This book systematically introduces readers to the development of simulation models as well as the implementation and evaluation of simulation experiments with Tecnomatix Plant Simulation. Intended for all Plant Simulation users whose work involves complex tasks, it also offers an easy start for newcomers. Particular attention has been paid to introducing the simulation flow language SimTalk and its use in various aspects of simulation. In over 200 examples, the author demonstrates how to combine the blocks for simulation models and how to employ SimTalk in complex control and analysis tasks. The content ranges from a description of the basic functions of the material flow blocks to more advanced topics such as the implementation of database-supported warehouse control by using the SQLite interface, and the exchange of data using XML, ActiveX, COM or DDE.

While simulation has a vast area of application, this textbook focuses on the use of simulation to analyse business processes. It provides an up-to-date coverage of all stages of the discrete-event simulation (DES) process, covering important areas such as conceptual modelling, modelling input data, verification and validation and simulation output analysis. The book is comprehensive yet uncomplicated, covering the theoretical aspects of the subject and the practical elements of a typical simulation project, demonstrated by cases, examples and exercises. It also shows how simulation relates to new developments in machine learning, big data analytics and conceptual modelling techniques. Guidance is provided on how to build DES models using the Arena, Simio and Simul8 simulation software, and tutorials for using the software are incorporated throughout. Simulation Modelling offers a uniquely practical and end-to-end overview of the subject, which makes it perfect required or recommended reading for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying business simulation and simulation modelling as part of operations research, business analytics, supply chain management and computer science courses.

This book offers broad, detailed coverage of theoretical developments in induction and direct resistance heating and presents new material on the solution of problems in the application of such heating. The physical basis of induction and conduction heating processes is explained and electromagnetic phenomena in direct resistance and induction heating of flat workpieces and cylindrical bodies are examined in depth. The calculation of electrical and energetic characteristics of induction and conduction heating systems is then thoroughly reviewed. The final two chapters consider analytical solutions and numerical modeling of problems in the application of induction and direct resistance heating, providing industrial engineers with the knowledge needed in order to use numerical tools in the modern design of installations. Other engineers, scientists and technologists will find the book to be an invaluable reference that will assist in the efficient utilization of electrical energy.

To survive and thrive in the competition, firms have strived to achieve greater supply chain collaboration to leverage the resources and knowledge of suppliers and customers. Internet based technologies, particularly interorganizational systems, further extend the firms' opportunities to strengthen their supply chain partnerships and share real-time information to optimize their operations. "Supply Chain Collaboration: Roles of Interorganizational Systems, Trust, and Collaborative Culture" explores the nature and characteristics, antecedents, and consequences of supply chain collaboration from multiple theoretical perspectives.

"Supply Chain Collaboration: Roles of Interorganizational Systems, Trust, and Collaborative Culture" conceptualizes supply chain collaboration as seven interconnecting elements including information sharing, incentive alignment, goal congruence, decision synchronization, resource sharing, as well as communication and joint knowledge creation. These seven components define the occurrence of collaborative efforts and allow us to explain supply chain collaboration more precisely. Collaborative advantages are also divided into five components to capture the joint competitive advantages and benefits among supply chain partners.

The definitions and measures developed here examine some central issue surrounding supply chain development but this is also followed up with real-life managerial practicalities. This balance of theory and practical application makes "Supply Chain Collaboration: Roles of Interorganizational Systems, Trust, and Collaborative Culture" a strong resource for industry practitioners and researchers alike.

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This book discusses the intelligent optimization and control of complex metallurgical processes, including intelligent optimization and control of raw-material proportioning processes, coking process, and reheating furnaces; intelligent control of thermal state parameters in sintering processes; and intelligent decoupling control of gas collection and mixing-and-pressurization processes. The intelligent control and optimization methods presented were originally applied to complex metallurgical processes by the authors, and their effectiveness and their advantages have been theoretically proven and demonstrated practically. This book offers an up-to-date overview of this active research area, and provides readers with state-of-the-art methods for the control of complex metallurgical processes.

