ABSTRACT Recently the demand on availability contracts has increased, along with other business m... more ABSTRACT Recently the demand on availability contracts has increased, along with other business models that have offered to sell the use of the product rather than selling the product itself, such as with Product Service Systems (PSS). Researchers are actively encouraged to create tools to improve the performance of their service offerings, and maintenance is a key element in assuring the higher availability of an asset (product). Discrete Event Simulation (DES) has been able to model different monitoring levels such as Reactive, Diagnostics, and Prognostics. This paper aims to understand and examine the effect of spare parts and labour levels on the behaviour of maintenance operations and asset availability located at different customer sites using different monitoring levels. A case study has been presented to reflect the effect of different spare parts and labour levels on asset availability when applying different monitoring levels.
ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that ca... more ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of the topic of green production. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review to capture, classify and summarize the main body of knowledge on green production and, translate this into a form that is readily accessible to researchers and practitioners in the more mainstream operations management community. Findings: The existing knowledge base is somewhat fragmented. This is a relatively unexplored topic within mainstream operations management research and one which could provide rich opportunities for further exploration. Originality/value: This paper sets out to review current literature, from a more conventional production operations perspective, and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of this topic.
International Journal of Agile Management Systems, Nov 30, 1999
This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viab... more This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viablesystems model (VSM) and modern business process thinking. ... 2. The viable systems model (VSM). The roots of VSM are strongly embedded in the science of cybernetics. ...
In spite of the growth in the body of green supply chain management, it is still difficult to und... more In spite of the growth in the body of green supply chain management, it is still difficult to understand the environmental sustainability practices involved in supply chain management (SCM) activities. This is an interdisciplinary field and the scope of GSCM practices is broad covering from green purchasing to integrated life-cycle management. This paper focuses on upstream supply chain management activities, which are usually responsible for diffusing environmental sustainability practices across the supply base. Therefore, peer-reviewed papers focused on the diffusion of environmental sustainability practices across manufacturing supply chain base are examined. It is found that this diffusion is sharply related to the purchasing, performance assessment and collaboration. These upstream activities are affected by internal functions and the maturity level of environmental and culture of organisation. In addition, upstream SCM activities are better designed taking into account the characteristics of products and processes, mainly in terms of the inputs and outputs environmental aspects. This research can help manufactures to access example of environmental sustainability practices commonly reported in supply chain management field.
Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on ... and Fourth Optoelectronics and Communications Conference on Communications,, 1999
The optical packet switch geometry detailed permits priority routing by adopting feedback delay l... more The optical packet switch geometry detailed permits priority routing by adopting feedback delay lines. A proposal to implement two smaller AWGs in the switch is also presented. Their optical performance is investigated with respect to power penalty. This work is a part of an EPSRC-funded project, WASPNET (Wavelength Switched Packet NETwork)
International Journal of Agile Management Systems, 1999
This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viab... more This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viablesystems model (VSM) and modern business process thinking. ... 2. The viable systems model (VSM). The roots of VSM are strongly embedded in the science of cybernetics. ...
An exploratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of coffee, guaraná, and yerba ... more An exploratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of coffee, guaraná, and yerba mate on mood and performance, and to determine any potential of these beverages to overcome the soporific effects of lunch. Seventy-one female students were assigned to four beverages, including a decaffeinated coffee control, and tested on two days (lunch/no lunch), over three sessions (prior to drinking the beverage, and again 60 and 150 minutes after drinking the beverages). Lunch had little effect other than to increase pulse. Guaraná increased systolic blood pressure and accuracy on a vigilance task; coffee increased accuracy on the vigilance task; but yerba mate had no significant effects. Further research is recommended before any definitive conclusions about the effects of guaraná and yerba mate are reached.
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 2015
ABSTRACT Purpose – Asset management has recently gained significance due to emerging business mod... more ABSTRACT Purpose – Asset management has recently gained significance due to emerging business models such as Product Service Systems where the sale of asset use, rather than the sale of the asset itself, is applied. This leaves the responsibility of the maintenance tasks to fall on the shoulders of the manufacturer/supplier to provide high asset availability. The use of asset monitoring assists in providing high availability but the level of monitoring and maintenance needs to be assessed for cost effectiveness. There is a lack of available tools and understanding of their value in assessing monitoring levels. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This research aims to develop a dynamic modelling approach using Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to assess such maintenance systems in order to provide a better understanding of the behaviour of complex maintenance operations. Interviews were conducted and literature was analysed to gather modelling requirements. Generic models were created, followed by simulation models, to examine how maintenance operation systems behave regarding different levels of asset monitoring. Findings – This research indicates that DES discerns varying levels of complexity of maintenance operations but that more sophisticated asset monitoring levels will not necessarily result in a higher asset performance. The paper shows that it is possible to assess the impact of monitoring levels as well as make other changes to system operation that may be more or less effective. Practical implications – The proposed tool supports the maintenance operations decision makers to select the appropriate asset monitoring level that suits their operational needs. Originality/value – A novel DES approach was developed to assess asset monitoring levels for maintenance operations. In applying this quantitative approach, it was demonstrated that higher asset monitoring levels do not necessarily result in higher asset availability. The work provides a means of evaluating the constraints in the system that an asset is part of rather than focusing on the asset in isolation.
