Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Industrial storage systems'

This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.
Thesis: S.M. in Technology and Policy, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, June, 2018
Cataloged from student-submitted PDF of thesis. "© 2008." "June 2018."
Includes bibliographical references (pages 126-128).
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology holds potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector. Industrial CCS applications, however, are more challenging to analyze than CCS in the power sector - mainly due to the vast heterogeneity in industrial and fuel processes. I focus on emission sources from cement and investigate the estimated costs associated with CCS in cement production. These costs are evaluated based on a variety of factors, including the technological maturity of the capture process, the amount of CO2 captured in different parts of a plant, the percentage of CO2 captured from the entire plant, and the energy requirements to operate the CCS addition. With the goal of integrating industrial CCS into an energy-economic model, the costs obtained from the literature are used to determine two values: the percent increase in total costs for an industrial plant with CCS and the breakdown of costs into shares of capital, labor, fuel, and other costs. I introduce the industrial CCS options into the MIT Economic Projection and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model, a global energy-economic model that provides a basis for the analysis of long-term growth of the industrial sector, and then I discuss different scenarios for industrial CCS deployment in different parts of the world. I find that in scenarios with stringent climate policy, CCS in the industrial sector is an important mitigation option. Industrial CCS reduces global emissions by an additional 5% by cutting industrial emissions by up to 45%, all while allowing for high levels of industrial production throughout the end of the century. In total, industrial CCS can increase welfare and consumption by up to 70% relative to a global economy under a 2-degree Celsius policy without industrial CCS.
by Jessica N. Farrell.
S.M. in Technology and Policy
S.M.inTechnologyandPolicy Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, Institute for Data, Systems, and Society

A large-scale experimental, state of the art storage facility was constructed on the Macdonald Campus of McGill University. This storage facility will serve as a tool to further investigate many of the laboratory experiments performed in agricultural and food science topics, by providing a representation of actual storage facilities in use in the industry today. The storage facility was fully instrumented to provide valuable data of the stored commodity and it's environment. A custom control software was developed with a user friendly graphical interface. This fully automated software allows data acquisition and control of temperature and relative humidity of the experimental storage facility.
Experiments were performed and the control software provided an adequate temperature and relative humidity control. The controller was based on a conventional PID or proportional, integral and derivative controller. To further improve the control of the storage facility, a novel multivariable PID controller was developed using enthalpy as the process variable, which encompasses both temperature and relative humidity. The novel controller was tested using a mathematical model developed. Simulations were performed comparing the performance of the novel multivariable controller to two other conventional controllers. The results demonstrate that the novel multivariable PID controller is capable of controlling temperature and relative humidity better than the other two conventional control techniques.

Much research has proven that computer controlled vegetable storage can achieve better storage conditions than traditional control systems. During the last 10 years, the use of microcomputer-based environmental control systems has become commonplace. However, to take full advantage of this computerization of the control process, it is not enough only to program the control functions that are performed by normal analog equipment. New and better control strategies must be developed. Recent advances in computer technology have made possible the development of expert systems; a branch of artificial intelligence. One of the advantages of developing such a system is that it provides a reasoning tool which approaches the level of proficiency human experts exhibit in that field. The application of new control methods using expert systems has been extensively demonstrated for greenhouse environments. However, the application of expert systems for the control of vegetable storage is still to be investigated. In the first phase of this project, the development and implementation of a sophisticated control software, using a conventional algorithm-based programming language, were achieved. Throughout the three years of experimentation in an industrial potato storage, the software proved to be appropriate for the control of storage environmental parameters (temperature and relative humidity). During the second phase, the application of an expert system for the on-line control of potato storage was explored. The development of a rule-based expert system, that could replace the conventional algorithm-based control routines was achieved. The integration of the expert system into the control software will result in a highly efficient control software, which can easily be maintained and improved as new knowledge emerges. The use of an expert system will also render possible the representation of heuristic knowledge in the form of rules, which was not possible with the use of conven

The purpose of this thesis is to create a model of how to organize the placements of articles in an automated storage system in order to reduce time and cost related to the extractions. The model was developed during an investigation at a case company, and a comprehensive study of the material handling identified bottlenecks, whereof one was chosen to be further investigated: the automated storage system. The automated storage system is newly installed equipment, which required new working methods to be incorporated to the already existing working environment. The ABC-analysis was used in order to motivate how the articles should be placed in the automated storage. The goal for the new way of handling material was to put as little effort as possible on time related to the extraction of material. This due to the realization of material handling processes being a huge contributor to waste activities. This resulted in the development of the model and the suggestion that is given to the case company is to place the most frequent extracted articles close to the users. However, advantages must be held against disadvantages of rearrangements since the material handling will not be eliminated totally due to smaller improvements.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att skapa en modell för hur man ska organisera artikelplaceringar i ett automatiserat lagersystem för att reducera tid och kostnad relaterat till uttag av material. Modellen skapades genom en undersökning på ett fallföretag, en omfattande studie av materialhanteringen identifierade flaskhalsar, varav en valdes för fortsatt undersökning: det automatiserade lagersystemet. Det automatiserade lagersystemet är en nyinstallerad utrustning, som kräver att nya arbetsmetoder ska inkorporeras till den redan existerande arbetsmiljön. ABC-analysen användes för att motivera hur artiklarna ska placeras i det automatiserade lagret. Målet för det nya sättet att hantera material på var att så få insatser som möjligt skulle användas för uttag av material. Detta pågrund av insikten utav att materialhanteringsprocesser är en stor bidragande slöserifaktor. Detta resulterade i modellen och förslagen som ges till fallföretaget är att placera de mest frekvent använda artiklarna nära användaren. Emellertid så måste man väga fördelar mot nackdelar av en förändring eftersom materialhanteringen inte kommer att elimineras helt pågrund av mindre förbättringar.

