Automated Detection of Pipe Bursts and other Events in Water Distribution Systems

Copyright 2012 by the American Society of Civil EngineersThis paper presents a new methodology for the automated near real-time detection of pipe bursts and other events which induce similar abnormal pressure/flow variations (e.g., unauthorised consumptions) at the District Metered Area (DMA) level. The new methodology makes synergistic use of several self-learning Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques and statistical data analysis tools including wavelets for de-noising of the recorded pressure/flow signals, Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for the short-term forecasting of pressure/flow signal values, Statistical Process Control (SPC) techniques for short and long term analysis of the pipe burst/other event-induced pressure/flow variations, and Bayesian Inference Systems (BISs) for inferring the probability of a pipe burst/other event occurrence and raising corresponding detection alarms. The methodology presented here is tested and verified on a case study involving several DMAs in the United Kingdom (UK) with both real-life pipe burst/other events and engineered (i.e., simulated by opening fire hydrants) pipe burst events. The results obtained illustrate that it can successfully identify these events in a fast and reliable manner with a low false alarm rate

A Lean Six Sigma framework for the reduction of ship loading commercial time in the iron ore pelletising industry

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Abstract: Evidence suggests that specifically designed frameworks to implement Lean Six Sigma (LSS) projects to tackle particular problems are more effective than ‘generic’ versions. This paper proposes an implementation framework to effectively deploy LSS to improve a key operation and performance indicator, i.e. ship loading commercial time, of one of the largest world producer of iron ore. This article therefore contributes with a refined framework to effectively implement LSS, and documents its successful application and effectiveness within the context of the case organisation. The LSS framework and project contributed in helping the studied organisation to improve both the capability of its ship loading process and commercial time by more than 30%, resulting in operational savings in the range of $300,000 USD per year. The systematic nature of the framework proposed also helped the organisation to establish a standardised routine to improve its operations. Managerial implications exposing the challenges faced during the implementation of LSS are also discussed to serve as lessons learnt to be considered in other LSS projects. Managers and engineers incharge of improving operations and processes can benefit from this paper as it can be used as a guide to direct the conduction of LSS projects and the empirical application of its principles and tools

The knowledge transfer process in Six Sigma subsidiary firms

Although the operative benefits of Six Sigma methodology in the business world are well accepted, the long-term benefits of the initiative are currently under discussion. This paper aims to analyze how Six Sigma methodology is related to the knowledge transfer process, a source of competitive advantage. For this purpose, we observe how team management in Six Sigma firms differs statistically from team management proposed by other quality management initiatives, and how Six Sigma team management is related to the knowledge integration and knowledge transfer processes. An ANOVA analysis and Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach were used to analyze data from 53 European Six Sigma firms, confirming the hypotheses developed. The results confirm that Six Sigma methodology offers new possibilities to companies and that implementation of Six Sigma has a positive effect on variables that influence long-term organizational performance, such as knowledge management. Relevant academic contributions and implications for practitioners are included.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Projects ECO2010-15885; ECO2013-47027P), Junta de Andalucia (P11-SEJ-7294) and the European Union (European Regional Development Funds)

Quality Management Initiatives in Europe: an Empirical Analysis according to Their Structural Elements

"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Total Quality Management and Business Excellence on 10 June 2010, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14783363.2010.483064."In recent years, managers have opted for implementing Quality Management in their firms. The market offers different alternatives for QM implementation, such as EFQM model, ISO standards, Malcolm Baldrige or the recent Six Sigma methodology. Implementation difficulty of each initiative varies from case to case. This article designs a criterion for choosing among four alternatives (Quality Control, EFQM, Six Sigma and ISO 9000), according to the degree of development required for the elements that structure the alternatives. To do so, using an ANOVA analysis and mean comparison T-tests, it analyses 234 organizations in Europe that have implemented the four alternatives mentioned and observes the degree of development of nine of the elements that compose them. From the research, one can conclude that Quality Control is the simplest initiative, followed by ISO 9000 and, finally, the EFQM model and Six Sigma methodology

A case study of Kanban implementation within the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain

The paper explores the implementation of the kanban system, which is a Lean technique, within the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain (PSC). The case study provides insight to the benefits and challenges arising from the application of this technique, within a group of cooperative pharmacists, in Greece. The research questions developed from the review of the literature were tested using evidence from field-based, action research within a pharmaceutical organisation. The reported case study contributes to the longer term debate on assessing the Lean maturity level within the healthcare sector. There are two primary findings: i) that the adoption of kanban system provides a strategic benefit and improves the quality of services. ii) it also provides a basis for a strategy of operational change; it gives the opportunity to the organisation to move away from the current push delivery and logistics systems toward improved logistics strategy models

Applying Quality Control Charts to the Analysis of Single-Subject Data Sequences

Techniques from the field of quality control can be used to classify the quality of individual samples of physical or cognitive performance. After stable baselines have been established for an individual, deviations in performance can be evaluated using control charts. The effectiveness of this approach in evaluating cognitive performance was tested using databases collected under a variety of risk factors. The sensitivity and specificity characteristics of Shewhart, cumulativesum (CUSUM), and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts were determined for a total of 174 trials involving 10 participants and 23 cognitive performance assessment measures. The most effective technique in each case was typically a function of the specific performance measure and the type of performance change being evaluated. Sensitivity and specificity for the best techniques were as high as 100%. This study demonstrated the usefulness of quality control charts as a tool to evaluate individual participant performance over time. Actual or potential applications of this research include readiness-to-perform screening of industrial workers in order to improve the health and safety of the workforce.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Meta Modeling for Business Process Improvement

Conducting business process improvement (BPI) initiatives is a topic of high priority for today’s companies. However, performing BPI projects has become challenging. This is due to rapidly changing customer requirements and an increase of inter-organizational business processes, which need to be considered from an end-to-end perspective. In addition, traditional BPI approaches are more and more perceived as overly complex and too resource-consuming in practice. Against this background, the paper proposes a BPI roadmap, which is an approach for systematically performing BPI projects and serves practitioners’ needs for manageable BPI methods. Based on this BPI roadmap, a domain-specific conceptual modeling method (DSMM) has been developed. The DSMM supports the efficient documentation and communication of the results that emerge during the application of the roadmap. Thus, conceptual modeling acts as a means for purposefully codifying the outcomes of a BPI project. Furthermore, a corresponding software prototype has been implemented using a meta modeling platform to assess the technical feasibility of the approach. Finally, the usability of the prototype has been empirically evaluated