Search results

The purpose of this paper is to identify food and health services desired by baby boomers and to examine their likely antecedents.

A random sample of baby boomers in Victoria, Australia (n=1,108) completed a postal survey and rated the desirability of 13 post retirement food and health services.

The strongest demand was expressed for low cost fruit and vegetables, 24‐hour GP services, environmentally friendly foods, and friendly places to meet friends and exercise, among others. Generally, psychographic variables were key predictors of demand for social (health) services, food services, and vitamin pills and herbal remedies. Demand for food services was associated with universalism values.

The cross‐sectional design prevents causal attributions; however, the findings suggest that baby boomers' demand for services falls into three groups, which are related to their psychographic characteristics.

Consideration of these desired services may facilitate the planning of future health and food services for this broad age group.

The last, and often most difficult increment in product quality level or process productivity, cannot be realised via the usual techniques of statistical quality control, such as process capability analysis or control chart procedures. Through a non‐mathematical presentation, the article sets out to provide an understanding of an empirical approach to process improvement, based on the systematic and integrated application of techniques of experiment design, mathematical modelling and common concepts of optimisation. An understanding of this important part of statistical quality control is vital in the search for possible breakthroughs in process performance.

Studies the feasibility of using the metamodelling technique for the performance analysis of a just‐in‐time manufacturing system. The data for the analysis are generated by a Siman simulation model. Develops a regression metamodel following an R‐IV fractional factorial design. Results show that, of the 15 variables considered, only assembly time, kanban capacity, and the interaction effect between demand and kanban capacity are statistically significant. Performs cross‐validation. Finds the results of the metamodel developed to supplement the simulation model to be accurate.

Three changes in the rules used to control a manufacturing unit, which were suggested by simple control engineering concepts, have been examined. A model of an actual make‐for‐stock shop, driven by real order time‐series, was used to examine the impact of the rule changes on a production cost function. The charges were tested across a wide range of conditions, and each was found to yield appreciable and statistically significant cost savings. Results are reported for the cases when the changes were made both separately and simultaneously. In the latter case the savings ranged from 25 to 34 per cent.

Interstellar gas passing through the solar system may effect the interplanetary gas, planetary atmospheres and satellite orbits. Interaction of the interstellar and interplanetary gases is considered; a solar system corona may be formed.

The key to increasing productivity in the manufacturing sector does not lie solely in high technology, but also in an environment in which personnel at all levels are operating with rational decisions and actions based on organised information. Inasmuch as uncertainties and changes are the features of all real‐world situations, appropriate means of measurement, analysis, prediction and control are indispensable; thus statistical tools have become a prerequisite to any productivity drive, those of statistical quality control being the most typical and best known. Some aspects of attaining proficiency in the statistical approach in an organisation are discussed from a management perspective.

Recently, manufacturing companies have been evaluating measurement equipment used for in‐process inspection. The precision and accuracy of the measurement operation are a major factor of an overall quality control programme. Compares two measurement systems of scales and callipers in three laboratory settings for the purpose of identifying sources of significant differences in measurements. The experimental design used was a nested and crossed design with blocking on manufactured parts. Operators and types of equipment (digital and analogue) were nested within laboratories and crossed with one another. Finds, at a significance level of 0.001, that variation exists among laboratories and between types of scales, while, for callipers, significant variation occurred among laboratories, between types of callipers and between operators.

Author's preference for use of term magnetofluidmechanics instead of magnctohydromechanics; résumé of main principles; applications of the science in astronautics.

Reviews a real‐life investigation carried out on copper coating of CO⊂2 welding wire. The major quality problems were non‐uniformity in coating thickness and other associated problems. The factors identified as responsible are speed of drawing the wire, acid, ferrous and copper sulphate. Describes three stages of the study. The results obtained revealed a number of interesting facts about the process. The extent to which the copper coating is influenced by these factors independently and interactively was vividly brought out by factorial experiments, fractional factorial experiments and standard orthogonal arrays. These results show various intricate dynamics of interest to a process controller.

The aim of this paper is to proposes a simple and unified method for generating the aliasing pattern of two‐ and three‐level fractional factorial designs be they regular or non‐regular. The paper also demonstrates how the aliasing patterns obtained using the postulated method can be used to render the main measures of aliasing severity.

The proposed method is based on viewing the fractional factorial designs geometrically. It entails regarding the columns of any design as vectors. On the premise that any two vectors are orthogonal if they are at right angle and bearing in mind that aliasing is a form of departure from orthogonality, the proposed method determines the degree of aliasing between any two columns by assessing the extent to which the angle between them differs from 90°.

Three examples were used to illustrate how the proposed method can be applied and to validate its results. The first dealt with a regular two‐level L₈ 2⁵⁻² design whereas the second concerned a non‐regular two‐level L₁₂ design used to study five‐factors, and the third example is based on a non‐regular L₁₈ design employed to examine three‐factors at three‐levels. For each of these, the aliasing pattern generated using the proposed method matches the one obtained using the conventional methods.

A recent empirical study of how experimental design is applied in certain Manufacturing Engineering journals revealed that aliasing is rarely investigated. One possible reason for this is the difficulty associated with comprehending the conventional methods of dealing with aliasing particularly in the cases where non‐regular two‐ and three‐level orthogonal arrays are used. The proposal of a simple and unified method for dealing with aliasing should encourage the researchers and practitioners to assess aliasing when performing their experiments.