The topic of this PhD thesis is framed on the study and the analysis of thermal energy storage (TES) systems based on phase change materials (PCM) to be used as a back-up for intermediate temperature applications (up to 250 °C). The work is divided in two part: the first part presents the development of numerical models of the latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) devices. Different models are developed by means of a 2D and 3D numerical simulation codes specifically implemented in the COMSOL Multiphysics environment. Design of LHTES requires knowledge of the heat transfer process within them, as well as the phase change behaviour of the PCM used. For simulate the PCM, two approaches are used: the first approach takes only into account heat transfer by conduction during the entire process, also when the PCM is in the liquid phase. In the second, the energy equation considering both heat conduction and natural convection is solved to predict the behaviour of the PCM. Different PCM materials, geometries and configurations of the storage device are considered and tested in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the adopted numerical codes under different working conditions. Finally, the models are validated using experimental data obtained from tests carried out on a double tube heat exchanger with fins and with Rubitherm® RT35 paraffin as PCM. The tests are conducted in the laboratories of the University of Lleida (Spain) by the research group GREA Innovació Concurrent. The second part of this work concerns the design and implementation of a test rig, specifically built for experimental investigation of heat storage devices in the laboratory for TES technologies of the University of Cagliari. An accurate study and selection of both the test rig layout and all the needed equipment is carried out to perform experimental analysis. The test bench is composed of an electrical heater, which heats the HTF up to the operating temperature, an air cooler, which simulate the thermal demand during the discharge phase, a HTF circulating pump, two test sections for thermal energy storage systems, and a preliminary TES device which consists in a shell and tube heat exchanger, where the HTF flows in the tubes while the PCM is placed in the shell side. At this stage, the thermal energy storage system, the measuring devices and the data acquisition system are under implementation.

In the last decades, the global markets have driven the manufacturing and service companies to be more flexible and efficient as for goods and services operations are concerned. More attention has also been paid to the performance of productive and logistic systems. In fact, the strict relation between flexibility and competitiveness of companies and efficiency of their productive plants and logistics is well known. It is important to define, monitor and improve the efficiency of industrial and logistic systems. Many definitions of efficiency have been introduced and the most important is the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), introduced by Nakajima at the end of the ‘80s. This index quickly spread in many industrial fields and it connects the efficiency of productive and logistic systems to three main factors: the availability of systems, the quality of produced goods/services and the productive and logistics performance. Between these factors, more attention has been paid to the parameter related to the availability of systems. Moreover, it is known that the availability is strictly linked to the survival behavior of systems. In this field, the manuscript introduces several innovative theoretical models for the survival analysis of components and productive-logistics complex systems, with particular attention to the systems which operate in different operative conditions. This thesis is structured in the following main parts: 1. Introduction of most important models of OEE and their relationship with availability of productive and logistic systems; 2. Discussion about the relation between survival behavior and operative conditions; 3. Definition and development of innovative theoretical models for the system reliability modeling and their validation thanks to several industrial applications; 4. Definition and development of innovative maintenance policies for the efficiency improvement, based on the extension of scientific literature, thanks to the theoretical models introduced in previous parts; 5. Definition of innovative model for the performance analysis of logistic systems, in particular for Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems and comparison with the existing models. The research has also been carried out in collaboration with Prof. Hoang Pham, director of Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway – New Jersey (USA), during a period the author spent as “visiting researcher” in the Quality and Reliability Engineering Laboratory of that department. The present work has carried out to the publishing of several scientific contributions in relevant International Journals and Conferences, like International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, International Journal of System Science and IEEE Transactions on Man, Cybernetics and Systems.
Negli ultimi decenni, il mercato ha portato le aziende manifatturiere e di servizi ad essere più flessibili e efficienti nella produzione dei propri beni e servizi. Maggior attenzione è stata quindi posta nei confronti delle performance dei sistemi produttivi-logistici. É infatti noto lo stretto legame tra flessibilità e competitività delle aziende con l’efficienza degli impianti produttivi e della logistica caratterizzanti le stesse. É importante quindi riuscire a definire, monitorare e migliorare l’efficienza degli impianti industriali e dei sistemi logistici. Sono stati introdotte numerose definizioni di efficienza, tra le quali la più importante è l’Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), introdotta alla fine degli anni ’80 da Nakajima. Tale indice si è presto diffuso in numerosi settori e lega l’efficienza dei sistemi produttivi e logistici a tre fattori principali: la disponibilità dei sistemi, la qualità dei beni/servizi e le performance produttive e logistiche. Tra questi fattori, maggior attenzione è stata posta al parametro relativo alla disponibilità dei sistemi. Inoltre è noto come la disponibilità dei sistemi sia strettamente legata al comportamento affidabilistico dei sistemi stessi. Su tale fronte, questo elaborato introduce innovativi modelli teorici per l’analisi dell’affidabilità e disponibilità di componente e sistemi logistico-produttivi, con particolare attenzione ai sistemi soggetti a diverse condizioni operative. La tesi si articola in tali principali parti: 1. Introduzione ai principali modelli di OEE e loro legame con la disponibilità dei sistemi logistico-produttivi; 2. Discussione del legame stretto tra comportamento affidabilistico e condizioni ambientali; 3. Sviluppo di modelli teorici innovativi per la modellazione delle caratteristiche affidabilistiche e loro validazione tramite applicazioni industriali; 4. Definizione e sviluppo di nuove politiche manutentive basate sull’estensione della letteratura scientifica grazie ai modelli teorici precedentemente verificati, per il miglioramento degli indici di efficienza; 5. Definizione di un nuovo modello per l’analisi delle performance di sistemi logistici quali gli Automated Storage/Retrieval Systems e comparazione con i modelli esistenti in letteratura. Il lavoro di tesi è stato sviluppato in stretta collaborazione anche con il Prof. Hoang Pham, direttore del Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Rutgers University, Piscataway – New Jersey (USA), grazie ad un periodo di ricerca di alcuni mesi svolto dall’autore presso Quality and Reliability Engineering Laboratory di tale dipartimento. Il presente lavoro ha portato anche alla pubblicazione di diversi contributi su importanti riviste e convegni internazionali, quali International Journal of Mathematics in Operational Research, International Journal of System Science e IEEE Transactions on Man, Cybernetics and Systems.

