Major Production Facilities Research Articles

The Prudential Group Archive: Alexander Korda, London Film Productions and Denham Studios

This article examines the Prudential Group Archive, a valuable resource for the study of London Film Productions (LFP), the British film company founded by Alexander Korda in 1932. The Prudential, a long-established British life insurance and financial services company, invested in LFP at a time when the British film industry was expanding, and Denham Studios was built as a major production facility in 1936. The primary sources generated through this connection provide a rare opportunity to study the financial operation of a major film company as well as to evaluate the strategies that were put in place by the Prudential to monitor its progress throughout its time as an investor which ended in 1945. The article uses the archive to gain insights into the Prudential’s motives for backing the film industry, the building of Denham, the management of Korda and LFP and the impact of the Second World War. It is demonstrated how the archives provide a unique resource for understanding the pressures on film production in the 1930s, as well as highlighting rarely glimpsed material, infrastructural and collaborative aspects of film history such as the practical operation of studios during the Second World War when they were affected by bomb damage, requisitioning and labour shortages. Unlike archives relating to the British film industry which predominantly deal with film personalities and film titles, the Prudential Group Archive documents the crucial importance of the financial aspects of film production. The article also points to documentation in other collections that can productively be interrelated with the Prudential’s archives.

Regional Distribution and Causes of Global Mine Tailings Dam Failures

Tailings ponds are one of the three major production facilities in metal mines. The volume of tailings increases year by year, but the storage capacity of existing tailings ponds is limited. Therefore, tailings dams must become more fine-grained and larger. The potential hazard they represent should not be underestimated. This paper reveals the causes and regional distribution patterns of 342 tailings dam failures globally from 1915 to 2021 through statistical analysis. It was found that tailings pond failures occur almost every year, with an average of 4.4 accidents/year (1947–2021). The frequency has been gradually increasing in recent years, and most tailings pond failures are directly related to heavy rainfall or earthquakes. The frequency of tailings pond failures was significantly higher in Asia (21.3%) and the Americas (57.9%), especially in China (n = 43) and the United States (n = 107). Causes of tailings pond failures differed among regions. Most tailings pond failures in Asia and Europe were related to hydroclimate, while those in South America were mainly triggered by earthquakes. This study will provide theoretical data for the pre-design as well as the safe and stable operation of global tailings ponds, which will help to prevent global tailings pond failures.

Welfare of Resource-Extracting Cities in the Russian Arctic: Challenges and Prospects

The strategic value of the Russian Arctic is related to the concentration of hydrocarbon resources in the region that form a basis for the development of offshore oil and gas production, support the development of the national fuel and energy sector, as well as exploration of essential mineral resources, which exploration cycle involves the expansion of relevant regional infrastructure, including that of resource-producing cities that service industrial facilities. The article contains research results for the economic and social status of Arctic resource-extracting cities. It includes the evaluation of the scale of the resource-extracting cities and their place in the overall settlement system in the Russian Arctic, determines the characteristic features of the Arctic resource-extracting cities and identifies their welfare challenges. Unemployment in such cities in the Russian Arctic was demonstrated to be brought about by the functional specifics of local businesses and destructive processes attributable to the national and global recession. The negative factors that affect welfare in the Arctic resource-extracting cities in particular include the restructuring of major production facilities built under Arctic development projects and their amalgamation with vertically integrated companies. It was determined that a comprehensive social and economic policy in the resource-extracting cities in the Russian Arctic could be efficiently implemented by balancing the interests of the local community, local governments, backbone companies, as well as regional and federal authorities. The article is prepared by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation, the project No.19-18-00025 “Socio-economic dynamics and forecast for the development of the Russian Arctic, taking into account geopolitical, macroeconomic, environmental, and mineral factors”.