The environmental burden caused by private transportation represents a significant challenge towards sustainability. Electric vehicles are considered a key technology to reduce the environmental impact caused by the mobility sector. However, the global adoption of electromobility implies shift and diversification of the environmental impacts caused by the transportation sector mainly driven by the production of the battery system. Modeling the life cycle environmental impacts of traction batteries is a time demanding and interdisciplinary task as it involves a high variability and requires an in-depth knowledge of the product system under analysis. To face these challenges, an Integrated Computational Life Cycle Engineering ICLCE framework for EVs has been developed. The ICLCE framework described aims at supporting fast and comprehensive modelling of complex foreground systems in the electromobility field and their interaction with diverse backgrounds and partial contexts.

The modern market economy is founded on economic growth and increasing consumption of manufactured products, leading to over use of resources and environmentally-damaging pollution. We can help protect the environment by focussing on the entire life-cycle of each manufactured product. A holistic view of every stage and process of a product's life-cycle is needed in order to find sound solutions to adverse environmental effects and help us develop a new generation of eco-designed products. Environmentally-friendly Product Development introduces methods to improve the environmental characteristics of products. Every manufactured product has environmental impacts during its life-cycle. These arise in the product's manufacture, use, recycling and disposal. In the past designers have focussed only on technical and economical aspects when developing new products, taking into account market-conditions and their company's resources. However, designing a product in accordance with environmental demands requires that designers consider potential influences from all part of its life-cycle. The book describes an integrated approach that assists designers to develop environmentally-friendly products, illustrating the methods and tools with case studies. Process and information modelling, life-cycle assessment and ecological product optimisation are surveyed in detail. Unique to Environmentally-friendly Product Development is the introduction of the Eco Design Workbench - a computer based design environment that supports the designer during the product development process. Environmentally-friendly Product Development is a comprehensive survey of environmental design. Readers will learn about thecomplexity of ecological product design and be introduced to methods and tools that can minimise environmental impacts. As well as a practical guide for product designers and design engineers, the book will provide managers in industry with an introduction to the environmental costs involved in a manufacturing economy and signposts to how these may be limited.

Discrete stochastic models are tools that allow us to understand, control, and optimize engineering systems and processes. This book provides real-life examples and illustrations of models in reliability engineering and statistical quality control and establishes a connection between the theoretical framework and their engineering applications. The book describes discrete stochastic models along with real-life examples and explores not only well-known models, but also comparatively lesser known ones. It includes definitions, concepts, and methods with a clear understanding of their use in reliability engineering and statistical quality control fields. Also covered are the recent advances and established connections between the theoretical framework of discrete stochastic models and their engineering applications. An ideal reference for researchers in academia and graduate students working in the fields of operations research, reliability engineering, quality control, and probability and statistics.

This edited volume contains research results presented at the 12th International Symposium Continuous Surface Mining, ISCSM Aachen 2014. The target audience primarily comprises researchers in the lignite mining industry and practitioners in this field but the book may also be beneficial for graduate students.

Rare event probability (10-4 and less) estimation has become a large area of research in the reliability engineering and system safety domains. A significant number of methods have been proposed to reduce the computation burden for the estimation of rare events from advanced sampling approaches to extreme value theory. However, it is often difficult in practice to determine which algorithm is the most adapted to a given problem. Estimation of Rare Event Probabilities in Complex Aerospace and Other Systems: A Practical Approach provides a broad up-to-date view of the current available techniques to estimate rare event probabilities described with a unified notation, a mathematical pseudocode to ease their potential implementation and finally a large spectrum of simulation results on academic and realistic use cases.

Business Intelligence (BI) is a solution to modern business problems. This book discusses the relationship between BI and Human Resource Management (HRM). In addition, it discusses how BI can be used as a strategic decision-making tool for the sustainable growth of an organization or business. BI helps organizations generate interactive reports with clear and reliable data for making numerous business decisions. This book covers topics spanning the important areas of BI in the context of HRM. It gives an overview of the aspects, tools, and techniques of BI and how it can assist HRM in creating a successful future for organizations. Some of the tools and techniques discussed in the book are analysis, data preparation, BI-testing, implementation, and optimization on GR and management disciplines. It will include a chapter on text mining as well as a section of case studies for practical use. This book will be useful for business professionals, including but not limited to, HR professionals, and budding business students.