The ability to anticipate future capabilities of technology products has broad implications for organizations. Technological forecasting allows management to improve resource allocation, make better staffing decisions, and more confidently plan facilities and capital expenditures. Technology forecasting may also identify potential new markets and opportunities, such as finding ways to exploit current technology beyond its originally intended purposes. Modern technology forecasters use an array of forecasting methods to predict the future performance of a technology, such as time-series analysis, regression, stochastic methods, and simulation. These quantitative methods rely on the assumption that past behavior will continue. Shortcomings include their lack of emphasis on the best technology available and the fact that they do not effectively address the dynamic nature of ever changing trade-off surfaces. This research proposes a new method to address the shortcomings of common forecasting techniques by extending a well-established management science methodology known as data envelopment analysis (DEA). This new method is referred to as Technology Forecasting with Data Envelopment Analysis (TFDEA). Three case studies are examined to determine the method's validity. The first case study is that of relational database system performance based upon industry benchmarks obtained from the Transaction Processing Performance Council (TPC). The results reveal that TFDEA provides a more accurate picture of the state of the art than basic regression. The second case study expands Moore's law to six dimensions, resulting in a more comprehensive assessment of microprocessor technology. The final case study re-examines hard disk drive data for the years 1994-1999 in order to evaluate the technological progress of multiple technological approaches presented in Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma . Major contributions include both a new technology forecasting technique and an important extension of the temporal DEA methodology, which together offer a new and more comprehensive method for evaluating and forecasting technology.

Mestrado em Engenharia Mecânica
Nowadays, metal storage systems are generally used in industrial companies. The several stages of the metallic structures design are based in the standard EN 15512:2009. However, this standard do not the most efficient design solution, only design constraints. In this work, it is intended to improve the structural elements that are on the base of the metal storage systems, particularly shelves, in order to reduce costs and increase the structure stiffness, enforcing the international standard that define the characteristics of these products. The main purpose is the optimization of a representative section of profiled steel component taking into account the variable thickness, geometry and number of perforations. In order to do this a computational finite element model is developed and pre-­‐validated, replacing a numerous set of experimental tests in a design of Experiments (DoE) methodology. The optimized solutions were obtained through a response surface optimization methodology (RSM). The final results were analysed and discussed.
Hoje em dia, os sistemas metálicos de armazenamento são vulgarmente utilizados pela indústria. As várias etapas de projeto destas estruturas metálicas são baseadas na norma EN 15512:2009. No entanto, esta norma não propõe a solução de projeto mais eficiente, apenas as suas restrições. Neste trabalho, pretende-­‐se aperfeiçoar os elementos estruturais que estão na base dos sistemas de armazenamento de metal, particularmente prateleiras, a fim de reduzir custos e aumentar a rigidez da estrutura, satisfazendo a norma internacional que define as características necessárias desses produtos. O objetivo principal é a otimização de uma secção representativa do componente de aço perfilado tendo em conta as variáveis espessura, geometria e número de perfurações. Para isso, é desenvolvido e validado um modelo computacional de elementos finitos, substituindo um numeroso conjunto de testes experimentais numa metodologia de Design of Experiments (DoE). As soluções otimizadas são obtidas através de uma metodologia de otimização baseada numa superfície de resposta (RSM). Os resultados finais são analisados e discutidos.

