Research on the price of harvesters in the secondary market as an aspect of changing their technical condition

In the timber industry complex of Russia, medium-sized and small enterprises with a volume of timber harvesting up to 100 thousand cubic meters per year occupy a share of 48% in the total vol-ume. Most of these enterprises do not have the capacity to purchase new harvesters. An alternative to the new harvesters are the harvesters from the secondary market. Thus the study of changes in the technical condition of harvesters during their operation is an actual study for Russia. The data on the models, age, number of hours worked and the cost of harvesters that are offered on the secondary market was collected. 202 commercial offers were collected. In total there are 31 harvesters under 5 years of operation; 99 harvesters from 5 to 10 years of operation; 56 – from 10 to 15 years of operation; and 16 – older than 15 years of operation. There are 73 John Deere harvesters (including the outdated Timberjack models), with 8 tracked vehicles, 29 Ponsse harvesters; 49 Komatsu harvesters (including the out-dated Valmet models) with 4 harvesters based on a tracked excavator; 37 harvesters of different models made on the basis of tracked excavators and 18 harvesters of other models. Hypothetically assuming that there is a connection between the price of the harvester and its condition, correlations were analyzed between the price and the age of the harvester and between the price and the number of worked hours of the harvester. The relationship between the price and the age is described by power and exponential curves, with coefficients of determination of 0.56 and 0.54, respectively. Filtering data by power range (160-205 kW) and by model (three models were considered: John Deere 1270; Ponsse Ergo; Komatsu 931) did not lead to clear certainty about the form of regression, although it slightly increased the coefficient of determination. There are groups of factors that can influence the type of regression: the seller's factor, the repair factor, the operation factor, and the technical characteristics factor, but determining the degree of influence of these groups requires additional research. The dependence between the price and the number of worked hours is characterized by a very weak relation due to a large spread of data owing to incorrect values of the hours marked by sellers. General regression trends for harvesters are consistent with data for other types of tractors. But to determine unambiguity in regressions requires the accumulation of empirical data on the reliability of machinery and changes in their price over a number of years.

Numerical Simulation of Plasma Spraying Performance Index

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in plasma jet numerical simulation. Speed and temperature propagation in axial and radial direction in plasma jet significantly influences on speed and temperature of sprayed material and therefore on coating quality. However, there are few studies concerning plasma jet numerical simulation in modern software systems and they describe a specific problem. It is a wellknown fact that using simple structural components such as plasmatron heads for plasma thermal spraying allows us to increase the quality of zirconium oxide coatings by increasing the speed of spraying particles and decreasing their spread value and allows to increase economic efficiency of the process by increasing the operation factor of spraying material. However, scientists have not studied well the influence of the plasmatron head, which looks like a cone element, and the simulation of a high temperature flow along the channel is not mentioned in publications. Therefore, it is necessary to research the flow of a high temperature current along the channel of the head.

Dynamics of MSME Industry in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra: An Analysis of Sugar Firms

Micro enterprises create the strength of an economy in maintaining an appreciable growth rate and in creating employment preambles. The sector has been regarded as an instrument of economic growth and social development in developing countries like India. This study is an attempt to focus on the technical efficiency (TE) of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) enterprise sugar mills in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. The result indicates that the production function is operating under constant returns to scale. Over the period, age (number of years in operation) factor has an inverse effect on efficiency level. Ownership plays an important role in Maharashtra as compared to Uttar Pradesh. The ‘likelihood ratio’ suggests that time-decay model is preferred over time-invariant technical inefficiency. The average TE of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh is 66 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively. MSMEs sugar mills of Maharashtra are more efficient than sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh.

Operating Load of Belt Conveyor as a Reflection of Actual Planogram of Coal Shearer Operation in Integrated-Powered Face

Conveyor transport at a modern coal mine is the main link that determines the overall performance of the enterprise. For safe operation of belt conveyors, it is important to ensure that shift output per face doesn’t produce average and maximum minute material flows, which exceed strength margin of the belt, power margin of the drive, and receiving capacity. Such situation, as a rule, may arise due to the strive of workers to compensate for underproduction caused by long downtimes of a face for any reason. In the paper, a method is proposed that enables determining the maximum shift output per face. According to the technique described in the “Basic Provisions for Designing Underground Transport of New and Existing Coal Mines,” the average minute material flow, which determines the operational load on a belt conveyor, depends on the material feed time factor. Accepting the assumption that a coal shearer works the entire shift in a face, the limiting value of the material feed time factor is equal to 1. To determine the actual value of this factor, it is proposed to determine the face operating (production) time using actual planogram. The shift time is spent for preparatory and finishing operations, the face equipment and conveyor line troubleshooting and failure recovery, auxiliary service operations and, finally, operational and organizational downtimes. On the actual planogram, these time intervals are displayed by straight-line portions. Thus, the shift time minus downtime for any reason, represents the face production time. The ratio of these values represents the operation factor. Applying the operation factor allows to determine the maximum limiting face production, not only taking into account the volume of coal mined per cycle, but also based on coal cuttability and technical specifications of the face equipment. This enables us to determine the face production load that ensures safe operation of the belt conveyor.

A Modified Pareto Ant Colony Optimization Approach to Solve Biobjective Weapon-Target Assignment Problem

The weapon-target assignment (WTA) problem, known as an NP-complete problem, aims at seeking a proper assignment of weapons to targets. The biobjective WTA (BOWTA) optimization model which maximizes the expected damage of the enemy and minimizes the cost of missiles is designed in this paper. A modified Pareto ant colony optimization (MPACO) algorithm is used to solve the BOWTA problem. In order to avoid defects in traditional optimization algorithms and obtain a set of Pareto solutions efficiently, MPACO algorithm based on new designed operators is proposed, including a dynamic heuristic information calculation approach, an improved movement probability rule, a dynamic evaporation rate strategy, a global updating rule of pheromone, and a boundary symmetric mutation strategy. In order to simulate real air combat, the pilot operation factor is introduced into the BOWTA model. Finally, we apply the MPACO algorithm and other algorithms to the model and compare the data. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is successfully applied in the field of WTA which improves the performance of the traditional P-ACO algorithm effectively and produces better solutions than the two well-known multiobjective optimization algorithms NSGA-II and SPEA-II.

Effective Project Management Tools for Modern Organizational Structures

Project management is an important business operation factor for the majority of modern companies and public administrations. Therefore, its efficiency represents a challenge to all project teams and depends on the organizational, resource-based and technical complexities. Numerous studies are thus related to the project management efficiency and techniques of its application. In this context, modern business strategies oriented toward the creation and retention of value recognize the importance of the relationship between project management and company organization and management. In order for the system to completely satisfy the purpose, numerous factors should be brought in harmony, from working processes to systems of planning, reporting and analysis. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of existing systems for monitoring of project management within modern organizations are presented and the model for effective project management is accordingly proposed with the aim of eliminating disadvantages of business processes and planning procedures.