Abstract Traditionally, manufacturing facilities and building services are considered to be suppl... more Abstract Traditionally, manufacturing facilities and building services are considered to be supplementary to manufacturing operations. Manufacturing operations use and discard energy with the support of facilities. Additionally, these disciplines have been pursued independently to date; the design and improvement of buildings and manufacturing systems typically carried out in isolation. Therefore improvements in energy and other resource use to work towards sustainable manufacturing have been sub-optimal. This paper presents ...
performance prior to implementation is one part of the process of designing a manufacturing syste... more performance prior to implementation is one part of the process of designing a manufacturing system. Manu-facturing system design does not typically promote the use of simulation modeling to help improve and validate designs, but some companies have found simulation to be a valuable and integral tool. While simulation is often considered a re-source-intensive activity requiring great skill, some simula-tion tools can be used quickly by non-simulation experts to improve designs and justify them to senior management. Two case studies show how simulation supported the manufacturing system design process. The first case is about a small bicycle manufacturer redesigning its manufacturing system to cope better with high-variety, customized produc-tion. The second involves a large automotive company itera-tively designing large, complex flow lines. In both cases, the companies looked outside their organiza-tions for technical expertise to conduct the simulations. The support came from two g...
International Journal of Agile Systems and Management
With new and emerging e-business technologies to transform business processes, it is important to... more With new and emerging e-business technologies to transform business processes, it is important to understand how those technologies will affect the performance of a business. Will the overall business process be cheaper, faster and more accurate or will a sub-optimal change have been implemented? The use of simulation to model the behaviour of business processes is well established, and it has been applied to e-business processes to understand their performance in terms of measures such as lead-time, cost and responsiveness. This paper introduces the concept of simulation components that enable simulation models of e-business processes to be built quickly from generic e-business templates. The paper demonstrates how these components were devised, as well as the results from their application through case studies.
International Journal of Energy Sector Management, 2014
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
ABSTRACT The many examples of energy efficiency initiatives in the literature are limited to “wha... more ABSTRACT The many examples of energy efficiency initiatives in the literature are limited to “what” not “how”. A gap exists on how organisations translate energy efficiency objectives into strategy. The available literature is either generic on strategy deployment or lacks empirical support. This research explores how a European aerospace manufacturer developed its strategy in order to meet its energy efficiency objectives. The research documents four years of observation covering: an energy efficiency initiative in one manufacturing plant; the launch of a central strategy across plants; inter-plant integration and coordination; completed improvement projects. A narrative of these activities is presented and critically reviewed against the literature and is validated using commentary from key actors within the organisation and document analysis. The paper provides practical insights for other manufacturers embarking on their journeys. The challenges encountered are documented and used to present issues for further research.
All-Optical Networking 1999: Architecture, Control, and Management Issues, 1999
ABSTRACT The introduction of wavelength division multiplexing into the access network is a potent... more ABSTRACT The introduction of wavelength division multiplexing into the access network is a potentially attractive alternative upgrade strategy to increasing the bit rate of passive optical networks (PON). A number of different methods have been proposed to implement a multi-wavelength PON and hence a careful assignment needs to be made of the most cost effective, both in the short term and for future increases in capacity. One key issue is the use of dynamic allocation of wavelengths, which allows the reconfiguration of the network in response to network demand. A model has been produced to simulate demand patterns on a PON, in order to quantify the benefits of dynamic assignment.
This paper presents an integrated approach that combines 'Sustainable Building Design' tools and ... more This paper presents an integrated approach that combines 'Sustainable Building Design' tools and 'Sustainable Manufacturing Process' tools to create a tool for the design of sustainable manufacturing systems.' Currently no such integrated tools are in use by manufacturers to assess energy performance, identify improvement areas and help suggest actions. This paper describes the development of a tool that through such integrated modelling can help identify improvements via its library of tactics. These sustainable manufacturing tactics have to account for location and time, as well as production process, in a manner that is not currently supported by either manufacturing process simulation tools, or building energy tools. Through case study applications, the integrated modelling of real world industrial processes is demonstrated, from target and boundary settings, mapping (manufacturing process systems, material flow, surrounding buildings and facilities), data collection, simulation, improvement opportunities and optimisation.
