A strategy for achieving manufacturing statistical process control within a highly complex aerospace environment

This paper presents a strategy to achieve process control and overcome the previously mentioned industry constraints by changing the company focus to the process as opposed to the product. The strategy strives to achieve process control by identifying and controlling the process parameters that influence process capability followed by the implementation of a process control framework that marries statistical methods with lean business process and change management principles. The reliability of the proposed strategy is appraised using case study methodology in a state of the art manufacturing facility on Multi-axis CNC machine tools

Workplace Stress and Employee Wellbeing: Case of Health Care Staff in UAE

Workplace stress is a world-wide concern and has been a subject of researchers, academicians, authorities and decision makers’ interest. It has evidently been considered to be causing poor performance, reduced employee morale, lack of autonomy, job insecurity and to greater extent the employee's wellbeing. Employees in healthcare and hospitality sector work in 24*7 work schedule due to the demanding nature of the industry. Empirical evidences have indicated that employee experience high stress on account of work overload and long working hours taking a toll on their mental and physical well-being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of workplace stress on employee well-being among staff employees in the health care sector and hospitals in UAE. A total of 150 employees working at staff level in health care centers and hospitals in UAE were surveyed. The results showed that workplace has negative impact on employee well-being and the impact was found to be weak. The findings of the study suggest that an increase in workplace stresses will reduce wellbeing of employees. The researchers recommend that in order to reduce the impact of stress on employee well-being organizational support, family support and social support is essential

Knowledge based system implementation for lean process in low volume automotive manufacturing (LVAM) with reference to process manufacturing

YesGlobal manufacturing industry mostly depends on new product development and processes to become competitive. The product development process for automotive industry is normally complicated, lengthy, expensive, and risky. Hence, a study of lean manufacturing processes for low volume manufacturing in automotive industry is proposed to overcome this issue by eliminating all wastes in the lengthy process. This paper presents a conceptual design approach to the development of a hybrid Knowledge Based (KB) system for lean process in Low Volume Automotive Manufacturing (LVAM). The research concentrates on the low volume processes by using a hybrid KB system, which is a blend of KB system and Gauging Absences of Pre-requisites (GAP). The hybrid KB/GAP system identifies all potential waste elements of low volume process manufacturing. The KB system analyses the difference between the existing and the benchmark standards for lean process for an effective implementation through the GAP analysis technique. The proposed model explores three major lean process components, namely Employee Involvement, Waste Elimination, and Kaizen (continuous improvement). These three components provide valuable information in order for decision makers to design and implement an optimised low volume manufacturing process, but which can be applied in all process manufacturing, including chemical processing

Decomposition of manufacturing processes: a review

YesManufacturing is a global activity that started during the industrial revolution in the late 19th century to cater for the large-scale production of products. Since then, manufacturing has changed tremendously through the innovations of technology, processes, materials, communication and transportation. The major challenge facing manufacturing is to produce more products using less material, less energy and less involvement of labour. To face these challenges, manufacturing companies must have a strategy and competitive priority in order for them to compete in a dynamic market. A review of the literature on the decomposition of manufacturing processes outlines three main processes, namely: high volume, medium volume and low volume. The decomposition shows that each sub process has its own characteristics and depends on the nature of the firm’s business. Two extreme processes are continuous line production (fast extreme) and project shop (slow extreme). Other processes are in between these two extremes of the manufacturing spectrum. Process flow patterns become less complex with cellular, line and continuous flow compared with jobbing and project. The review also indicates that when the product is high variety and low volume, project or functional production is applied.The financial support by the Malaysian Government, Universiti Malaysia Pahang and Bradford University for this research is gratefully acknowledged

Performance measurement system for a manufacturing environment: KB/GAP/AHP approach

YesDesigning and implementing Performance Measurement System (PMS) is an integral part of management control systems. This paper presents an original and novel approach to designing and benchmarking of PMSs for a manufacturing environment through a hybrid framework which overcomes the shortcomings of earlier models. A detailed review was taken of previous models and their limitations were identified. The present hybrid PMS model seeks to improve the earlier research models by the following novel approach: implementation of a Knowledge Based (KB) expert system, Gauging Absences of Pre-requisite (GAP) analysis and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology in an integrated KBPMS. The paper has shown that the present hybrid (KB-AHP-GAP) approach to developing a KBPMS model is a realistic methodology. The combination of the KB-AHP-GAP approach allows detailed benchmarking of the PMS existing within a manufacturing organisation. Furthermore, this approach can assist in identifying and prioritising the key decisions that need to be actioned to overcome the existing PMS shortcomings

