Modeling Maintenance Productivity Measurement of Engineering Production Systems: Discrete Event Simulation Approach

Modeling and simulation of industrial information communication systems and networks is one of the major concerns of productivity engineers for the establishment of productivity standards in virtually all functional areas of an industrial organization. Maintenance function is one of such areas that have always engaged the attention of engineering productivity practitioners. However, one of the basic prob- lems is the difficulty in setting up integrated but easy and practical measurement schemes. Even where the measures are set up, the approaches to measurement sometimes are conflicting. Therefore the need for an integrated approach to optimize the basket of parameters measured remains. In this chapter the author attempts to identify approaches in integrated and systematic maintenance productivity measurement and create models for optimising total productivity in maintenance systems. Visual yardstick, utility, queuing systems and simulations approaches for measurement of maintenance productivity are all discussed with a particular focus on markov chain approach for stochastic break- downs in repairable systems.. The chapter also shows how understanding the impact of plant failure and repair/service distributions assists in providing measures for maintenance productivity using discrete event system simulation

Large Scale Document Management System: Creating Effective Public Sector Knowledge Management System

The digital age has redefined the production process and utilisation of documents globally. In the information age, the process of input, delivery, storage, receipt, and categorization of data is critical. The public sector has to rely more and more on automated, reliable solutions in order to keep their information safe and readily accessible for effective governance. A document management system is a computer system used to track and store electronic documents and/or images of paper documents. The term has some overlap with the concepts of content management systems often viewed as a component of enterprise content management systems and related to digital asset management, document imaging, workflow systems and records management systems. This paper examines an ongoing document management implementation case study in a public sector of digital assets of over twelve million pages, scalable to billions of pages, highlighting the taxonomy, content and knowledge management creation using an enterprise content management system and discusses the role in national development and growt

Innovation: Strategy for Growth and Development

The discipline of innovation has been defined by Peter Drucker as the means by which the entrepreneur either creates new wealth producing resource or endows existing resource with enhanced potential for creating wealth. This paper examines the discipline of innovation from various perspective – corporate, personal, inter-personal, behavioural and scientific. After examining the sources of innovation and showing that ideation and innovation are not synonymous, it discusses a pragmatic approach that encourages growth and development especially in a developing econom

Stability analysis of slug flow control

The threat of slugging to production facilities has been known since the 1970s. This undesirable flow phenomenon continues to attract the attention of researchers and operators alike. The most common method for slug mitigation is by choking the valve at the exit of the riser which unfortunately could negatively affect production. The focus, therefore, is to satisfy the need for system stability and to maximize production simultaneously. Active feedback control is a promising way to achieve this. However, due to the complexity of multiphase flow systems, it is a challenge to develop a robust slug control system to achieve the desired performance using existing design tools. In this paper, a new general method for multiphase flow system stability analysis was proposed. Active feedback control was observed to optimize slug attenuation compared with manual choking. The use of soft sensors was believed to be desirable for the practical implementation of the proposed control technique

University Optical Fibre Network Access Optimisation: A Case Study

For network access, it is always desired that a fibre optic network connectivity be the major area of cost minimization, while keeping quality of service as high as possible. This is because overall cost of setting up a fibre optic cable route is usually very high in relation to other components of the network. In this study, three buildings clusters were mapped to the University Network Operating Center, and the network was developed as a fail-safe network, so that in the case of damage to a cable or connecting component, users are not cut out. The problem was formulated as a Mathematical Programming problem and solved the resulting transportation problem using MATLAB linear programming solution. Results from the mathematical model shows an optimized cost for which a fibre Optic network connectivity can be further develope

Forecasting Nigerian aluminium demand

In Nigeria today, Aluminium is beginning to find application not only for ki11:hen utensils but in construction, transportation and packaging. At this time when the plans for establishing a smelter capacity is being made, there is a need for an in depth 'study, despite the poor da1B, to determine the aluminium demand forecast which is inwluable for any practical capacity planning for such a very capi- 1111 intensive industry. Various method used for medium and long. term forecasts in the ferrous and non-fwrous industry were exam~ ned as well as determining the main factors which influence alum~ mium consumption. Based on this a methodology was developed and used in making aluminium demand forecast for Nigeria for the year 1982 to 2.000. Direction for further work was also mad

Can Nollywood Save Nigerian Children from an Impending Mass Society?

The mass society theory presents the media as a predator that would eventually eat up the culture and ethos of a society where it operates (McQuail, 2005). Today‟s children are being fostered by the new media, more or less, rather than the family or society. They are a product of the media and they know only little of „their culture‟ as more and more families are gaining access to digital pay TV, Internet and its array of social media networks. These media give children and young adults analmost limitless exposure to all sorts of program beamed through the satellite from around the world. Children are finding the „new media‟ as sweet escape from the „boring‟, „old school‟ state-owned TV which propagate relatively better, the Nigerian culture. This paper argues that thehuge popularity of the home video media in Nigeria can be used to stem the negative effects of mass culture and mass society. But there is still a huge challenge regarding contents to which the paper recommends ten proactive measures.Keywords: Mass society, mass culture, mediated media influence, mean world syndrome