ABSTRACT Recently the demand on availability contracts has increased, along with other business m... more ABSTRACT Recently the demand on availability contracts has increased, along with other business models that have offered to sell the use of the product rather than selling the product itself, such as with Product Service Systems (PSS). Researchers are actively encouraged to create tools to improve the performance of their service offerings, and maintenance is a key element in assuring the higher availability of an asset (product). Discrete Event Simulation (DES) has been able to model different monitoring levels such as Reactive, Diagnostics, and Prognostics. This paper aims to understand and examine the effect of spare parts and labour levels on the behaviour of maintenance operations and asset availability located at different customer sites using different monitoring levels. A case study has been presented to reflect the effect of different spare parts and labour levels on asset availability when applying different monitoring levels.
ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that ca... more ABSTRACT Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of the topic of green production. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review to capture, classify and summarize the main body of knowledge on green production and, translate this into a form that is readily accessible to researchers and practitioners in the more mainstream operations management community. Findings: The existing knowledge base is somewhat fragmented. This is a relatively unexplored topic within mainstream operations management research and one which could provide rich opportunities for further exploration. Originality/value: This paper sets out to review current literature, from a more conventional production operations perspective, and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of this topic.
International Journal of Agile Management Systems, Nov 30, 1999
This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viab... more This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viablesystems model (VSM) and modern business process thinking. ... 2. The viable systems model (VSM). The roots of VSM are strongly embedded in the science of cybernetics. ...
In spite of the growth in the body of green supply chain management, it is still difficult to und... more In spite of the growth in the body of green supply chain management, it is still difficult to understand the environmental sustainability practices involved in supply chain management (SCM) activities. This is an interdisciplinary field and the scope of GSCM practices is broad covering from green purchasing to integrated life-cycle management. This paper focuses on upstream supply chain management activities, which are usually responsible for diffusing environmental sustainability practices across the supply base. Therefore, peer-reviewed papers focused on the diffusion of environmental sustainability practices across manufacturing supply chain base are examined. It is found that this diffusion is sharply related to the purchasing, performance assessment and collaboration. These upstream activities are affected by internal functions and the maturity level of environmental and culture of organisation. In addition, upstream SCM activities are better designed taking into account the characteristics of products and processes, mainly in terms of the inputs and outputs environmental aspects. This research can help manufactures to access example of environmental sustainability practices commonly reported in supply chain management field.
Fifth Asia-Pacific Conference on ... and Fourth Optoelectronics and Communications Conference on Communications,, 1999
The optical packet switch geometry detailed permits priority routing by adopting feedback delay l... more The optical packet switch geometry detailed permits priority routing by adopting feedback delay lines. A proposal to implement two smaller AWGs in the switch is also presented. Their optical performance is investigated with respect to power penalty. This work is a part of an EPSRC-funded project, WASPNET (Wavelength Switched Packet NETwork)
International Journal of Agile Management Systems, 1999
This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viab... more This paper shares the conclusions of the authors with respect to a comparison of Beer's viablesystems model (VSM) and modern business process thinking. ... 2. The viable systems model (VSM). The roots of VSM are strongly embedded in the science of cybernetics. ...
An exploratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of coffee, guaraná, and yerba ... more An exploratory experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of coffee, guaraná, and yerba mate on mood and performance, and to determine any potential of these beverages to overcome the soporific effects of lunch. Seventy-one female students were assigned to four beverages, including a decaffeinated coffee control, and tested on two days (lunch/no lunch), over three sessions (prior to drinking the beverage, and again 60 and 150 minutes after drinking the beverages). Lunch had little effect other than to increase pulse. Guaraná increased systolic blood pressure and accuracy on a vigilance task; coffee increased accuracy on the vigilance task; but yerba mate had no significant effects. Further research is recommended before any definitive conclusions about the effects of guaraná and yerba mate are reached.
Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 2015
ABSTRACT Purpose – Asset management has recently gained significance due to emerging business mod... more ABSTRACT Purpose – Asset management has recently gained significance due to emerging business models such as Product Service Systems where the sale of asset use, rather than the sale of the asset itself, is applied. This leaves the responsibility of the maintenance tasks to fall on the shoulders of the manufacturer/supplier to provide high asset availability. The use of asset monitoring assists in providing high availability but the level of monitoring and maintenance needs to be assessed for cost effectiveness. There is a lack of available tools and understanding of their value in assessing monitoring levels. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This research aims to develop a dynamic modelling approach using Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to assess such maintenance systems in order to provide a better understanding of the behaviour of complex maintenance operations. Interviews were conducted and literature was analysed to gather modelling requirements. Generic models were created, followed by simulation models, to examine how maintenance operation systems behave regarding different levels of asset monitoring. Findings – This research indicates that DES discerns varying levels of complexity of maintenance operations but that more sophisticated asset monitoring levels will not necessarily result in a higher asset performance. The paper shows that it is possible to assess the impact of monitoring levels as well as make other changes to system operation that may be more or less effective. Practical implications – The proposed tool supports the maintenance operations decision makers to select the appropriate asset monitoring level that suits their operational needs. Originality/value – A novel DES approach was developed to assess asset monitoring levels for maintenance operations. In applying this quantitative approach, it was demonstrated that higher asset monitoring levels do not necessarily result in higher asset availability. The work provides a means of evaluating the constraints in the system that an asset is part of rather than focusing on the asset in isolation.
