Production Engineering and Management

The annual International Conference on Production Engineering and Management takes place for the sixth time his year, and can therefore be considered a well - established event that is the result of the joint effort of the OWL University of Applied Sciences and the University of Trieste. The conference has been established as an annual meeting under the Double Degree Master Program ‘Production Engineering and Management’ by the two partner universities. The main goal of the conference is to provide an opportunity for students, researchers and professionals from Germany, Italy and abroad, to meet and exchange information, discuss experiences, specific practices and technical solutions used in planning, design and management of production and service systems. In addition, the conference is a platform aimed at presenting research projects, introducing young academics to the tradition of Symposiums and promoting the exchange of ideas between the industry and the academy. Especially the contributions of successful graduates of the Double Degree Master Program ‘Production Engineering and Management’ and those of other postgraduate researchers from several European countries have been enforced. This year’s special focus is on Direct Digital Manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0, a topic of great interest for the global industry. The concept is spreading, but the actual solutions must be presented in order to highlight the practical benefits to industry and customers. Indeed, as Henning Banthien, Secretary General of the German ‘Plattform Industrie 4.0’ project office, has recently remarked, “Industry 4.0 requires a close alliance amongst the private sector, academia, politics and trade unions” in order to be “translated into practice and be implemented now”. PEM 2016 takes place between September 29 and 30, 2016 at the OWL University of Applied Sciences in Lemgo. The program is defined by the Organizing and Scientific Committees and clustered into scientific sessions covering topics of main interest and importance to the participants of the conference. The scientific sessions deal with technical and engineering issues, as well as management topics, and include contributions by researchers from academia and industry. The extended abstracts and full papers of the contributions underwent a double - blind review process. The 24 accepted presentations are assigned, according to their subject, to one of the following sessions: ‘Direct Digital Manufacturing in the Context of Industry 4.0’, ‘Industrial Engineering and Lean Management’, ‘Management Techniques and Methodologies’, ‘Wood Processing Technologies and Furniture Production’ and ‘Innovation Techniques and Methodologies

Production Engineering and Management

It is our pleasure to introduce the 8th edition of the International Conference on Production Engineering and anagement (PEM), an event that is the result of the joint effort of the OWL University of Applied Sciences and the University of Trieste. The conference has been established as an annual meeting under the Double Degree Master Program “Production Engineering and Management” by the two partner universities. This year the conference is hosted at the university campus in Lemgo, Germany. The main goal of the conference is to offer students, researchers and professionals in Germany, Italy and abroad, an opportunity to meet and exchange information, discuss experiences, specific practices and technical solutions for planning, design, and management of manufacturing and service systems and processes. As always, the conference is a platform aimed at presenting research projects, introducing young academics to the tradition of symposiums and promoting the exchange of ideas between the industry and the academy. This year’s special focus is on Supply Chain Design and Management in the context of Industry 4.0, which are currently major topics of discussion among experts and professionals. In fact, the features and problems of Industry 4.0 have been widely discussed in the last editions of the PEM conference, in which sustainability and efficiency also emerged as key factors. With the further study and development of Direct Digital Manufacturing technologies in connection with new Management Practices and Supply Chain Designs, the 8th edition of the PEM conference aims to offer new and interesting scientific contributions. The conference program includes 25 speeches organized in seven sessions. Two are specifically dedicated to “Direct Digital Manufacturing in the context of Industry 4.0”. The other sessions are covering areas of great interest and importance to the participants of the conference, which are related to the main focus: “Supply Chai n Design and Management”, “Industrial Engineering and Lean Management”, “Wood Processing Technologies and Furniture Production”, and “Management Practices and Methodologies”. The proceedings of the conference include the articles submitted and accepted after a careful double-blind refereeing process

National Wildlife Refuges and Intensive Management in Alaska: Another Case for Preemption

Developing high quality software is difficult. Traditional software engineering methods emphasizes on structured and linear workflow of activities methods that have been criticized due to their rigid and inflexible nature. Recently, agile software engineering approaches such as Scrum have gained popularity in the software industry. These methods emphasize flexibility, speed, transparency, and teamwork aspects. In this thesis, investigation and comparison of three modern production practices and principles done, these include; Kanban, the 5S workplace organization method and Toyota Production System (TPS). The goal has been to identity features of these production philosophies and analyzed how they might contribute to software engineering processes, particularly to improve Scrum. The study indicates that many principles from these production approaches have been implemented in Scrum. However, the Kanban, 5S and TPS principles of Visibility are just partially implemented in Scrum. Scrum overlooks many aspects of programming that need to be visualized such as code quality aspects (testing) and representations of the actual software structure under development

Engineering visualization utilizing advanced animation

Engineering visualization is the use of computer graphics to depict engineering analysis and simulation in visual form from project planning through documentation. Graphics displays let engineers see data represented dynamically which permits the quick evaluation of results. The current state of graphics hardware and software generally allows the creation of two types of 3D graphics. The use of animated video as an engineering visualization tool is presented. The engineering, animation, and videography aspects of animated video production are each discussed. Specific issues include the integration of staffing expertise, hardware, software, and the various production processes. A detailed explanation of the animation process reveals the capabilities of this unique engineering visualization method. Automation of animation and video production processes are covered and future directions are proposed

