Rami H. Fouad

A Review of Literature Relating to JIT

A review of recent literature is presented relating to general Just‐in‐Time (JIT) philosophy, its supply bases and on the formalised and mathematical models. JIT has become a subject of much interest and some little controversy in recent years and has attracted the interest of many major manufacturing organisations in the West as well as in Japan where it was originally developed. A growing and developing literature on this subject has been published particularly since the late 1970s. An attempt is made to draw major conclusions regarding benefits and relevance to Western manufacturing industry.

Electricity Consumption in the Industrial Sector of Jordan: Application of Multivariate Linear Regression and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Techniques

In this study two techniques, for modeling electricity consumption of the Jordanian industrial sector, are presented: (i) multivariate linear regression and (ii) neuro‐fuzzy models. Electricity consumption is modeled as function of different variables such as number of establishments, number of employees, electricity tariff, prevailing fuel prices, production outputs, capacity utilizations, and structural effects. It was found that industrial production and capacity utilization are the most important variables that have significant effect on future electrical power demand. The results showed that both the multivariate linear regression and neuro‐fuzzy models are generally comparable and can be used adequately to simulate industrial electricity consumption. However, comparison that is based on the square root average squared error of data suggests that the neuro‐fuzzy model performs slightly better for future prediction of electricity consumption than the multivariate linear regression model. Such results are in full agreement with similar work, using different methods, for other countries.

The Effect of Annealing Conditions and Alloying Elements on the Microstructure Stability and Mechanical Properties of Mg-Zn-Cesheets

In this work, four Mg-Zn-Ce sheets were processed on an industrial scale by “Helholtz-ZentrumGreesthacht” company. To study the effect of alloying elements and annealing conditions on the rolled sheets, these sheets were annealed at different conditions. Mechanical properties of these rolled and annealed sheets were determined in rolling and transverse directions. Optical microscopy was used to investigate microstructure evolution and stability as well as grain size after annealing. Annealing at 450°C, 1 hr for A and D sheets provides microstructure stability of these sheets. Whereas, annealing B and C sheets for one hour at 400 and 350°C, respectively, provide the optimum annealing conditions. In the studied alloys, the highest zinc (Zn) presence alloyed with magnesium significantly increases the grain size and the amount of precipitates. Whereas, the highest cerium (Ce) presence alloyed with magnesium, refines the grain size during the recrystallization process.

A Fuzzy Logic Approach for Scheduling Preventive Maintenance in ERP System

Many firms have proceeded to the adoption of Enterprise Resources Planning ERP solutions to maintain competitiveness. ERP is a packaged software system that enables enterprises to integrate operations, business processes and functions through common database. However, the majority of ERP systems do not support Preventive Maintenance (PM) scheduling process. The objective of PM is to minimize equipment downtime using the limited resources of an organization. Therefore, prioritizing PM activities for equipment is essential. In this paper, a fuzzy logic-based system for PM scheduling is proposed to interpret the linguistic variables extracted from experts knowledge for determining equipment priorities, which could be incorporated as a custom module in ERP systems. The system was tested and proved to be reliable in solving PM scheduling problem.

Developing and implementing statistical process control tools in a Jordanian company

Statistical Quality Control (SQC) is a branch of Total Quality Management (TQM) that defines a quality philosophy and set the guiding principles that represent the foundation for a continuously improving organisation. Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Acceptance Sampling are the two major parts of SQC. SPC is an effective tool that aims to get and keep processes under control and ensure that the product is manufactured as designed and intended. SPC is comprised of seven tools: Pareto diagram, cause and effect diagram, check sheets, process flow diagram, scatter diagram, histogram and control charts. A case study has been carried out to monitor real life data in a Jordanian manufacturing company that specialises in producing fertilisers. Pareto diagram, histograms and control charts for variables were implemented to investigate the major causes of non-conformities and possible remedies were proposed. The full strength of the seven statistical control tools was implemented and other companies are encouraged to follow suite and implement them simultaneously.

RESTRUCTURING OF THE JORDANIAN UTILITY SECTOR AND ITS ASSOCIATED GHG EMISSIONS: A FUTURE PROJECTION

As a small, non‐oil producing, Middle Eastern country of a young and growing population and rapid urbanization, Jordan, like many countries all over the world, was and is still facing the problem of meeting the rapidly increasing demand of electricity. The main objective of this study is to review many current aspects of the Jordanian electricity sector, including electricity generation, electricity consumption, energy related emissions, and future possibilities, based on time series forecasting, through the term of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol, in which the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan had signed lately, which allows industrialized countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. Several scenarios are proposed in this study, based on projected electricity consumption data until year 2028. Without attempting to ...