Failure Analysis in Precision Manufacturing

Precision manufacturing is a process to produce products with tolerances smaller than 1 part in 104 or 105. The process is based on dimensional precision, angular precision, form precision, surface roughness, kinematic precision, and surface layer alternations. There are sources of error in precision manufacturing that are enemies of precision processes. In this chapter, these sources are explored and a Markovian model is developed for evaluating process robustness and machine accuracy. An illustrative example is presented here in order to demonstrate the application of the model in industries dealing with precision processes.

Ordering Policy in a Two-Warehouse Environment for Deteriorating Items under Inflationary Conditions

In this chapter, the two-warehouse inventory problem is considered for deteriorating items with constant demand rate and shortages under inflationary conditions. In today’s unstable global economy, the effects of inflation and time value of money cannot be ignored as it increases the cost of goods. To safeguard from the rising prices, during the inflation regime, the organization prefers to keep a higher inventory, thereby increasing the aggregate demand. This additional inventory needs additional storage space that is facilitated by a rented warehouse. Further ahead, in the real business world, to retain the freshness of the commodity, most of the organizations adopt the First-In-First-Out (FIFO) dispatching policy. FIFO policy yields fresh and good conditioned stock thereby resulting in customer satisfaction, especially when items are deteriorating in nature. However, the two warehousing systems usually assume that the holding cost of items is more in Rental Warehouse (RW) than the Owned Warehouse (OW) due to modern preserving techniques. Therefore, to reduce the inventory costs, it is economical to consume the goods of RW at the earliest. This approach is termed the Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) approach. The objective of the present chapter is to develop a two warehouse inventory model with FIFO and LIFO dispatching policies under inflationary conditions. Further, comparison between FIFO and LIFO policies has been exhibited with the help of a numerical example. Sensitivity analysis has also been performed to study the impact of various parameters on the optimal solution.

Complexity Analysis in Additive Manufacturing for the Production of Tissue Engineering Constructs

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a process of making a Three-Dimensional (3D) solid object of virtually any shape from a digital model that is used for both prototyping and distributed manufacturing with applications in many fields, such as dental and medical industries and biotech (human tissue replacement). AM refers to technologies that create objects through a sequential layering process. AM processes have several primary areas of complexity that may not be measured precisely, due to uncertain situations. Therefore, this chapter reports an analytical model for evaluating process complexity that takes into account uncertain situations and additive manufacturing process technologies. The model is able to rank AM processes based on their relative complexities. An illustrative example for several processes is demonstrated in order to present the application of the model.

Grey-Based Taguchi Analysis Approach for Optimization of Multi-Objective Problem

Due to the increase in complexity and expectations of more reliable solutions for a problem, the importance of multi-objective problem solutions is increasing day by day. It can play a significant role in making a decision. In the present approach, many combinations of the optimization techniques are proposed by the researchers. These hybrid evolutionary methods integrate positive characteristics of different methods and show the advantage to reach global optimization. In this chapter, Taguchi method and the GRA (Grey Relation Analysis) technique are pronounced and used to optimize a multi-objective metal cutting process to yield maximum performance of tungsten carbide-cobalt cutting tool inserts in turning. L18 orthogonal array is selected to analyze the effect of cutting speed, feed rate, and depth of cut using cryogenically treated and untreated inserts. The performance is evaluated in terms of main cutting force, power consumption, tool wear, and material removal rate using main effect plots of S/N (Signal to Noise) ratios. This chapter indicates that the grey-based Taguchi technique is not only a novel, efficient, and reliable method of optimization, but also contributes to satisfactory solution for multi-machining objectives in the turning process. It is concluded that cryogenically treated cutting tool inserts perform better. However, the feed rate affects the process performance most significantly.