Features Includes insight questions to support class discussion Written in broadly non-mathematical terms, designed to be accessible to any level of student or practicing AP to read, understand, and implement the concepts Each section introduces the ideas through real-life case studies

The inspection process is one of the most important steps in manufacturing industries because it safeguards high quality products and customer satisfaction. Manual inspection may not provide the desired accuracy. This book introduces and implements a new methodology and develops the supporting technologies for automated inspection planning based on Computer Aided Design (CAD) models. It also provides and implements an efficient link for automated operation based on Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). The link's output is a DMIS code programming file based on the inspection planning table that is executed on CMM.

Proceedings of a Symposium on Heavy Gas, Frankfurt am Main, September 3-4, 1979

Electromigration is a mass transport effect in metals under high current densities, which causes the metal atoms to migrate away from a high current density point and leads to the failure of integrated circuits. It is therefore an important reliability issue. This study reviews the topic for both the silicon and GaAs technologies. It surveys the status of electromigration physics in microelectronics, and summarizes various rate controlling details, including an investigation of temperature dependence.

Optimal Reliability Design, first published in 2000, provides a detailed introduction to systems reliability and reliability optimization. Techniques for maximizing system reliability are described, focusing on component reliability enhancement and redundancy arrangement. The authors present several case studies and show how optimization techniques are applied in practice. They also pay particular attention to finding methods that give the optimal trade-off between reliability and cost. The book begins with a review of key background material, and a discussion of a range of optimization models. The authors go on to cover optimization tools, such as heuristics, discrete optimization, nonlinear programming, mixed integer programming, optimal arrangement, and metaheuristic algorithms. They also describe the computational implementation of these tools. Many numerical examples are included, and the book contains over 180 homework exercises. It is suitable as a textbook for graduate-level courses in reliability engineering and operations research. It will also be a valuable reference for practising engineers.

This book focuses on describing and applying risk analysis of vapour cloud explosions (VCEs) in various oil and gas facilities, such as petrol stations, processing plants, and offshore platforms. Discussing most of the complicated features of gas explosion accidents, the book studies in detail the gas explosion risk analysis approaches of different oil and gas facilities in order to develop more accurate, detailed, efficient and reliable risk analysis methods for VCEs under different conditions. Moreover, it introduces an advanced overpressure approach to predict VCEs using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling, and details applications of CFD using a FLame ACceleration Simulator (FLACS). The book is intended for researchers and organisations engaged in risk and safety assessments of VCEs in the oil and gas industry.

Robots and Manufacturing Automation Second Edition C. Ray Asfahl University of Arkansas 55391 3, 512 pp., cloth, 1992 A Complete Guide to Using Automation to Boost Productivity This applications-oriented book surveys the wide spectrum of automated systems available to increase manufacturing productivity. It covers all aspects of automation including robots, numerical control machines, programmable controllers, computer controllers, and microprocessor-based automated systems. Technical topics are explained in an easy-to-understand style and illustrated with vivid images. Every chapter includes quantitative exercises or problems and design case studies to help solidify understanding of the material. The new Second Edition is now completely current in coverage, and includes a number of enhancements: Text expansion (approximately 20 per cent) ensures complete coverage of the field. Careful changes have modernized the text and emphasize the most recent and widely-used automation equipment and techniques. Updated coverage now includes concepts which show how to design products to enhance automation and manual production. New chapters on Machine Vision and Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) bring topic coverage to the cutting edge. The Robot Programming chapter contains new material on the AML Language.

