Value Analysis Method Research Articles

Quality criteria of industrial frying oils and fats

Fried food is very popular all around the world and comprises a wide variety of different products. Each of them demands special attention to make them a success. Factors such as the melting point and the solid fat content may contribute to the palatability and appearance of fried food. Major characteristics of products, processing and quality issues are related to the fatty acid composition of shortenings. Important points to be considered for choosing a suitable oil for a specific product are highlighted and a simple statistical method of value analysis is proposed to put the choice of a shortening on a better basis.

Economic evaluation of a stand-alone residential photovoltaic power system in Bangladesh

The economics of stand-alone photovoltaic power system is studied to test its feasibility in remote and rural areas of Bangladesh and to compare renewable generators with non-renewable generators. The life cycle cost of these generators are determined using the method of net present value analysis. It is found that the life cycle cost of this experimental PV system is Tk. 43.40/kWh for one family (US $1.00 = Bangladeshi taka Tk.50.00). The life cycle cost for grid electricity is Tk. 20.00/kWh and Tk. 7.75/kWh for generation of fuel costs of Tk. 6.80/kWh and Tk. 0.47/kWh respectively. For a village 1 km away from the distribution line, this cost becomes Tk. 125.00/kWh for a family. For petrol generator life cycle cost is Tk. 50.00/kWh at fuel price of Tk. 22.00 per litre. For diesel generator life cycle cost is found to be Tk. 46.10/kWh at fuel cost of Tk. 15.00 per litre. It is observed that the life cycle cost of one unit of energy from grids that are 1 km away from a village is much higher than the cost of energy from a PV system. Thus, the use of PV system is economically feasible in rural villages and remote areas of Bangladesh, where grid electricity is not available.

Environment and control issues in design

The basic principles guiding the operation of the processing units of a chemical process are based on the following objectives. Safe operation of the processing units. Specified production rates must be maintained. Product quality specifications must be maintained. Perform satisfactorily under conditions different from the nominal design conditions. While process design aids in performing the principla function of the industry, that is to convert raw materials into products, it is process control and operability that is responsible for satisfying the above objectives. Currently, the most striking flaw in any industrial operation is the lack of associative interaction between the design and control system. An improper interaction between the two not only leads to a design which might be uncontrollable, and hence infeasible, but also incurs a lot of expenses while attempting to operate in the uncontrollable regions. This research mainly focuses on analyzing the importance of the interaction between design, controllability and operability issues. A qualitative and a quantitative analysis of the criterion for operability that could be used during the design phase of a process have also been performed. Then these criteria have been tested on several test processes. Controllability has been assessed by the method of singular value analysis (SVA), which helps in the design of different control strategies, and compare them with a controllability index called condition number. Operability is assessed by the economic feasibility, environmental impact, safety, resiliency (ability to tolerate and to recover from undesirable changes and upsets) and flexibility (ability to operate at a range of feed conditions and parameter variations) of the procss design. Quantitative measures were developed for economic feasibility (by annual equivalent profit) and environmental impact (environmental impact index). The operability and controllability analysis has been incorporated into the design of the process. While the qualitative analysis gave a feel of all the issues that need to be considered to make a process operable, the quantitative of the criterion gave a simple method by which the best operable and controllable alternative can be chosen. Thus, with the above analysis, a procedure to assess the operability and controllability of a process was developed and the importance of their integration with design was proved. This analysis will be described within a framework that evaluates and optimizes processing alternatives where economics, environmental impact, and controllability are considered.

Improving the Gumbel analysis by using M-th highest extremes

Improvements to the Gumbel method of extreme value analysis of wind data made over the last two decades are reviewed and illustrated using sample data for Jersey. A new procedure for extending the Gumbel method to include M-th highest annual extremes is shown to be less effective than the standard method, but leads to a method for calibrating peak-over-threshold methods against the standard Gumbel approach. Peak-over-threshold methods that include at least the 3rd highest annual extremes, specifically the modified Jensen and Franck method and the Method of independent storms are shown to give the best estimates of extremes from observations.

