Current Industry Practice Research Articles

ENHANCING TRACKING PRACTICES IN THE MALAYSIAN FREIGHT FORWARDING INDUSTRY

Freight forwarding is the movement of all intermodal commodities on behalf of shippers. Although the freight forwarding industry's contribution to a country's national output may not be as competitive as other sectors, the role that this industry plays in supporting an economy's activity cannot be underestimated. Furthermore, the stiff competition in the freight forwarding industry requires companies to continue to excel to survive and compete with the competitors. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to assess current literature and practices in the freight forwarding industry regarding tracking practices. Furthermore, it is expected that the documentation, freight readiness, route and technology capabilities will serve as a foundation for more effective operations and practices in Malaysia, ensuring the freight forwarding industry's sustainability. The study contributes to the body of knowledge on freight forwarding performance and can assist managers in reacting appropriately to create cost-effective logistic solutions.

Mass Customization and the “Parts-Procurement Planning Problem”

We study a new parts-procurement planning problem that is motivated by a global auto manufacturer (GAM) that practices mass customization. Because of the astronomically large number of producible configurations, forecasting their demand is impossible. Instead, firms forecast demand for options that constitute a vehicle. Requirements for many parts (up to 60%) are based on the combinations of options in a fully configured vehicle. The options’ forecast, however, does not map into a unique configuration-level forecast. As a result, the options’ forecast translates into ranges for many parts’ requirements. The combined ranges of a set of parts are not always equal to the sum of the component ranges; they may be less. Determining parts ranges is a large-scale NP-hard problem. Large ranges and inaccurate calculation of these ranges can result in excess inventories, shortages in inventories, and suboptimal flexibility levels. We model and analyze the problem of allocating parts to suppliers and accurately computing the ranges to minimize procurement costs arising because of ranges. The range costs are assumed to be convex increasing. We perform extensive numerical analysis using a large set of randomly generated instances as well as eight industrial instances received from GAM to establish the quality of our approximation framework. Our proposed approach significantly reduces the error in range estimates relative to current industry practice. In addition, the proposed approach for allocations of parts to suppliers reduces joint-parts ranges by an average of 29.87% relative to that of current practice. This paper was accepted by Jeannette Song, operations management.

Mine Water Use, Treatment, and Reuse in the United States: A Look at Current Industry Practices and Select Case Studies

Mine Water Use, Treatment, and Reuse in the United States: A Look at Current Industry Practices and Select Case Studies

Discussion on the Shaping Strategy of Humanistic Spirit in the Practice Teaching of Industrial Design Major

In the long-term development process of my country’s industrial design industry, because design practitioners pay more attention to the value of product sales, profit and other commercial behaviors, while neglecting or avoiding the impact on the long-term development of society, product design lacks humanistic spirit and positive optimism. The value orientation often triggers more public criticism, which makes the development of the industry subject to more restrictions. In the current industrial design practice teaching management work, schools and teachers should implement high-quality and efficient humanistic spirit shaping work for students, cultivate students’ basic professional ethics and social responsibility awareness, help students build cultural self-confidence, and cultivate students’ great power. The spirit of craftsman makes the relevant design work able to keep improving. In addition, in the process of related teaching work, the school also needs to take the individualized development of students as the related teaching goal, broaden the students’ horizons as much as possible, and realize the long-term and stable development of students.

Yield and Quality of Carrot Cultivars with Eight Nitrogen Rates and Best Management Practices

Carrot (Daucus carota) production has increased in North Florida and South Georgia since 2015. Deep sandy soils, moderate winter climate, availability of irrigation water, and proximity to eastern markets are favorable for carrot production in the region. Nitrogen (N) is required for successful carrot production, and the current recommended N application rate in Florida is 196 kg·ha−1. The objective of this study was to verify the recommended N rate for the sandy soils of North Florida using current industry standard cultivars and practices. Carrot cultivars for the whole carrot fresh market, Choctaw and Maverick, and cultivars for the cut-and-peel market, Triton and Uppercut 25, were direct seeded on 102-cm-wide pressed bed tops on 29 Oct. 2016 and 2 Nov. 2017 in Live Oak, FL. Eight N application rates (56, 112, 168, 224, 280, 336, 392, and 448 kg·ha−1) were tested, and all N applications were placed on the bed top. N rates were split and timed to increase N use efficiency. Regression analyses were used to determine the optimal N rate for carrots in North Florida. A quadratic plateau regression for both seasons combined indicated 206 kg·ha−1 N was the optimal rate for carrots, with marketable yield of 71.3 Mg·ha−1, regardless of cultivar. All four cultivars attained acceptable yield including Uppercut 25, which exhibited significant foliage damage following freezing temperatures. This study resulted in updated information on best management practices for carrot production in Florida, especially nutrient stewardship.