Optimizing the 3D Distributed Climate inside Greenhouses Using Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithms and Computer Fluid Dynamics

As one of the major production facilities in agriculture, a greenhouse has many spatial distributed factors influencing crop growth and energy consumption, such as temperature field, air flow pattern, CO 2 concentration distribution, etc. By introducing a hybrid computational fluid dynamics–evolutionary algorithm (CFD-EA) method, this paper constructs a micro-climate model of greenhouse with main environmental parameters optimized. Considering environmental factors’ spatial influences together with energy usage simultaneously, the optimal solutions of control variables for crop growth are calculated. A commercial greenhouse located in east China is chosen for the method validation. Field experiments using temperature/velocity sensor matrix are carried out for CFD accuracy investigation. On this basis, the proposed optimization method is employed to search for the optimal control variables and parameters corresponding to the environmental Pareto frontier. By the proposed multi-objective scheme, we believe the method can provide set point basis for the design and regulation of large/medium-sized greenhouse production with high spatial resolution.

Informational support as an element of state control of agriculture

This article substantiates the importance of informational support in the agricultural sector for controlling authorities and for agro-industrial organisations in enhancing their monitoring and competitive strategies. It identifies specific features of the agricultural sector that determine its needs for information, namely its dependence on climatic conditions and the state of natural resources available to economic entities, a large territorial expanse, the location of major production facilities in rural areas, the development of interregional and international contacts, and an active growth of agricultural exports. By studying the current regulatory and legal database of the Russian Federation, the authors established the regulatory framework of a state information system and identified its key data groups. Finally, the paper looks at those information resources which were created by the federal authorities and regional bodies in the Northwestern and Siberian Federal Districts, reflecting the tasks of state informational support in agriculture.

Sanofi-Aventis's Tender Offer for Genzyme

In October 2010, Henri Termeer, the chairman and CEO of Genzyme, received a letter from the CEO of Sanofi-Aventis announcing its intention to commence a tender offer for Genzyme. Termeer thought the offer undervalued Genzyme, given the number of promising new drugs in the company's pipeline and the success of its current drug portfolio. The case focuses on the strategic and financial considerations of a large corporate acquisition. To estimate Genzyme's fundamental value, students must conduct a discounted cash flow and other valuation analyses. This case is designed to be part of a firm-valuation module within either a first-year MBA principles course or a second-year MBA elective; it can also be taught to executives who have M&A experience and can bring extra insights regarding the strategic fit and leadership issues. Excerpt UVA-F-1716 Rev. Jun. 21, 2018 Sanofi-Aventis's Tender Offer for Genzyme On the foggy morning of October 5, 2010, Henri Termeer, the chairman and CEO of Genzyme Corporation, drove to the firm's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Termeer usually spent his early mornings working from the indoor garden on top of the building, but on that day he went straight to his office, grabbing a cup of coffee on his way. One thing was on his mind—the letter he had received from the CEO of Sanofi-Aventis (Sanofi) announcing the company's intention to commence a tender offer for Genzyme (Exhibit 1). Termeer had been Genzyme's CEO for more than 25 years, leading the company through its growth from an entrepreneurial venture to one of the country's top five biotechnology firms. Yet the past two years had presented a significant test. Genzyme was just recovering from an unexpected contamination in 2009 at its major production facility in Allston, Massachusetts, which had led to shutting down the plant and limiting the supply of life-sustaining drugs for Genzyme's patients. As a result of the economic and reputational damages, the company's stock had plummeted, before rebounding as a result of the news of the tender offer (Exhibit2). When compared to the industry and the overall stock market during the previous decade, however, the stock had performed very well (Exhibit 3). The recent downturn in the stock price had attracted activist investors, which resulted in Genzyme entering into a cooperation agreement with Relational Investors and subsequently fending off a proxy battle with Carl Icahn. But Termeer fully understood that together the two activists controlled a substantive position of Genzyme shares and wanted to exit their positions at a gain (Exhibit 4). Sanofi, the leading French pharmaceutical company, had approached Genzyme as a potential acquisition at the start of the summer. After a few rounds of negotiating, Termeer and his board publicly rejected Sanofi's cash offer of $ 69 per share on August 29, 2010. The letter from Sanofi's CEO conveyed frustration with Termeer's unwillingness “to engage in constructive discussions” (Exhibit 1) and announced that Sanofi would be circumventing Termeer by taking the $ 69 tender offer directly to Genzyme's shareholders. . . .