The interest in breaking the historical dependence on fossil energy and begin moving towards more renewable energy sources is rising worldwide. This is largely due to uncertainties in the future supply of fossil fuels and the rising concerns about humanity’s role in the currently ongoing climate changes. One renewable energy source is ocean waves and Uppsala University has since the early 2000s been performing active research in this area. The Uppsala wave energy concept is centered on developing linear generators coupled to point absorbing buoys, with the generator situated on the seabed and connected to the buoy on the sea surface via a steel wire. The motion of the buoy then transfers energy to the generator, where it is converted into electricity and sent to shore for delivery into the electrical grid. This thesis will mainly focus on the development and evaluation of technologies used to automate the manufacturing of the translator, a central part of the linear generator, using industrial robotics. The translator is a 3 m high and 0.8 m wide three sided structure with an aluminum pipe at its center. The structure consists of alternating layers of steel plates (pole-shoes) and ferrite magnets, with a total of 72 layers per side. To perform experiments on translator assembly and production, a robot cell (centered on an IRB6650S industrial robot) complimented with relevant tools, equipment and security measures, has been designed and constructed. The mounting of the pole-shoes on the central pipe, using the industrial robot, proved to be the most challenging task to solve. However, by implementing a precise work-piece orientation calibration system, combined with selective compliance robot tools, the task could be performed with mounting speeds of up to 50 mm/s. Although progress has been made, much work still remains before fully automated translator assembly is a reality. A secondary topic of this thesis is the development of stand-alone measurement systems to be used in the linear generator, once it has been deployed on the seabed. The main requirements of such a measurement system is robustness, resistance to electrical noise, and power efficiency. If possible the system should also be portable and easy to use. This was solved by developing a custom measurement circuit, based on industry standard 4–20 mA current signals, combined with a portable submersible logging unit. The latest iteration of the system is small enough to be deployed and retrieved by one person, and can collect data for 10 weeks before running out of batteries. Future work in this area should focus on increasing the usability of the system. The third and final topic of this thesis is a short discussion of an engineering approach to kinetic energy storage, in the form of high-speed composite flywheels, and the design of two different prototypes of such flywheels. Both designs gave important insights to the research group, but a few crucial design faults unfortunately made it impossible to evaluate the full potential of the two designs.

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The 1990s demonstrated a growth of ERP (enterprise resource planning) adoption amongst organizations, and among scholars it has been studied in a series of aca-demic publications, that defined ERPs as a contributor to obtain competitive advan-tage and organizational performance. The present study encompasses the new ERP configuration, dedicated to support companies in its front end operations and value chain integration, so called ERPII model, and investigates the relationship with the Dynamic Capabilities during the post-implementation phase. In order to ac-complish this objectives, a conceptual Framework is developed, to articulate the construct variables with the level of market turbulence. Furthermore, a quantitative field research is executed, based on a survey, and the research results are interpreted under the Framework perspective, where the results are validated through statistical tests such as Spearman correlation, Mann-Withney and Kruskal-Wallis, in order to obtain an explicative analysis of the Dynamic Capabilities role in the sustenance of ERPII. The results, evidenced Dynamic Capabilities in all presuppositions articulated by the Framework, with positive impacts in reconfiguration of routines responsible for ERPII sustenance and its organizational performance contribution. In this sense, the major effects were identified in sensing and seizing of market opportunities focused on evolving ERPII, management initiatives to encourage tacit and explicit learning processes, coordination of ERPII quality and performance metrics, and level of uncertain of business market related to ERPII context.
Os anos de 1990 apresentaram um crescimento na ado????o dos sistemas de gest??o empresarial (ERPs) pelas organiza????es, e o tema foi estudado em um grande n??me-ro de publica????es acad??micas, que apontaram o mesmo como um impulsionador da obten????o da vantagem competitiva e desempenho empresarial. A presente disserta-????o aborda a configura????o contempor??nea dos sistemas ERPs, dedicada a suportar as empresas em suas opera????es de linha de frente e integra????o com a cadeia de valor, dentro do modelo conceitual chamado ERPII, e analisa suas rela????es com as Capacidades Din??micas em sua fase de p??s-implementa????o. Para tanto, um Fra-mework conceitual ?? proposto, com o objetivo de articular as vari??veis relativas aos constructos, agregando-as a indicadores concernentes ao n??vel de incerteza do am-biente. Em continuidade, o trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa de campo, executada por meio de um instrumento de pesquisa de natureza quantitativa. Por fim, sob a ??ti-ca do Framework desenvolvido, os resultados da pesquisa s??o validados estatisti-camente por meio de testes de correla????o de Spearman, Mann-Withney e Kruskal-Wallis, visando obter uma an??lise explicativa do papel das Capacidades Din??micas na sustenta????o do ERPII. Como resultados, observou-se a presen??a das Capacida-des Din??micas em todos os pressupostos articulados por meio do Framework, com impacto positivo na reconfigura????o de rotinas respons??veis pela sustenta????o do ERPII e consequente contribui????o para o desempenho organizacional. Nesse senti-do, os fatores que exerceram maior influ??ncia foram os relacionados a mecanismos de prospec????o e tratamento de oportunidades e atualiza????es do ERPII, seguidos por a????es gerenciais de incentivo ?? aprendizagem t??cita e expl??cita, coordena????o de in-dicadores de qualidade e desempenho, e n??vel de dinamicidade do mercado de ne-g??cios no contexto do ERPII.

This thesis is composed of two essays that investigate whole farm planning and crop marketing in western Kentucky. In the first essay, contracting decisions between food corn producers and a mill are analyzed to observe factors affecting the bushel amount farmers contract. Unbalanced panel data containing seven years’ worth of pricing and contract information are used with a fixed-effects model to generate parameter estimates and quantify their effect on bushels contracted. It was found that contract attributes, market condition, and relationship-specific assets had a significant effect on producers’ food corn contracting decisions. The second essay utilizes mixed-integer programming to optimize resource allocation and marketing strategy for a hypothetical farm. Post-optimal analysis is performed to determine non-binding capacities for drying and storage equipment. The model is re-run with these non-binding capacities to observe changes in net returns as well as planting, harvesting, and marketing strategies. New equipment and associated costs are identified, and the change in net returns from the base case is used as net cash flow in a net present value investment analysis. Results of the investment analysis indicate increasing drying and storage capacity is a wise investment given the scenario modeled.

