Aisle Space Research Articles

A Novel Reservation and Allocation Approach of Shared Parking Slots considering the Noncritical Aisle Space

Urban areas are experiencing a substantial increase in parking demand, which creates an imbalance due to the limited availability of parking facilities. To address this issue, effective parking management is necessary. Shared parking is an alternative solution that utilizes private plots which are vacant during the day to serve the parking needs of users engaged in nearby activities. While current parking management approaches have achieved high utilization rates for available parking slots, the use of aisle space in parking lots can alleviate oversaturated parking demands, especially during peak periods, for users with relatively short parking durations. This study aims to model the noncritical aisle space with time-space constraints in the shared parking slot allocation problem. We propose a programming model that maximizes the profit of the platform based on a reservation and allocation platform. Numerical experiments demonstrate that utilizing the aisle space can enhance the revenue and enable the platform to accommodate more requests that meet the requirements. Moreover, the presence of aisle parking slots may potentially result in slightly lower turnover rates of normal parking slots.

A study of layout determination of mobile rack warehouse

<abstract> <p>Labor cost reduction and resourceful space utilization are essential for efficient warehouse operation. In these challenges, mobile rack technology can increase storage space by 75% or more. The mobile racking system is a system where racks are constructed on a mobile base and steered by rails on the floor. Driven by an electrical motor, the mobile base moves along the rails to open one or more access aisles. Moving rack technology eliminates aisle space between racks and increases storage space by synchronizing wheels or rails. Hence, companies can stock and access a high volume of products while enduring space-efficient. Minimizing the cost per pallet is especially critical for cooler and freezer facilities. However, there is no straightforward solution to determining the optimal layout of a mobile rack warehouse. When designing a mobile rack warehouse, you can increase storage space by a minimum of aisles, but it can reduce work efficiency at the same time. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the appropriate layout of mobile racks considering both work efficiency and space efficiency. This study proposes a practical layout of a mobile rack warehouse to harmonize work and space efficiency. To validate the model, we examine several numerical examples and analyze the warehouse area, the total amount of rack movement, and working hours. Depending on the operating cost, a different layout is suggested.</p> </abstract>

Re-designing of railway carriages to increase ergonomic and accessible: a case study of indonesian railway

Train is a high efficiency mass transportation which is suitable to increase life quality and support of high citizen mobility. The purpose of this paper is to produce some recommendations of improved railway carriage design which are accessible for disabilities, ergonomics and economics. Firstly, the research started with theoretical studies on the product design development, House of Quality (HoQ), visual displays design, anthropometry, and the needs of disabilities. Next step collected data from the open survey and then form the closed survey of 30 respondents who has physical disabilities and visual impairment to understand the passengers’ need. The results of voice of customers shown that an easy access of disabilities people in the carriage has the biggest negative gap between reality and expectation for 1.16 and then following by space availability of wheelchair for 1.10, the seat numbering for visual impairments passengers=0.85, and the ease of emergency aid=0.71. The HoQ provided analysis of room 1 for customer needs, room 2 for voice of team design, room 3 for relationship matrix, room 4 for benchmarking, room 5 for technical benchmarking, room 6 for correlation matrix, and room 7 for weighted importance and relative importance. The QED results shown that the first rank of relatives importance was distance between seat with score=0.618, the second was colour on seat numbering and train series=0.561, and the third was emergency button=0.439. New design recommendation of carriage design should contain of modified seat layouts, improved wheelchair and aisle space, added guiding blocks, emergency assistance buttons, additional folding chairs, and handrail adjustments. Alternative designs were successfully created and able to increase the seat number of the railway coach.

AR-based automatic pipeline planning coordination for on-site mechanical, electrical and plumbing system conflict resolution

Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP) system conflicts are complicated problems given the involved multidisciplinary nature and constraint-bearing coordination. Although Building Information Modeling (BIM) shows benefit to resolving the conflicts before construction, the on-site pipeline inspection and further adjustment are inevitably necessary due to practical issues caused by deviations with plans. Given this, the research aims at developing an on-site pipeline inspection and automatic coordination approach by using Augmented Reality (AR) and a grid-based path-planning algorithm. The approach allows the site practitioners to compare the newly added pipe layout plan with the existing pipelines and re-plan the pipe layout where encountered conflicts, further obtaining a solution without clashes. The method considers MEP system constraints in practice and searches conflict-free pipe layout plans in near real-time. Furthermore, the path coordination process also considers MEP design criteria, including its function, construction, and maintenance. The planned pipe layout is displayed through AR to link the information from the virtual model to the real world. The performance tests are conducted in virtual scenarios with different grid cell sizes and priorities of pipes to evaluate the planning results. The test results show that under room and aisle space scenarios, the implemented approach can obtain path solutions with approximately 10 s, and most of them comply with the pre-defined MEP design requirements. Through this study, automatic pipe planning with constraints is proved to be feasible to provide an effective on-site conflict resolution approach to improve the MEP construction process and future maintenance.

