Lead time performance in a internet product delivery supply chain with automatic consolidation

Internet sales have increased exponentially in the last decade. Much of the internet sales are of physical products in urban areas that require product delivery transportation with a tight delivery lead time. With this challenge, a new type of transportation services has been developed aiming to cope with a strict control of transportation lead time. In this paper, an internet product delivery service with customer orders that are multi-item as well as single item is simulated. We address specifically the mismatch between supply and demand when retailers for any reason are unable to estimate the configuration of multi-item orders. Three scenarios of demand patterns are simulated (demand as forecasted, lower than forecasted and higher than forecasted) using discrete-event simulation to look at the effect on transportation lead time. Results show the positive effect on the mismatch between demand and resource capacity which is expressed in higher number delayed delivery orders. The excess of capacity in the product delivery supply chain has not a positive impact on delivery time of orders as technically orders are not delivered before the multi-item components are not available. This leads to think that the excess of resources are not an element that add value to customers waiting for their orders.CONACY

Decision making using modified s-curve membership function in fuzzy linear programming problem

In order to develop approaches to solve a fuzzy linear programming problem, it is necessary to study first the formulation of membership functions and then the methodology for applying the solution to real life problems. A S-curve membership function is proposed in this paper. It is important to note that the S-curve membership function has to be flexible to describe the fuzziness in the problem. Fuzziness may occur in several levels of an industrial production management such as manpower requirements, resource availability such as software and the demand to be met. In order to show that the S-curve membership function works well for fuzzy problems, a numerical example is demonstrated. A thorough study on how the non linear membership function used in dealing with fuzzy parameters and fuzzy constraints is also presented. Only one case where all three coefficients (such as objective coefficients, technical coefficients and resource variables) that normally occur in production planning problem, are considered and fuzzified. However, there are several other cases. The result obtained from this paper is to provide confidence in using the proposed S-curve membership function in a real life production planning industrial problem

PID Tuning of Servo Motor Using Bat Algorithm

AbstractThe Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller uses three parameters to produce the desired output of a system. The desired system performances are in terms of overshoot, rise time, settling time and steady state error. This has brought about various methods to tune the controller to the desired response. Therefore, the presence of the bat algorithm as part of the system will reduce the time and cost of tuning these parameters and improve the overall system performance

Face recognition-based real-time system for surveillance

The ability to automatically recognize human faces based on dynamic facial images is important in security, surveillance and the health/independent living domains. Specific applications include access control to secure environments, identification of individuals at a particular place and intruder detection. This research proposes a real-time system for surveillance using cameras. The process is broken into two steps: (1) face detection and (2) face recognition to identify particular persons. For the first step, the system tracks and selects the faces of the detected persons. An efficient recognition algorithm is then used to recognize detected faces with a known database. The proposed approach exploits the Viola-Jones method for face detection, the Kanade-Lucas-Tomasi algorithm as a feature tracker and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for face recognition. This system can be implemented at different restricted areas, such as at the office or house of a suspicious person or at the entrance of a sensitive installation. The system works almost perfectly under reasonable lighting conditions and image depths

Conventional and intelligent models for detection and prediction of fluid loss events during drilling operations: a comprehensive review

Fluid loss to subsurface formations is a challenging aspect during drilling operations in petroleum industry. Several other drilling issues such as fluid influx and pipe sticking can be triggered in such scenarios, posturing a significant risk to rig personnel, environment, and economical drilling. Therefore, prediction and early detection of lost circulation events are required for safe and economic drilling operation. Several theoretical studies have been performed to detect and predict fluid loss event during hydrocarbon extraction. This paper reviews the existing conventional and intelligent models developed for early detection and prediction of lost circulation events. These predictive and detecting models comprise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that require improvements for data reduction, universal prediction and compatibility. The review also covers several sensor-based techniques, different geostatistical-based models and Pressure-While-Drilling (PWD) tools for their applications in early loss circulation detection. In addition, loss circulation zones types, severity level, scenario and common preventive measures are also included in this review. This study aims to provide a systematic review of the published literature from the last forty years on the developed conventional and intelligent models for detection and prediction of fluid loss events and emphasizes on increasing AI involvement for precise results

Balanced Circular Packing Problems with Distance Constraints

The packing of different circles in a circular container under balancing and distance conditions is considered. Two problems are studied: the first minimizes the container’s radius, while the second maximizes the minimal distance between circles, as well as between circles and the boundary of the container. Mathematical models and solution strategies are provided and illustrated with computational results