Density: Bulk in-situ or SG?

The density used to covert volume to tons is critical in determining the real in-situ tonnage of Mineral Resources. However, the methods used to determine density and the use of different technical terms are seen to be inconsistent throughout the industry. Probably the best discussion addressing the determination of density was presented by Lipton (2001). This paper does not try to replicate this excellent work, but rather to review current industry practice and present a comparison of the approach to density in public reporting. Some of the technical terms used in reporting and the common methods applied are also discussed.

A Note on Corporate Open Innovation: Engagement with Startups

This Note summarizes our findings based on an exploratory and initial global research study of best practices for organizations employing open innovation business model strategies. We utilized an expert interview approach to develop a survey that was taken during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was meant to assess open innovation strategies and tactics, particularly focused on partnering with startups and emerging companies. We worked with a cohort of Corporate Accelerator Forum (CAF) members (as experts), prior to a more extensive survey of corporations concerning their engagement with startups. Our experts included key leadership from Techstars, Bayer CoLaborator, and Illumina Accelerator. We plan a broader, more extensive survey of national and international companies as a follow up. Our results highlight and provide commentary on current industry practices and trends during the Covid-19 pandemic, and have applicability to the biopharma, MedTech, and digital medicine/health markets.

Optimising The Reference Point Within A Journal Bearing Using Laser Alignment

This paper observes different alignment conditions in a journal-bearing-supported machine (i.e. propeller bearings within the stern tube of a marine vessel). A test rig is built so that the driven machine has fixed supports, roller bearings in an electrical motor. An alignment tolerance is met at the coupling of the journal, which is positioned within three journal bearings. This research can be applied to any industry with machines of the same characteristic. The journal bearings are designed to simulate the large tolerance seen in a vessel’s stern tube only for lubrication control oil is used for the bush bearings. Various sensors are placed on the test rig to record data for later machine analysis. Using proximity probes and accelerometers the vibration of the journals and ball bearings can be visualised using orbital plotting and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) through both LabVIEW and MATLAB respectively. Four alignment procedures are applied to the coupling using a laser unit. The first two will be so that the offset and angular misalignment is produced in the FFT spectrums as per ISO10816 Mechanical vibration so that a reference point is formed for the test rig. The other two alignment procedures represent current industry practice. These procedures are then compared to see which is the preferred reference point that will optimise the reliability value of a whole system. Finding the procedure with minimal vibration will increase the design life of housing structures for such machines, which will increase the overall profit of the shipping industry. Our developments and procedures will be further utilized in practical classes to improve maritime engineering education.

Quantification of the Information Loss Resulting from Temporal Aggregation of Wind Turbine Operating Data

SCADA operating data are more and more used across the wind energy domain, both as a basis for power output prediction and turbine health status monitoring. Current industry practice to work with this data is by aggregating the signals at coarse resolution of typically 10-min averages, in order to reduce data transmission and storage costs. However, aggregation, i.e., downsampling, induces an inevitable loss of information and is one of the main causes of skepticism towards the use of SCADA operating data to model complex systems such as wind turbines. This research aims to quantify the amount of information that is lost due to this downsampling of SCADA operating data and characterize it with respect to the external factors that might influence it. The issue of information loss is framed by three key questions addressing effects on the local and global scale as well as the influence of external conditions. Moreover, recommendations both for wind farm operators and researchers are provided with the aim to improve the information content. We present a methodology to determine the ideal signal resolution that minimized storage footprint, while guaranteeing high quality of the signal. Data related to the wind, electrical signals, and temperatures of the gearbox resulted as the critical signals that are largely affected by an information loss upon aggregation and turned out to be best recorded and stored at high resolutions. All analyses were carried out using more than one year of 1 Hz SCADA data of onshore wind farm counting 12 turbines located in the UK.

