Abstract: Pallets are the common form of material transport equipment together with forklift conveyer or transport vehicles in a factory. In supply chain, the importance of pallet usage is significant, allowing efficient handling of items. The movements of palettes on a factory floor, however, are manually tracked. Thus, they are difficult to be closely monitored. This results in loss of time, energy, and efficiency. To improve the efficiency and accuracy of palette movements and to eliminate the loss of time and energy of parts movement in or out of the factory, this work introduced the application of a radio frequency identification (RFID) based automatic tracking system. In this paper, we demonstrate the technique of using the RFID technology as a platform to improve the efficiency in the pallet movements.

Abstract: This study was applied in a welding wire manufacturing plant to improve the quality of the manufactured welding wires, reducethe manufacturing waste and increase the yield of the manufacturing process, by applying the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) methodology and waste management. LLS is considered one of the successful approaches in the field of quality improvement and cost reduction. The case study plant working environment was analyzed to isolate the root causes for the waste generation. Remedies and countermeasures were suggested and some were implemented. The study compares the performance of the plant before and after implementation of the proposed solutions for waste reduction. Improvements in yield, waste, Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO), and sigma levels were achieved.The LSS methodology was linked to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize the causes of waste. The objective was to use an analytical method in judging the influence of the waste causes on the amount of waste to enrich the methodology effectiveness and facilitate some ease of use in the practical field.

Abstract: On basis of stochastic analysis method and finite element numerical theory, the paper which considered the conditions of random heat source did research into the temperature field of underground heat transfer. The analysis of heat transfer random factors about ground source heat pump buried pipe, establishment of general model about rock-soil random heat transfer, presentation of finite element equations about random temperature field as well as statistical regularity of space and time about temperature field are covered in this paper. The numerical simulation of given model has been realized with computer utilized. The research shows that the effect which ground source heat pump random heat source has on the temperature field of ground source heat pump is random obviously, which gives an important theoretical method to the analysis of mean value about the temperature field of heat transfer, the discrete analysis, as well as the design of ground source heat pump buried pipe. The engineering case shows that random effect of buried pipe heat transfer about ground source heat pump cannot be neglected.

Abstract: The service business is seen as one of the most significant industrial trends of our time. Physical goods and technology no longer provide sufficient competitive advantage for manufacturing. Many industrial companies have noticed the potential of service business, but only few have achieved significant success. This paper introduces how to explore the service business potential in product oriented industrial firm while minimizing risks related to service business development. In our NSD approach, we design service concepts by participating customers within the 5+1 step design process. In order to seek the business potential, deep customer understanding is a necessity. Service concepts, in which the customer understanding is gathered through the process by participating end users and network partners, act as a decision tools when making go/kill decisions about the productization and further service business development actions.

Abstract: This work presents a study of the thermal characteristics of a turbulent flow of a forced convection along various geometrical configurations: Smooth wall, wall corrugated in spiral, corrugated wall. The effects of pitch/diameter ratio and rib height to diameter ratio made it possible to develop this impact of this geometrical form (sometimes corrugated, sometimes spiral) in the intensification of the heat transfer. The physical process of increase in the heat transfer comes owing to the fact that the spiral shape of the tube contributes to break the formed boundary layer and to allow the continual replacement of the fluid meadows of the solid wall. The numerical results obtained prove that this corrugated form or into spiral intensifies the heat transfer thanks to model SST for Reynolds numbers varying from 5000 to 55000, Indeed when the pitch and the depth of the rib increases from P/d_h = 0.18, e/d_h = 0.02 to P/d_h = 0.27, e/d_h = 0.06. The ratio of the numbers of Nusselt increases with the rise in the step and the depth of the notch. Several explanations can be advanced, among these last, the spirals are the cause of the presence of the viscous effects, which slow down the flow in the notch of the spiral (broken boundary layer). The low depth of the notch, going from 0.02 up to 0.04 does not allow a significant thermal intensification, on the other hand for the strong values of the notch (0.05 to 0.06) the presence of turbulence supports good Nusselt. We notes that this last increases with the amplitude of the undulation up to the value of 0.05H. Beyond the value of the amplitude, the number of Nusselt tends towards the constant value.