Fire Hazard of Lithium-ion Battery Energy Storage Systems: 1. Module to Rack-scale Fire Tests

Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are being increasingly deployed in energy storage systems (ESS) due to a high energy density. However, the inherent flammability of current LIBs presents a new challenge to fire protection system design. While bench-scale testing has focused on the hazard of a single battery, or small collection of batteries, the more complex burning behavior of a commercially design module (collection of batteries) or rack (collection of modules) is still largely unknown. In this study, a series of small- to large-scale free burn fire tests were conducted on ESS comprised of either iron phosphate (LFP) or lithium nickel oxide/lithium manganese oxide (LNO/LMO) batteries. Small-scale tests showed that a thermal runaway event could lead to a self-propagating fire for both the LFP and LNO/LMO batteries with a significantly greater heat release rate (HRR) generated from the LNO/LMO battery. Intermediate- and large-scale tests showed that the burning of a single module was sufficient to involve all other modules within the same ESS rack for both types of battery chemistries. The different burning behavior of the two battery chemistries was further demonstrated with the LNO/LMO battery generating a maximum HRR nearly three times that of the LFP battery. To better understand the hazard associated with these fires, a multi-point source model was used to analyze the radiative heat exposure to the environment. The end result is an experimentally validated data set that can be used to estimate the heat exposure to objects surrounding an ESS fire, such as ESS racks across an aisle space in a large deployment, or other nearby combustibles. These data also provide the basis for evaluating the effectiveness of sprinkler protection at reducing the fire hazard and protecting the surroundings.

Methodical foundations of the preventing monitoring of aviation industry economic agents

The article formulates the methodical grounds for preventive monitoring of service and production components of economic agents of aviation industry. The structural-logical scheme for monitoring by quantitative parameters and by consumers’ feedback was proposed. The preventive monitoring is a valuable tool to recognize the interaction between government and industry’s goals considering sustainable development. The goal of the article is to develop methodological grounds for preventive testing of economic agents of the aviation industry, which will include assessment parameters, assessment scale, role instructions and transparency of results. The preventive tasting of airport operations is based on travelers’ experience on: queuing, airport shopping, terminal cleanliness, terminal seating, food beverages, Wi-Fi connectivity, terminal signs, airport staff, sentiment. The preventive testing for airline experience includes: value for money, cabin staff, seat comfort, food comfort, inflight entertainment, ground service, Wi-Fi connectivity, sentiment. The preventive testing for aircraft onboard experience assesses: legroom, seat recline, seat width, aisle space, viewing TV, power supply, seat storage, sentiment. The preventive testing for aircraft manufacturing and maintenance analyses: design, full-cycle manufacturing, warrantee, post-warrantee repair, consolidated designing, manufacturing and maintenance process, leasing, technological modernization, licensing. The article provides the comprehensive system for a preventive monitoring based on customer value, which fixes the key parameters for improvements of the operation of the economic agents of the industry. The conclusion of the research reasons the application of quality assessment based on consumer value created by industry’s agents for a preventive monitoring along financial evaluation and bankruptcy probability for the assessment of the sustainable development of the industry. The perspective of the further research may focus on formulating signaling system for government instruments and on detailing the rating scale for the industry’s agents, based on benchmarking practice.

Improvements of Airflow Distribution in a Container Data Center

Abstract The present study aims at improvements of the airflow and temperature distribution in a container data center. Simulation is carried out based on a raised floor design. It is found that the height of raised floor casts significant impact on the flow distribution. Generally, the flow rate of the perforated tile near the entrance region of CRAC unit is lower than that of the rear part of the perforated tile. The mal-distribution becomes even more severe when the height of the raised floor is reduced. The mal-distribution can be significantly improved using a smaller opening perforated tile but it also gives rise to higher pumping power and impairs the effective flow rate from CRAC. Hence, a variable opening design with a larger opening near the CRAC outlet, followed subsequently with smaller opening perforated tiles, the mal-distribution can be eliminated without additional pumping power. For improvement of the airflow/temperature distribution into the rack, we propose a drawer-type rack which can increase the effective hot aisle space and reducing the cold aisle space. Through this design, hot air recirculation and cold air bypass will be significantly reduced. As a result, the rack maximum inlet temperature of drawer-type rack can be reduced as much as 13.3 °C when compared with the traditional one.