Species selection for nonclinical safety assessment of drug candidates: Examples of current industry practice

In drug development, nonclinical safety assessment is pivotal for human risk assessment and support of clinical development. Selecting the relevant/appropriate animal species for toxicity testing increases the likelihood of detecting potential effects in humans, and although recent regulatory guidelines state the need to justify or dis-qualify animal species for toxicity testing, individual companies have developed decision-processes most appropriate for their molecules, experience and 3Rs policies. These generally revolve around similarity of metabolic profiles between toxicology species/humans and relevant pharmacological activity in at least one species for New Chemical Entities (NCEs), whilst for large molecules (biologics) the key aspect is similarity/presence of the intended human target epitope.To explore current industry practice, a questionnaire was developed to capture relevant information around process, documentation and tools/factors used for species selection. Collated results from 14 companies (Contract Research Organisations and pharmaceutical companies) are presented, along with some case-examples or over-riding principles from individual companies. As the process and justification of species selection is expected to be a topic for continued emphasis, this information could be adapted towards a harmonized approach or best practice for industry consideration.

Review on technologies to separate and purify ethyl alcohol from dilute aqueous solutions

Abstract Ethyl alcohol (ethanol) is viewed upon as a fuel additive or even as an alternative fuel. Fermentation is used to produce dilute (<20 mass%) ethanol. This is needed to be concentrated to almost anhydrous, fuel grade ethanol (>99.5 mass%). The technologies used for concentration from dilute grade to fuel grade ethanol are summarized in this review. Thus, extraction; distillation; use of membranes; adsorption and some miscellaneous methods are discussed in detail. For each technique, the inlet and outlet concentrations; merits and demerits and scope for future work are indicated. Hybrid separations are discussed. In addition to technical feasibility, economic viability of the techniques is also discussed. A brief discussion on current industrial practice is also presented.

A Model-Based Method for System Reconfiguration

Abstract System reconfiguration is essential in complex systems management, as it is an enabler of system adaptability with regard to system evolutions. System evolutions have to be managed to ensure system effectiveness and efficiency through its whole life cycle, particularly when it comes to complex systems that take years of development and dozens of years of usage. In this context, system reconfiguration ensures system operation and maintains system “ilities” (e.g., reliability, availability, maintainability, testability, and safety). This research has been conducted in the context of a large international aerospace, space, ground transportation, defense, and security company. This research aims at supporting system reconfiguration during operations. Within current industrial practices, the development of reconfiguration support is challenging as it requires integrating data related to observations (from operations) and system design (from engineering). More specifically, there is a need to integrate and link relevant reconfiguration data concerning the system objectives, operational context, and level of functioning. This paper proposes integrating and linking this fundamental data within a reconfiguration method. MBSysRec is a multidisciplinary method that involves configuration generation and a multicriteria decision-making method for configuration evaluation and selection to support system reconfiguration during operations. The method has been implemented on two projects based on historical data. Resulting configurations have been discussed and assessed by system reconfiguration experts. A Search and Rescue (SAR) case study is used to demonstrate the method. The method is proven effective for finding relevant system configurations for reconfiguring the already deployed system to achieve search and rescue missions.

Optimizing Vehicle Fleet and Assignment for Concentrating Solar Power Plant Heliostat Washing

Concentrating solar power central-receiver plants use thousands of sun-tracking mirrors, i.e., heliostats, to reflect sunlight to a central receiver, which collects and uses the heat to generate electricity. Over time, soiling reduces the reflectivity of the heliostats and, therefore, the efficiency of the system. Current industry practice sends vehicles to wash heliostats in an ad hoc fashion. We present a mixed-integer nonlinear program that determines wash vehicle fleet size, mix, and assignment of wash crews to heliostats to minimize the sum of (i) the revenues lost due to heliostat soiling, (ii) the costs of hiring wash crews and operating the vehicles, and (iii) the costs of purchasing wash vehicles. We establish conditions for convexity of the objective function, and then propose a decomposition method that enables near-optimal solutions to the wash vehicle fleet sizing and assignment problem on the order of a couple of minutes. These solutions yield hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings per year over current industry practices.

