ABSTRACT
Autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs) are driverless material handling systems used for transportation of pallets and line side supply of materials to provide flexibility and agility in shop-floor logistics. Scheduling of shop-floor logistics in such systems is a challenging task due to their complex nature associated with the multiple part types and alternate material transfer routings. This paper presents a decision support system capable of supporting shop-floor decision-making activities during the event of manufacturing disruptions by automatically adjusting both AGV and machine schedules in Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs). The proposed system uses discrete event simulation (DES) models enhanced by the Internet-of-Things (IoT) enabled digital integration and employs a nonlinear mixed integer programming Genetic Algorithm (GA) to find near-optimal production schedules prioritising the just-in-time (JIT) material delivery performance and energy efficiency of the material transportation. The performance of the proposed system is tested on the Integrated Manufacturing and Logistics (IML) demonstrator at WMG, University of Warwick. The results showed that the developed system can find the near-optimal solutions for production schedules subjected to production anomalies in a negligible time, thereby supporting shop-floor decision-making activities effectively and rapidly.
ABSTRACT
With increasing economic pressure on health care, modern hospital management is focusing at industrial optimization techniques to improve efficiency while maintaining quality. Shop floor management, a technique of code-based, process-oriented guidance directly on site is a method of lean management intended to increase efficiency in the operating room. In the literature, there is only scant evidence that the introduction of this technique alone can increase efficiency. The aim of this retrospective study is to determine whether a single tool alone can significantly improve codes. We performed an empirical, retrospective analysis of a number of codes from 3800 operations during two periods of comparison: upon introduction of shop floor management, and one year thereafter. Data was extracted from the Hospital Information System and transferred to a database. There was no statistically significant change in the relevant codes chosen, whether specific to the operating room (turnover time, first patient in the room, waiting times for anesthesia and surgery (p = 0.637) or to planning stability (scheduled, cancelled (p = 0.505), unscheduled and total operations performed (p = 0.984)). There were absolute changes, such as a reduction in the turnover time from 17:37 min to 16:26 min, even though not statistically significant (p = 0.238). Implementation of shop floor management as a single intervention is not appropriate to achieve a significant, continuous improvement in codes. A combination with other techniques such as detailed process analyses is definitely required. This could be important additional information for units using Lean Health Care strategies.
Subject(s)
Anesthesiology , Operating Rooms , Efficiency , Efficiency, Organizational , Humans , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Experience of occupational stress is inevitably involved in the execution of any type of work. Stress has an adaptive value. It motivates the individual to attend to the task and get rid of the tension or demand the unattended task produced. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was planned to investigate the differences between executives and shop floor workers on occupational stress, mental health, job satisfaction and coping. A random sample of 200 executives and shop floor employees collected from Nuclear Fuel Complex of Hyderabad City. A well developed sub-scales of Occupational Stress indicator like Mental Health, and Coping behavior were used in the present study. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The shop floor workers experiencing more job stress and lower mental health. But these two groups did not differ in their coping behaviour. The executives are better with work home balance.
ABSTRACT
Este trabalho investiga noções de "feminino" nas narrativas de atores organizacionais responsáveis pela atribuição de funções aos trabalhadores de chão de fábrica em empresa líder no setor de eletrodomésticos. Coerente com entendimento da dimensão social e cultural das noções de feminino e masculino, e a partir de revisão bibliográfica no campo das organizações e da psicologia social, constróise referencial teórico de análise. Apesquisa configura-se como estudo de caso de natureza descritivo-qualitativa. Tomando-se como dados empíricos narrativas dos responsáveis pela contratação dos trabalhadores, pode-se afirmar que as noções de gênero atribuídas às trabalhadoras apontam para características tradicionalmente associadas às mulheres, estabelecendo-se um padrão de feminilidade para o sexo feminino nessa fábrica. Percebe-se que o que muda é o valor de funcionalidade dado a esse conjunto de características. Os mesmos traços que historicamente justificaram o lugar das mulheres fora da fábrica, justificam, atualmente, seu lugar dentro da produção. Um lugar, entretanto, que continua a guardar as marcas da discriminação e segregação, no que diz respeito tanto ao tipo de ocupação como às oportunidades e ao status que lhes é conferido.
This work investigates the notions of "feminine" and "masculine" as well as the setting of functions to women and men that surrounds the narratives of organizational actors of electro domestic organization. The viewpoint that the concepts of what is "being man" and "being woman" reflect and reinforce socio historical, cultural and ideological dimensions, that surrounds society. The methodology is set as a case research with a descriptive qualitative nature. The empirical material is based on the narratives of the responsible for lightering women. It was possible to notice the emergence of market changes that asked for significant adaptations in the work organization and the organization's management, which reflected in chances in the justifications for the setting of functions to women along the period. That the gender notions that are related to the female workers shows the traditionally prescribed attributes that would set the feminity standard to women. That the set of female attributes didn't change. Other hand, we noticed that what does change are the justifications to the place that women have to fill in. The attempts to keep women in a smaller number and in lower status/salary positions are being wells succeeded in this company 'shop floor.
