Key Engineering Materials Vol. 572

Abstract: mplementing Total Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) improves environment, quality, sustainability, and reduces food risks. TQEM has emerged from integrating Environmental Management System (EMS) into the Total Quality Management (TQM). In this paper, an investigation is presented to study the current situation, and identify the barriers and motivations for implementing TQEM towards sustainability for Libyan food industry (LFI). A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was adopted to collect the data with general, operation, and quality managers in LFI. The findings show that LFI are still in the early stage of quality and a little concern about the EMS and TQM has been given. There are five key barriers and five motivations for implementing TQEM in LFI. The paper contributes to the existing knowledge by investigating the implementation of TQEM in different context (i.e., Arab/North African) to the one that the quality and environmental theory developed in. Also, the paper studies all barriers and motivations of TQM and EMS implementation compared with previous studies focusing on few barriers and motivations. The paper provides ideas and insights for LFI managers to develop their implementation in TQEM while also considering quality and environmental issues.

Abstract: An Internet-based system for recycling consumer electronic products has been developed, which monitors the recycling process of electronic products and rewards consumers with incentive points to motivate them to recycle waste electronic products. The system enables the consumers to view the points rewarded online and make a purchase with the reward points. The system has the following functions: customer log-in, online recording of the recycled electronic products, management of customer incentive points, and mobile payment. Within the system, the customer log-in module is built to validate the customers identity using a NFC (near-field communication) enabled smartphone, and allow the authorised customer to log in the system. The recycling monitoring module is used to monitor the process of recycling the electronic products. With this module, the serial number of each electronic product is retrieved using the RFID technology; and the information of the electronic product with the serial number is gained via the remote data centre. With the product information gained, the customers incentive points are obtained based on the products life cycle impact assessment results, which are calculated by the system, and then rewarded to the customer. The points could be used for the mobile payment in the form of electronic money. A case study has been conducted which verified the system developed.

Abstract: Knowledge builds on data and/or information that is organized and processed to convey understanding, experience, accumulated learning and expertise. At the moment, the volumes of data and information are quickly growing uncontrollably. The sheer amount of data, that lacks the structure, connectivity and intent, cannot be utilized efficiently later on. There is ever the greater need to transfer this unstructured mass of bits and bytes to meaningful information and to human understandable knowledge, as it is understood in the industry. However, there are major challenges in understanding the essence of information flow that should connect the different design departments and activities to be part of the life-time information of a product, including its processes and services. The paper introduces a vision where the semantically rich product-process information flows through the life-cycle phases – design, manufacturing, services – of a product or a system, and thus increases the content knowledge.

Abstract: It has considerably practical significance to apply Man-Machine-Environment System Engineering (MMESE) on large scale vessel throughout its whole life cycle. At present, there are not too many researches on this topic in China, but specific tasks refer to a really wide range while developing separately without guidance from the very top. From the views of vessel system, life cycle system of it and MMESE discipline system, the MMESE application system for vessel is constructed; based on it and System Engineering, the three dimension application model for vessel throughout its life cycle is brought forth; based on it and Concurrent Engineering, the concept and framework of MMESE Application System Engineering throughout Life Cycle of Large Scale Vessel (MLM) is finally developed, which plays an important role in conducting actual projects.

Abstract: Recent studies [1, 2] were devoted to author's efforts in formalization of conceptual design process based on vast data in mechanical design accumulated over years. The suggested novel method of conceptual design is implying direct dependence of function and a mechanism intending to implement the challenged function, considering a wider interpretation for both categories of mechanism and function. Main aspects of this method relate to formalization of both mechanism and function, formatting of design pages for tracking the concept design process, formalization of synthesis and analyze tools and formation of design models serving different design targets. Effectiveness of those formalization tasks is based on development and usage of specific graph and matrix based mathematical engine, enabling compact presentation of various aspects of conceptual design method. The current study is aiming to disclose the specific conditions of formalization for reconfigurable as categories widely used in mechanism synthesis and analyzes. Formalization of reconfigurable mechanisms will categories is contribute a lot in effectiveness of organization of concept design. An example from design experience is considered to confirm the validity of suggested formalization approach for the case of reconfigurable mechanisms.

Abstract: Model checking technique can give a specific counterexample which explains how the system violates some assertion when model does not satisfy the specification. However, it is a tedious work to understand the long counterexamples. We propose a genetic algorithm to enhance the efficiency of understanding long counterexample by computing the minimal unsatisfiable subformula. Besides, we also propose a Craig interpolation computation-based method to understand counterexample. The causes which are responsible for model failure are extracted by deriving interpolation from the proof of the nonsatisfiability of the initial state and the weakest precondition of counterexample. Experimental results show that our methods improve the efficiency of understanding counterexamples and debugging significantly.

Abstract: The design process may be regarded as a compound of two sub-processes performed respectively on internal and external part of a building. Due to different specifics, constraints or standards for both of them, sub-processes are usually carried out separately. The potential problems related to such an approach may arise in areas where both environments share common elements, like windows, external doors, and so on. In the article we overview the mechanism of solving this issue by introducing a coordination between both design sub-processes, namely the external and internal one. Thanks to this an overall consistency of a design is preserved.

Abstract: Aerospace product design is a complex and difficult process with high technical requirements and a tight development cycle involving a variety of institutes and manufacturers and requiring close collaboration. These features significantly increase the difficulty of configuration management for an aerospace product. Based on the characteristics and management requirements of new-generation aerospace product design, a method for configuration management with baseline is proposed. The application procedure and working mechanisms of baseline in the three typical stages of aerospace product design: stage transition, multi-stage parallel design, and multi-batch parallel design, are discussed in detail. Research and application results can provide a practical solution and concept for the effective and reliable management of complex configurations.

Abstract: Ergonomics applications is now a highlight spot in various fields. To tackle the problem of unsustainable accumulation of ergonomics knowledge, the representation of ergonomics knowledge is of great importance for the ergonomics experts system to be developed. Based on the appropriate ontology technology, the general knowledge of ergonomics is reclassified to the man-machine-environment. By adopting the top-down method and Protégé, an ontology-based ergonomic framework is conducted to the ergonomics knowledge classification and representation.

Abstract: The configuration of the system combines a liquid-filled lens, a flexible sensor membrane and a self-adjusted optical compensation device. We focus on optical compensation between the liquid-filled lens and the sensor membrane to make the system has good optical characters. For a single lens optical system, the curvy sensor membrane has better performance than flat type sensor in both the image quality of MTF, aberration and angle of view. To prove the idea, an optical measure system is developed and the optical system is also made. The experimental results show that this system do has a better performance in optical character.