Recent advances in management of cerebrovascular diseases

A comprehensive approach to managing the vascular risk factors in both primary and secondary stroke prevention settings can lower the risk of first and recurrent stroke. Recent studies highlight the benefits of blood pressure treatment in the elderly, use of statins in healthy subjects with normal low-density lipoprotein levels, and comparison of various anti-platelet agents. For acute stroke the efficacy of thrombolysis beyond 3 hours has recently been shown

HERMITE-HADAMARD TYPE INEQUALITIES FOR CONFORMABLE INTEGRALS VIA η-CONVEX FUNCTIONS

Many recent results have been. This inequality has many applications in the area of pure and applied mathematics. In this paper, our main aim is to give results for conformable integral version of Hermite-Hadamard inequality for η-convex functions. First, we prove an identity associated with the Hermite-Hadamard inequality for conformable integrals using η-convex functions. By using this identity and η-convexity of function and some well-known inequalities, we obtain several results for the inequality

Statistical analysis of the effect of machining parameters on fatigue life of aerospace grade aluminum alloy (AL 6082T6)

In this research work, aerospace grade aluminium alloy (Al 6082-T6) was analysed for the effect of cutting parameters on the fatigue life of the machined samples and optimization of cutting parameters for response factor. Different combinations of machining parameters were selected according to the ISO 3685 for sample preparation. Fatigue life of the samples was the response variable under investigation. Specimens for the rotating bending fatigue test were prepared according to the BS ISO 1143:2010 standards. The cutting inserts were selected from Sandvik Coromant catalogue recommended for machining of Al 6082-T6 alloy. A Designed of Experiment (DoE) with full factorial design was employed and a total of 81 experiments were performed for combination of cutting parameters. Fatigue life of the samples was observed to decreases with increasing feed rate, which is attributed to the compressive residual stresses at the surface of the samples. However, fatigue life increased with higher cutting speed and Depth of Cut (DoC)

Smart Phones and Personal Listening Devices - Tinnitus & Hearing Impairment in Adolescent and Young Adult Earphone Users

OBJECTIVES To determine the frequency of tinnitus & hearing impairment in adolescent and young adult earphone users with smartphones and other personal listening devices.METHODOLOGY This prospective & descriptive study involving children with glue ears was conducted in the ENT Department of Medical Teaching Institute, Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, from Jan 1, 2022, to Sep 30, 2022. Personal listening device (PLD) users aged 12-25 years with complaints of tinnitus and hearing impairment were examined. Conductive hearing loss was excluded by audiological testing. The frequency of resultant hearing loss and tinnitus was calculated. The information obtained was analyzed using SPSS v 26.0 for windows. A Chi square test was performed to determine the significance of tinnitus & hearing impairment in earphones and other PLD users.RESULTS A total of 163 patients were included in the study. The patient’s age range was 12-25 years, with a mean age of 18.03 years and a standard deviation of ± 3.575. There were 117 males and 46 females. The male: female ratio was of 2.54:1.Tinnitus was present in 73% and Hearing impairment in 54.4% of the patients. The chi-square test and p-values determined showed that both tinnitus and hearing loss occurred in many patients using personal listening devices.CONCLUSION Tinnitus and hearing impairment occurs in a significant number of those who use personal listening devices. Their inappropriate use can lead to auditory system damage. It is recommended that PLD users undergo periodic audiological testing to detect early hearing loss and tinnitus to minimize damage to the ear

Our experience of mega-prosthesis in bone tumours: A retrospective cross-sectional study in a tertiary care hospital

Objective: To evaluate the oncological and functional outcomes of bone tumour patients who underwent reconstruction with mega prosthesis.Methodology: A retrospective study was conducted in the department of Orthopaedics Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. All the paediatric and adult age group patients diagnosed with malignant, benign and metastatic bone tumours and meeting the inclusion criteria were selected and analysed. Retrospective data was collected from January 2008-January 2018.Results: Sixty-two patients, 30 (48.4%) females and 32 (51.6%) males. were included in the study. Of these 57 (92%) cases had involvement of the lower limb. The mean age was 36.95±19.1 years with a range of 9-81 years. The duration of patients follow up was from 1-124 months (mean 32.7±36.43 months). There were 29 (47%) malignant cases. The most commonly occurring tumour site was distal femur and proximal femur. There were 53 (85%) primary surgeries (first time conducted surgeries) while 9(15%) revision surgeries were done. Major complications were encountered in 19 (30.6%) patients and 13 (20.9%) had minor complications. Post-surgery local recurrence occurred in 2 (3.2%) patients while 7 (11.2%) had distant metastasis. In functional outcomes the mean MSTS score of our patients was 72.09±26.43. The survival rate was 69.8% with 45 patients recovered.Conclusions: With a good patient selection, adherence to the principles of tumour surgery and an adequate applied knowledge of mega prosthesis insertion, a good functional outcome was achieved