Implementation of lean manufacturing and lean audit system in an auto parts manufacturing industry – an industrial case study

Lean manufacturing is one of the innovative manufacturing concepts being applied in many industries to avoid the wastages of resources and improving the quality of products and help the company to become more effective and productive. It also focuses on continuous improvements with the total involvement of all employees with optimum utilization of man power and machine by reducing idle time and reducing lead time with help of lean tools like value stream mapping and kaizen. This paper presents a case study carried out in a foundry division of an auto parts manufacturing industry, where lean tools are implemented for the defect reduction and productivity improvement. In this paper, a conceptualized implementation of total productive maintenance practices of lean tools: Kaizen or continuous improvement and value stream map in an auto parts industry are presented. The result shows improved performance in terms of average core rejections, sand leakage and air lock problem

Toxicity characterization and long-term stability studies on copper slag from the ISASMELT process

Detailed studies on the toxicity and long-term stability of copper slag of varying heavy metal concentration generated over a 14-week period in an Indian copper plant through the ISASMELT process was carried out using USEPA's toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP), multiple extraction procedure and sulfuric acid leaching of granulated and mechanically activated slag as a function of pH at two different temperatures. The TCLP, acid leaching and multiple extraction test results carried out on a large number of slag samples of varying compositions derived from the use of several copper concentrates indicate poor leachability of the heavy metals and assures long-term stability even in extreme atmospheres. Leaching tests on mechanically activated samples gives an idea of the resistance to leaching of the heavy metals even upon weathering. The multiple extraction leaching tests indicate that the heavy metals present in the slag are stable and are not likely to dissolve significantly even through repetitive leaching under acid rain in a natural environment. The highest concentration of all the elements is far below the prescribed limits in USEPA 40CFR Part 261

Single Phase Quasi-Z-Source Based Modified Cascaded Multilevel Inverter with Half-Bridge Cell

A new Quasi-Z-Source Modified Cascaded Multilevel Inverter (qZS-MCMLI) with Half-Bridge Cell presents attractive advantages over conventional cascaded MLI with voltage boost ability and reduced switches. The new proposed topology is comprised of cascaded auxiliary units and a full H-bridge inverter, where the auxiliary unit includes half bridge cell with qZS network. With qZS network shoot-through state control, the output voltage amplitude can be boosted, which is not limited to DC source voltage summation similar to conventional cascaded MLI. The performance parameters of qZS-MCMLI with various multicarrier PWM control methods are analysed with simulation results and portrayed here

Multi-agent system with iterative auction mechanism for master bay plan problem in marine logistics

The support of containerization to trade development demands an efficient solution method for the container loading problem in order to reduce shipment and handling time. Hence, the stowage planning of containers is critical to provide speedy delivery of resources from the area of supply to the area of demand. Moreover, information on container terminal activities, structure of ship, and characteristics of containers is distributed among stowage planners. This information imposes constraints, and so the master bay plan problem (MBPP) becomes NP-hard. Therefore, a multi-agent systems (MAS) methodology is designed to effectively communicate the information and solve the MBPP sustainably. In the designed MAS methodology, an information exchange system (IES) is created for stowage planners to bid for ship slots in each experimental iterative combinatorial auction (ICA) market. The winner in the ICA experiments is provided with the ship slots, and the entire bay plan is prepared. Further, the ship-turnaround time is validated using the data obtained from the benchmark problem

1-(2-Naphth­yl)-3-phenyl-3-(4,5,6,7-tetra­hydro-1,2,3-benzoselenadiazol-4-yl)propan-1-one

In the title compound, C25H22N2OSe, the fused six-membered cyclo­hexene ring of the 4,5,6,7-tetra­hydro-1,2,3-benzoselenadiazole group adopts a near half-chair conformation and the five-membered 1,2,3-selenadiazole ring is essentially planar (r.m.s. deviation = 0.004 Å). There are weak inter­molecular C—H⋯O and C—H⋯π inter­actions in the crystal structure. Inter­molecular π–π stacking is also observed between the naphthyl units, with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.529 (15) Å

Composite Performance Index for Sustainability

Abstract

Do people who load their feet differently need insoles that have different stiffness?

