Journal Of Industrial Engineering International
Volume:11 Issue: 4, Autumn 2015

Electric discharge drill machine (EDDM) is a spark erosion process to produce micro-holes in conductive materials. This process is widely used in aerospace, medical, dental and automobile industries. As for the performance evaluation of the electric discharge drilling machine, it is very necessary to study the process parameters of machine tool. In this research paper, a brass rod 2 mm diameter was selected as a tool electrode. The experiments generate output responses such as tool wear rate (TWR). The best parameters such as pulse on-time, pulse off-time and water pressure were studied for best machining characteristics. This investigation presents the use of Taguchi approach for better TWR in drilling of Al-7075. A plan of experiments, based on L27 Taguchi design method, was selected for drilling of material. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows the percentage contribution of the control factor in the machining of Al-7075 in EDDM. The optimal combination levels and the significant drilling parameters on TWR were obtained. The optimization results showed that the combination of maximum pulse on-time and minimum pulse off-time gives maximum MRR.

Assuming a first-order auto-regressive model for the auto-correlation structure between observations, in this paper, a transformation method is first employed to eliminate the effect of auto-correlation. Then, a maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of a step change in the parameters of the transformed model is derived and three separate EWMA control charts are used to monitor the parameters of the profile. The performance of the proposed change-point estimator is next compared to the one of the built-in change-point estimator of EWMA control chart through some simulation experiments. The results show that the proposed MLE of the change point accurately estimates the true change point and outperforms the built-in estimator of EWMA chart for almost all shift values and auto-correlation coefficients, while the built-in estimator of EWMA chart, in general, underestimates the true change point.

This paper presents a mathematical model for an inventory control system in which customers’ demands and suppliers’ service time are considered as stochastic parameters. The proposed problem is solved through queuing theory for a single item. In this case, transitional probabilities are calculated in steady state. Afterward, the model is extended to the case of multi-item inventory systems. Then, to deal with the complexity of this problem, a new heuristic algorithm is developed. Finally, the presented bi-level inventory-queuing model is implemented as a case study in Electroestil Company.

The present study investigates the impact of various factors affecting coal-fired power plant economics of 210 MW subcritical unit situated in north India for electricity generation. In this paper, the cost data of various units of thermal power plant in terms of power output capacity have been fitted using power law with the help of the data collected from a literature search. To have a realistic estimate of primary components or equipment, it is necessary to include the latest cost of these components. The cost analysis of the plant was carried out on the basis of total capital investment, operating cost and revenue. The total capital investment includes the total direct plant cost and total indirect plant cost. Total direct plant cost involves the cost of equipment (i.e. boiler, steam turbine, condenser, generator and auxiliary equipment including condensate extraction pump, feed water pump, etc.) and other costs associated with piping, electrical, civil works, direct installation cost, auxiliary services, instrumentation and controls, and site preparation. The total indirect plant cost includes the cost of engineering and set-up. The net present value method was adopted for the present study. The work presented in this paper is an endeavour to study the influence of some of the important parameters on the lifetime costs of a coal-fired power plant. For this purpose, parametric study with and without escalation rates for a period of 35 years plant life was evaluated. The results predicted that plant life, interest rate and the escalation rate were observed to be very sensitive on plant economics in comparison to other factors under study.

In some statistical process control applications, the combination of both variable and attribute quality characteristics which are correlated represents the quality of the product or the process. In such processes, identification the time of manifesting the out-of-control states can help the quality engineers to eliminate the assignable causes through proper corrective actions. In this paper, first we use an artificial neural network (ANN)-based method in the literature for detecting the variance shifts as well as diagnosing the sources of variation in the multivariate-attribute processes. Then, based on the quality characteristics responsible for the out-of-control state, we propose a modular model based on the ANN for estimating the time of step change in the multivariate-attribute process variability. We also compare the performance of the ANN-based estimator with the estimator based on maximum likelihood method (MLE). A numerical example based on simulation study is used to evaluate the performance of the estimators in terms of the accuracy and precision criteria. The results of the simulation study show that the proposed ANN-based estimator outperforms the MLE estimator under different out-of-control scenarios where different shift magnitudes in the covariance matrix of multivariate-attribute quality characteristics are manifested.

This paper investigates the issue of an economic manufacturing quantity model for defective products involving imperfect production processes and rework. We consider that the demand is sensitive to promotional efforts/sales teams’ initiatives as well as the setup cost can be reduced through further investment. It also assumes that fixed quantity multiple installments of the finished batch are delivered to customers at a fixed interval of time. The long-run average cost function is derived and its convexity is proved via differential calculus. An effective iterative solution procedure is developed to achieve optimal replenishment lot-size, setup cost and the initiatives of sales teams so that the total cost of system is minimized. Numerical and sensitivity analyses are performed to evaluate the outcome of the proposed solution procedure presented in this research.