Managing Uncertain Capacities for Network Revenue Optimization

Problem definition: We study the problem of managing uncertain capacities for revenue optimization over a network of resources. The uncertainty could be due to (i) the need to reallocate initial capacities among resources or (ii) the random availability of physical capacities by the time of service execution. Academic/practical relevance: The analyzed control policy is aligned with the current industry practice, with a virtual capacity and a bid price associated with each network resource. The seller collects revenues from an arriving stream of customers. Admitted requests that cannot be accommodated within the final, effective capacities incur a penalty cost. The objective is to maximize the total cumulative net revenue (sales revenue minus penalty cost). The problem arises in practice, for instance, when airlines are subject to last-minute change of aircrafts and in cargo revenue management where the capacity left by the passengers’ load is used for freight. Methodology: We present a stochastic dynamic programming formulation for this problem and propose a stochastic gradient algorithm to approximately solve it. All limit points of our algorithm are stationary points of the approximate expected net revenue function. Results: Through an exhaustive numerical study, we show that our controls are computed efficiently and deliver revenues that are almost consistently higher than the ones obtained from benchmarks based on the widely adopted deterministic linear programming model. Managerial implications: We obtain managerial insights about the impact of the timing of the capacity uncertainty clearance, the capacity heterogeneity, the network congestion, and the penalty for not being able to accommodate the previously accepted demand. Our approach tends to offer the best performance across different parameterizations of the problem.

Origin, Succession, and Control of Biotoxin in Wine.

Wine is a worldwide alcoholic beverage with antioxidant active substances and complex flavors. Moderate drinking of wine has been proven to be beneficial to health. However, wine has some negative components, such as residual pesticides, heavy metals, and biotoxins. Of these, biotoxins from microorganisms were characterized as the most important toxins in wine. Wine fermentation mainly involves alcoholic fermentation, malolactic fermentation, and aging, which endue wine with complex flavors and even produce some undesirable metabolites. These metabolites cause potential safety risks that are not thoroughly understood. This review aimed to investigate the origin, evolution, and control technology of undesirable metabolites (e.g., ochratoxin A, ethyl carbamate, and biogenic amines) in wine. It also highlighted current wine industry practices of minimizing the number of biotoxins in wine.

Current developments in esterification reaction: A review on process and parameters

Esters are among the highest volume of industrial organic compounds produced. They are frequently employed in various domestic and industrial processes. Fischer esterification regarded as the most common and widely practiced process of ester synthesis, faces serious limitations of low conversion and high reaction time attributed largely to establishment of equilibrium. Ester hydrolysis, reverse reaction to esterification, starts by supply of a byproduct- water. Several approaches have been developed to avoid equilibrium establishment and to improve overall conversion and rate of reaction, a significant difference exists between the current industrial practices and optimum esterification process/conditions. In the current review, a critical analysis of esterification techniques is conducted. Catalytic, non-catalytic thermal esterification, enzymatic esterification, along with factors affecting their productivity are discussed in detail. The current barriers, future challenges and potential of the esterification technologies are analyzed. Based on the comprehensive-data analysis, a novel technology-based solution is proposed.

Review on Active Islanding Detection Technique in Distributed Generation for Current Controlled Inverter

The Goal Islanding occurs when a portion of distributed power system becomes electrically isolated from the rest of the power system yet continues to be energized by distributed generators. All such occurrences are needed to be detected as early as possible in order to safely shut down the distributed generators. This is because, continued operation of these generators under islanding can lead to multitude of operational hazards/challenges to the generators and to connected loads.The current industry practice is to disconnect all distributed generators immediately after the occurrence of islands. Typically, a distributed generator should be disconnected within 100 to 300 ms after loss of main supply. To achieve such a goal, each distributed generator must be equipped with an islanding detection device, which is also called anti islanding devices. In this study, an active islanding detection technique is proposed for grid connected inverters. Feasibility of the proposed technique. Proposed project run on MATLAB 2016 Simulink environment.