The Multi-zonal Balance Model of Temperature Distribution in Data Center

For better characterizing the heat distribution of data centers, Multi-zone Model are considered in this paper, modularizing the cold and hot aisle space of a data center into several regular modules. Upon studying the thermal transmission between every two modules, the heat distribution of all cold and hot aisles in a data center was figured out. Firstly, while considering the thermal transmission, Multi-zone Heat-mass Balanced Model, a model improved from a traditional one, was established. Three modules, which are wall flow module, thermal plume module and thermal transmission module, consists the model. The model characterizes the thermal transmission in both vertical and horizontal direction by integrating the heat conduction of walls, wall convective heat exchange and convective heat exchange among sub-regions. Then, Multi-zone Heat Distribution Model were built by combining the established modules, wall flow module, thermal plume module and thermal transmission module, with Heat-mass Balanced Model. The new model makes the contribution to a detailed characterization of cold-and-hot-aisle-space heat distribution in a data center. Finally, the heat distribution model, combined with data in a case, was numerically simulated. Comparing the simulation results with data in the case, conclusion can be made that the Multi-zone Heat Distribution Model enjoys well consistency and robustness.

The Impact of Product Substitution and Retail Capacity on the Timing and Depth of Price Promotions: Theory and Evidence

We investigate the impact of store capacity and extent of inter-product substitution in a retailer’s assortment on the optimal timing and depth of price promotions using a two step approach. First, a survey of price promotions within the shampoo and detergent assortments of four mass-market retailers yields three motivating observations: (i) Stores that devote more capacity to stock a product category offer deeper discounts compared to stores that devote comparatively less aisle space to a category; (ii) stores offer deeper (shallower) discounts on expensive products, compared to inexpensive products within a category, if the extent of inter-product substitution in their assortment is low (high); and (iii) stores sequentially (simultaneously) promote products within the same category, if the extent of inter-product substitution in their assortment is low (high). Next, to generate insights into this retailer behaviour, we develop a normative model of a monopolistic retailer selling two substitutable products over a finite number of time-periods in a market where consumers are heterogeneous in terms of brand preference and loyalty, as well as in term of time sensitivity. In our analysis of the model, we present closed-form solutions to limiting cases of the model, and use these solutions to develop insight into our empirical observations.

Better by Design: An Introduction to Planning and Designing a New Library Building

Better by Design: An Introduction to Planning and Designing a New Library Building

Establishment of a Japanese-owned Automobile Company in India and Construction of Its Production System

India, as well as other Asian countries, especially China and Thailand, has experienced a rapid growth in its automobile industry since the 1990s. One of the main reasons for this growth was the implementation of an economic liberalization policy that accelerated a huge amount of direct investment in India on the part multinational motor companies. These companies established 100%owned assembly plants or joint ventures that collaborated with local business groups. In 2002, 12 motor companies, including three Japanese ones, competed for the market shares of passenger cars and multi-utility vehicles. While the total number of vehicles produced in India has gradually increased, the scale of production per company has remained small because of severe market competition. Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), a joint venture created by Toyota Motor Company, Japan, with the Kirloskar Group, India, was investigated in an attempt to explain the small-scale vehicle production system of an overseas Japanese automobile plant. TKM was founded on the Bidadi Industrial Estate on the outskirts of Bangalore in 1997 and started commercial production of multi-utility vehicles in 1999. Its annual vehicle production is approximately 30, 000 units, which is far fewer than those of Toyota-owned overseas plants in North America and Europe. Therefore, TKM is a suitable example for considering the above topic. TKM constructed an efficient factory to achieve cost reduction. Compared with Toyota's factory buildings in Japan, that of TKM is lower in total height and narrower in terms of aisle space. Instead of costly steel-collar robots, it utilizes manual workers in production processes like welding, painting, and body assembling. These processes are mostly automated in Japan. Some of the machinery and equipment were shifted from Toyota-owned factories in Japan or Southeast Asia to maintain a low initial investment. TKM employed an improved, “just-in-time” (JIT) system to adapt to small-scale production and the local economic environment. TKM's parts suppliers are located in agglomerations of the automobile industry in Delhi, Pune, and Chennai, as well as Bangalore. TKM purchases 70% of its parts in monetary terms from Indian branches of Toyota group companies located in Bangalore. These group companies play an important role as core suppliers to TKM. TKM employs the milk run logistics system for parts delivery to perform JIT production. The milk run system has made it possible to minimize transportation costs. TKM established a transportation company responsible for transporting its auto parts. The company travels from supplier to supplier to collect parts along its routes. After arranging the parts in a long deck truck at consolidating stations in Delhi, Pune, and Chennai, the truck is driven to TKM every day. The suppliers surveyed in Bangalore are divided into the following two types. Members of the first type are Japanese owned and established as dedicated suppliers to TKM. Members of the second type are locally owned and their business with TKM comprises a small percentage of their sales. The local suppliers have many customers that vary from vehicle manufacturers to other industrial customers. In India, the business per customer is so small that suppliers need to have many business partners and networks to make a profit. Some of the Japanese suppliers tried to expand their business relations with other customers to meet the small-scale production of TKM.

