China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Conception of Fail-Safe Supply Networks
Published in Shabnam Rezapour, Amirhossein Khosrojerdi, Golnoosh Rasoulifar, Janet K. Allen, Jitesh H. Panchal, Ramakrishnan S. Srinivasan, Jeffrey D. Tew, Farrokh Mistree, Architecting Fail-Safe Supply Networks, 2018
Shabnam Rezapour, Amirhossein Khosrojerdi, Golnoosh Rasoulifar, Janet K. Allen, Jitesh H. Panchal, Ramakrishnan S. Srinivasan, Jeffrey D. Tew, Farrokh Mistree
A supply network contains a number of flows: material flows, information flows and financial flows as shown in Figures 1-1 and 1-2 (Tang and Nurmaya Musa 2011). Material flow refers to the movement of raw materials, sub-assemblies and final products within and between facilities; typically, material flows from the supplier to the customer, or upstream to downstream in network terms. Information flow is normally bi-directional and includes demands, purchase orders, inventory status and similar data elements. Financial flows refer to payments, credit terms, contracts and other flows related to money; generally, financial flows take place moving from downstream to upstream. Customers place demands on the distributors and retailers and these demands are fulfilled by a flow of materials from the suppliers to the manufacturers and then to the distributors. The Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) Model abstracts the processes at these facilities (Lockamy III and McCormack 2004; Bolstorff and Rosenbaum 2011) as shown in Figure 1-3. The SCOR model provides a unified structure that connects process models, best practices, performance metrics and people skills. For our purposes, we focus on the processes defined in the SCOR model: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver and Return. These processes are interlinked to facilitate bidirectional flows from the supplier’s supplier to the customer’s customer.
Cargoes
Published in Alan E. Branch, Michael Robarts, Branch's Elements of Shipping, 2014
Alan E. Branch, Michael Robarts
A wide range of cargo-handling equipment exists. The best handling solutions involve the least handling. Handling adds to the cost but not the value of the product. The choice of the right equipment or system to optimize material flow is broadly a definition of materials handling and includes cranes, conveyors, automated vehicles, tractors, free-ranging forklifts, order pickers, stackers and pallet trucks. The handling method used should be the one which gives the greatest efficiency with economy and which makes full use of any existing facilities and equipment. Products whether they be cartons, bags, cans, bottles, drums or sacks are assembled together to form a unit load. Flat wooden (sometimes plastic) pallets are the commonly used base on which are placed unit loads, ISO containers, roll cages and tote bins. Others are stillages, box and cage pallets, bulk containers, etc. Products are often handled without pallets using specialized attachments in place of forks: bales, white goods, cookers, carpets, tyres, drums, beer kegs, paper rolls, milk crates, etc., are examples of the many products where attachments are utilized.
Sustainable Building Design and Systems Integration
Published in Steffen Lehmann, Robert Crocker, Designing for Zero Waste, 2013
Material efficiency expresses the degree to which usage of raw materials, construction projects or physical processes are used or carried out in a manner that consumes or wastes less of a given material compared with previous measures. For instance, making a steel beam out of thinner stock than a prior version, without compromising on structural strength, increases the material efficiency of the manufacturing process. Better material flow management can increase material efficiency and prevent waste. Wasting construction materials is a sign of inefficiency and causes great loss of value and resources (McDonough and Braungart, 2002). It is likely that we will see shortages of certain metals and rare earths by 2020. This may involve redesigning both product and process using the following formula: building material efficiency (BME) = product output (PO)/material input (MI) Zero-waste strategies consider the entire life cycle of buildings, products, processes and systems. The concept expresses the need for a closed-loop construction system employing the advantages of modular prefabrication, suggesting that the entire concept of waste in the construction process should be eliminated.
Improving the decision-making process by considering supply uncertainty – a case study in the forest value chain
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2023
Vanessa Simard, Mikael Rönnqvist, Luc LeBel, Nadia Lehoux
Trees are a natural growing material, and their properties change during the growth cycle, an aspect that needs to be taken into account during harvesting planning (Pasalodos-Tato et al. 2013). At the strategic and tactical levels, forest management plans are created to assure resource sustainability, thus providing economic and ecological viability. In most Canadian provinces, forests are mainly located on public land. Hence, detailed forest management plans are required. The plans describe where the wood will be sourced from for several months or even years in advance. Operational plans determine which areas will be harvested, the periods, the sequencing, the machinery to be used and the log bucking rules. Björheden and Helstad (2005) stated that the quality, species, and dimensions of available logs are all uncertain characteristics having a decisive impact on the production process. One strategy they suggested is to improve production efficiency is an increased control over raw material flow. This can be done through several optimisation models as proposed in this study.
Efficient Fab facility layout with spine structure using genetic algorithm under various material-handling considerations
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2022
The following points should also be supplemented when designing the layout of a semiconductor Fab in industrial business. First, the concept of minimising the risk of traffic congestion by AMHS must be considered in addition to the traditional concept of minimising the total distance of material flow at the Fab planning stage. This is because the goal of minimising the total distance of material flow is to maximise the production capacity. It reflects the view of shortening the production lead time by minimising the material flow (transportation) time between processes (facilities). However, if the Fab structure and the characteristics of AMHS are not considered simultaneously, this approach could increase the risk of traffic congestion as production increases, which causes delays and adversely affects the production capacity (Peters and Yang 1997; Kim, Yu, and Jang 2016).
A hybrid multiobjective GRASP for a multi-row facility layout problem with extra clearances
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2022
Xing Wan, Xingquan Zuo, Xiaodong Li, Xinchao Zhao
Chung and Tanchoco (2010) proposed a double row layout problem (DRLP), a special case of MRLP, where each pair of adjacent machines is allowed to be separated by a clearance larger than the minimum clearance. Zuo, Murray, and Smith (2014) extended the DRLP in Chung and Tanchoco (2010) and showed that separating adjacent machines with extra clearances (besides the minimum ones) can achieve a layout with lower material flow cost. The reason is that there are material flows amongst machines on different rows, and separating adjacent machines by minimum clearances may not achieve a layout with the minimum material flow cost. For MRLP, material transportation amongst machines in different rows is more frequent than that in DRLP, such that separating adjacent machines with extra clearances may also achieve a layout with lower cost. Studies on MRLP considering extra clearances are limited. Hungerländer and Anjos (2015) proposed a semidefinite optimisation-based approach for MRLP, where adjacent machines are allowed to be separated by discrete extra clearances. Thus the MRLP is a discrete optimisation problem. Zuo et al. (2019a) studied a multi-row layout problem with parallel machines, which considers extra clearances between any pair of adjacent machines. Material flows are transported by a track along the corridor between adjacent rows. The optimisation objective is to minimise the material flow cost.