Search results

Baker Hughes INTEQ, a mid‐size manufacturing operation, has successfully developed and implemented an innovative, visual, in‐process inspection programme that can be used on any of the firm's highly technical products. This method of logical and systematic inspection creates a reliable, cost‐effective product geared towards today's fast‐paced manufacturing market, providing an alternative to expensive automated inspection equipment. This quality system monitors and records the assembly operation while allowing for continuous improvement to an already tight process control. The first step uses the flowchart method to teach assembly/inspection personnel a logical process of 100% inspection to replace random checking of the assembly. The next step introduces self‐inspection by systematically removing conventional inspection operations over a short period; the results are faster output, improved first time acceptance rates (less rework), and a higher quality product. For companies implementing visual in‐process inspection there are a number of factors to consider: temporary vs permanent employees, employee attitude, and workmanship standards. Implementation of this programme has been highly effective, reducing rework costs by approximately $10,000 per month. This paper explains how the visual, in‐process inspection programme was developed and implemented and how it can be used on any highly technical product. The programme is designed around a manufacturing cell (work area) concept that gives ‘power to the employees’ and leaves out the ‘traditional’ quality/manufacturing process.

In the present era of intense competition, industries are adopting lean manufacturing for successful survival. The concept of lean manufacturing is new for Indian process industries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the status of lean manufacturing in Indian process industries in terms of lean practices, reasons and challenges of implementing lean manufacturing.

A survey was carried out to assess the level of lean implementation in Indian process industries. Statistical tests were conducted to assess the significant lean practices, reasons and challenges of implementing lean in Indian process industries.

It is observed that the level of implementation of lean manufacturing in Indian process industries is still low. Results indicate that Indian process industries those who have implemented lean found lean to be very useful to reduce wastes and to increase quality. Major lean practices being implemented by Indian process industries are primarily those which are related to waste elimination or improvement in quality. Indian process industries found that important challenges to implement lean are to produce in small batches, to arrange for lean experts and to impart training to employees.

In the present study, the sample size is small and hence, the findings should be generalized cautiously. Although the study indicates that lean can be very useful if implemented in Indian process industries but further empirical studies are required to quantify performance improvements through adoption of lean.

The paper explores status of lean adoption in Indian process industries. Considering the unique characteristics of process industries, the present research would be helpful for making strategies to implement lean in process industry setups.

In most manufacturing systems, a number of production stages are involved between which some in‐process inventory usually occurs. This inventory imposes a further cost on the overall system, not only in terms of investment charges but also shop floor congestion, additional material handling charges and loss of floor space. In attempting to optimise this in‐process inventory a necessary balance must be obtained with the associated manufacturing lead time. A mathematical model is devised to achieve the above in a multi‐stage production system and this is demonstrated by application to a set of actual industrial data.

The aim of this paper is to inform researchers and practitioners about the fuzzy front‐end (FFE) of the innovation process in process firms.

A multiple case study of four process firms was conducted, with a total of 64 semi‐structured interviews.

The paper gives new insights into the FFE in non‐assembled product and process development in process firms. The FFE of non‐assembled product and process development is first conceptualized and key activities are identified. Further, how the strong relationship between product and process development can be managed in the FFE is discussed.

All four firms are from the mineral and metals industry, prompting caution when generalizing the results to other contexts. This research offers insights about the FFE in process firms. Theoretical implications are added to the existing literature on the FFE and general process development literature, and the paper increases our understanding of innovation management in general.

From a practical point of view, the paper gives advice on how managers in process firms can increase speed and clarity in the FFE. The conceptualizations and the identified front‐end key activities are suggested as checklists for improving the FFE stage.

This study compares how the FFE within two different types of innovations is conceptualized and managed. Thus, the FFE in non‐assembled product and process development is explored. The FFE of process development is an unexplored context.

This study aims to demonstrate the simultaneous effects between inventory leanness and product innovation, with market concentration being a moderator.

Using a large panel data collected from 3071 listed manufacturing enterprises from 2004 to 2021, this research employs a simultaneous system of equations via the three-stage least square method to explore the simultaneous relationship between inventory leanness and product innovation. In addition, the moderating role of market concentration is demonstrated via one four-model system.

As its core, inventory leanness positively impacts product innovation, while product innovation negatively affects inventory leanness. Moreover, there are differential impacts of the leanness of three inventory types on product innovation. Specifically, the inventory leanness of raw material negatively affects product innovation, while the inventory leanness of work-in-process and finished goods positively affect product innovation. Further, moderation analysis highlights that market concentration is a key moderator of this relationship.

Managers should carefully gauge the tradeoffs between inventory leanness and product innovation. Concretely, managers ought to consider the connections between inventory types and product innovation. In addition, managers are suggested to emphasis on market strategy.

This paper not only contributes to the current understanding of inventory leanness by verifying the impact of inventory leanness on product innovation but also investigates the simultaneous relationship between various inventory types and product innovation. Furthermore, it empirically demonstrates the moderating effect of market concentration on the relationship between inventory leanness and product innovation.

Running-in is a transient process prior to steady state and of great importance for mechanical performance. To reveal the fractal behavior in the running-in process, the steel-on-steel friction and wear tests were performed.

