Combining World Class Manufacturing system and Industry 4.0 technologies to design ergonomic manufacturing equipment

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, human has still a central role. Manufacturing industries have to deal with human sustainability in order to guarantee workers’ health and well-being. Several studies have proved the importance of ergonomics in workplace design and the benefits related to the adoption of the human-centered approach. The enabling technologies of Industry 4.0 are changing the role of the operator and can support him from a physical and cognitive point of view. On the other hand, companies are increasingly implementing lean philosophies, such as World Class Manufacturing, to maintain their competitiveness by reducing wastes and costs. However, the need arises for a comprehensive methodology to support the design of manufacturing equipment considering human factors by integrating Industry 4.0 technologies and World Class Manufacturing elements. It aims at improving both ergonomic and efficiency aspects of the workstation. The proposed methodology allows identifying and in-depth analyzing the problem, thus finding and implementing a solution that complies with all the requirements and constraints defined. Each step of the methodology can be strengthened by Industry 4.0 technologies. The methodology has been experimented in a real case study with a global company of agriculture and industrial vehicles, leading to the design and implementation of a new equipment. Relevant benefits in terms of ergonomics, efficiency, and process standardization have been achieved.

STANDARDISING THE DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF MOORING WINCHES THROUGH MORE COHESIVE REGULATIONS: A NECESSARY STEP

Stricter guidelines, hand in hand with continuous technological advances, mean that vessels are safer and more efficient. At the same time, these changes make ships more complex and expensive. However, this is not the case with mooring equipment. Regulations vary in content, but have the same objective. They fail to improve the ships’ safety and prices are negatively affected. A vessel’s mooring system has to take into account various sets of regulations, including those of the country under whose flag it is sailing; the classification societies; ship owner associations and the terminal ports. This paper will analyse the contents of all these regulations in an attempt to find what they have in common. Its next purpose is to propose guidelines with unified contents. The proposal is to harmonise regulations that affect the mooring winch’s operation, design and construction. With standardised regulations, it would be possible to carry out a single design process and one calculation for components. These steps will be apt for every kind of project. By unifying this process, the final price of manufacturing equipment will be reduced.

Maintenance Preventive Analysis in Additive Manufacturing Equipment using Analytic Hierarchy Process

Maintenance preventive (PM) on equipment is a very important issue for an effective manufacturing system, since the improper MP might cause many problems affecting productivity, precision, flexibility and quality of the products negatively. On the other hand, analysis of MP equipment among many alternatives can be a multicriteria decision making (MCDM) problem. In this study, an integrated approach which employs analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and preference ranking elements, is proposed for the MP equipment of 3D printer machine. The AHP is used to analyze the structure of the equipment problems and to determine weights of the criteria, and this method is used to obtain final ranking. Proposed approach is applied to a problem of 3D printer machines to be established a MP strategy.

RP-HPLC Method Development and Validation for Cleaning Residue Determination of Tofacitinib Citrate in Tofacitinib Tablets

A novel, Specific, and precise RP-HPLC method was developed to determine the residue content of Tofacitinib citrate left on the surface of equipment used in the manufacturing process. The manufacturing equipment considered in assessment of cleaning has been verified and found the tools assembled to the equipment are made up of Stainless steel, Glass, Teflon and plastic. Hence, these surfaces of manufacturing equipment that come in contact with the drug product during manufacturing are considered for evaluation of the cleaning procedure. By developing and validating an analytical method for residue estimation, the manufacturing equipment can be evaluated for efficient cleaning and to release the manufacturing equipment for further intended use by minimizing the cross contaminations. The stationary phase suited for the well separation of components is CAPCELL PAK C18 150 x 4.6 mm, 3 μm; 0.4 % perchloric acid and acetonitrile in the ratio of 85:15 % v/v is the mobile phase pumped at a flow rate of 1.2 mL/min through the column at temperature of 40 ºC. Each run extended for 10 min as the Tofacitinib peak elutes at RT of 5.2 min. The method has been validated successfully for Specificity, Precision, Linearity, Accuracy, Ruggedness and Filter validation of both rinse and swab methods. The LOD, LOQ concentrations found to be 0.006, 0.019 µg/mL for swab method and 0.03 and 0.1 µg/mL for rinse method respectively. The correlation coefficient is 0.999 and method found linear from LOQ to 500% for swab method and LOQ to 200% for rinse method. Solution stability has been established to ensure the test solution get tested within the stable time (4 Days). Based on the filter validation data, it is concluded that PVDF filter is not suitable for cleaning sample analysis and 2 mL sample should be discarded when 0.45 µm Nylon filter is used for cleaning sample analysis.

The Analysis of the Applications of Crop Seed Tape Sowing Technology and Equipment: A Review

Seed tape sowing technology is a kind of crop cultivation technology based on a carrier. This technology first wraps crop seeds in a kind of carrier materials and makes them into seed tape. The seed tape is then laid down in farmland with special equipment. Seed tape planting has the advantages of accurate control of hill spacing, simplification of field sowing process and helps to implement order agriculture. Seed tape manufacturing and laying equipment are the core equipment of the technology and their working reliability directly affects the advantages of seed tape planting technology. Based on the research status of seed tape planting technology and equipment, this article made comparisons between the key technologies which include the method for seed tape manufacturing, seed tape sowing, furrowing, seed tape guiding technology, etc. In this paper, the basic problems of seed tape technology that still need further study are put forward. The future development of tape sowing technology and equipment are predicted as follows: the intelligent high precision and high-speed seed tape manufacturing equipment, the large intelligent integrated seed tape planter of “land preparation-seeding tape making-sowing”, the small and medium-sized mobile walk-behind planters, the application on the agricultural landscape and the crop transplanting. This study will be helpful to promote the further development of seed tape planting technology and provide a reference for the research of tape planting technology and equipment.