In this thesis is solved detail design of industrial building. It is a new storage hall and connected to it the two-story office building. Building is located in the production area of factory, on the cadastral area Holice u Olomouce. The purpose of the building is storage and expedition of the products. In areas of an office building is located facilities for staff of hall and office workspace. Handling products in the hall will be performed by a forklift. The building is designed for a capacity of 15 employees. The office building has a load bearing structural system. Walls and ceiling structures are made up of panels of filigree. Foundations, including flooring of the first floor, are constructed from waterproof concrete. The office building is roofed by flat roof. The main supporting structure of the storage hall is designed as precast reinforced concrete frame. Cladding consists of insulating panels. Like in the office building, the hall is roofed by flat roof. Due to anticipate of the differential settlement of the office building and the storage hall parts are separated by a dilatation joint.

Wind and solar power plants are gaining increasing attention due to low green house gas emissions associated with electricity generation. The installed capacity of these resources is rapidly growing, while it is argued that the stability of the grid is threatened since these resources depend on actual weather conditions and their output cannot be easily adjusted to follow instantenous electricity demand. Another reliable low carbon power supply such as nuclear power plants cannot help in stabilizing the grid, due to long time constant of the control system. Eventhough, nuclear power is easy to predict, it needs external grid stabilizing utilities itself.If electricity could be stored in a sufficient amount during the periouds of favourable conditions for renewable energy sources and during periods of low demand for electricity and utilized again when it is demanded, the stability of the grid would be improved and no extra installed capacity of more carbon intensive power plants would be necessary. Therefore, an increasing focus is currently given on large scale energy storage. One of the most promising options for large scale energy storage which is already operating due to its fast response to electricity demand is a pumped storage power station. Before an extensive installation, it is important to evaluate this technology from the environmental perspective in order to avoid shifting environmental problems, to assess its potential to decrease dependency of electrical grids on fossil fuels and to estimate its potential in climate change mitigation/greenhouse gas reduction.

A resilient power grid system is important to ensure the delivery of power to consumers while minimizing the cost of new technologies. Due to the increase of electricity consumption and CO2 emission, renewable energies and energy storage system are a compelling alternative. We started to identify decisions that need to be made, and parameters associated to model a power grid system expansion plan. Then, we investigated a utility company demand for the next 15 years. Also, we identified their current resources, and used that as a starting point. Then, we formulated an optimization model for a power grid expansion with different types of renewable energies, such as solar and wind, to meet the demand and minimize the cost of installation; as well as, a battery storage system (Lithium-ion) that is considered to come up with an optimal solution of a resilient power grid. Moreover, uncertainties of renewables are considered in the model, and robust optimization formulation is used to model them. Existing coal facilities are considered as a part of the model as well, and this part is designed on the optimization model in a way that would help decrease the use of such facilities and still manage them to meet demand. Numerical experiments are performed on several scenarios, and compared to what the utility company has forecasted in terms of cost, and renewable energies integration.A resilient power grid system is important to ensure the delivery of power to consumers while minimizing the cost of new technologies. Due to the increase of electricity consumption and CO2 emission, renewable energies and energy storage system are a compelling alternative. We started to identify decisions that need to be made, and parameters associated to model a power grid system expansion plan. Then, we investigated a utility company demand for the next 15 years. Also, we identified their current resources, and used that as a starting point. Then, we formulated an optimization model for a power grid expansion with different types of renewable energies, such as solar and wind, to meet the demand and minimize the cost of installation; as well as, a battery storage system (Lithium-ion) that is considered to come up with an optimal solution of a resilient power grid. Moreover, uncertainties of renewables are considered in the model, and robust optimization formulation is used to model them. Existing coal facilities are considered as a part of the model as well, and this part is designed on the optimization model in a way that would help decrease the use of such facilities and still manage them to meet demand. Numerical experiments are performed on several scenarios, and compared to what the utility company has forecasted in terms of cost, and renewable energies integration.

The purpose of this project is to analyze whether i3 Strategy of Applied Digital Solutions (ADS) was necessary to meet the fast-moving IT industry. i3 Services Strategy is an integrated corporate strategy to reengineer the organizational structure of ADS.

