un contexte incertain, dont les prix et le coût changent d'une période à l'autre. La machine se détériore avec le temps et sa probabilité de défaillance, ainsi que le risque de passage à un état hors contrôle augmentent. Le taux de défaillance dans un état dégradé est plus élevé et donc, des coûts liés à la qualité s’imposent. Lorsque la machine tombe en panne, une maintenance corrective ou une réparation minimale seront initiées pour la remettre en marche sans influer ses conditions ou le processus de détérioration. L'augmentation du nombre de défaillances de la machine se traduit par un temps d'arrêt supérieur et un taux de disponibilité inférieur. D'autre part, la réalisation des plans de production est fortement influencée par la disponibilité et la fiabilité de la machine. Les interactions entre la planification de la maintenance et celle de la production sont incorporées dans notre modèle mathématique. Dans la première étape, l'effet de maintenance sur la qualité est pris en compte. La maintenance préventive est considérée comme imparfaite. La condition de la machine est définie par l’âge actuel, et la machine dispose de plusieurs niveaux de maintenance avec des caractéristiques différentes (coûts, délais d'exécution et impacts sur les conditions du système). La détermination des niveaux de maintenance préventive optimaux conduit à un problème d’optimisation difficile. Un modèle de maximisation du profit est développé, dans lequel la vente des produits conformes et non conformes, les coûts de la production, les stocks tenus, la rupture de stock, la configuration de la machine, la maintenance préventive et corrective, le remplacement de la machine et le coût de la qualité sont considérés dans la fonction de l’objectif. De plus, un système composé de plusieurs machines est étudié. Dans cette extension, les nombres optimaux d’inspections est également considéré. La fonction de l’objectif consiste à minimiser le coût total qui est la somme des coûts liés à la maintenance, la production et la qualité. Ensuite, en tenant compte de la complexité des modèles préposés, nous développons des méthodes de résolution efficaces qui sont fondées sur la combinaison d'algorithmes génétiques avec des méthodes de recherches locales. On présente un algorithme mimétique qui emploi l’algorithme Nelder-Mead, avec un logiciel d'optimisation pour déterminer les valeurs exactes de plusieurs variables de décisions à chaque évaluation. La méthode de résolution proposée est comparée, en termes de temps d’exécution et de qualités des solutions, avec plusieurs méthodes Métaheuristiques. Mots-clés : Planification de la production, Maintenance préventive imparfaite, Inspection, Qualité, Modèles intégrés, MétaheuristiquesIn this thesis, we study the integrated planning of production, maintenance, and quality in multi-product, multi-period imperfect systems. First, we consider a production system composed of one machine and several products in a time-varying context. The machine deteriorates with time and so, the probability of machine failure, or the risk of a shift to an out-of-control state, increases. The defective rate in the shifted state is higher and so, quality related costs will be imposed. When the machine fails, a corrective maintenance or a minimal repair will be initiated to bring the machine in operation without influencing on its conditions or on the deterioration process. Increasing the expected number of machine failures results in a higher downtime and a lower availability rate. On the other hand, realization of the production plans is significantly influenced by the machine availability and reliability. The interactions between maintenance scheduling and production planning are incorporated in the mathematical model. In the first step, the impact of maintenance on the expected quality level is addressed. The maintenance is also imperfect and the machine conditions after maintenance can be anywhere between as-good-as-new and as-bad-as-old situations. Machine conditions are stated by its effective age, and the machine has several maintenance levels with different costs, execution times, and impacts on the system conditions. High level maintenances on the one hand have greater influences on the improvement of the system state and on the other hand, they occupy more the available production time. The optimal determination of such preventive maintenance levels to be performed at each maintenance intrusion is a challenging problem. A profit maximization model is developed, where the sale of conforming and non-conforming products, costs of production, inventory holding, backorder, setup, preventive and corrective maintenance, machine replacement, and the quality cost are addressed in the objective function. Then, a system with multiple machines is taken into account. In this extension, the number of quality inspections is involved in the joint model. The objective function minimizes the total cost which is the sum of maintenance, production and quality costs. In order to reduce the gap between the theory and the application of joint models, and taking into account the complexity of the integrated problems, we have developed an efficient solution method that is based on the combination of genetic algorithms with local search and problem specific methods. The proposed memetic algorithm employs Nelder-Mead algorithm along with an optimization package for exact determination of the values of several decision variables in each chromosome evolution. The method extracts not only the positive knowledge in good solutions, but also the negative knowledge in poor individuals to determine the algorithm transitions. The method is compared in terms of the solution time and quality to several heuristic methods. Keywords : Multi-period production planning, Imperfect preventive maintenance, Inspection, Quality, Integrated model, Metaheuristic

