Product Lifecycle Engineering and Management a Life Line for SMEs in Nigeria: An Appraisal

In this 21st century and beyond characterized with rapid development change in technology and innovations, organizations must relentlessly improve their product processes and systems, if they hope to outperform their competitors and maintain relevancy. Invariably, every product has 'life', starting with the design/development, followed by resource extraction, production, use/consumption, and end-of-life activities. However,, Product Lifecycle Engineering and Management (PLM), represents a very important approach for achieving a more sustainable paradigm of work and life, a more sustainable product development, manufacturing, use and dismissal. It is remarkable to note that SMEs account for 97% of all businesses in Nigeria, employs 50% of Nigeria's workforce, and produce 50% of Nigeria's industrial output, but most of these companies (SMEs) are short-lived. The sustainability of these companies and their products' lifecycle has become imperative in order to increase their contributions towards economic, social, political, environmental, and technological development of the Nigeria nation. This paper therefore, shows that effective and efficient PLM will inevitably play a vital and unprecedented role in creating sustainable product environment for SMEs in Africa and most especially fast growing economy like Nigeria. Keywords: Lifecycle, Management, Sustainability, SMEs, ICT Solution, Product Life, Developmen

Method Of Weighted Residual For Periodic Boundary Value Problem: Galerkin’s Method Approach

Method of weighted residual has been one of the foremost approximation solution to partial differential equation problems. In this paper a time dependent and boundary-valued strain model obtained from a PPC/CaCO3 composite experimental data was analyzed using the method of weighted residual. The Galerkin’s approach of this approximate method was applied to the model at a constant stress of 17.33 MPa. The discretization of the composite material was therefore, designed to take the form of a linear and one dimensional problem setting. Keywords: Method of Weighted Residual, PPC/CaCO3 Composite, Galerkin’s Method, Time Dependent, Boundary-Value

Optimal Analysis of Packaging Products of MAHEU Plant in Intafact Beverages Limited Using GPALS and MATLAB Optimization Software

This work focused on the optimization of the two packaging products; Supershake and Chibuku made up of three and two parts respectively. Copolymer polypropylene and white or colored batch materials are the two raw materials needed to produce the two packaging products. The manufacturing plan was developed for the organization. The production inputs of 1.11, 6.67, 15.78, 2.47 and 7.70 units were generated as the objective function coefficients; 308 hours per month for day shift and 364 hours per month for night shift were established. Production time of 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 12 second, 10 seconds and 12 seconds per unit of the five parts were established. The manufacturing constraints in terms of machine capacities, material availability, time and labour were extensively used to develop an integer linear programming model to obtain the optimum quantities of each part that will yield the maximum profit. The developed model was analyzed with GPALS and MATLAB optimization solver to obtain results for the linear programming model which gave a monthly production net profit of N3,751,932. A decision support system was developed for the manufacturing planning to assist the management of Maheu plant in Intafact Beverages Limited in decision making. The model is now being used in the manufacturing plan of the company and also recommended for application in organizations with similar production inputs. Keywords: Manufacturing plan, Production inputs, Manufacturing constraints,  Optimization, Profit and Decision makin

Modeling of Production Plan and Scheduling of Manufacturing Process for a Plastic Industry in Nigeria

In this work, production plan was developed for a plastic company with two products that are made up of five parts.  The production inputs for each part were analyzed and established. The production constraints in terms of materials available, machine capacities, time and labour were used to develop an integer linear programming model to achieve the objective function. The integer linear program was then used to find the optimum quantities of each part that will yield maximum profit. The developed model was analyzed with TORA optimization solver to obtain results for different constraints. The optimum solution for the LP model gave a monthly production profit of N3,751,922. Further sensitivity analyses performed for different production conditions gave results that are not feasible and the ones that were feasible were not optimal. A decision support system was developed for production planning to help the manager in scheduling decision process. The model is now been used at EagleHeights Plastic Industries Limited for their production planning. Keywords: Production Plan, Optimum, Linear Program, Constraints, Sensitivity Analysis, TOR

Finite Element Analysis for Stress-Strain Parameter of Projectile Impeded Glass Fibre Reinforced Polyester (Gfrp) Composites

For the treatment of progressive damage, spatial discretization is required so that numerical techniques such as the finite element method or finite difference method would be advantageous. Finite element and finite difference techniques have also been applied to impact problems because they are more versatile at modeling boundary conditions and local phenomena such as stresses and strain under a point load. This paper investigates the stress-strain magnitude on body amour composites of glass fibre reinforced polyester (GFRP), when hit with ogival and conical nosed projectiles through the application of finite element analysis using ANSYS software version 10.1. The finite element result of the plain stress analysis shows that the composite is stronger in the longitudinal direction. This is supported by the fact that the maximum stress of 328.125MPa was recorded in the X direction while the maximum stress of 57.726MPa was recorded in the Y direction. The analysis also indicates that the maximum influence of the stress was experienced around the incident hole and the minimum at the exterior boarders of the samples. Keywords: Finite Element, Plain Stress Analysis, Projectiles, ANSYS Software, Body Amour, Fibre Reinforcement