Estimating return period wave heights and wind speeds using a seasonal point process model

A method of extreme value analysis is described which incorporates a model reflecting the seasonality of the environment. A point process model is employed with the arrival of storms described as a Poisson process and a generalised Pareto distribution to model the magnitude of the storm. Separate point process models are constructed for each season and then aggregated to provide a basis for estimating the return values. The construction of separate models, including the use of seasonal thresholds, ensures that more appropriate models are fitted to each season's data. The method also reflects the completeness of the environmental record, avoiding the bias that can result from missing data. The potential benefits of the approach include greater accuracy, robustness to missing data and the provision of seasonal return values for mobile systems deployed on a temporary basis. The method is demonstrated in estimating the N year significant wave heights and wind speeds in the northern North Sea.

Reconstruction of the velocity distribution in conducting melts from induced magnetic field measurements

A possibility to reconstruct the velocity field in a conducting melt without using tracer particles or any mechanical contact to the melt is presented. To recover the flow distribution the liquid under study is placed in an external magnetic field and the induced magnetic field due to the currents appearing in such a liquid is measured. The problem of velocity field reconstruction from these measurement data is closely related to inverse problems of potential theory. It is shown that in contrast to the latter problem the reconstruction of the velocity field can be performed uniquely if there exists a possibility to measure the induced field for different applied field configurations. A stable solution of the corresponding integral equation (arising from a Poisson equation for the induced magnetic field), which is known as an ill-conditioned problem, is obtained by means of the method of singular value analysis. Demonstration results for the case of a two-dimensional flow pattern in an infinitely long pipe are presented.

Two-phase locking performance and its thrashing behavior

A novel mean value analysis method for the two-phase locking (2PL) concurrency control method with the general waiting policy is presented here, which extends previous work to the important case of variable-size transactions, where size is determined by the number of locks requested by the transaction. We first analyze a transaction-processing system with 2PL considering transaction steps with identical processing time distributions. The analysis is then extended to the case of unequal processing times. The system performance in both cases can be determined by the fraction of blocked transactions in the system (β). In the former case β can be obtained by solving a cubic equation, whose coefficients are functions of a single parameter (α), which determines the degree of lock contention in the system

Development status of an advanced electrolyser

Abstract EDF and ACB (Gec Alsthom Group) have cooperated since 1980 in the development of a large industrial electrolyser which is designed to supply hydrogen under the best possible economic conditions by using offpeak electric power. Preliminary tests on a 30 kW laboratory unit were run to determine the feasibility of industrial cells working at 30 bar, 130°C and under a 1 A cm −2 current density. First industrial tests started in 1987 on a full-scale module of 120 cells (2.4 MW). New tests were run in 1990 on an industrial electrolyser of 20 MW (eight modules). These tests showed different results from previous experience. It was therefore decided to run laboratory investigations on them and simultaneously to review the overall economic balance of the design, and possible improvements to it, by a systematic value analysis method. Some of the corresponding research and results are described: • • Evaluation of new polymers for cell frame manufacture. • • Research on diaphragms (separators). • • Numerical hydraulic model of the complete circuit. The updated economics of the improved design are given. New industrial tests are in progress.

Data Analysis of Multi‐Angle Photon Correlation measurements without and with prior knowledge

AbstractThe application of the singular value analysis and reconstruction method (SVR) and of the Contin method for the collective analysis of multi‐angle noisy photon correlation data sets was investigated. Provided the data are sampled equidistant in time and by proper tuning of the sampling time to the scattering angle, a collective multi‐angle SVR analysis is feasible. For homogeneous spherical particles such an analysis does not require any prior knowledge of the angular dependence of particle scattering power (e.g. Mie scattering). SVR allows the information content to be separated from noisy intensity autocorrelation data. It is illustrated that the multi‐angle SVR analysis enhances the recovery of the information content. Moreover, SVR can be used as a fast and accurate preprocessor for extracting the field autocorrelation function for a subsequent Contin analysis whereby prior knowledge of particle scattering power as a function of scattering angle is used as a constraint. Compared with the data analysis of multi‐angle time‐averaged scattered intensity measurements, the information that can be extracted from multi‐angle PCS data in comparable accumulation times is poorer.

Approximate MVA for closed queueing network models of FMS with a block-and-wait mechanism

Closed queueing networks with a central server configuration are used to model Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) in which the material handling system consists of a single cart and the finite capacity of local buffers leads to blocking. Under the assumptions of an exponential service time distribution and a block-and-wait mechanism, an efficient approximate Mean Value Analysis (MVA) method is developed to evaluate the performance measures of the resulting non product-form queueing networks. The accuracy of the proposed method is established by comparison with the results of simulation experiments.

