Search results for "Operations"

ORDINAL MEASUREMENTS WITH INTERVAL CONSTRAINTS IN THE EIA PROCESS FOR SITING A WASTE STORAGE AREA

2009

We describe application of multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) procedure for siting a waste storage area. The world’s largest biofuel-based combined heat and power (CHP) plant was built in Pietarsaari, Finland. The plant produces certain byproducts, such as flue dust and bottom ash, which need to be processed and stored to prevent releases to the environment. Different storage sites will have different impacts on people, nature, and the economy. Cardinal measurement of the different impacts was considered too costly. Instead, ordinal measurement of all criteria was applied; i.e., experts ranked the alternative storage sites according to each c…

Co2 emissions of French shippers: The roles of delivery frequency and weight, mode choice, and distance

2014

In this article, the authors describe the effects of delivery frequency, mode choice, distance, and shipment weight on the CO₂ emissions of French shippers, taking advantage of a 2004 survey of French shippers (ECHO) which describes the characteristics of 3000 shippers, 10,000 shipments, and 20,000 transport chain legs. Once the energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of every shipment have been computed, they are divided by the corresponding number of ton-kilometers in order to find their carbon intensity (in grams of CO₂ per ton-kilometer). The authors then analyze the latter with respect to a number of selected shipment characteristics: shipment frequency and mode choice (planning choices),…

Peripheral Centralities: An Integrated Approach

2017

Un profondo cambiamento caratterizza a livello globale gli insediamenti urbani: ciò può essere osservato attraverso le relazioni tra centro e periferie. Le aree periferiche sono il banco dove il futuro delle città può essere opportunamente messo alla prova, in cui è possibile prefigurare la futura qualità della vita di individui e comunità. Sicurezza, sostenibilità, benessere che potranno essere raggiunti nelle aree periferiche saranno più rilevanti in termini quantitativi; invece il senso di identificazione e appartenenza, più forte nelle aree centrali, è debole o assente nelle periferie. Occorre puntare quindi a una sorta di centralità diffusa, applicando un approccio integrato, che si ad…

Energy and CO2 life cycle inventory issues for aluminum based components: The case study of a high speed train window panel

2016

Abstract As materials production and transport are two relevant sectors in terms of global environmental impact, over the last years environmental impact analyses (mainly life cycle based analyses) of material replacing strategies in means of transportation were developed. Life cycle approach allows to consider the light-weighing benefit without neglecting the environmental impact of material production. In the present research energy and CO2 emissions life cycle analysis of a real case study is presented. Industrial data, experimental measurements and literature analysis were used to develop the life cycle analysis of an aluminum window panel to be assembled on an Italian high speed train.…

Safety Climates in Construction Industry: Understanding the Role of Construction Sites and Workgroups

2013

Studies of safety climate in construction revealed a significant positive association between safety climate and various aspects of occupational health and safety. The mechanisms through which this impact operates are still unclear and safety climate is usually studied without considering the complexity of this industry (companies, worksites and groups). The aim of this research is to analyze to what extend there are differences between construction sites and to explore the relations between construction sites’ safety climate and workers’ safety response and to examine how this influence occur considering the workgroups. The safety climate was evaluated using a reduced version of the questi…

Life Cycle Assessment of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells and Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

2017

Abstract Fuel cells (FCs) are among the key technologies that Europe will have to rely on in order to comply with the most recent environmental targets inspired by decarbonization and circular economy. The assessment of the real advantages of using FCs for producing energy must include a reliable analysis of the energy and environmental impacts during the life cycle of these systems, including the raw materials supply, production, use, and disposal. In this context, the life cycle assessment (LCA) is a well-established methodology for assessing the eco-profile of products and services and for identifying the components and the life cycle steps having the largest contribution to energy and e…

A Robustness Approach to Reliability

2012

Reliability of products is here regarded with respect to failure avoidance rather than probability of failure. To avoid failures, we emphasize variation and suggest some powerful tools for handling failures due to variation. Thus, instead of technical calculation of probabilities from data that usually are too weak for correct results, we emphasize the statistical thinking that puts the designers focus on the critical product functions. Making the design insensitive to unavoidable variation is called robust design and is handled by (i) identification and classification of variation, (ii) design of experiments to find robust solutions, and (iii) statistically based estimations of proper safe…

Mechanical Efficiency of SSC Exercise

2010

The construction of knowledge from the scientific literature about the theme seaport performance evaluation

2015

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to know what scientific literature presents about the theme evaluation of seaport performance, thus enabling the construction of knowledge in the researchers and the identification of gaps in the research that will lead to advances in the area from the identification of the characteristics of a portfolio of relevant international publications. Design/methodology/approach – From the basic philosophical (constructivism), of the kind strategy (research-action) and the method used for the accomplishment of such strategy (structured process knowledge development process – constructivist (ProKnow-C)) the current research has a qualitative approach. Findings…

Distributed intelligent control of exceptions in reconfigurable manufacturing systems

2003

In order to react to the continuous and unpredictable changes in product demand, in product variety, and in process technologies, reconfigurable manufacturing systems allow quick adjustment of production capacity and functionality by rearranging or changing their modular components. In this kind of system, operation management issues, such as exception handling policies, become more complex since correct reconfiguration strategies have to be selected. This paper explores the potential of the reconfigurability feature to be a basis for the development of new strategies to handle out-of-the-ordinary events in the production process; in particular, maintaining production flow when machine brea…