Multiproduct supplye chain analysis through by simulation with kanban and EOQ system

This work reviews lean literature on the supply chain focused on the operational approach, from the lean management to the Kanban system. But, the main issue of this work is to analyze the behavior of a lean supply chain using a Kanban system managing the planning in two different ways. The difference between both is related to the production order or sequence to follow: the product with fewer inventories in stock (the most critical to run out) or the one which requires less set-up time to optimize unproductive times. The study the behavior of the supply chain, it would be done through simulation with many different scenarios: 5 different demands, each one with two coefficients of variance, 4 different batch sizes, 4 different compositions of production and process saturation and ensuring different service levels between 92% and 98%. To compare these supply chain models, an approach of the supply chain using the EOQ (Economic Order Quantity) system will be also simulated in the same conditions but with one batch size, the most economic one

Application of Optimization in Production, Logistics, Inventory, Supply Chain Management and Block Chain

The evolution of industrial development since the 18th century is now experiencing the fourth industrial revolution. The effect of the development has propagated into almost every sector of the industry. From inventory to the circular economy, the effectiveness of technology has been fruitful for industry. The recent trends in research, with new ideas and methodologies, are included in this book. Several new ideas and business strategies are developed in the area of the supply chain management, logistics, optimization, and forecasting for the improvement of the economy of the society and the environment. The proposed technologies and ideas are either novel or help modify several other new ideas. Different real life problems with different dimensions are discussed in the book so that readers may connect with the recent issues in society and industry. The collection of the articles provides a glimpse into the new research trends in technology, business, and the environment

Human Aspect on Chain of Custody (CoC) System Performance

The tropical forests cover 24% of tropical land area. They are the most productive terrestrial ecosystems on earth with high priorities for biodiversity conservation. These forests store a substantial amount of carbon in biomass and soil, and they also regulate the transfer of carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Indonesia is having the third tropical forest area in the world after Brazil and Congo. Over 50 years forest has been felled both legally as well as illegally. High rate of forest degradation resulted from unsustainable forest management, rampant illegal logging, forest area encroachment, conversion and natural disaster. All urges rapid improvement of management system of Indonesia’s forest resources (Holmes, 2002). Forest certification is one tool that can support the achievement of sustainable forest management goal. Under current operation of join certification protocol between the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Indonesian Ecolabelling Institute (LEI) in Indonesia, forest management units must be able to show the required performance indicated in LEI criteria and indicator as well as FSC principles and criteria to attain certification of their products. The gap between current practices and performance required by forest certifications schemes is still enormous. The performance of forest certification system from LEI is determined very much by the human that is involved in the process of planning and operation. The name of certification system is chain of custody (CoC) certification. CoC operation involves activities such as tracing raw material from the forest to the factory, through shipping and manufacturing, to the final end product. In all of the above processes, the roles of human are critical, although the specific roles played from one process to another are different. In this paper we present an identification of human aspect and other factors that predominantly affect CoC system performance

Maintenance optimization in industry 4.0

This work reviews maintenance optimization from different and complementary points of view. Specifically, we systematically analyze the knowledge, information and data that can be exploited for maintenance optimization within the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Then, the possible objectives of the optimization are critically discussed, together with the maintenance features to be optimized, such as maintenance periods and degradation thresholds. The main challenges and trends of maintenance optimization are, then, highlighted and the need is identified for methods that do not require a-priori selection of a predefined maintenance strategy, are able to deal with large amounts of heterogeneous data collected from different sources, can properly treat all the uncertainties affecting the behavior of the systems and the environment, and can jointly consider multiple optimization objectives, including the emerging ones related to sustainability and resilience

Analysing the implementation of a material requirements planning (MRP) system into an engineer-to-order (ETO) company ; the case of National Oilwell Varco Norway (NOVN)