A comprehensive presentation of control theory for the SPC community

Quality control has become a major concern in today’s competitive industrial environment, and industrial engineers are constantly seeking to make process adjustments that will optimize production efficiency and improve product quality. Statistical Process Adjustment for Quality Control fills the need for a comprehensive presentation of control theory at the elementary level, focusing on statistical methods used in process adjustment (Engineering Process Control Methods or EPC) and their relation to the classical methods of process monitoring, particularly those using SPC control charts. The author presents the severe effects of autocorrelated data on control chart performance and advocates the use of active adjustment methods for improving the quality of products and processes. He uses a detailed explanation of Deming’s funnel experiment to illustrate the need for process adjustment when there are process dynamics, and presents an in-depth description of ARIMA models and Transfer Function models from a statistical point of view. He offers several adjustment strategies, including Minimum Variance Controllers, PID controllers, EWMA controllers, deadband policies, and constrained variance controllers. The book also offers integration strategies for SPC and EPC methods, discusses multivariate ARMAX models used for multivariate adjustment, and provides readers with a brief introduction to frequency domain and state-space methods.

Statistical Process Adjustment for Quality Control is a timely resource for students, industrial engineers, and applied statisticians in both academic and industrial settings. Unique features include:

• A strong focus on quality control of products and processes
• Broad coverage of SPC, adjustments, and time series under one cover
• Abundant examples using both real process data and simulations
• Detailed explanations on how to use SAS and MATLAB on an accompanying ftp site
• Coverage of spreadsheet simulation and optimization models in Microsoft Excel
• Numerous chapter problems and detailed bibliography of relevant literature for further reading

This book takes the advanced precision forging technology of aluminum alloy parts as the main line, presents the content of precision forging process analysis, process parameter design, mold structure design, numerical simulation of forming process, and process test, combined with a large number of application examples classified according to the structural characteristics of parts. It introduces the theoretical basis of several new technologies and new equipment for precision forging, including the small flash precision forging technology, flow control forming technology, casting and forging combined forming technology, and new CNC precision forging hydraulic presses and servo hydraulic presses, which inspire readers to innovate on new technology and new equipment development.This book provides readers with the latest knowledge of aluminum alloy precision forging, which is of great reference value in the context of the current increasing attention to lightweight and the increasing application of aluminum alloy parts in automotive, aerospace, marine, and other fields. This book can be used as a reference book for engineering and technical personnel engaged in aluminum alloy forging technology and can also be used as a reference book for researchers, undergraduates, and graduate students interested in materials processing.

Industrial revolutions have impacted both, manufacturing and service. From the steam engine to digital automated production, the industrial revolutions have conduced significant changes in operations and supply chain management (SCM) processes. Swift changes in manufacturing and service systems have led to phenomenal improvements in productivity. The fast-paced environment brings new challenges and opportunities for the companies that are associated with the adaptation to the new concepts such as Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber Physical Systems, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, cyber security, data analytics, block chain and cloud technology. These emerging technologies facilitated and expedited the birth of Logistics 4.0. Industrial Revolution 4.0 initiatives in SCM has attracted stakeholders' attentions due to it is ability to empower using a set of technologies together that helps to execute more efficient production and distribution systems. This initiative has been called Logistics 4.0 of the fourth Industrial Revolution in SCM due to its high potential. Connecting entities, machines, physical items and enterprise resources to each other by using sensors, devices and the internet along the supply chains are the main attributes of Logistics 4.0. IoT enables customers to make more suitable and valuable decisions due to the data-driven structure of the Industry 4.0 paradigm. Besides that, the system's ability of gathering and analyzing information about the environment at any given time and adapting itself to the rapid changes add significant value to the SCM processes. In this peer-reviewed book, experts from all over the world, in the field present a conceptual framework for Logistics 4.0 and provide examples for usage of Industry 4.0 tools in SCM. This book is a work that will be beneficial for both practitioners and students and academicians, as it covers the theoretical framework, on the one hand, and includes examples of practice and real world.

Tight gas reservoirs have very low permeability and porosity, which cannot be produced at economical flow rates unless the well is efficiently stimulated and completed using advanced and optimized technologies. Economical production on the basis of tight gas reservoirs is challenging in general, not only due to their very low permeability but also to several different forms of formation damage that can occur during drilling, completion, stimulation, and production operations.