Abstract Traditionally, manufacturing facilities and building services are considered to be suppl... more Abstract Traditionally, manufacturing facilities and building services are considered to be supplementary to manufacturing operations. Manufacturing operations use and discard energy with the support of facilities. Additionally, these disciplines have been pursued independently to date; the design and improvement of buildings and manufacturing systems typically carried out in isolation. Therefore improvements in energy and other resource use to work towards sustainable manufacturing have been sub-optimal. This paper presents ...
performance prior to implementation is one part of the process of designing a manufacturing syste... more performance prior to implementation is one part of the process of designing a manufacturing system. Manu-facturing system design does not typically promote the use of simulation modeling to help improve and validate designs, but some companies have found simulation to be a valuable and integral tool. While simulation is often considered a re-source-intensive activity requiring great skill, some simula-tion tools can be used quickly by non-simulation experts to improve designs and justify them to senior management. Two case studies show how simulation supported the manufacturing system design process. The first case is about a small bicycle manufacturer redesigning its manufacturing system to cope better with high-variety, customized produc-tion. The second involves a large automotive company itera-tively designing large, complex flow lines. In both cases, the companies looked outside their organiza-tions for technical expertise to conduct the simulations. The support came from two g...
International Journal of Agile Systems and Management
With new and emerging e-business technologies to transform business processes, it is important to... more With new and emerging e-business technologies to transform business processes, it is important to understand how those technologies will affect the performance of a business. Will the overall business process be cheaper, faster and more accurate or will a sub-optimal change have been implemented? The use of simulation to model the behaviour of business processes is well established, and it has been applied to e-business processes to understand their performance in terms of measures such as lead-time, cost and responsiveness. This paper introduces the concept of simulation components that enable simulation models of e-business processes to be built quickly from generic e-business templates. The paper demonstrates how these components were devised, as well as the results from their application through case studies.
International Journal of Energy Sector Management, 2014
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
ABSTRACT The many examples of energy efficiency initiatives in the literature are limited to “wha... more ABSTRACT The many examples of energy efficiency initiatives in the literature are limited to “what” not “how”. A gap exists on how organisations translate energy efficiency objectives into strategy. The available literature is either generic on strategy deployment or lacks empirical support. This research explores how a European aerospace manufacturer developed its strategy in order to meet its energy efficiency objectives. The research documents four years of observation covering: an energy efficiency initiative in one manufacturing plant; the launch of a central strategy across plants; inter-plant integration and coordination; completed improvement projects. A narrative of these activities is presented and critically reviewed against the literature and is validated using commentary from key actors within the organisation and document analysis. The paper provides practical insights for other manufacturers embarking on their journeys. The challenges encountered are documented and used to present issues for further research.
All-Optical Networking 1999: Architecture, Control, and Management Issues, 1999
ABSTRACT The introduction of wavelength division multiplexing into the access network is a potent... more ABSTRACT The introduction of wavelength division multiplexing into the access network is a potentially attractive alternative upgrade strategy to increasing the bit rate of passive optical networks (PON). A number of different methods have been proposed to implement a multi-wavelength PON and hence a careful assignment needs to be made of the most cost effective, both in the short term and for future increases in capacity. One key issue is the use of dynamic allocation of wavelengths, which allows the reconfiguration of the network in response to network demand. A model has been produced to simulate demand patterns on a PON, in order to quantify the benefits of dynamic assignment.
This paper presents an integrated approach that combines 'Sustainable Building Design' tools and ... more This paper presents an integrated approach that combines 'Sustainable Building Design' tools and 'Sustainable Manufacturing Process' tools to create a tool for the design of sustainable manufacturing systems.' Currently no such integrated tools are in use by manufacturers to assess energy performance, identify improvement areas and help suggest actions. This paper describes the development of a tool that through such integrated modelling can help identify improvements via its library of tactics. These sustainable manufacturing tactics have to account for location and time, as well as production process, in a manner that is not currently supported by either manufacturing process simulation tools, or building energy tools. Through case study applications, the integrated modelling of real world industrial processes is demonstrated, from target and boundary settings, mapping (manufacturing process systems, material flow, surrounding buildings and facilities), data collection, simulation, improvement opportunities and optimisation.
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Papers by Peter Ball