|
Process Optimization
Process optimization is the discipline of adjusting a process so as to optimize (make the best or most effective use of) some specified set of parameters without violating some constraint. The most common goals are minimizing cost and maximizing throughput and/or efficiency. This is one of the major quantitative tools in industrial decision making. When optimizing a process, the goal is to maximize one or more of the process specifications, while keeping all others within their constraints. This can be done by using a process mining tool, discovering the critical activities and bottlenecks, and acting only on them. Areas Fundamentally, there are three parameters that can be adjusted to affect optimal performance. They are: * Equipment optimization The first step is to verify that the existing equipment is being used to its fullest advantage by examining operating data to identify equipment bottlenecks. * Operating procedures Operating procedures may vary widely from person ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantitative Property
Quantitative research is a research strategy that focuses on quantifying the collection and analysis of data. It is formed from a deductive approach where emphasis is placed on the testing of theory, shaped by empiricist and positivist philosophies. Associated with the natural, applied, formal, and social sciences this research strategy promotes the objective empirical investigation of observable phenomena to test and understand relationships. This is done through a range of quantifying methods and techniques, reflecting on its broad utilization as a research strategy across differing academic disciplines. The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical models, theories, and hypotheses pertaining to phenomena. The process of measurement is central to quantitative research because it provides the fundamental connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression of quantitative relationships. Quantitative data is any data that is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decision Theory
Decision theory (or the theory of choice; not to be confused with choice theory) is a branch of applied probability theory concerned with the theory of making decisions based on assigning probabilities to various factors and assigning numerical consequences to the outcome. There are three branches of decision theory: # Normative decision theory: Concerned with the identification of optimal decisions, where optimality is often determined by considering an ideal decision-maker who is able to calculate with perfect accuracy and is in some sense fully rational. # Prescriptive decision theory: Concerned with describing observed behaviors through the use of conceptual models, under the assumption that those making the decisions are behaving under some consistent rules. # Descriptive decision theory: Analyzes how individuals actually make the decisions that they do. Decision theory is closely related to the field of game theory and is an interdisciplinary topic, studied by economi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optimization
Mathematical optimization (alternatively spelled ''optimisation'') or mathematical programming is the selection of a best element, with regard to some criterion, from some set of available alternatives. It is generally divided into two subfields: discrete optimization and continuous optimization. Optimization problems of sorts arise in all quantitative disciplines from computer science and engineering to operations research and economics, and the development of solution methods has been of interest in mathematics for centuries. In the more general approach, an optimization problem consists of maximizing or minimizing a real function by systematically choosing input values from within an allowed set and computing the value of the function. The generalization of optimization theory and techniques to other formulations constitutes a large area of applied mathematics. More generally, optimization includes finding "best available" values of some objective function given a defin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Process Mining
Process mining is a family of techniques relating the fields of data science and process management to support the analysis of operational processes based on event logs. The goal of process mining is to turn event data into insights and actions. Process mining is an integral part of data science, fueled by the availability of event data and the desire to improve processes. Process mining techniques use event data to show what people, machines, and organizations are really doing. Process mining provides novel insights that can be used to identify the executional path taken by operational processes and address their performance and compliance problems. Process mining starts from event data. Input for process mining is an event log. An event log views a process from a particular angle. Each event in the log should contain (1) a unique identifier for a particular process instance (called case id), (2) an activity (description of the event that is occurring), and (3) a timestamp. There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemical Plant
A chemical plant is an industrial process plant that manufactures (or otherwise processes) chemicals, usually on a large scale. The general objective of a chemical plant is to create new material wealth via the chemical or biological transformation and or separation of materials. Chemical plants use specialized equipment, units, and technology in the manufacturing process. Other kinds of plants, such as polymer, pharmaceutical, food, and some beverage production facilities, power plants, oil refineries or other refineries, natural gas processing and biochemical plants, water and wastewater treatment, and pollution control equipment use many technologies that have similarities to chemical plant technology such as fluid systems and chemical reactor systems. Some would consider an oil refinery or a pharmaceutical or polymer manufacturer to be effectively a chemical plant. Petrochemical plants (plants using chemicals from petroleum as a raw material or '' feedstock'') are us ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oil Refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum naphtha. Petrochemicals feedstock like ethylene and propylene can also be produced directly by cracking crude oil without the need of using refined products of crude oil such as naphtha. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot at or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products. In 2020, the total capacity of global refineries for crude oil was about 101.2 million barrels per day. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units, such as distillation co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Control Loop