L’esigenza di abbreviare il cosiddetto “time-to-market” è prerogativa di tutte le imprese che operano nei vari settori industriali, al fine di ritagliarsi una vantaggiosa posizione nel mercato, nei confronti dei concorrenti. Il processo di progettazione si è concentrato principalmente sulla riduzione dei costi, diminuendo i tempi di produzione, senza diminuire la qualità del prodotto. Al giorno d'oggi anche gli aspetti ambientali ricoprono un ruolo fondamentale e rappresentano un fattore importante per il successo sul mercato dei prodotti, infatti, tra i consumatori si sta sviluppando una sensibilità ambientale sempre crescente. Da queste considerazioni viene alla luce l’esigenza di studiare e sviluppare un approccio basato sulla conoscenza in grado di assistere i progettisti durante tutta la vita del prodotto, analizzando gli aspetti legati alle prestazioni, ai costi ed agli aspetti ambientali. Di conseguenza una delle problematiche più importanti è quella di riuscire a diminuire i costi e i tempi di passaggio tra idea e lancio sul mercato; avere perciò a disposizione delle tecnologie, in grado di prevedere i comportamenti reali dei vari sistemi, determina un notevole vantaggio in termini economici ed organizzativi. Le aziende di successo sono quelle in grado di migliorare le risorse umane e che hanno creato condizioni particolari in grado di far evolvere e sviluppare le conoscenze e know-how. Queste considerazioni sono sempre più necessarie quando si considera l'evoluzione dell'economia occidentale, in cui, ci troviamo di fronte a dover produrre prodotti personalizzati di elevata quantità. La sfida per le imprese di ingegneria italiana è quello di vendere prodotti di qualità continuando a sviluppare soluzioni innovative in modo rapido, e mantenendo bassi i costi. Per poter rispondere a questa sfida le aziende devono investire sempre di più nel processo di progettazione al fine di garantire il futuro della stessa società con strategie dedicate per l'innovazione e la tecnologia.Gli obiettivi di questo lavoro possono essere sintetizzati come la definizione di un nuovo approccio di progettazione, basato sulla conoscenza in grado di fornire nuovi strumenti per l’analisi e le valutazioni delle prestazioni dei prodotti in differenti scenari applicativi. Il lavoro svolto si sofferma sull’analisi dei sistemi di accumulo di ultima generazione costituiti da batterie agli ioni litio utilizzate sia nell’ambito dell’autotrazione che in applicazioni stazionarie. È comunque possibile applicare la metodologia di lavoro descritta anche ad altri casi applicativi. Per quanto riguarda la progettazione di pacchi batteria, il lavoro svolto rappresenta un primo passo per la definizione e progettazione dei sistemi di accumulo agli ioni di litio. In particolare, all’interno di questa tesi di ricerca è stato analizzato lo stato dell’arte dei principali sistemi di accumulo, soffermando l’attenzione sulla tecnologia al litio e dei loro principali problemi di utilizzo. Una profonda analisi è stata effettuata per la determinazione del calore generato dalle singole batterie al litio durante il loro funzionamento. I risultati della ricerca sono stati applicati a piccole produzioni personalizzate, sia di veicoli elettrici, sia di sistemi di accumulo per abitazioni.
The need to shorten the "time-to-market" is the prerogative of all companies that operate in different industry sectors, in order to carve out a profitable position in the market against competitors. The design process has focused primarily on reducing costs, reducing production times, without decreasing the quality of the product. Nowadays also the environmental aspects play a key role and is an important factor for the success of the products on the market , in fact, a growing environmental awareness is developing among consumers . From these considerations it comes to light the need to study and develop a knowledge-based approach able to assist designers during the lifetime of the product , analyzing the aspects related to performance, cost and environmental aspects. Therefore one of the most important problems is to be able to decrease the cost and time of passage between idea and market launch; therefore have available technologies, able to predict the actual behavior of the various systems, determines a considerable advantage in terms of economic and organizational links. Successful companies are those that can improve human resources and having created special conditions able to evolve and develop the knowledge and know-how. These considerations are becoming more necessary when we consider the evolution of the western economy, in which we find ourselves faced with having to produce high quantities of customized products. The challenge for Italian engineering companies is to sell quality products while continuing to develop innovative solutions quickly, and keeping costs low . To meet this challenge, companies need to invest more and more in the design process to ensure the future of the company with dedicated strategies for innovation and technology. The objectives of this work can be summarized as the definition of a new design approach , based on knowledge which can provide new tools for the analysis and assessment of the performance of products in different application scenarios. The work focuses on the analysis of next generation storage systems consisting of lithium-ion batteries used both in automotive and stationary applications . You can still apply the methodology described also working with other application cases . With regard tothe design of battery packs , the work represents a first step in the definition and design of the lithium-ion storage systems battery . In particular , within this thesis the state of the main storage systems has been analyzed , our attention is on lithium-ion technology and their main usage problems . A deep analysis was performed for the determination of the heat generated by the individual lithium batteries during their operation . The research results have been applied to small-scale production customization, both of electric vehicles, and energy storage systems for homes.

蓄電池は携帯機器，電気自動車をはじめ，自然エネルギー有効利用に至るまで広範囲に利用され，その重要性はますます高まっている。これら機器の使用時間や特性は蓄電池の特性に大きく依存することから，電池自体の特性改善に加え，劣化を診断してより効率的に電池を運用することが求められている。本論文は，非線形情報処理を得意とする人工知能を用いた2次電池の劣化診断法を開発し，エネルギーの有効利用に資する技術を確立した。機器動作時の電池電圧・電流波形と電池劣化特性との関連性を，人工知能を用い学習することにより，機器稼働時に電池の劣化を診断することができる。なお，この関連性は非線形で複雑であるが，非線形分析を得意とする人工知能は劣化診断に適している。学習には時間を要するものの，診断は短時間になし得ることから，提案法は稼働時劣化診断に適している。本論文では，この特徴を生かし，電池の等価回路（ECM）を導出し，充電率（SOC），容量維持率（SOH）を推定している。また，本論文では現在産業応用分野で用いられている，リチウムイオン電池，ニッケル水素電池，鉛蓄電池を対象とし，提案法はあらゆる電池使用機器に応用可能である。また，提案法を電池状態監視装置（BMU）や，マイコンなどを用いた組み込みシステムに応用可能とし，実証している。以上のことから，本論文は，新たな蓄電池の劣化診断法の確立し，その有効性を確認している。
The importance of rechargeable batteries nowadays is increasing from the portable electronic devices and solar energy industry up to the development of new EV models. The rechargeable batteries have a crucial role in the storage system, mostly in mobile applications and transportation, because the period of its usage and the flexibility of the function are determined by the battery. Due to the black box approach of the ANN it is possible to connect the complex physical phenomenon with a specific physical meaning expressed with a nonlinear logic between inputs and output. Using specific input data to relate with the desired output, makes possible to create a pattern connection with input and output. This ability helps to estimate in real time the desired outputs, behaviors, phenomes and at the same time it can be used as a real time diagnosis method.
博士(工学)
Doctor of Philosophy in Engineering
同志社大学
Doshisha University