Multiclass Queueing Networks with State-Dependent Routing

A Multiclass Queueing Network (MQN) Q( N, M ) consisting of M BCMP centers with index set M and population vector N is partitioned into two subnetworks Q( N − V, M − V ) and Q( V, V . The centers in Q( V, V ) are partitioned into disjoint groups called branches. The branches are arranged into a hierarchy of nested subnetworks. A set of State-Dependent Routing (SDR) probabilities is used to admit customers from Q( N − V, M − V ) into the individual branches of Q( V, V ). The SDR probabilities are products of linear functions of the branch and subnetwork populations such that Q( N, M ) has a product-form solution. The SDR probabilities set an upper bound on the number of customers that can concurrently be present in each branch and each subnetwork of Q( V, V ). Both convolution and Mean Value Analysis (MVA) methods can be used to compute the performance measures for a MQN containing both state-dependent and state-independent routing. A summary of the SDR MVA solution method is presented. Finally, the effects of SDR on network performance measures are investigated.

A value analysis method for the evaluation of telecommunication systems bid proposals

The drafting of technical specifications and the evaluation of proposals are important steps in the procurement of equipment and/or systems of a complex nature such as those used for telecommunications. Many times, success in the procurement of goods depends on the accuracy of the technical specifications and on the evaluation techniques used to select the best proposals. Two classic methods used for the evaluation of proposals are discussed and described. In addition, a third method, based on multiple binary decisions that can best be applied if taken into consideration when drafting the bid specifications, is described. This last method leads the evaluation process through a series of simple, binary decisions based on preestablished criteria, minimizing the addition of value judgements during the evaluation process.

Algorithms for nonintegral degrees of multiprogramming in closed queuing networks

The average degree of multiprogramming (DMP) in closed queuing networks is usually assumed to be an integer. Computational algorithms (i.e., normalization constant methods, mean value analysis methods) iterate on, and require, integral DMP values. However, in practice, the average measured DMP is rarely integer-valued. In this paper we present algorithms for the computation of performance measures when the DMP is allowed to be any positive real-valued number. The algorithms match the known performance values when the DMP happens to be an integer. In this respect, the algorithms provide a continuous curve through the known integer-valued points. However, the different algorithms give different results at the noninteger-valued points. The different algorithms are based upon integral DMP algorithms. Two algorithms, DNC and αMVA, are presented which are computationally more efficient and not as cumbersome to implement as the obvious interpolation technique. The interpretation and implications of assuming a nonintegral number of customers in a closed queuing network are given.

An investigation of the frequencydistributions of annual sea level maxima at ports around Great Britain

Observed sea level maxima in the form of annual extremes have been analysedfor 67 ports around the British Isles. The ports give a coverage of all principal estuarine and open coast regions. The average number of annual maxima per port is 45, ranging from a minimum number of 10 to a maximum of over 130. The data are analysed by a standard method of extreme value analysis. It is shown that for certain ports the frequency distributions of the maxima are time dependent; this time dependency is most pronounced in estuarine regions. The results show the local and regional distribution of frequency statistics and the relative magnitude of their variation through time. The limitations of using annual sea level maxima as a basis for computing frequency statistics are examined.

The Professional CM Team Discovers Value Engineering

This paper reviews and summarizes the state-of-the-art of traditional value analysis and value engineering methods as developed and utilized by a number of practitioners and agencies on public works. While significant savings have been achieved in the public sector, the value engineering concept has achieved less widespread acceptance in the private domain. The three-party Professional Construction Management concept has facilitated the development of a simplified program based upon the elimination of adversary relationships often present in the private sector along with the utilization of the original designer to analyze the technical acceptability of proposed Value Engineering savings. The simplified approach has produced significant savings on a number of projects and offers promise for increased utilization on design-construct and turnkey projects as well.

