Maintenance Logistics Management: A Survey Study in the Moroccan Industrial Context

Global logistics system performance could not be achieved without an available intern logistics system for production systems.  Indeed, availability is the fastest path to performance where maintenance logistics occupies the central role.In this paper we define a systemic framework for maintenance logistics to manage all maintenance resources and their interactions.  In order to define main maintenance logistics management problems we conducted a structured survey study in the Moroccan industrial context. The study presents results based on 152 surveys responses from 281 surveys addressed to different industrial production systems. Results analysed on SPSS statistical software revealed an insufficient involvement level for production operator and insufficient organisation level for maintenance logistics environment. Therefore we propose a new sustainable model conception based on empirical conclusions. Keywords— Maintenance logistics system; management model; Operator involvement; maintenance logistics environment; SPSS software; maintenance improvement

Lean integration in maintenance logistics management: a new sustainable framework

The current industrial constraints on production systems, especially availability problems are complicating maintenance managers’ mission and making longer and further performance improvement process. Dealing with these problems in a wiser managerial vision respecting sustainability dimensions would be more efficient to optimize all resources. In this paper, and after addressing the lean/sustainability challenge in a the literature to define main research orientations and critical points in manufacturing and then maintenance specific context, two case studies have been conducted in two production systems in Morocco and Canada, within the objective to set a clearer scene of the lean philosophy implementation in maintenance and within the sustainability scope from an empirical perspective. To activate the social dimension being often non-integrated in the lean/sustainability initiatives, the article authors reveal an original research direction assigning maintenance logistics as the leading part of our approach to cover all sustainability dimensions. Furthermore, its management is discussed for the first time in a sustainable framework, where the authors propose a new model considering the lean/sustainable perspective and inspired by the rich Human-Machine interaction memory to solve daily maintenance problems exploiting the operators’ experience feedback

SLC26A4 Variations Among Graves’ Hyper-Functioning Thyroid Gland

Deleterious mutations of SLC26A4 cause Pendred syndrome (PS), an autosomal recessive disorder comprising goitre and deafness with enlarged vestibular aqueducts (EVA), and nonsyndromic hearing loss (NSHL). However, the SLC26A4 hyperactivity was recently associated with the emergence of autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD) and asthma among human and mouse model. Here, by direct sequencing, we investigate the sequences of the 20 coding exons (2 to 21) of SLC26A4 and their flanking intron-exon junctions among patients affected with Graves' disease (GD) hyperthyroidism. Ten mono-allelic variants were identified, seven of which are intronic and previously unreported. Two, c.898A>C (p.I300L) and c.1061T>C (p.F354S), of the three exonic variants are non synonymous. The p.F354S variant is already described to be involved in PS or NSHL inheritances. The exploration by PCR-RFLP of p.I300L and p.F354S variants among 132 GD patients, 105 Hashimoto thyroiditis (HT), 206 Healthy subjects and 102 families with NSHL have shown the presence of both variants. The p.F354S variation was identified both among patients (1~HT and 3 GD) and healthy subjects (n=5). Whereas, the p.I300L variant was identified only in GD patients (n=3). Our studies provide evidence of the importance of systematic analysis of SLC26A4 gene sequences on models other than deafness. This approach allows the identification of new variants and the review of the pathogenic effects of certain mono-allelic variants reported responsible for PS and NSHL development