Daoud Ait Kadi

A STATE-OF-THE-ART REVIEW OF FMEA/FMECA

The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) documents single failures of a system, by identifying the failure modes, and the causes and effects of each potential failure mode on system service and defining appropriate detection procedures and corrective actions. When extended by Criticality Analysis procedure (CA) for failure modes classification, it is known as Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (FMECA). The present paper presents a literature review of FME(C)A, covering the following aspects: description and review of the basic principles of FME(C)A, types, enhancement of the method, automation and available computer codes, combination with other techniques and specific applications. We conclude with a discussion of various issues raised as a result of the review.

Expert system for AGV managing in bidirectional networks: KADS methodology based approach

Abstract This paper presents an expert system prototype for collision avoidance and routing unidirectional automated guided vehicles (AGV) in bidirectional networks. KADS methodology was used for the prototype development. System modelling, concepts employed in expert system development, and the model implementation are presented. The expert system prototype allows to solve some specific conflicts arising in a bidirectional network between AGVs during task accomplishments. It is mainly based on“stepping back” in simulated time concept and Dijkstras shortest path method. It routes all vehicles through their shortest paths and uses a conflict managing strategy to solve conflicts occurring during AGV travels. Two illustrative examples are discussed in this manuscript.

The sustainable worldwide offshore wind energy potential: A systematic review

The offshore wind industry is expanding rapidly around the world due to several factors enabling this source of renewable energy. Stronger wind resources in offshore areas, lack of social and geographical constraints related to onshore wind power, the evolution of technology, and increasing demand for electricity in coastal regions as a result of a massive increase in population are some of the factors favoring the use of wind energy. The assessment of the potential global capacity that considers the different economic, environmental, and social factors and the dynamics of market, policy, and technology are vital for estimating the competitiveness of offshore wind energy in the future energy profile. There are several studies and technical reports that evaluate the potential of offshore wind energy in different countries or regions. They used a different source of data, metrics, and quantitative approaches in appraising the potential offshore wind power capacity and its cost efficiency. The critical facto...

Modelling end of life phase of the complex products: the case of end of life aircraft

There are different approaches to modelling the products at the End of Life (EOL), including closed loop approach, the ladder of lansink and material flow. The sustainability principles and the complexity of the products may affect the choice of modelling type. The life cycle costs, several subsystems and the interaction between design features, construction, technology, suppliers and legislation affect the degree of complexity of the products. Hence, developing appropriate strategies are required for modelling EOL phase of the complex products. This article presents strategies for modelling EOL phase of complex products considering sustainability tools, EOL phase models and the characteristics of these products. An ingenerated approach is proposed to address the four essential aspects of the complex product at the EOL: operational, tactical, strategic and sustainability. The case of aircraft at the EOL is presented to highlight the application of the proposed approach.

End of life aircrafts recovery and green supply chain (a conceptual framework for addressing opportunities and challenges)

Purpose – This paper aims to address the different aspects of end-of-life (EOL) aircraft problems and their effects on original manufacturer’s supply chain. Aircraft manufacturers, in the greener aviation context, need to care about the footprint of planes at the EOL. Considering the challenges in EOL aircraft recovery, the reverse logistics and green supply chain solutions in the other industrial sections cannot be applied in the aerospace industry. A conceptual framework with four elements, supply chain competency, governance policy, relationship in supply chain and aerospace industry context, provides a basis for assessing the opportunities and challenges of the green supply chain in this industry. Design/methodology/approach – The basic research method utilized in this paper is the literature review. The literature review is a research methodology that includes examining books, journals, conference proceedings and dissertations for available information on the area of research. The research area regar...

End-of-life aircraft treatment in the context of sustainable development, lean management, and global business

ABSTRACT Dealing with retired aircraft taking into account the environmental, social, and economic impacts is emerging as an air transportation problem for the near future. The players involved in the problem wish to solve this challenge in a systematic way to benefit from the value extracted from the core activities of the end-of-life (EoL) aircraft treatment, decrease the environmental impacts, and at the same time maximize the social value. This paper proposes a holistic approach to EoL aircraft treatment considering lean management, sustainable development, and the global business environment. An integrated optimization framework is proposed to support decision-making at both the strategic and managerial levels. The flexibility of the framework makes it possible to compare different business models, dismantling strategies, and network structures that impact the efficiency, stability, and leanness of the recovery network. A solution methodology based on the joint application of fuzzy interactive approach and genetic algorithm is introduced. The application perspective and guidelines for pilot study are also provided. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that recovery of EoL aircraft is considered based on three aspects of sustainability, lean, and global business. Therefore, this study provides many promising perspectives in this context to enrich the literature of EoL aircraft as a new aviation industry challenge and opportunity.

Strategic eco-design map of the complex products: toward visualisation of the design for environment

With growing sustainability and environmental concerns regarding the products, decision-makers and business managers need to integrate sustainability into business strategies and support it via systematic business processes and decision support tools. With the integration of the eco-efficiency attributes to the product development, more data should be analysed in engineering design. This integration also increases the complexity of the design process due to the large volume of data processing and diversity of the different attributes and features of the products. In this paper, we used the stock market metaphor to develop a visual data mining approach to the strategic eco-design assessment of the complex products. We presented a fresh framework using clustering and visualisation techniques to analyse the eco-efficiency profile of the different modules, components and parts of a complex product, and provide an efficient data exploration tool for decision-makers to facilitate processing of eco-design attributes, and strategic objectives at the same time. An illustrative example is provided to show the procedure of the application and the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Towards the Blockchain-Enabled Offshore Wind Energy Supply Chain

While the technology of offshore wind production is more or less mature, there are still many issues to be solved for mass production and deployment of wind farms at reasonable costs. Hence, one of the challenging topics in developing a supply-chain strategy of offshore wind energy is efficiency on the one hand and meeting the requirements of stability, flexibility, and adaptability from market, technology and policy perspectives on the other. Supply-chain management of offshore wind energy requires processing a large amount of data and effective traceability and visibility. Blockchain as a fresh technology could provide the solution for interoperability and collaboration among a number of suppliers dispersed all over the world. This paper seeks to discuss the opportunities of blockchain technology in upstream, midstream and downstream of offshore wind energy.

Reliability analysis of supply chain for contingency operations

In this paper, we propose a probabilistic analysis approach for assessing the reliability of supply chain for contingency operation consisting of several cities. We consider that the demand of cities and the quantity of products available at distribution centre are uncertain. Also, we analyze the case where the quality of products available at distribution center is considered uncertain. We evaluate the reliability of supply chain without making any particular assumption on normality of distribution of population demand and the quantity of products available at distribution center. Also, we analyse the problem with making correlation between demand of each city and quantity of products available at distribution center. To conduct a probabilistic analysis we consider the supply chain as a structure that undergoes an external load represented by the demand of population during the crisis period and resist to this load by its strength represented by the quantity of products available at distribution center. The reliability of supply chain for contingency operation is defined as the probability that the available inventory at distribution center meets all population demand during crisis period. The supply chain is considered “failed” if the quantity available at distribution center is less than population demand during crisis period. First Order Reliability Method is used to evaluate the reliability of supply chain.

A Blackboard Architecture to Automate a Dependability Analysis Task

Abstract A Conceptual Blackboard (BB) architecture, to automate a proposed methodology of dependability analysis of manufacturing systems is presented. BB architecture automates depenability analysis by integrating several existent automated and non automated tools implementing different and complementary approaches. The paper summerizes the methodology to automate, presents an overview on the BB architecture and surveys some of its applications, proposes a BB framework implementing the methodology and finally concludes by discussing future developments.