Continuous buttermaking : a process capability study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Technology in Industrial Management at Massey University

Continuous buttermaking has become an important process in the New Zealand Dairy Industry. From the first experimental trials in 1964 conducted by staff of the New Zealand Dairy Research Institute, continuous manufacture of butter by the Fritz process has now reached a commercial production of over 80,000 tons. Process control of the buttermaking process plays an important part in determining the economic return on the product. At this stage adequate information is available on the general operating principles of Continuous churns. However, in the absence of change in the operating conditions the product continues to show compositional variation. There is little information available to determine the causes of such variation. The work undertaken during this project was primarily aimed at investigation of this variation. It was conducted as a process capability study. It is clear that Continuous Buttermaking will continue to be an important process in the New Zealand Dairy Industry for some time, and it is essential that further information regarding the proceas is made available in order to facilitate improved process control

What We're In For: Projected Economic Impact of the Next Recession

Recent historical experience argues that the labor-market effects of the next recession will last far longer than the formal recession itself. This report uses the experience of the last three recessions to predict labor market outcomes of a recession in 2008

Is the U.S. Unemployment Rate Today Already as High as It Was in 1982?

In 1982, the United States experienced the highest annual unemployment rate since the Great Depression -- 9.7 percent. In principle, that rate is directly comparable to the 8.1 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February 2009, and suggests that current unemployment is still not as bad as it was in 1982.The official unemployment rate, however, masks two important differences between the unemployment rate in 1982 and today. The first difference is demographic. In 1982, the US population was substantially younger than it is today. Even in an otherwise identical economy, we would expect a younger population to have a higher unemployment rate than an older population would. The second difference is statistical. The main government survey used to measure the unemployment rate -- the Current Population Survey (CPS) reaches a smaller share of the population today than it did in 1982, and is especially likely to miss people who are not employed. As a result, the official unemployment rate understates the unemployment rate relative to 1982

$1 Trillion Wage Deficit

The strong rise in the U.S. stock market since the spring and the return to positive economic growth in the third quarter of this year have created a consensus among economists that the Great Recession is very likely over. Unfortunately, the end of the official recession will have little visible impact on U.S. labor markets until almost 2012. Within that time, this paper estimates that U.S. workers will have lost over $1 trillion in wages and salaries,$150 billion more than the 10-year costs of proposed health care reform legislation

Methodologies for building robust schedules

COMPASS is the name of a Computer Aided Scheduling System designed and built for NASA. COMPASS can be used to develop schedule of activities based upon the temporal relationships of the activities and their resource requirements. COMPASS uses this information, and guided by the user, develops precise start and stop times for the activities. In actual practice however, it is impossible to know with complete certainty what the actual durations of the scheduled activities will really be. The best that one can hope for is knowledge of the probability distribution for the durations. This paper investigates methodologies for using a scheduling tool like COMPASS that is based upon definite values for the resource requirements, while building schedules that remain valid in the face of the schedule execution perturbations. Representations for the schedules developed by these methodologies are presented, along with a discussion of the algorithm that could be used by a computer onboard a spacecraft to efficiently monitor and execute these schedules

Forest Plantation Management

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Correcting Employment Rates in the 2000 Decennial Census Using Information from the CPS-Census 2000

The decennial census for 2000 shows a much lower employment rate for U.S. adults than the Current Population Surveys (CPS) does. This paper corrects the data from the decennial census for reporting error and still finds a substantially lower employment rate, especially among young blacks and Hispanics, than in the CPS.

Old Europe Goes to Work: Rising Employment Rates in the European Union

This report shows that Europe's welfare states have nearly closed the employment gap with respect to the United States for workers aged 25 to 54 years old.

Is the U.S. Unemployment Rate Today Already as High as It Was in 1982?

In 1982, the United States experienced the highest annual unemployment rate since the Great Depression – 9.7 percent. In principle, that rate is directly comparable to the 8.1 percent seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for February 2009, and suggests that current unemployment is still not as bad as it was in 1982. The official unemployment rate, however, masks two important differences between the unemployment rate in 1982 and today. The first difference is demographic. In 1982, the US population was substantially younger than it is today. Even in an otherwise identical economy, we would expect a younger population to have a higher unemployment rate than an older population would. The second difference is statistical. The main government survey used to measure the unemployment rate – the Current Population Survey (CPS) reaches a smaller share of the population today than it did in 1982, and is especially likely to miss people who are not employed. As a result, the official unemployment rate understates the unemployment rate relative to 1982.unemployment, unemployment rate