Energy efficient way of processing waste of milk production

The research aim is the search of practical application of biotechnological waste processing of dairy production plants. The result of the study is the development of a process with biogas production by using anaerobic Biomar reactor. Scale of laboratory installation has been conducted based on laboratory studies. Moreover, principal technological scheme of production has been composed, and the appropriate material and technical and economic calculations have been carried out. In addition, major production facilities have been picked up. We found that using the produced biogas as a fuel for the boiler system allows you to reduce the natural gas consumption and reduce the cost of the recycling process at the dairy industry plants.

Improving the Lifecycle Performance of Engineering Projects with Flexible Strategies: Example of On‐Shore LNG Production Design

ABSTRACTThis paper presents an innovative flexibility analysis as a practical, effective procedure to improve the expected value of large‐scale, capital‐intensive projects when there is market uncertainty. Its novelty lies in its approach and scope. Its approach develops understanding of the drivers of the value of flexibility, so as to build acceptance among decision‐makers. Its scope explicitly considers the combined effects of uncertainty, economies of scale, learning, and geographic distribution. It demonstrates how these factors combine to impact the benefits of flexibility in the early stages of design and project evaluation in the context of uncertainty. It makes this point through a specific example: the long‐term deployment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) technology to supply the transportation market. It contrasts the base case fixed design (a big centralized production facility) with flexible modular designs that phase capacity additions over time and space. The proposed flexibility method compares design alternatives based on several indicators of economic lifecycle performance (Net Present Value (NPV), Initial Capex, etc.). Results indicate that flexible modular deployment strategies can significantly improve the economic performance of large, expensive projects. As sensitivity analyses show, the improvements can be significant over a wide range of analytical assumptions. An important insight is that higher learning rates increase the benefits of flexibility, counteracting the effects of economies of scale. Overall, the study shows that flexibility in engineering design of major production facilities such as LNG plants has multiple, supporting advantages due to uncertainty, learning, and location.

The US auto industry: historical background, trade policies, and new challenges

The US trade policy contributed to the Big Three US automakers completely dominating the US and World auto markets. Today, the Big Three no longer overwhelming dominate their major competitors. Foreign 'transplants' have built major production facilities on US soil, while simultaneously the Big Three are investing heavily in production facilities in foreign lands. To further complicate the identification of industry players, US auto firms are joint venturing with foreign competitors in a variety of locations. This paper explores how trade policies may have impacted many of the changes in this industry.

Site type classification for the shelter-forest ecological project along the Tarim Desert Highway

Site types of the afforestation region of the shelter-forest ecological project along the Tarim Desert Highway were classified based on the natural conditions and windblown sand damages. The extremely severe environment, the irrigation with saline water, and large-scale linear project makes this classification of site types most unique and significant. It adopted a three-level classification system integrating the dominant factors and restrictive factors in regard to their impacts on plant survival and growth as well as on the protective property. Six site type districts were classified based on the medium-scale geomorphic unit, the windblown sand damages, and the major production facilities; 21 site type groups were obtained according to the small-scale geomorphic type, terrain, and wind regime; 36 site types were further classified based on the salt contents of the underground water and soil types. Especially, in this study, spatial distribution of the six site type districts along the desert highway is continuous, which is unique and different from that of most other classifications. In addition, the salt-stress tolerance threshold of the main afforestation plant species to underground water have been set to 8 g/L and 15 g/L according to selective breeding tests and the salinity spatial distribution of the underground water. Thus, the underground water with salinity lower than 8 g/L is defined as light saline water in this area.