Facial Paralysis Grading Based on Dynamic and Static Features

Peripheral facial nerve palsy, also known as facial paralysis (FP), is a common clinical disease, which requires subjective judgment and scoring based on the FP scale. There exists some automatic facial paralysis grading methods, but the current methods mostly only consider either static or dynamic features, resulting in a low accuracy rate of FP grading. This thesis proposes an automatic facial paralysis assessment method including both static and dynamic characteristics. The first step of the method performs preprocessing on the collected facial expression videos of the subjects, including rough video interception, video stabilization, keyframe extraction, image geometric normalization and gray-scale normalization. Next, the method selects as keyframes no facial expression state and maximum facial expression state in the image data to build the the research data set. Data preprocessing reduces errors, noise, redundancy and even errors in the original data. The basis for extracting static and dynamic features of an image is to use Ensemble of Regression Trees algorithm to determine 68 facial landmarks. Based on landmark points, image regions of image are formed. According to the Horn-Schunck optical flow method, the optical flow information of parts of the face are extracted, and the dynamic characteristics of the optical flow difference between the left and right parts are calculated. Finally, the results of dynamic and static feature classification are weighted and analyzed to obtain FP ratings of subjects. A 32-dimensional static feature is fed into the support vector machine for classification. A 60-dimensional feature vector of dynamical aspects is fed into a long and short-term memory network for classification. Videos of 30 subjects are used to extract 1419 keyframes to test the algorithm. The accuracy, precision, recall and f1 of the best classifier reach 93.33%, 94.29%, 91.33% and 91.87%, respectively.Perifeerinen kasvojen hermohalvaus, joka tunnetaan myös nimellä kasvojen halvaus (FP), on yleinen kliininen sairaus, joka vaatii subjektiivista arviointia ja FP -asteikon pisteytystä. Joitakin automaattisia kasvohalvauksen luokittelumenetelmiä on olemassa, mutta yleensä ottaen ne punnitsevat vain joko staattisia tai dynaamisia piirteitä. Tässä tutkielmassa ehdotetaan automaattista kasvojen halvaantumisen arviointimenetelmää, joka kattaa sekä staattiset että dynaamiset ominaisuudet. Menetelmän ensimmäinen vaihe suorittaa ensin esikäsittelyn kohteiden kerätyille kasvojen ilmevideoille, mukaan lukien karkea videon sieppaus, videon vakautus, avainruudun poiminta, kuvan geometrinen normalisointi ja harmaasävyjen normalisointi. Seuraavaksi menetelmä valitsee avainruuduiksi ilmeettömän tilan ja kasvojen ilmeiden maksimitilan kuvadatasta kerryttäen tutkimuksen data-aineiston. Tietojen esikäsittely vähentää virheitä, kohinaa, redundanssia ja jopa virheitä alkuperäisestä datasta. Kuvan staattisten ja dynaamisten piirteiden poimimisen perusta on käyttää Ensemble of Regression Trees -algoritmia 68 kasvojen merkkipisteiden määrittämiseen. Merkkipisteiden perusteella määritellään kuvan kiinnostavat alueet. Horn-Schunckin optisen virtausmenetelmän mukaisesti poimitaan optisen virtauksen tiedot joistakin kasvojen osista, ja dynaaminen luonnehdinta lasketaan vasempien ja oikeiden osien välille. Lopuksi dynaamisen ja staattisen piirteiden luokittelun tulokset painotetaan ja analysoidaan kattavasti koehenkilöiden FP-luokitusten saamiseksi. 32- ulotteinen staattisten piirteiden vektori syötetään tukivektorikoneeseen luokittelua varten. 60-ulotteinen dynaamisten piirteiden ominaisuusvektori syötetään pitkän ja lyhyen aikavälin muistiverkkoon luokittelua varten. Parhaan luokittelijan tarkkuus, täsmällisyys, palautustaso ja f1 saavuttavat arvot 93,33%, 94,29%, 91,33% ja 91,87%

Stabilising slug flow at large valve opening using an intermittent absorber

Slugging is one of the challenges usually encountered in multiphase transportation of oil and gas. It is an intermittent flow of liquid and gas which manifests in pressure and flow fluctuations capable of causing upset in topside process facilities. It can also induce structural defects in pipeline-riser system. The threat of slugging to oil and gas facilities has been known since the early 1970s. This study investigated a new method for slug flow stability analysis and proposed the use of active feedback control and intermittent absorber (a passive device) for hydrodynamic and severe slugging attenuation. The geometry impact on the hydrodynamic slug flow in pipeline-riser systems was established using modelling (LedaFlow and OLGA) and experimental studies. The unit cell model in both software packages, the slug tracking model of OLGA and slug capturing model of LedaFlow were employed for hydrodynamic slug modelling. Three distinct slug regions were reported for a typical pipeline-riser system. The H-region typifies the slug flow regime in the pipeline-riser system due to slug formed in the horizontal pipeline upstream the riser pipe. The V-region represents the slug flow regime due to the riser pipe while the I-region describes slug flow regime where both horizontal and vertical pipes contributes to the dynamics of the slug flow in pipeline-riser system. A simple but yet robust methodology that can be used for pipeline-riser system and slug controller design was proposed. The active feedback control was shown to help stabilise hydrodynamic slug flow at larger valve opening compared with manual valve choking. For the case study, a benefit of up to 5% reduction in riserbase pressure was recorded for the proposed method. This in practical sense means increase in oil production. The analysis also showed that the new slug attenuation device (intermittent absorber) possesses the potential for slug attenuation. Experimental studies showed that the device was able to reduce the magnitude of riserbase pressure fluctuation due to hydrodynamic slugging up to 22%. The absorber enables larger valve opening for both hydrodynamic and severe slugging stabilisation. For severe slugging attenuation for example, a benefit of 9% reduction in riser base pressure was recorded for the case studied. This is of great benefit to the oil and gas industry since this translates to increased oil production. Slug attenuation index (SAI) and pressure benefit index (PBI), have been proposed to quantify the slug attenuation potential and the production benefits of the intermittent absorber respectively. The SAI and the PBI provided consistent results and methods for estimating the slug attenuation potential of the intermittent absorber concept. They could also be used to quantify the slug attenuation benefits of other slug mitigation techniques