Impelling innovation at a Canadian automotive plant

In industrialized countries manufacturing firms are facing significant change resulting from mass customization, shortening product life cycles, increasing technological change, and the entry of international competitors into their markets as witnessed by the automotive and electronics industries. ‘Process Innovation’ is one of the key areas where innovation is exigent.It pertains to finding better or more efficient ways of producing existing products, or delivering existing services. Making innovation a ubiquitous capability in manufacturing is fundamentally a leadership challenge. It needs a tangible organizational infrastructure that makes managers accountable at all levels for driving, facilitating, and embedding the innovation process into every part of the culture.This paper construes the process of ‘impelling and managing innovation’ at an automotive metal stamping plant in Canada, during the 2007-2009 financial crises in North America. The paper discusses the processes, psychological and physical environment, organisational culture, economic climate, and program content; rationale, significance and denouement.The paper concludes that idea management systems don't replace traditional departments and processes involved in new services, products, or strategies.They serve as an adjunct to them and provide a framework that can help organizations turn innovation into an enterprise-wide discipline-and a sustainable process that drives growth in good times and bad. Auto industry is going to remain important, for local, regional and national economies, as well as for the future of the planet if ecologically sustainable transport systems are to be developed; it will, no doubt, remain an important topic in academia

Technology parks of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore: A critical discourse

The emergence of global scale competition is leading towards the development of new mechanisms to help countries to become more competitive and technology parks are the vehicle of choice to achieve that.Technology Parks offer modern infrastructure and integrated info-structure to promote research and technology development and commercialization for wealth creation and sustainable economic growth and Global Competitiveness.This paper discusses the position of technology parks in East Asia; elaborates on their role in today’s nation development, analytically examines three selected technology parks in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore using GCI Index 2015 and concludes that Technology parks have contributed to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, infrastructure development, knowledge community expansion, capacity building, and export production and distribution.However, optimum benefits of Technology Parks accrue when they are established and managed professionally in line with the best practices and all transactions are equitable, just, and transparent; the whole process must culminate trust nationally and internationally

Numerical method on drug release from Nanoparticles using CFD.

Nowadays, there are many ways to administer the huge variety of drugs that are on the market. A drug is a chemical substance, that when applied to a living creature, alters its body function. Many drugs are used daily, such as caffeine in coffee and aspirin for pain. A route of drug administration in pharmacology and toxicology is the path by which a drug is brought into contact with the body. The most critical issue is some drugs are not significantly absorbed into the bloodstream. There are thousands of questions on the drug diffusion in the bloodstream and the most common issue is how long will these micro particles drug be released from the tablet? Thus, to identify the rate of the drug release and to control the drug release in our body is important, where to meet the target and not to become a waste. The Computational Fluid Dynamics method was used to investigate the drug design and diffusion profiles with time during the process of degradation and diffusion in water

Novel Current-Conveyor-Based Universal Current-Mode Biquad Filter with Three Inputs and One Output

A novel universal current-mode filter with three inputs and one high imedance output is presented. The proposed circuit uses four plus-type second-generation current-conveyors, grounded resistors and grounded capacitors. The proposed circuit enjoys low active and passive sensitivities and independent control of the parameters ω0/Q0 using grounded resistors

‘Conscientous Objectors: A Matter of Conscience or Freedom Expression?

One of a series of posters for public exhibition as part of Plymouth History Month 2018 'Legal Tyranny: Conscientious Objection in the Three Towns 1853-1914' explaining how the concept of 'conscientious objection' later came to be associated with the Great War and the Military Act 1916. The exhibition also highlighted some of the powerful modern echoes with the contemporary resistance from some parents to the MMR vaccine Presentation date: 05 May 201

Evaluating effective spare-parts inventory management for equipment reliability in manufacturing industries

The spare part management function is critical from an operational perspective especially in asset intensive industries such as refineries, chemical plants, paper mills, automotive manufacturing, and oil mills.Given the determinants like demand, unpredictability, part substitution, and tight control on spare parts inventory coupled with high service level expectations; the exigency of spare parts management in manufacturing operations cannot be underrated.In most organizations, a constant scrimmage persists over the stocking, ordering, and maintaining of products required by maintenance and operations. The Materials Management and Purchasing functions are often vied against Maintenance, Facilities, Engineering, and Operations with respect to; the number and types of stock keeping units, capital and critical spares, obsolete inventory, inventory investment, and turnover and program operation. This paper evaluates best practices in the Maintenance Repairs & Overhauls, discusses the ABC classification scheme, and elaborates on the role of maintenance storeroom as service provider

Dry-ice blasting an optimal panacea for depurating welding robots of slag and spatter

Though MIG welding robots are extensively applied in the automotive assemblies ‘Spot Welding’ is the most common welding application found in the auto stamping assembly manufacturing.Every manufacturing process is subject to variations – with resistance welding, these include; part fit up, part thickness variations, misaligned electrodes, variations in coating materials or thickness, sealers, weld force variations, shunting, machine tooling degradation; and slag and spatter damage.All welding gun tips undergo wear; an elemental part of the process.Though adaptive resistance welding control automatically compensates to keep production and quality up to the levels needed as gun tips undergo wear so that the welds remain reliable; the system cannot compensate for deterioration caused by the slag and spatter on the part holding fixtures, sensors, and gun tips.To cleanse welding robots of slag and spatter, dry-ice blasting has proven to be an effective remedy. Presently, CO2 / dry ice blasting is being effectively used in a wide array of applications from heavy slag removal to delicate semiconductor and circuit board cleaning.This process can be used on-line without damaging equipment or requiring a machine "teardown".Unlike conventional toxic chemicals, high-pressure water blasting and abrasive grit blasting, CO2 / dry ice blasting uses dry ice particles in a high velocity air flow to remove contaminates from surfaces without the added costs and inconvenience of secondary waste treatment and disposal.This paper describes MIG and Spot welding process and analyses the slag and spatter formation during robotic welding of stamping assemblies; and concludes that the dry ice blasting process’s utility in cleansing of welding robots in auto stamping plant operations is paramount and exigen