Background: Plantar pressure reduction is an important aspect of diabetic foot management. However little information exists about the optimum cushioning properties of materials used in diabetic footwear as insoles/foot-beds. Numerical analyses have indicated that optimizing the material properties of footwear materials can improve their ability to reduce pressure. Aim: To investigate if the optimal insole stiffness would vary based on patients’ body mass (BM) in people with diabetic neuropathy. Method: Custom PU foams were produced using different ratios of chemical components to achieve a range of different stiffness. Uniform thickness (400 mm × 400 mm × 10 mm) foam sheets were produced with shore-A hardness between 3 and 45 and average(±stdev) increments of 5(±3). Standardized compression tests were performed for all 10 custom materials as well as for 3 commercially available foam materials used in diabetic footwear. Plantar pressure was measured during balanced standing on all custom material sheets for 4 diabetic neuropathic volunteers: 2 with BM of 49 kg ± 1 kg and 2 with BM of 73 kg ± 2 kg. Results: The maximum compressive force for 50% compression of the commercially available foams was similar to custom foams with 11–28 shore-A hardness. Peak plantar pressure was minimised for materials with shore-A hardness 6 and 11 in subjects with BM of 49 kg ± 1 kg and 73 kg ± 2 kg respectively. In all cases using softer or stiffer material (by 1 shore hardness increment) increased pressure by 24% ± 26% and 32% ± 34% respectively. Conclusions: Careful selection of insole/foot-bed stiffness can improve the pressure reduction capacity of diabetic footwear. Optimum material stiffness increased with the BM of the volunteers

Screening for the loss of protective sensation in people without a history of diabetic foot ulceration: Validation of two simple tests in India

The ability of the Ipswich touch test (IpTT) and VibratipTM to detect loss of protective sensation (LOPS) was tested against a neurothesiometer in an outpatient diabetic population without a history for ulceration. Our results support the use of the IpTT as a screening tool for LOPS, but not of VibratipTM

Green competence framework: Evidence from China

© 2015 Taylor & Francis Recently human resources management functions such as recruitment, selection, training and performance evaluation are expected in considering environmental management issues. Environmental protective acts with adequate ecological knowledge and socio-economic behavior and skills are referred to in this paper as green competencies (GCs). However, a systematic approach for developing and understanding key factors that enhance individuals' GCs is lacking. This study contributes to green human resource literature by integrating environmental consumer behavior literature with traditional skills and competencies literature to help firms to select the right individuals to achieve their environmental goals. Using Robert's competencies framework and structural equation modeling, this paper empirically examines the influence of individual GCs on organizations' green practices and performance objectives. Our model is tested using a sample of 1230 employees working in key industries in the Chinese coastal city of Ningbo. The results indicate that acquired GCs are more positively associated with individuals' GCs and green behavior. The study empirically demonstrates that verifying acquired GC attributes such as environmental knowledge, green purchase attitude and intention during employee selection would certainly be helpful for firms to identify individual green performance potential

Logistics service provider selection for disaster preparation: a socio-technical systems perspective

Since 1990s, the world has seen a lot of advances in providing humanitarian aid through sophisticated logistics operations. The current consensus seems to be that humanitarian relief organizations (HROs) can improve their relief operations by collaborating with logistics service providers (CLSPs) in the commercial sector. The question remains: how can HROs select the most appropriate CLSP for disaster preparation? Despite its practical significance, no explicit effort has been done to identify the criteria/factors in prioritising and selecting a CLSP for disaster relief. The present study aims to address this gap by consolidating the list of criteria from a socio-technical systems (STS) perspective. Then, to handle the interdependence among the criteria derived from the STS, we develop a hybrid multi-criteria decision making model for CLSP selection in the disaster preparedness stage. The proposed model is then evaluated by a real-life case study, providing insights into the decision-makers in both HROs and CLSPs