MODELING PHOTOSYNTHESIS OF HETEROGENEOUS ROSE CROP CANOPIES IN THE GREENHOUSE

Abstract A new canopy training system (“bent canopy”) is widely used in greenhouse rose production. The bent canopy consists of a upright hedge and a mat of bent shoots between the hedges. The idea of this heterogeneous canopy is to utilize radiation that falls into the aisle space. A radiative transfer model was developed for a bent canopy. Diffuse and direct light distribution and absorption were simulated by calculating the path length of attenuated light through the canopy. Assimilation rates of sunlit and shaded leaf area were then calculated in relation to position within the canopy and time of day. Numerical integration of the sunlit and shaded assimilation rates over the respective leaf area index (LAI), leaf age, and over the day yielded diurnal course of canopy photosynthesis. The geometry of the canopy was described by hedge height and width, depth and width of the bent canopy, row direction, leaf angle, and leaf area density (LAD). The simulation indicated that bent canopy system is less sensitive to row direction than the conventional hedgerow canopy and that the desired LAD of the bent portion was related to the LAD of the upright hedges.

An integrated methodology for automating the determination of layout and materials handling system

There is a severe scanty of models and solution techniques for the determination of layout and the materials handling system when neither are fixed. This is a complex problem for which this paper proposes a new integrated methodology using a knowledge-based/optimisation approach to the problem. The knowledge-base consists of facts and rules to determine the feasibility of using a materials handling equipment type for a given move. The optimisation part determines the layout of machines minimising the materials handling costs and the dead space in the layout using a multi-criteria optimisation model. The methodology aims to minimise materials handling costs, aisle space usage and dead-space in the resulting layout. It is particularly applicable to heavy manufacturing environments. The system outputs the optimum location, configuration and orientation of machines, and the material handling equipment types, their design capacities, utilisations and the assignment of moves to each item of materials handling equipment. The results of a successful application to an example problem are given.

A hybrid knowledge based/optimization system for automated selection of materials handling system

An efficient materials handling system (MHS) to transport products between processing centres greatly improve the competitiveness of a product through a reduction of handling cost. This paper proposes a new methodology for automating the determination of a materials handling system by combining knowledge-based and optimization approaches. The proposed system selects the optimum combining knowledge-based and optimization approaches. The proposed system selects the optimum materials handling equipment and the assignment of moves, extending previous concepts in analytical methods and expert systems. The optimization model considers minimization of both the cost and total aisle space requirement as objectives. The knowledge base consists of rules to determine feasibility of using particular materials handling equipment for a given move. The methodology employs the “systems approach” in selecting the optimum MHS for a given set of moves while considering many practical aspects associated with the MHS selection problem. The application of the methodology is demonstrated with an example problem involving 112 moves.

Flow network design for manufacturing systems layout

One way to solve a facilities layout planning problem is to use a component approach; the components being a) block design, b) input/output station location, c) material flow network design, and d) aisle netting out (accounting for aisle space). Material flow network design is an important component of this approach. In this paper a shortest rectilinear flow network problem is defined and formulated as an optimization problem. A Lagrangean relaxation of the problem gives separable, linear-time solvable, shortest-path problems. A heuristic, with ties to this formulation, is presented. An expression for the gap between the heuristically derived solution and the optimal solution is given. Some computational experiments using the heuristic are reported.

