Dario Pozzetto

Waste heat recovery in a coffee roasting plant

Abstract The paper presents the possibility of introducing, in the event of substitution of an old plant, the recovery of heat produced during the roasting process of coffee. During the analysis, thermo and fluid dynamic operating parameters of the present plant were defined also with the support of an experimental measuring campaign. Energy recovery possibilities were, then, evaluated and a possible plant solution was examined taking into consideration its economic feasibility. The case study is also interesting because the methodology used for the analysis can be generally applied to production plants, which have hot air exhaust emissions. Waste heat recovery, actually, is an important topic not only for its economic benefits, but also for its environmental outcomes and resource saving.

Operational Solutions for Short-Term Production Planning and Control in a Make-to-Order Company

The purpose of this paper is to propose a method for short-term production planning, focused on control and regulation of work-in-process in a make-to-order production system. The possible improvements in terms of performance indices (production lead time and reliability of delivery dates) of the job shop are pointed out. The solution implied a revision of the production process and the application of input-output control methods for operations management at job shop level. The production stages that were independent from customers’ orders were decoupled from activities that could be performed before an order entry. For workload control the load-oriented manufacturing control (LOMC) method was applied to a manufacturing area that produces order-specified items. The experimental phase, on the one hand, gave insights on improvements that can be obtained with the proposed method and, on the other hand, made it possible to define dispatching rules that were effective for work order management in the case study.

A Comparison of Different Technologies for Automotive Component Production by a Life Cycle Perspective

For several decades now, plastic components have been used more and more in the automotive industry, both for supporting and for aesthetic elements. For such uses, goals like reduction of weight and of production costs, improvement of production plant flexibility, have assumed an ever increasing importance and have been considered important for companies to define their capability on answering to market requirements and challenges. Also the reduction of environmental impacts related to production, use and disposal of these components, was considered as an important goal during recent years.