The Swedish electrical grid has historically been robust and reliable, but with increased electrification in numerous sectors, out-phasing of nuclear power and a high market diffusion of wind power, the system is now facing challenges. The rotational energy in the system is expected to decrease as a result of higher shares of intermittent energy sources, which can affect the stability of the grid frequency negatively. To manage increased frequency drops, the new Fast Frequency Reserve (FFR) market will be implemented by June 2020 in the Nordic power system. Simultaneously, it is expected that the demand of electricity will increase significantly in the transport and industry sectors in the coming years. Several DSOs already today indicate challenges with capacity and power security and have or will implement power tariffs as an economic incentive to prevent these problems. For energy intensive customers, such as industries, it will become important to reduce power peaks to avoid high grid fees. Several peak load shaving strategies can be utilized by industries to reduce their power peaks and thus the power tariff. The aim of this study is to economically analyze peak load shaving for Swedish industries. This is done using Li-Ion BESS and DSM, and to maximize the utilization of the BESS by including energy arbitrage and FFR market participation into the analysis. Firstly, a literature review is conducted within the topics of peak load shaving strategies, energy arbitrage and ancillary services. Secondly, data is gathered in collaboration with WSP Systems – Energy, the initiators of the project, to conduct case studies on two different industries. These cases are simulated in the modeling software SAM, for technical analysis, and then economically evaluated with NPV. Also, nine scenarios are created for the emerging FFR market concerning the number of activations per year and the compensation price per activation. The results from the case studies indicate that peak load shaving of 1 – 3 % with BESS provides a positive NPV for both case industries. However, higher percentages result in negative NPVs when no additional revenue streams are included. When considering energy arbitrage, it is concluded that the additional revenues are neglectable for both industries. Participating in the FFR market provides similar trends in the results as before. The exception is valid for scenarios with high numbers of FFR activations and compensation prices, where positive NPVs for all levels of peak load shaving can be concluded. The peak load shaving strategy DSM is implemented for one of the industries, where efficiency measures are concluded to have the most impact on the economic evaluation. If all efficiency measures would be implemented, the electricity consumption would be reduced by 17 %. Additionally, the power peaks would be reduced with 18 % and result in a significantly more positive NPV than peak load shaving using BESS. A sensitivity analysis concerning BESS capital cost and power tariff price concludes that the BESS price has a strong relation to the NPV, where a BESS price reduction of 60 % results in an NPV increase of at least 100 %. BESS prices have decreased the past years and are expected to keep decreasing in the future. Hence, investments in BESS can become more profitable and attractive in the coming years. Finally, for future research, it is recommended to combine the methodology from this study together with a load forecasting method. This combined methodology could then be practically applied to case specific industries with high peak loads.
Det svenska elnätet har historiskt sett varit robust och pålitligt, men i takt med ökad elektrifiering i flera sektorer, utfasning av kärnkraft samt ökad mängd installerad vindkraft ställs nu systemet inför nya utmaningar. Bland annat förväntas rotationsenergin i systemet minska som ett resultat av högre andelar intermittenta energikällor i systemet. För att hantera detta kommer den nya Fast Frequency Reserve (FFR) marknaden finnas tillgänglig från och med juni 2020. Samtidigt förväntas även efterfrågan på el inom transport- och industrisektorn öka markant de kommande åren. Redan idag är effektbrist ett problem i vissa regioner, vilket kan komma att förvärras. Många nätägare ska eller har redan infört effekttariffer för utnyttjande av deras elnät, vilket är ett ekonomiskt incitament för att hantera effektproblematiken där kunder med en mer flexibel elkonsumtion kommer gynnas. För större elförbrukare, som exempelvis industrier, kan det bli ekonomiskt betydelsefullt att sänka sina effekttoppar och därmed undvika höga nätavgifter. För att minska effekttoppar finns ett flertal så kallade peak load shaving-strategier, som kan utnyttjas av industrier för att minska kostnaderna för effekttariffen. Syftet med denna studie är att analysera peak load shaving för svenska industrier, med hjälp av ett Li-Ion batterilagringssystem och efterfrågeflexibilitet, samt maximera utnyttjandet av batteriet genom att inkludera energiarbitrage och deltagande i FFR-marknaden i analysen. Ett första steg i arbetet är att utföra en litteraturstudie för de berörda områdena. I ett andra steg insamlas data tillsammans med WSP, initiativtagaren av projektet, för att kunna göra en fallstudie på två industrier. För dessa fallstudier undersöks de tekniska förutsättningarna för att implementera peak load shaving-strategier genom modellering i simuleringsprogrammet SAM. Sedan utreds de ekonomiska förutsättningarna för fallstudierna, där NPV används som ekonomiskt nyckeltal. Dessutom skapas nio scenarion för den kommande FFR-marknaden för att uppskatta kostnader och inkomster. Resultatet av fallstudien visar att 1 – 3 % kapade effekttoppar med batterilagring ger ett positivt NPV för båda industrierna. Över 3 % blir resultatet negativt utan ytterligare inkomstströmmar inkluderade. Energiarbitrage konstateras att bidra med marginella positiva fördelar. Vid inkludering av FFR-marknaden i analysen erhålls liknande trender i resultaten, bortsett från scenarion med relativt högt antal avrop och pris. I dessa fall blir även 4 – 10 % kapade effekttoppar ekonomiskt attraktiva. För en av industrierna utvärderas efterfrågeflexibilitet, där effektivisering av elkrävande processer har störst inflytande på resultatet. Vid implementering av samtliga effektiviseringsåtgärder skulle elkonsumtionen minska med 17 %. Dessutom minskar effekttopparna med 18 %, vilket resulterar i ett signifikant mer positivt NPV, jämfört med användningen av batterilager. En känslighetsanalys gällande batteripris och effekttariffer, konstaterade att batteripriset har en stark påverkan på NPV. Vid en batteriprisminskning på 60 % ökar NPV med minst 100 %. Därmed kan batteriinvesteringar bli mer gynnsamma och attraktiva om batteripriser fortsätter att falla, vilket flera prognoser indikerar. Slutligen rekommenderas framtida studier att kombinera metodiken från detta arbete med en prognostiseringsmetod för elanvändning i industrier. Denna kombinerade metod kan sedan praktiskt tillämpas på fallspecifika industrier med höga effekttoppar.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy use are two main priorities leading to industrial sustainability nowadays according to European Steel Technology Platform (ESTP). Modernization efforts can be done by industries to improve energy consumptions of the production lines. These days, steel making industrial applications are energy and emission intensive. It was estimated that over the past years, energy consumption and corresponding CO2 generation has increased steadily reaching approximately 338.15 parts per million in august 2010 [1]. These kinds of facts and statistics have introduced a lot of room for improvement in energy efficiency for industrial applications through modernization and use of renewable energy sources such as solar Photovoltaic Systems (PV).The purpose of this thesis work is to make a preliminary design and simulation of the solar photovoltaic system which would attempt to cover the energy demand of the initial part of the pickling line hydraulic system at the SSAB steel plant. For this purpose, the energy consumptions of this hydraulic system would be studied and evaluated and a general analysis of the hydraulic and control components performance would be done which would yield a proper set of guidelines contributing towards future energy savings. The results of the energy efficiency analysis showed that the initial part of the pickling line hydraulic system worked with a low efficiency of 3.3%. Results of general analysis showed that hydraulic accumulators of 650 liter size should be used by the initial part pickling line system in combination with a one pump delivery of 100 l/min. Based on this, one PV system can deliver energy to an AC motor-pump set covering 17.6% of total energy and another PV system can supply a DC hydraulic pump substituting 26.7% of the demand. The first system used 290 m2 area of the roof and was sized as 40 kWp, the second used 109 m2 and was sized as 15.2 kWp. It was concluded that the reason for the low efficiency was the oversized design of the system. Incremental modernization efforts could help to improve the hydraulic system energy efficiency and make the design of the solar photovoltaic system realistically possible. Two types of PV systems where analyzed in the thesis work. A method was found calculating the load simulation sequence based on the energy efficiency studies to help in the PV system simulations. Hydraulic accumulators integrated into the pickling line worked as energy storage when being charged by the PV system as well.