Genetic variation within and among domesticated Atlantic salmon broodstocks in British Columbia, Canada

Atlantic salmon have been reared in the British Columbia, Canada aquaculture industry since the early 1980s. No breeding programmes spanned the entire production period and pedigree records were not kept for broodstocks prior to or since importation. Of the three recognized industry strains, two are of European ancestry ('Mowi' from Norway and 'McConnell' from Scotland) and one is of North American heritage ('Cascade' from Gaspe, Quebec). We evaluated the amount and distribution of genetic variation within industry broodstocks by surveying microsatellite variation at 11 loci in 20 broodstock groups sampled from major production facilities. Allelic richness averaged 10.9 (range 5.8-13.8), compared with a value of 20.3 obtained for a North American wild population. Pairwise genetic distances (D(S)) between samples within strains were generally less than those between strains, with samples attributed to the same strain clustering together in a neighbour-joining dendrogram. Nevertheless, average distances between samples within the European strains were high (0.41 for Mowi; 0.71 for McConnell) but lower (0.06) for the Cascade strain. The reduced intra-sample and increased intra-strain genetic variation observed for the BC domesticated samples compared with wild populations was similar to observations for European domesticated Atlantic salmon. Evidence of introgression of the Cascade strain into European broodstocks was provided by the presence of large Ssa202 alleles (confined to North America in wild populations) in some Mowi and McConnell samples. Introgression likely also contributed to the decreased intercontinental genetic distance for the domesticated samples of this study compared with that observed for wild populations.

Productivity Awareness through Training

With continued emphasis on productivity management and improvement, the Hershey Chocolate Company has grown into a major organisation comprising of seven major production facilities located in the US. In addition, the variety of programmes and systems implemented have involved employees in the development of more effective processes and operations, resulting in a highly efficient workforce.

Dow Europe boosts engineering plastics

Officials of Dow Europe's plastics group last week announced a $200 million investment plan for engineering thermoplastics. Three families of polymers will be involved—polycarbonates, acrylonitrile- butadiene-styrene (ABS), and chlorinated polyethylene thermoplastic resins. The investment will involve major production facilities for each, with 95,000 metrictons-per-year combined capacity, and capacity for polycarbonate compounding. First to start up will be a 20,000 metric-tons-per-year plant for chlorinated polyethylene resins at Stade, West Germany, scheduled to start up next year. According to Dow's estimates, Western European demand for chlorinated polyethylene is growing at about 10% per year. The company also has begun construction on a plant for ABS capacity of 40,000 metric tons at Terneuzen, the Netherlands, scheduled to begin operating in 1990. Current demand for ABS resins in Europe is about 425,000 metric tons, with demand expected to reach 475,000 metric tons by 1990. Nameplate capacity for A...

A biobjective model for production planning in a cement factory

This paper is an illustration of the application of biobjective linear programming to determining the optimal allocation of production materials to the major production facilities. The system under consideration is a cement factory. However, the approach and methodology are sufficiently general that the method can be applied to similar problems in other firms. Two objectives of the factory are distinguished: minimization of manufacturing cost and maximization of capacity utilization. Addressed to the needs of the biobjective case, a technique, which is referred to as ‘compromise constraint’ technique, is introduced.

Integration of Hydro and Thermal Power Resources in Alberta

The populated area of Alberta, comprising approximately the southern half, receives electric service from an extensive network of high-voltage transmission lines which link all the major production facilities in the Province. This transmission network facilitates the joint development of a substantial hydro power potential and large reserves of low-cost coal and natural gas. Calgary Power Ltd., which supplies some two thirds of the electric energy requirements throughout much of the populated area of Alberta, is particularly well situated to develop both of these power sources. Large thermal-electric plants are being designed and constructed for base load operation and hydroelectric plants are being extended to supply the peak load requirements. Fuel costs of 10½ cents per million Btu or less, and low operating costs, by the use of central control equipment, enable Calgary Power to produce base load energy at a lower cost in thermal-electric plants than is possible from the remaining hydroelectric sites. Peaking capacity can, in general, be provided more economically from automatically controlled hydroelectric plants than in thermal plants as the incremental cost of hydro capacity does not include the cost of such major hydraulic structures as dams and spillways. Minimum power production costs are obtained by Calgary Power when thermal-electric and hydroelectric plants are integrated with the thermal plants carryig the base load and hydro plants the peak load. These two major sources of electric energy are therefore treated as complementary to, and not competitive with, each other.