Determination of Carbonyl Value of Fats and Oils

For establishment of the standard method of carbonyl value analysis of fats and oils, collaborative studies were made on the method of Henick et al., stressing onto the agreement and reproducibility among data.Good result was obtained by fixing the time for 5 minutes, which is defined as the elapsing time from addition of 4%-KOH-ethanol solution up to the time of dilution with ethanol.The effect of peroxides on carbonyl value determination was also investigated for the stannous chloride reducing method of Mizuno et al.. The results indicated that carbonyl value was measured excessively when peroxides are present. Therefore, carbonyl value should be measured after removing the effect of peroxides.Calculation of carbonyl value : CO.V.=A/BA; absorbance at 440mμB; sample weight in 5ml of sample-benzene solution (g)

The Decision To Build A Fence: A Real-Option Problem

Real-option methods of Net Present Value (NPV) analysis are applied tounderstand a capital budgeting decision concerning flexibility. The capital budgetingproblem under study here is the decision of whether Spade Ranch (Spade) should builda fence. If this fence is built, then a hay-meadow could be converted into pasture land,which would in turn permit the herd-size of the Spade Ranch to increase. However,this fence building does not require the Spade to take the newly-fenced land out of hayproduction and put it into cattle production. Instead, once the fence is built, the Spadehas the ability to switch land use from hay production to cattle production and viceversa. The decision of whether or not to create this flexibility by fence-building is thecrux of this paper. What is the value of flexibility? If the fence costs less than the valueof this flexibility then we build the fence, otherwise no.For two different scenarios, a linear programming model is employed todefine the relationship of Economic Value Added (EVA) to the question of whetheror not one should produce hay or cattle given that the existence of a fence permits adecision maker to switch back and forth between hay and cattle production. Thesetwo scenarios, each of which work under different pricing assumptions, producedifferent EVA results and different production choices.From this scenario work, the paper moves to the question of NPV. Is thedecision to build a fence a positive NPV investment decision or not? An optionpricing model is used to approach this question. Given a fence that provides for theability to switch back and forth between cattle and hay production, what is the valueof choosing additional cattle production by giving up the additional production ofhay for sale? As it turns out, the question of NPV for an investment that provides afirm more flexibility by switching from the production of one product to another canbe answered. But the answer depends on the volatility of possible rates of return oninvestment for both hay and cattle production, and their correlation with one another.

The Selection, Testing, and Application of Ecological Bioindicator Birds: A Case Study of the Bale Mountains, Southeast Ethiopia

The interest in using ecological bioindicators - species or higher taxa, whose presence/absence or abundance reflect the abiotic or biotic state of an ecosystem - as cost-effective means of ecological monitoring has been globally increasing. The main aim of this study was to assess if such ecological bioindicator species could be identified within Afromontane grassland avifauna that would be used for monitoring the effects of livestock grazing on ecosystem in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia. We collected data on birds and vegetation structure along 14 transects each in the light (protected) and heavy (unprotected) grazing sites in June 2014 (referred to as the first sampling period) and in December 2014 (the second sampling period). Then, we (i) initially identified potential bioindicator species for the light grazing site, based on data collected during the first sampling period; (ii) examined relationships between abundance of these bioindicators and level of grazing pressure; (iii) tested the consistency of those initially selected bioindicator species, based on independent data collected during the second sampling period. We used the Indicator Value (IndVal) Analysis method to identify bioindicator species for the light grazing site. Species with significant IndVal>60% were considered as potential bioindicator for the site compared to the heavy grazing site. Six species were initially identified as potential bioindicators from the first sampling period dataset, and four of these species were again consistently identified from the second sampling period. Furthermore, abundance of the bioindicators had significantly declined with increasing grazing pressure, but positively correlated with four habitat variables (i.e. heights of shrub, herb and grass, and cover of shrub). These findings suggest that those consistently identified four species represent suite of reliable bioindicators that can successfully be used for monitoring of changes in habitat structure in the site. Recommendations on how to apply these findings for ecological monitoring are provided.

Analisis Finansial Usaha Budidaya Rumput Laut dan Nilai Tambah Tepung Karaginan di Kecamatan Kei Kecil, Kabupaten Maluku Tenggara

The purpose of this study was to calculate the financial analysis of seaweed cultivation operation and count the number of value-added processing karaginan flour mill in the District of Southeast Maluku Regency Kei Kecil. The method used in this study is descriptive with qualitative and quantitative approaches. Determination of the location of the study was conducted purposively with its population was seaweed farmers from ten villages in Kei Kecil as the villages of seaweed production centers. The method of analysis used is the operation analysis of financial and added value analysis method Hayami. The results showed that the cultivation of seaweed and flour mills karaginan feasible to develop. The ratio of added value of 9.05% and in 1997 Hubeis magnitude of the ratio of value added is calculated in accordance with the criteria of low added value ratio <15%.Keywords: Financial Analysis, Added-value, Seaweed, Flour Caragenan