Agent based prototype for interoperation of production planning and control and manufacturing automation

This work describes a model for distributed dynamic Production Planning and Control (PPC) agent based system, which includes interoperation with manufacturing automation. It is presented a demonstration prototype involving distributed software agents and industrial equipment integration, which implements part of the developed model functionalities. Clients can send orders, and resources may apply for those orders fulfilment. Resources with orders allocated to, start automatically the required manufacturing operations. The prototype was implemented integrating several tools, including Lab VIEW and LEGO Mindstorms components. This is useful to validate the integration, proposed by the dynamic PPC model, between production planning processes and manufacturing execution operations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Teachers' workload in a project-led engineering education approach

This paper presents a detailed list of activities, carried out by a team of teachers, while organizing and running an Interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) methodology for a full semester. The study was undertaken at the Engineering School of University of Minho, Portugal. It was based on a first year, first semester of the Integrated Master Degree in Industrial Management and Engineering (IME). The full PLE activities-related workload was accounted on a man-hour basis. Nineteen coordination activities were identified and the respective durations and frequencies were accounted. One semester of IME PLE requires a total of 569 man-hours. The project involved a much greater number of teachers and other staff when compared to a traditional semester. The most time-consuming activities were spotted and strategies and measures to deal with the resulting workload were discussed and some of them are proposed for implementation in future editions of the PLE methodology. Those proposals were considered more efficient ways to rationalize the use of teachers’ time

Management of interdisciplinary project approaches in Engineering Education: a case study

This paper describes project management processes of coordination teams, in the implementation of interdisciplinary project approaches in Engineering Education. These interdisciplinary projects are based on the Project-Led Education (PLE) concept and are being implemented since 2004/2005 in the Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) master degree course (1st and 2nd cycle of Engineering Education) at University of Minho. Usually, these approaches involve a coordination team of 10 to 15 members with different roles: teachers, tutors and education researchers. This team is responsible for preparing the project for the semester and forming the students’ teams. The coordination of these two types of teams is centred on a project manager that is responsible for, and supports, all the work developed during the semester, e.g., prepare the initial presentation of the project to the students, prepare the web site that supports the work, establish the communication between students and the rest of the team, prepare the students’ guide, and so on. Managing these projects is an intense task that demands a lot of time and different competencies. In this work it is presented a project management framework based on project management knowledge areas, to aid coordination teams to achieve better results

Projectos para a aprendizagem na Engenharia e Gestão Industrial

Este artigo apresenta e relaciona os diferentes tipos de projectos desenvolvidos pelos alunos do Mestrado Integrado em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial no âmbito da sua aprendizagem. Normalmente, estes projectos são desenvolvidos em contextos diferentes: i) na universidade, sob a forma de projectos interdisciplinares semestrais de grande dimensão, com base na estratégia Project Led Education (PLE), e ii) em empresa, sob a forma de projecto em empresa, para desenvolvimento da dissertação de mestrado. PLE é uma das metodologias de aprendizagem activa/cooperativa que tem vindo a ser introduzida em alguns cursos de engenharia da Universidade do Minho. O projecto em empresa recorre frequentemente a uma estratégia de investigação baseada em pesquisa-acção, onde o aluno assume um papel activo, participativo e interventivo na vida da empresa. Este artigo mostra que o PLE pode promover a iniciação à investigação aplicada, baseada na estratégia de pesquisa-acção, permitindo ao aluno desenvolver competências valorizadas pelas empresas. Nesse sentido espera-se que empresa possa beneficiar da aprendizagem do aluno, transformando-se a experiência tácita da empresa em conhecimento explícito

Formal description technique SDL for manufacturing systems specification and description

This paper addresses the formal specification and description of manufacturing systems. It is considered the use of SDL (Specification and Description Language), a standard FDT (Formal Description Technique), to model the behaviour, data and structure aspects of a manufacturing system. SDL was originally developed for telecommunication systems (protocol specification and data processing). The adequacy of FDTs, namely SDL, for the manufacturing systems domain is investigated by developing the SDL specification of part of a Distributed/Virtual Manufacturing System cell installation (D/V MS Project), and analysing it