Process system engineering in biodiesel production: a review

Biodiesel is fast becoming a popular alternative to fossil fuels, as it is natural, renewable and has low toxic emissions. Strategies that have been adopted to ensure continued growth of the biodiesel industry are policy development, reduction of biodiesel tax, offset funding for incremental fuel cost from CO2 emission fuel and support for research and development of potential biodiesel feedstocks. Recent innovations of biodiesel processes are focused on the development of more efficient catalysts and in the utilization of novel reaction media such as supercritical fluids as well as on a variety of oil feedstocks such as virgin and waste oils. Biodiesel production involves complex processes which require systematic process design and optimization. The main aim of designing biodiesel plants is to maxime conversion of ethyl or methyl esters at the lowest capital cost of the plant. The design should also consider safety and environmental concerns. Process system engineering (PSE) is a systematic approach to design and analyze complex processes by using a variety of PSE tools for the optimization of biodiesel production. This paper reviews the latest PSE tools used in development of novel biodiesel processes. It describes the main PSE elements such as process model development and product design, simulation of biodiesel processes, optimization of biodiesel synthesis, and integration of reactor and separation systems. This review also highlights the sustainability of biodiesel production

Process system engineering in biodiesel production: a review

Biodiesel is fast becoming a popular alternative to fossil fuels, as it is natural, renewable and has low toxic emissions. Strategies that have been adopted to ensure continued growth of the biodiesel industry are policy development, reduction of biodiesel tax, offset funding for incremental fuel cost from CO2 emission fuel and support for research and development of potential biodiesel feedstocks. Recent innovations of biodiesel processes are focused on the development of more efficient catalysts and in the utilization of novel reaction media such as supercritical fluids as well as on a variety of oil feedstocks such as virgin and waste oils. Biodiesel production involves complex processes which require systematic process design and optimization. The main aim of designing biodiesel plants is to maxime conversion of ethyl or methyl esters at the lowest capital cost of the plant. The design should also consider safety and environmental concerns. Process system engineering (PSE) is a systematic approach to design and analyze complex processes by using a variety of PSE tools for the optimization of biodiesel production. This paper reviews the latest PSE tools used in development of novel biodiesel processes. It describes the main PSE elements such as process model development and product design, simulation of biodiesel processes, optimization of biodiesel synthesis, and integration of reactor and separation systems. This review also highlights the sustainability of biodiesel production

Engineering verification of the biomass production chamber

The requirements for life support systems, both biological and physical-chemical, for long-term human attended space missions are under serious study throughout NASA. The KSC 'breadboard' project has focused on biomass production using higher plants for atmospheric regeneration and food production in a special biomass production chamber. This chamber is designed to provide information on food crop growth rate, contaminants in the chamber that alter plant growth requirements for atmospheric regeneration, carbon dioxide consumption, oxygen production, and water utilization. The shape and size, mass, and energy requirements in relation to the overall integrity of the biomass production chamber are under constant study

Engineering Bacillus megaterium for production of functional intracellular materials

Background: Over the last 10-15 years, a technology has been developed to engineer bacterial polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) inclusions as functionalized beads, for applications such as vaccines, diagnostics and enzyme immobilization. This has been achieved by translational fusion of foreign proteins to the PHB synthase (PhaC). The respective fusion protein mediates self-assembly of PHB inclusions displaying the desired protein function. So far, beads have mainly been produced in recombinant Escherichia coli which is problematic for some applications as the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) co-purified with such inclusions are toxic to humans and animals. Results: In this study, we have engineered the formation of functional PHB inclusions in the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus megaterium, an LPS-free and established industrial production host. As B. megaterium is a natural PHB producer, the PHB-negative strain PHA05 was used to avoid any background PHB production. Plasmid-mediated T7 promoter-driven expression of the genes encoding β-ketothiolase (phaA), acetoacetyl-CoA-reductase (phaB) and PHB synthase (phaC) enabled/effected PHB production by B. megaterium PHA05. To produce functionalized PHB inclusions, the N- and C-terminus of PhaC was fused to four and two IgG binding Z-domains from Staphylococcus aureus, respectively. The ZZ-domain PhaC fusion protein was strongly overproduced at the surface of the PHB inclusions and the corresponding isolated ZZ-domain displaying PHB beads were found to purify IgG with a binding capacity of 40-50 mg IgG/g beads. As B. megaterium has the ability to sporulate and respective endospores could co-purify with cellular inclusions, a sporulation negative production strain was generated by disrupting the spoIIE gene in PHA05. This strain did not produce spores when tested under sporulation inducing conditions and it was still able to synthesize ZZ-domain displaying PHB beads. Conclusions: This study provides proof of concept for the successful genetic engineering of B. megaterium as a host for the production of functionalized PHB beads. Disruption of the spoIIE gene rendered B. megaterium incapable of sporulation but particularly suitable for production of functionalized PHB beads. This sporulation-negative mutant represents an improved industrial production strain for biotechnological processes otherwise impaired by the possibility of endospore formation.fals