STATE‐OF‐THE‐ART HERBARIUM COMPACTOR SYSTEMS FOR DAO AND DAOM

SummaryHigh density storage of botanical and mycological specimens was achieved by using specially built, open‐faced cabinets on electrically operated, compactor mobiles. By utilizing as much height as possible and allowing two aisles per compactor module (block), 2‐3 times as much space was obtained as in conventional herbarium storage. The largest module comprises 11,200 pigeonholes on 16 double carriages and three single carriages each 18 ft long and 9 ft 2 in. high. The reduced aisle space was made practical by the use of a totally flexible aisle system where one wide or two smaller aisles can be placed anywhere in a module. Protection from insects and air tightness was obtained by use of a highly compressible, perimeter gasket around cabinet faces. Decks (false floors at rail height) were made of concrete in the basement and wood in the upper floors. Independently operated safety features include a floor‐level sweep and a locking mechanism for the aisles. Calculations on the weight of compactors, for purposes of floor loading, are given.

Bursting at the seams at Robot VI

The appetite for robots in the USA is almost unsatiable at the present time. At Robots VI held in Cobo Hall, Detroit there were neither enough seats for delegates or aisle space for exhibition visitors. There was also plenty to see and hear for managers and engineers alike.

The Storage and Issuance of Hospital Supplies (Continued)

T HE width of the main aisle will depend upon the type of conveyors used but should be ample to allow for the passage of two such conveyors. Cross-aisles should measure four feet between shelves. If, instead of on shelves, the goods are placed on the floor in crosswise rows, six feet should be left between the rows, particularly if the goods are heavy, because of the leverage necessary to raise them. If, on the other hand, they are light, packaged goods on the shelves or piles, thirty inches may be ample, especially if the room is small and conveyors are not used. For storage in the wards or hospital divisions, a room approximately twelve feet wide with inclosed shelving along one side wall, a work shelf, and deep cupboards below the shelving for linens and small supplies is ample usually. Light and ventilation are essential. Advice for the layout of new storage areas is found in Cartmell's book on the control of supplies as follows: i. List and classify all items expected to be stored, according to problems of measurement, difficulty in handling, frequency of use; sensitivity, perishability, or peculiar similarity; and quantities to be carried. 2. Determine ample storage space to be required. 3. Determine proper unit storage space; i.e., four feet by three feet. 4. Determine aisle space needed. 5. Determine proper location with reference to departments served. 6. Determine proper layout of stores and aisles as related to general location of classes of items and area of total space available. 7. Plan structure so that entrances, aisles, posts, platforms, windows and other necessary features will not interfere with, but will facilitate, the most desirable layout of the stores themselves.19

Simplification's Boons to Purchasing Agents

T HERE was once a chief executive who was afraid his purchasing agent would standardize the styles of women's clothes. He didn't know that has long since been accomplished. There are many people who still believe that standardization takes all the joy, beauty and individual selfexpression out of life. Those people forget that everything God creates is standardized. Every tree, dog and man must meet divine specifications-and yet no two individual instances are ever alike. Without so much standardization of design there would be no digestion, no propagation, no medicine, no speech, no thought, no existence. In the manufacturing and commercial world there are many benefits to be derived from further simplification, so that men in identical situations can speak the same language and doctor their identical ills with the same castor oil. Some of these benefits are already being realized in a partial way. These can be expanded to greater service and others begun and developed. A vast number of purchasers would benefit from greater service or use which would be derived from simplified articles. For example, office desks are a horrible example of the need for simplification. Most concerns buy desks from time to time as need arises. When business changes require rearrangement of desks in offices, attempts are frequently made to regroup desks in sets to minimize aisle space. At such times it is usually found that the desks are not of uniform height and that desks of a given length are of varying width. The result looks like a terraced garden. At the request of the purchaser of a large life insurance company the National Association of Purchasing Agents recently asked Ray M. Hudson, Assistant Director, Bureau of Standards, to call a conference of manufacturers, distributors and users of desks to discuss the simplification of desk sizes. Several such conferences were held, but it was not possible to get manufacturers and distributors to agree on dimensions which would be mutually satisfactory. This was most disappointing to the Association.