Search results for " process control"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Reference point approach for multiple decision makers
2005
We consider multiple criteria decision-making problems where a group of decision-makers wants to find the most preferred solution from a discrete set of alternatives. We develop a method that uses achievement functions for charting subsets of reference points that would support a certain alternative to be the most preferred one. The resulting descriptive information is provided to the decision-makers in the form of reference acceptability indices and central reference points for each decision alternative. Then, the decision-makers can compare this information with their own preferences. We demonstrate the use of the method using a strategic multiple criteria decision model for an electricit…
Comparing the Economic Effectiveness of Various Adaptive Schemes for the c Chart
2014
In an attempt to improve the effectiveness of statistical process control (SPC) procedures, a variety of adaptive schemes has been developed in the last decades. However, considering control charts for attributes, relatively few works about adaptive schemes have been proposed, and most of them were proposed only recently. The common characteristic of those schemes is that one or more chart parameters are allowed to adaptively vary during the SPC operations according to the sampling information history, typically the current point plotted on the chart. In this way, the adaptive schemes are smarter than the related static ones, but they are also more complicated in terms of implementation. Th…
Building a statistical surveillance dashboard for COVID-19 infection worldwide
2020
When a pandemic like the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) breaks out, it is important that authorities, healthcare organizations and official decision makers, have in place an effective monitoring system to promptly analyze data, create new insights into problematic areas and generate actionable knowledge for fact-based decision making. The aim of this article is to describe an initial work focused on building a comprehensive statistical surveillance dashboard for the epidemic of COVID-19, which can be exploited also for future needs. We propose novel ways of exploring, analyzing and presenting data, using metrics that have not been used previously. We also show the steps necessary to b…
A context-aware approach for long-term behavioural change detection and abnormality prediction in ambient assisted living
2015
This research aims to describe pattern recognition models for detecting behavioural and health-related changes in a patient who is monitored continuously in an assisted living environment. The early anticipation of anomalies can improve the rate of disease prevention. Here we present different learning techniques for predicting abnormalities and behavioural trends in various user contexts. In this paper we described a Hidden Markov Model based approach for detecting abnormalities in daily activities, a process of identifying irregularity in routine behaviours from statistical histories and an exponential smoothing technique to predict future changes in various vital signs. The outcomes of t…
Controlling the atmosphere in the malaxation machine headspace in order to improve the quality of Sicilian extra virgin olive oils
2012
During the mechanical extraction process of Virgin Olive Oil (VOO) some important physical phenomena and enzymatic transformations occur influencing the final product quality. The control of process parameters is crucial to ensure the quality of VOO, therefore process monitoring and control is a fundamental requirement in the modern VOO processing industry. The present work proposes a research performed in order to develop a system for the oxygen continuous monitoring inside the malaxation machine to enhance the Sicilian extra virgin olive oil typicality and to establish a correlation with the quality of the final product. The results showed that the use of oxygen during malaxation, allowed…
Economic Robustness Analysis of Adaptive Chart Schemes for Monitoring the Total Nonconformities Number in Inspection Units
2015
In recent years, a variety of enhanced schemes for the c chart have been developed aimed at the effectiveness improving of the related statistical process control (SPC) procedures. However, the performance of such chart schemes can be very sensitive to values assumed for some operating and cost parameters, in particular to the considered process shift magnitude arising from out-of-control conditions. In such a circumstance, the effectiveness of such chart schemes can be subjected to substantial reductions when they are implemented in operative contexts given that, in practice, such value is unknown and it can be very difficult to accurately estimate. For this reason, in the present paper i…
Economic Design Approach for an SPC Inspection Procedure Implementing The Adaptive C Chart
2013
The present paper proposes a design approach for a statistical process control (SPC) procedure implementing a c control chart for non-conformities, with the aim to minimize the hourly total quality-related costs. The latter take into account the costs arising from the non-conforming products while the process is in-control and out-of-control, for false alarms, for assignable cause locations and system repairs, for sampling and inspection activities and for the system downtime. The proposed economic optimization approach is constrained by the expected hourly false alarms frequency, as well as the available labor resource level. A mixed integer non-linear constrained mathematical model is dev…
DSC: software tool for simulation-based design of control strategies applied to wastewater treatment plants.
2011
This paper presents a computer tool called DSC (Simulation based Controllers Design) that enables an easy design of control systems and strategies applied to wastewater treatment plants. Although the control systems are developed and evaluated by simulation, this tool aims to facilitate the direct implementation of the designed control system to the PC of the full-scale WWTP (wastewater treatment plants). The designed control system can be programmed in a dedicated control application and can be connected to either the simulation software or the SCADA of the plant. To this end, the developed DSC incorporates an OPC server (OLE for process control) which facilitates an open-standard communic…
An Effective Double Sampling Scheme for thecControl Chart
2013
In the present paper is developed a statistical process control inspection procedure based on a new simple-to-implement and effective double sampling scheme for the c control chart, aimed at the minimization of the number of inspected observation units and warranting fixed levels for the type I and II error risks. In particular, the formulations of the false alarm risk α, the power P of the chart, and the expected number of inspected observation units for the developed inspection procedure are given, whereas a macro of Microsoft Excel is adopted to solve the tackled problem. In order to illustrate the application of the developed approach and to investigate on the influence of several opera…
A Multi-Objective Design Approach for the c Chart Considering Taguchi Loss Function
2013
The present paper proposes a multi-objective design approach for the c chart, considering in the optimization process of the chart parameters both the statistical and the economic objectives. In particular, the minimization of the hourly total quality related costs is the considered objective to carry out the economic goal, whereas the statistical objective is reached by the minimization the out-of-control average run length of the chart. A mixed integer non-linear constrained mathematical model is formulated to solve the treated multi-objective optimization problem, whereas the Pareto optimal frontier is described by the e-constraint method. In order to show the employment of the proposed …