Product scheduling for thermal energy reduction in papermaking industries

Papermaking is considered as an energy-intensive industry partly due to the fact that the machinery and procedures have been designed at the time when energy was both cheap and plentiful. A typical paper machine manufactures a variety of different products (grades) which impose variable per-unit raw material and energy costs to the mill. It is known that during a grade change operation the products are not market-worthy. Therefore, two different production regimes, i.e. steady state and grade transition can be recognised in papermaking practice. Among the costs associated with paper manufacture, the energy cost is 'more variable' due to (usually) day-to-day variations of the energy prices. Moreover, the production of a grade is often constrained by customer delivery time requirements. Given the above constraints and production modes, the product scheduling technique proposed in this paper aims at optimising the sequence of orders in a single machine so that the cost of production (mainly determined by the energy) is minimised. Simulation results obtained from a commercial board machine in the UK confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method. © 2011 IFAC.

Market-pull and technology-push in manufacturing start-ups in emerging industries

Purpose - As traditional manufacturing, previously vital to the UK economy, is increasingly outsourced to lower-cost locations, policy makers seek leadership in emerging industries by encouraging innovative start-up firms to pursue competitive opportunities. Emerging industries can either be those where a technology exists but the corresponding downstream value chain is unclear, or a new technology may subvert the existing value chain to satisfy existing customer needs. Hence, this area shows evidence of both technology-push and market-pull forces. The purpose of this paper is to focus on market-pull and technology-push orientations in manufacturing ventures, specifically examining how and why this orientation shifts during the firm's formative years. Design/methodology/approach - A multiple case study approach of 25 UK start-ups in emerging industries is used to examine this seldom explored area. The authors offer two models of dynamic business-orientation in start-ups and explain the common reasons for shifts in orientation and why these two orientations do not generally co-exist during early firm development. Findings - Separate evolution paths were found for strategic orientation in manufacturing start-ups and separate reasons for them to shift in their early development. Technology-push start-ups often changed to a market-pull orientation because of new partners, new market information or shift in management priorities. In contrast, many of the start-ups beginning with a market-pull orientation shifted to a technology-push orientation because early market experiences necessitated a focus on improving processes in order to increase productivity or meet partner specifications, or meet a demand for complementary products. Originality/value - While a significant body of work exists regarding manufacturing strategy in established firms, little work has been found that investigates how manufacturing strategy emerges in start-up companies, particularly those in emerging industries. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Performance assessment of XACML authorizations for supply chain traceability web services

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Web Services (WS) offer advanced flexibility and interoperability capabilities. However they imply significant performance overheads that need to be carefully considered. Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Traceability systems are an interesting domain for the use of WS technologies that are usually deemed to be too complex and unnecessary in practical applications, especially regarding security. This paper presents an externalized security architecture that uses the eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) authorization standard to enforce visibility restrictions on trace-ability data in a supply chain where multiple companies collaborate; the performance overheads are assessed by comparing 'raw' authorization implementations - Access Control Lists, Tokens, and RDF Assertions - with their XACML-equivalents. © 2012 IEEE.

The incentives for supply chain collaboration to improve material efficiency in the use of steel: An analysis using input output techniques

In the face of increasing demand and limited emission reduction opportunities, the steel industry will have to look beyond its process emissions to bear its share of emission reduction targets. One option is to improve material efficiency - reducing the amount of metal required to meet services. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to explore why opportunities to improve material efficiency through upstream measures such as yield improvement and lightweighting might remain underexploited by industry. Established input-output techniques are applied to the GTAP 7 multi-regional input-output model to quantify the incentives for companies in key steel-using sectors (such as property developers and automotive companies) to seek opportunities to improve material efficiency in their upstream supply chains under different short-run carbon price scenarios. Because of the underlying assumptions, the incentives are interpreted as overestimates. The principal result of the paper is that these generous estimates of the incentives for material efficiency caused by a carbon price are offset by the disincentives to material efficiency caused by labour taxes. Reliance on a carbon price alone to deliver material efficiency would therefore be misguided and additional policy interventions to support material efficiency should be considered. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

A method for analysing operational complexity in supply chains

This paper proposes a method for analysing the operational complexity in supply chains by using an entropic measure based on information theory. The proposed approach estimates the operational complexity at each stage of the supply chain and analyses the changes between stages. In this paper a stage is identified by the exchange of data and/or material. Through analysis the method identifies the stages where the operational complexity is both generated and propagated (exported, imported, generated or absorbed). Central to the method is the identification of a reference point within the supply chain. This is where the operational complexity is at a local minimum along the data transfer stages. Such a point can be thought of as a 'sink' for turbulence generated in the supply chain. Where it exists, it has the merit of stabilising the supply chain by attenuating uncertainty. However, the location of the reference point is also a matter of choice. If the preferred location is other than the current one, this is a trigger for management action. The analysis can help decide appropriate remedial action. More generally, the approach can assist logistics management by highlighting problem areas. An industrial application is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the method. © 2013 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved.

How should governments support the emergence of new industries in leading economies?

Over the past 30 years, developed economies' approaches to supporting growth have focused on competitiveness, entrepreneurship and innovation to varying degrees. However, following the credit crisis and global recession in 2008 there has been demand for an updated narrative of growth based on the emergence of new industries. This paper provides a brief review of the available literature on how governments in leading economies can support new industries to emerge to the benefit of their national economy, discusses a number of issues for governments trying to support emerging industries, provides a framework of activities which governments considering this type of intervention should consider, and discusses the case of the regenerative medicine industry in the UK using the framework. Copyright © 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Expressive RFID data access policies for the Pharmaceuticals supply chain

The Pharma(ceuticals) industry is at a cross-roads. There are growing concerns that illegitimate products are penetrating the supply chain. There are proposals in many countries to apply RFID and other traceability technologies to solve this problem. However there are several trade-offs and one of the most crucial is between data visibility and confidentiality. In this paper, we use the TrakChain assessment framework tools to study the US Pharma supply chain and to compare candidate solutions to achieve traceability data security: Point-of-Dispense Authentication, Network-based electronic Pedigree, and Document-based electronic Pedigree. We also propose extensions to a supply chain authorization language that is able to capture expressive data sharing conditions considered necessary by the industry's trading partners. © 2013 IEEE.

Water supply to a geotechnical centrifuge

The supply of water to a centrifuge experiment has always been important. This paper details a new system which has been successfully commissioned for use on the geotechnical centrifuge at University of Cambridge. High water pressures and large flow rates were delivered to an experimental package, for the modelling of water injection-aided pile jacking. The practicalities of such a system are discussed in relation to existing alternatives, in addition to the precautions taken to ensure safe centrifuge operation. A method for calculating water pressures in the system away from instrumented locations is also proposed, using a linear relationship between energy per unit volume and the flow rate squared. Experimental data are presented to support these relationships.