In this paper, a discount model is proposed to coordinate pricing and ordering decisions in a two-echelon supply chain (SC). Demand is stochastic and price sensitive while lead times are fixed. Decentralized decision making where downstream decides on selling price and order size is investigated. Then, joint pricing and ordering decisions are extracted where both members act as a single entity aim to maximize whole SC profit. Finally, a coordination mechanism based on quantity discount is proposed to coordinate both pricing and ordering decisions simultaneously. The proposed two-level discount policy can be characterized from two aspects: (1) marketing viewpoint: a retail price discount to increase the demand, and (2) operations management viewpoint: a wholesale price discount to induce the retailer to adjust its order quantity and selling price jointly. Results of numerical experiments demonstrate that the proposed policy is suitable to coordinate SC and improve the profitability of SC as well as all SC members in comparison with decentralized decision making.

Oil and gas as the non-renewable resources are considered very valuable for the countries with petroleum economics. These resources are not only diffused equally around the world, but also they are common in some places which their neighbors often come into conflicts. Consequently, it is vital for those countries to manage their resource utilization. Lately, game theory was applied in conflict resolution of common resources, such as water, which is a proof of its efficacy and capability. This paper models the conflicts between Iran and its neighbors namely Qatar and Iraq between their oil and gas common resources using game theory approach. In other words, the future of these countries will be introduced and analyzed by some well-known 2 × 2 games to achieve a better perspective of their conflicts. Because of information inadequacy of the players, in addition to Nash Stability, various solution concepts are used based on the foresight, disimprovements, and knowledge of preferences. The results of mathematical models show how the countries could take a reasonable strategy to exploit their common resources.

This paper presents a production-inventory model for deteriorating items with stock-dependent demand under inflation in a random planning horizon. The supplier offers the retailer fully permissible delay in payment. It is assumed that the time horizon of the business period is random in nature and follows exponential distribution with a known mean. Here learning effect is also introduced for the production cost and setup cost. The model is formulated as profit maximization problem with respect to the retailer and solved with the help of genetic algorithm (GA) and PSO. Moreover, the convergence of two methods—GA and PSO—is studied against generation numbers and it is seen that GA converges rapidly than PSO. The optimum results from methods are compared both numerically and graphically. It is observed that the performance of GA is marginally better than PSO. We have provided some numerical examples and some sensitivity analyses to illustrate the model.

Computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools are automated devices capable of generating complicated and intricate product shapes in shorter time. Selection of the best CNC machine tool is a critical, complex and time-consuming task due to availability of a wide range of alternatives and conflicting nature of several evaluation criteria. Although, the past researchers had attempted to select the appropriate machining centres using different knowledge-based systems, mathematical models and multi-criteria decision-making methods, none of those approaches has given due importance to the voice of customers. The aforesaid limitation can be overcome using quality function deployment (QFD) technique, which is a systematic approach for integrating customers’ needs and designing the product to meet those needs first time and every time. In this paper, the adopted QFD-based methodology helps in selecting CNC turning centres for a manufacturing organization, providing due importance to the voice of customers to meet their requirements. An expert system based on QFD technique is developed in Visual BASIC 6.0 to automate the CNC turning centre selection procedure for different production plans. Three illustrative examples are demonstrated to explain the real-time applicability of the developed expert system.

Medical product development (MPD) process is highly multidisciplinary in nature, which increases the complexity and the associated risks. Managing the risks during MPD process is very crucial. The objective of this research is to explore risks during MPD in a dental product manufacturing company and propose a model for risk mitigation during MPD process to minimize failure events. A case study approach is employed. The existing MPD process is mapped with five phases of the customized phase gate process. The activities during each phase of development and risks associated with each activity are identified and categorized based on the source of occurrence. The risks are analyzed using traditional Failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and fuzzy FMEA. The results of two methods when compared show that fuzzy approach avoids the duplication of RPNs and helps more to convert cognition of experts into information to get values of risk factors. The critical, moderate, low level and negligible risks are identified based on criticality; risk treatments and mitigation model are proposed. During initial phases of MPD, the risks are less severe, but as the process progresses the severity of risks goes on increasing. The MPD process should be critically designed and simulated to minimize the number of risk events and their severity. To successfully develop the products/devices within the manufacturing companies, the process risk management is very essential. A systematic approach to manage risks during MPD process will lead to the development of medical products with expected quality and reliability. This is the first research of its kind having focus on MPD process risks and its management. The methodology adopted in this paper will help the developers, managers and researchers to have a competitive edge over the other companies by managing the risks during the development process.