Masteroppgave økonomi og administrasjon- Universitetet i Agder, 2014A material requirements planning (MRP) system is a computer-based planning and control system whose main objectives are to provide the right part at the right time, and to meet the schedules for completed products. The development of these systems revolutionised the manufacturing industry, and lead to it being adopted by many companies. The expectations of the systems were high, both from academia and industry in the subject area of production planning and control. However, the widespread use of the system has uncovered several failures, mainly because the systems are implemented under the assumption that “one-size-fits-all”, and thus do not differentiate between various operations strategies. Prior research has already identified MRP systems as successful production planning and control systems in several operations strategies. Despite its importance, the previous research on MRP systems has not thoroughly addressed the systems strategic fit with an engineer-to-order (ETO) operations strategy. This thesis therefore focuses on the use of an MRP system in an ETO environment, and the overall objective is to investigate if implementation of an MRP system supports the operations strategy of an ETO company. To help investigate the overall objective, a literature review and a case study has been conducted. The literature review was carried out to provide a theoretical base for the research and a foundation for the future work of the research. A case study was conducted to help get a better understanding of an MRP system’s strategic fit in an ETO company to draw parallels between theory and practice. Numerical data has been collected to conduct statistical analysis. The case study company is a large ETO company that is about to implement an MRP system and that previously have used a similar system in some of its departments. Qualitative data from the case study have mainly been conducted through interviews and informal conversations with key informants employed in the case study company. The result of this research shows that there is a clear misalignment between the decision support provided by an MRP system and the decision support required by an ETO company. The product-, market- and process characteristics of an ETO company are too much of a constraining factor for the MRP system, which may lead to reduced competitiveness. Furthermore, the research suggests that organisational factors, such as education level of employees, company size and culture have significant impacts on implementation of an MRP system. The results gathered from the research have a foundation from relevant theory, which strengthens the quality of the thesis. The thesis has therefore contributed with increased knowledge and provides a better understanding of the use of an MRP system in an ETO company. In particular the definitions in the thesis, the identified variables, and the frameworks should be of interest for researchers, management, and consultant in the area of production planning and control (PPC). The research also has important implications for top management and policy makers in implementing an MRP system, as these stakeholders need to communicate effectively with their organisation about their MRP adoption intentions. Case study findings suggest that MRP systems are not suitable for ETO products, and that MRP implementation is influenced by, but not necessarily bound by, existing national and organisational factors. The findings of this study aid the management of organisations that are implementing MRP systems to gain a better understanding of the likely challenges they may face and enables them to put in place appropriate measures to mitigate the risk of implementation failures

Developing an Agent Based Heuristic Optimisation System for Complex Flow Shops with Customer-Imposed Production Disruptions

The study of complex manufacturing flow-shops has seen a number of approaches and frameworks proposed to tackle various production-associated problems. However, unpredictable disruptions, such as change in sequence of order, order cancellation and change in production delivery due time, imposed by customers on flow-shops that impact production processes and inventory control call for a more adaptive approach capable of responding to these changes. In this research work, a new adaptive framework and agent-based heuristic optimization system was developed to investigate the disruption consequences and recovery strategy. A case study using an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) production process of automotive parts and components was adopted to justify the proposed system. The results of the experiment revealed significant improvement in terms of total number of late orders, order delivery time, number of setups and resources utilization, which provide useful information for manufacturer’s decision-making policies.

The Brokerage of Asymmetric Information

In this paper we oversee the logic of information sets, firstly handling information and markets in perfect environments and, secondly, dealing with information and markets in imperfect environments, in the context of bounded rationality. Further on, asymmetric information is addressed together with the role of opportunistic behaviour through hidden action, hidden information, the free-rider problem and signaling, expanding on financial accounting and asymmetric information. At last, asymmetric markets are expanded on, reviewing the buyers’ and sellers’ markets so as to handle the performance of intermediaries who stand ready to provide with immediacy and liquidity to buyers and sellers of financial assets. There are two contributions that this paper brings forward: firstly, an intuitive treatment of information sets in the context of mathematical Set Theory so as to make tractable some issues still neglected. Secondly, we claim and develop that a careful assessment of information sets makes headway towards an approach that regards market makers and other intermediaries as brokers of asymmetric information.