Synthesis of model terpene-derived copolymers in supercritical carbon dioxide for cosmetic applications

There is currently a strong drive within the cosmetics industry to replace petroleum based solvents and polymers with renewable alternatives. Copolymers of 2-ethylhexyl acrylate (2EHA) and maleic anhydride (MA) are interesting model candidates to be used in make-up and skincare applications as cross-linkable film forming materials, but are currently synthesised in organic solvents and are derived from petroleum. Herein, we have studied and optimised the copolymerisation of these two monomers in supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). The kinetics of the reaction and resulting products were compared with analogues synthesised in a 30/70 solvent mixture of ethyl acetate/isododecane (EtOAc/IDD), which mimics current industry practices. Initially, the incompatibility of these two monomers in the absence of a solvent lead to mixed homo- and copolymer products during reactor pressurisation. This was overcome by devising a new synthesis approach, in which MA is first dissolved in scCO2 at high temperature, followed by the addition of 2EHA and a radical initiator in situ via a HPLC pump. Copolymers synthesised using this new methodology were added to simple cosmetic formulations and evaluated for their resistance to olive oil, where they performed comparably with those synthesised in EtOAc/IDD. The renewable content of the reaction was then increased further, by substituting the monomer 2EHA with the terpene-derived alternatives isobornyl acrylate and α-pinene acrylate. This study is an important step towards materials that can achieve outstanding levels of performance in a variety of cosmetic applications, and are also more in phase with green chemistry criteria.

Assessment of the Impact of the Hybrid Software Development Approach

The paper focuses on enhancing the current or modern software development practices in Information Technology (IT) organizations. The research paper aims to address the gap between various hybrid software development approaches and existing practices that contribute to software development practices. The methodology adopted here is to obtain data from software professionals and understand how the current practices in the software development industry have contributed to the productivity of the employees and the IT organization, which has been done with the help of a survey questionnaire and by analyzing existing research articles and papers on the software development practices. This research is a conceptual model focused on a modern hybrid approach for software development, rather than focusing on a single software development approach, which can help IT organization increase productivity and deliver business value beyond customer expectations. The cost to build and time to market a software product or a software service can reduce by integrating the required software development practices. Today, staying relevant in the competitive market can be made easier by choosing the best available software development practices, frameworks, and models to fit an organization’s value and knowledge system. The conceptual model aims to reduce the gap between various hybrid software development approaches and existing practices contributing to software development. The paper concludes by discussing the benefits of the hybrid software development approach and urge IT organizations to adopt it as per their software development requirements and customer requirements.

A Scoping Review on Occupational Exposure of Silica and Asbestos among Industrial Workers in Thailand

Pneumoconiosis is one of the most common occupational lung diseases in Thailand and worldwide. Workplace exposure to asbestos and silica is the main contributor to the prevalence of occupational pneumoconiosis. The aim of this study was to review the prevalence of occupational exposure to asbestos and silica among industrial workers in Thailand. A scoping literature review searched MEDLINE and universities in Thailand. The results from screening 113 were 11 studies selected for further review. Ten studies were cross-sectional and only one study was a retrospective cohort study. Four studies focused on asbestos exposure, whereas seven studies measured silica exposure. From four asbestos exposure studies, three studies showed a higher than standard exposure limit. From seven studies on silica exposure, four studies showed the measured exposure was above the standard level. However, the prevalence of exposure among people working in low-risk areas was not presented. The standard protocol of asbestos and silica exposure measurement was reported. The results showed that the average asbestos and silica exposure exceeded occupational exposure limits stated in either international or national guidelines. The highest level of asbestos exposure was found in a brake pad factory (9.95 fibres/cc). The highest amount of total silica dust was reported in a stone grinding factory (24.3 mg/m3). Prevention measures and active surveillance programs should be in place for all populations at risk. National surveys on occupational exposure of asbestos and silica are needed to explore current industrial practices and their compliance according to the standard national exposure limit.