Customers’ Perspectives of Internet Banking Adoption in Developing Economies

The competition in the banking sector has increased dramatically from the past decade. This increased competition environment in the financial service sector has resulted in the development and utilization of alternative delivery channels. The advancements and revolutions in the communication and information technology have changed the functional scenario of the banking sector significantly. Internet banking is a novel delivery channel of banking and has been found to be an optional channel for the traditional banking because of the savings in time, money and effort. Banks have become more and more competitive to meet the customers demand for ease of use, functionality, relative advantage, greater accessibility and the best of the services at a lower price. The objective of this study is to investigate the factors which influence the adoption of Internet banking adoption in private sector banks of India. Factors such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, relative advantage and trialability have been found to be the determinants of Internet banking in the previous studies. A new variable called conspicuousness has been introduced in the present study. Such a study has not been reported in the literature in the Indian context. A model has been proposed and tested using various statistical techniques. The findings are of great use primarily for the banks which are planning to offer Internet banking services, and for already existing banks to focus on the gaps. This research article provides valuable insights into the underlying contextual factors of Internet banking behavior for researchers and practitioners. The outcome of the study can be used to formulate new marketing strategies to increase the customer base of Internet banking market.

Consumer Preference for the Latest Technological Offering

Prior research has shown that when making high tech purchase decisions, consumers consider not only the relative advantage afforded by currently available products, but also the relative advantage expected from future generation products. Additionally, empirical evidence suggests that prices for high tech products often decline faster than the technology advances. This chapter takes both these findings into account and investigates the antecedents of expectation formation and how consumer purchase decisions for high- and low-tech products are impacted by asymmetrical rates of technological advance and price decline. Although consumers generally prefer the latest technological generation of a product, level of technological sophistication (high- vs. low-tech), rate of technological change and price decline, and expectations regarding future product introductions, based on familiarity with past product introductions, were found to moderate the effect of technological generation on preference.

Prioritizing Lean Six Sigma Efforts Using Bayesian Networks

In order to retain competitive advantages, many manufacturing organizations have applied Lean Six Sigma techniques to improve production processes. The general approach for implementing Lean Six Sigma is to perform various projects to tackle specific problems or areas. However, with the manufacturing system and its external environment becoming more and more complex, it is simply not possible to solve all the problems given the limited resources. The purpose of this chapter is to develop a model that provides a systematic evaluation for potential opportunities to enhance the effectiveness of Lean Six Sigma. Deriving from the Bayesian Network methodology, the proposed model combines a graphical approach to represent cause-and-effect relationships between events of interests and probabilistic inference to estimate their likelihoods in the area of process improvement. The developed model can be used for assessing the problems associated with Lean Six Sigma initiatives and prioritizing efforts to solve these problems.

Seru Production

Seru, a new production organization, was developed to cope with the volatile manufacturing environments with short product life cycles, uncertain product types, and fluctuating production volumes (sometimes mass, sometimes batch, and sometimes very small volumes.). Many leading global companies such as Samsung, Sony, Canon, Panasonic, LG, and Fujitsu have adopted seru. Seru overcame a lot of disadvantages inherent in TPS and brought amazing benefits to seru users. Seru is still largely unknown outside Asia. This article introduces seru’s history and defines various seru types. The evolutionary process of developing serus is described by using industry cases. A seru pyramid is constructed to compare seru with the TPS. A just-in-time organization system is introduced. We show why applying it can bring great productivity, efficiency, and flexibility to a production organization.

Specialization vs. Diversification Decision Making

This chapter has two main aims: first, to explore the role of various economical, financial, and strategic forces influencing firms towards diversification and specialization decision making within the Saudi Arabian manufacturing industry, and second to assess the challenges for both types of companies at the time of decision making and afterwards. Surveying 100 decision makers in the industrial cities of Riyadh using questionnaires developed for both groups, the chapter initially attempts to identify the factors that had the greatest impact on firm performance based on firm returns on investment. Several factors were found significant; first, attempts of specialization were found associated with risk avoidance and managers craving to achieve industry dominant economic features, whilst results show an increased concern among diversified firm decision makers towards changes in import and export policies and regulations. Moreover, industry type was found effective in managerial responses as they weigh the role of the factors presented to the direction of the expansion made.

Implications and Philosophical Requirements of a Comprehensive Dialectical Inquiry System

For the purpose of aiding upper-level strategic or political decision making and some forms of conflict management, this chapter revisits the concept of dialectical inquiry (DI) from the perspective of collaborative framing or modeling for “collaboration engineering.” It does so by integrating the recent literature with its theoretical and philosophical sources. The connection of DI and the problem-framing paradigm is clarified. The chapter also establishes the general requirements or desired features of an up-to-date DI system and evaluates some current systems and their implications in light of these criteria.