This study demonstrates in detail the effects of different well and reservoir static and dynamic parameters that influence damage mechanisms and well productivity in tight gas reservoirs. Geomechanics, petrophysics, production and reservoir engineering expertise for reservoir characterization is combined with a reservoir simulation approach and core analysis experiments to understand the optimum strategy for tight gas development, delivering improved well productivity and gas recovery.

This congress proceedings provides recent research on leading-edge manufacturing processes. The aim of this scientific congress is to work out diverse individual solutions of "production in the border area" and transferable methodological approaches. In addition, guest speakers with different backgrounds will give the congress participants food for thoughts, interpretations, views and suggestions. The manufacturing industry is currently undergoing a profound structural change, which on the one hand produces innovative solutions through the use of high-performance communication and information technology, and on the other hand is driven by new requirements for goods, especially in the mobility and energy sector. With the social discourse on how we should live and act primarily according to guidelines of sustainability, structural change is gaining increasing dynamic. It is essential to translate politically specified sustainability goals into socially accepted and marketable technical solutions. Production research is meeting this challenge and will make important contributions and provide innovative solutions from different perspectives.

With the growing use of feedback controls, "hard" nonlinearities have become ubiquitous in engineering practice despite their rare treatment in academic texts. This book introduces a unified adaptive inverse approach for the control of systems with unknown nonlinearities and settles long-standing engineering problems posed by imperfections of actuators and sensors.

Focusing on dead-zone, backlash, and hysteresis, the authors show how real-time computations can counteract the effects of these nonlinearities. In many applications their approach avoids the need for costly and specialized hardware.

This easy-to-use, self-contained presentation of the entirely new adaptive inverse design is geared towards practicing engineers, researchers, and graduate students.

Adaptive Control of Systems with Actuator and Sensor Nonlinearities features:

• Systematic treatment for actuator and sensor nonlinearities.
• Examples of dead-zone, backlash, and hysteresis models and their inverses.
• Broad coverage that ranges from satellite antennas and piezo-positioners to industrial automation and consumer electronics.
• Step-by-step instructions for adaptive inverse design and implementation.
• Unified continuous- and discrete-time presentation.
• A concise review of model reference adaptive control theory.
• Extensive illustrations of system performance improvement.
• Over ninety figures and design examples.

The history of mankind is a story of ascent to unprecedented levels of comfort, productivity and consumption, enabled by the increased mastery of the basic reserves and flows of energy. This miraculous trajectory is confronted by the consensus that anthropogenic emissions are harmful and must decrease, requiring de-carbonization of the energy system. The mature field of indicator-based sustainability assessment provides a rigorous systematic framework to balance the pros and cons of the various existing energy technologies using lifecycle assessments and weighting criteria covering the environment, economy, and society, as the three pillars of sustainability. In such a framework, nuclear power is ranked favorably, but since emphasis is often placed on radioactive wastes and risk aversion, renewables are usually ranked top. However, quantifying the severity of the consequences of nuclear accidents on a rough integral cost basis and balancing severity with low core-damage accident probabilities indicates that the average external cost of such accidents is similar to that of modern renewables, and far less than carbon-based energy. This book formulates the overall goal and associated unprecedented demanding criteria of taming nuclear risks by excluding mechanisms that lead to serious accidents and avoiding extremely long stewardship times as far as possible, by design. It reviews the key design features of nuclear power generation, paving the way for the exploration of radically new combinations of technologies to come up with "revolutionary" or even "exotic" system designs. The book also provides scores for the selected designs and discusses the high potential for far-reaching improvements, with small modular lines of the best versions as being most attractive. Given the ambition and challenges, the authors call for an urgent increase in funding of at least two orders of magnitude for a broad international civilian "super-Apollo" program on nuclear energy systems. Experience indicates that such investments in fundamental technologies enable otherwise unattainable revolutionary innovations with massive beneficial spillovers to the private sector and the public for the next generations.