A control loop is the fundamental building block of industrial control systems. It consists of all the physical components and control functions necessary to automatically adjust the value of a measured process variable (PV) to equal the value of a desired set-point (SP). It includes the process sensor, the controller function, and the final control element (FCE) which are all required for automatic control. Application The accompanying diagram shows a control loop with a single PV input, a control function, and the control output (CO) which modulates the action of the final control element (FCE) to alter the value of the manipulated variable (MV). In this example, a flow control loop is shown, but can be level, temperature, or any one of many process parameters which need to be controlled. The control function shown is an "intermediate type" such as a PID controller which means it can generate a full range of output signals anywhere between 0-100%, rather than just an on/off si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calculation Of Glass Properties
The calculation of glass properties (glass modeling) is used to predict glass properties of interest or glass behavior under certain conditions (e.g., during production) without experimental investigation, based on past data and experience, with the intention to save time, material, financial, and environmental resources, or to gain scientific insight. It was first practised at the end of the 19th century by A. Winkelmann and O. Schott. The combination of several glass models together with other relevant functions can be used for optimization and six sigma procedures. In the form of statistical analysis glass modeling can aid with accreditation of new data, experimental procedures, and measurement institutions (glass laboratories). History Historically, the calculation of glass properties is directly related to the founding of glass science. At the end of the 19th century the physicist Ernst Abbe developed equations that allow calculating the design of optimized optical micro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deficit Irrigation
Deficit irrigation (DI) is a watering strategy that can be applied by different types of irrigation application methods. The correct application of DI requires thorough understanding of the yield response to water (crop sensitivity to drought stress) and of the economic impact of reductions in harvest. In regions where water resources are restrictive it can be more profitable for a farmer to maximize crop water productivity instead of maximizing the harvest per unit land. The saved water can be used for other purposes or to irrigate extra units of land. DI is sometimes referred to as incomplete supplemental irrigation or regulated DI. Definition Deficit irrigation (DI) has been reviewed and defined as follows: Geerts, S., Raes, D., (2009)Deficit irrigation as an on-farm strategy to maximize crop water productivity in dry areas.''Agric. Water Manage'' 96, 1275-1284 Deficit irrigation is an optimization strategy in which irrigation is applied during drought-sensitive growth stag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Process Simulation
Process simulation is used for the design, development, analysis, and optimization of technical processes such as: chemical plants, chemical processes, environmental systems, power stations, complex manufacturing operations, biological processes, and similar technical functions. Main principle Process simulation is a model-based representation of chemical, physical, biological, and other technical processes and unit operations in software. Basic prerequisites for the model are chemical and physical properties of pure components and mixtures, of reactions, and of mathematical models which, in combination, allow the calculation of process properties by the software. Process simulation software describes processes in flow diagrams where unit operations are positioned and connected by product or educt streams. The software solves the mass and energy balance to find a stable operating point on specified parameters. The goal of a process simulation is to find optimal conditions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taguchi Methods
Taguchi methods ( ja, タグチメソッド) are statistical methods, sometimes called robust design methods, developed by Genichi Taguchi to improve the quality of manufactured goods, and more recently also applied to engineering, biotechnology, marketing and advertising. Professional statisticians have welcomed the goals and improvements brought about by Taguchi methods, particularly by Taguchi's development of designs for studying variation, but have criticized the inefficiency of some of Taguchi's proposals. Taguchi's work includes three principal contributions to statistics: *A specific loss function *The philosophy of ''off-line quality control''; and *Innovations in the design of experiments. Loss functions Loss functions in the statistical theory Traditionally, statistical methods have relied on mean-unbiased estimators of treatment effects: Under the conditions of the Gauss–Markov theorem, least squares estimators have minimum variance among all mean-unbiased li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Business Process Management
Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business processes is BPM. Processes can be structured and repeatable or unstructured and variable. Though not required, enabling technologies are often used with BPM. It can be differentiated from program management in that program management is concerned with managing a group of inter-dependent projects. From another viewpoint, process management includes program management. In project management, process management is the use of a repeatable process to improve the outcome of the project. Key distinctions between process management and project management are repeatability and predictability. If the structure and sequence of work is unique, then it is a project. In business process management, a sequence of work can vary from instance to instanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