Distributed production planning and control agent based system

A model of an Agent based Production Planning and Control (PPC) system able to be dynamically adaptable to local and distributed utilization of production resources and materials is presented. The PPC system is based on the selection of resources to deal with one order of different quantities of one product each time. In this way it is build one scheduling solution for that particular order. The production resources are selected and scheduled using a multiagent system supported by an implementation of the Smith Contract Net, using Java Spaces technology. The multiagent system is based on three main agents: Client, Resource and Manager. These agents negotiate the final product, and the correspondent components, requested by the client. An order for each product (component) triggers a process of dynamic design of a production system to fulfill that particular order. This system exists till the end of the order

Remote supervision of production processes in the food industry

This paper presents a remote monitoring system based on the SCADA model (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition), specifically developed for automated production processes in a food company. The goals defined for this project were the monitoring of three production lines and six silos of raw materials, along with the indication / evaluation of three performance measures demanded by the company: production rate, packed quantity and OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). The developed system should also include other typical SCADA functionalities, namely alarms management, process trending and data logging. The applied methodology involved the detailed analysis of the existing automation systems, the functional specification of the remote monitoring system and the corresponding implementation (using the LabVIEW platform), test and validation. The project took about six months and the system was successfully implemented in one of the company's factories. All the objectives were achieved.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Benefits of lean management : results from some industrial cases in Portugal

This paper documents a set of Industrial Lean projects over a decade timespan in the North of Portugal, which were conducted by final year students of the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) in partnership with the Department of Production and Systems of University of Minho. The study analyses a total of forty one such projects and reveals a clear growth in the number of Lean projects, and gives some evidence of Lean awareness and importance to companies. The lean tools used were listed and the most frequently applied tools spotted. Resulting benefits to companies were documented and quantification of such benefits endorsed. Results from 2010 indicate a strong growth in the ratio of quantification of benefits, but the remaining data does not clearly support such trend

Lipid oxidation inhibition by natural tocopherols increases the nutritional value of tuna salami

Introduction: The quality attributes of fish products deteriorate due to the lipid oxidation during processing and storage. Tuna salami is highly susceptible to oxidation, which can precipitate health hazards and economic losses in terms of inferior product quality. Methods: The effect of adding different natural antioxidants on the lipid oxidation, colour and fatty acid profile of tuna salami after nine days of storage at 4 ºC was assessed. Three different commercial mixes of tocopherols were added during the production of the tuna salami and samples were sliced and refrigerated for 9 days. Results: The lipid oxidation increased from 0.98 to 4.03 mg of malondialdehyde/kg. The oxidation process was inhibited by DLT-100 and VIT-100; however, RNX10 did not blunt the oxidative process. VIT and dose-limiting toxicity (DLT) reduced the total unsaturated fatty acid reduction. The RNX did not prevent the reduction of the a* value. Conclusion: It was concluded that tocopherols supplementation kept the nutritional value of tuna salami mainly by lipid oxidation inhibition.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Project-led Engineering Education : assessment model and rounding errors analysis

This paper presents an analysis of the assessment model used in an interdisciplinary Project-Led Education (PLE) process implemented in the Integrated Master Course on Industrial Management and Engineering (IME) at University of Minho. PLE is an innovative educational methodology which makes use of active learning, promoting higher levels of motivation and students’ autonomy. The assessment model is based on multiple evaluation components with different weights. Each component can be evaluated by several teachers involved in different Project Supporting Courses (PSC). This model can be affected by different types of errors, namely: (1) rounding errors, and (2) non-uniform criteria of rounding the grades. A rigorous analysis of the assessment model was made and the rounding errors involved on each project component characterised. This resulted in a global maximum error of 0.308 on the individual student project grade, in a 0 to 100 scale. This analysis intended to improve not only the reliability of the assessment results, but also teachers’ awareness to this problem. Recommendations are also made in order to improve the assessment model and reduce the rounding errors as much as possible