The friction coefficient, friction temperature, friction noise and vibration were recorded, and the surface profile of lower sample was measured on line. The signals and profiles were characterized by correlation dimension and box-counting dimension, respectively.

The signals have the consistent fractal evolvement law, that is, the correlation dimension increases and tends to a stable value. The box-counting dimension of one surface becomes close to that of the other surface. The running-in process can be interpreted as a process in which the fractal dimension of friction signals increases, and the counter surfaces spontaneously adapt to and modify each other to form a spatial ordered structure.

The results reveal the running-in behavior from a new perspective.

This paper focuses on the determination of the cost completion rate used to calculate the equivalent units of production in a continuous process costing system. The paper aims at two research questions. What procedures do companies utilize in practical terms? How should the completion level percentage be calculated conceptually?

The study is a qualitative exploratory survey. The companies targeted were those noted in “Melhores e Maiores,” a ranking of the best and biggest Brazilian companies. A total of 175 questionnaires were sent to pre‐selected enterprises, each with revenues of more than US$100 million per year, and 50 usable responses were returned.

A literature review of the theoretical procedures used for continuous process costing revealed no indication of an objective method for determining the completion level. The empirical research in the present study confirmed that, in practice, companies do not adopt the general procedures proposed by the theory. The best practices applied by the companies have been shown to be an adequate alternative, because the results are identical to those obtained with the proposed method.

The study bears the usual limitations of a qualitative exploratory survey regarding its generalization to other companies.

The originality of the study is based on the assumption that cost accounting theory does not offer an objective solution for the computation of the completion level percentage and, consequently, that companies in continuous process production system do not adopt the theoretical concepts with respect to inventory evaluation of goods‐in‐process and finished goods.

Context-awareness has emerged as an important principle in the design of flexible business processes. The goal of the research is to develop an approach to extend context-aware business process modeling toward location-awareness. The purpose of this paper is to identify and conceptualize location-dependencies in process modeling.

This paper uses a pattern-based approach to identify location-dependency in process models. The authors design specifications for these patterns. The authors present illustrative examples and evaluate the identified patterns through a literature review of published process cases.

This paper introduces location-awareness as a new perspective to extend context-awareness in BPM research, by introducing relevant location concepts such as location-awareness and location-dependencies. The authors identify five basic location-dependent control-flow patterns that can be captured in process models. And the authors identify location-dependencies in several existing case studies of business processes.

The authors focus exclusively on the control-flow perspective of process models. Further work needs to extend the research to address location-dependencies in process data or resources. Further empirical work is needed to explore determinants and consequences of the modeling of location-dependencies.

As existing literature mostly focusses on the broad context of business process, location in process modeling still is treated as “second class citizen” in theory and in practice. This paper discusses the vital role of location-dependencies within business processes. The proposed five basic location-dependent control-flow patterns are novel and useful to explain location-dependency in business process models. They provide a conceptual basis for further exploration of location-awareness in the management of business processes.

This study aims to reconstruct the frictional vibration signal from noise and characterize the running-in process by frictional vibration.

There is a strong correlation between tangential frictional vibration and normal frictional vibration. On this basis, a new frictional vibration reconstruction method combining cross-correlation analysis with ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) was proposed. Moreover, the concept of information entropy of friction vibration is introduced to characterize the running-in process.

Compared with the wavelet packet method, the tangential friction vibration and the normal friction vibration reconstructed by the method presented in this paper have a stronger correlation. More importantly, during the running-in process, the information entropy of friction vibration gradually decreases until the equilibrium point is reached, which is the same as the changing trend of friction coefficient, indicating that the information entropy of friction vibration can be used to characterize the running-in process.

The study reveals that the application EEMD method is an appropriate approach to reconstruct frictional vibration and the information entropy of friction vibration represents the running-in process. Based on these results, a condition monitoring system can be established to automatically evaluate the running-in state of mechanical parts.

The EEMD method was applied to reconstruct the frictional vibration. Furthermore, the information entropy of friction vibration was used to analysis the running-in process.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of lean practices on performance improvement of process industries in India.

Based on a survey of Indian process industries, this paper proposes two sets of hypothesis to examine if there is any statistically significant impact of lean practices on certain specific performance metrics. First, the sample is classified into two classes of process industries: the adopters of lean and those who have not yet adopted the lean practices in their manufacturing operations. Then statistical tests are conducted to measure the differences in the level of performance between the two classes of Indian process industries with respect to nine performance measures. The survey results are augmented by two in-depth case studies. Case studies include one from lean adopter firms (a refinery) and another from the firms that have not yet adopted the lean practices (a primary metal manufacturing unit).

A survey result of 121 Indian process industries shows that adoption of lean practices results in a positive impact on inventory control, waste elimination, cost reduction, productivity, and quality improvement in process industries. On the other hand, based on the sample data on Indian process industries, no statistically significant improvement could be found on the lot size or space utilization between lean adopters and their counterparts.

This research provides guidance to the managers on how adoption of lean practices results in better performance in process industries in several operational areas.

To the knowledge, this study is the first attempt to analyze the impact of lean practices on a set of specific performance metrics in Indian process industry. Although this study focuses on the Indian process industry, the authors believe that findings of the research can inform other practitioners and researchers who are considering implementing lean in process industry sector in other developing countries like India.