The present Ph.D. Thesis is focused on Inbound & Outbound Logistics in Supply Chain, specifically on issues regarding the configuration of a generic multi stage distribution network, determination of fulfilment policies and material flows, the optimal daily allocation of customer demand, and the following design, management and optimization of storage systems, especially for the storage allocation of order picking systems. The set of methodological hierarchical approaches and methods introduced in the present research aim to became a modelling system to integrate the main supply chain management decisions. In particular this modelling system groups concepts about integrated planning proposed by operations research practitioners, logistics experts, and strategists over the past 40 years. Indeed it refers to functional coordination within the firm, between the firm and its suppliers, and between the firm and its customers. It also refers to inter-temporal coordination of supply chain decisions as they relate to the firm’s operational, tactical and strategic plans. The modelling system following a top down approach starts with limited detail of the big picture, that is the physical design of a supply network, and then, after a rough first design is outlined, looking inside storage systems, where the design is refined. This is essentially as breaking down a distribution network to gain insight into its compositional sub-systems (i.e. distribution centers). Various frameworks, models, heuristics, and software tools are introduced and discussed in the following chapters. Significant case studies are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed tools. Finally the goal of this thesis is to present a set of advanced models and tools for the design and control of an integrated supply chain. This set of methods and tools have the ambition to replace the basic rules-of-thumb too often in use in supply chain management practice.
La presente tesi di dottorato è basata sulla logistica inbound ed outbound nei sistemi di imprese, relativamente alle tematiche riguardanti la configurazione di reti distributive multi livello, la determinazione dei relativi flussi logistici, l’allocazione ottimale della domanda, e la successiva progettazione, gestione ed ottimizzazione dei sistemi di stoccaggio (centri distributivi), specialmente per quel che riguarda l’allocazione della merce nei sistemi di order picking. La serie di approcci metodologici di tipo gerarchico presentati in questa ricerca mirano a diventare un sistema di modellazione che integra le principali decisioni del supply chain management. Nello specifico il sistema di modellazione raggruppa i concetti tipici della pianificazione integrata così come è stata sviluppata nel corso degli ultimi 40 anni dai professionisti di ricerca operativa, dagli specialisti della logistica e dagli esperti di strategia aziendale. Infatti, tale sistema di modellazione si basa sia sul concetto di coordinamento funzionale tra imprese, tra l’impresa ed i suoi fornitori e tra l’impresa ed i suoi clienti, sia sul concetto di coordinamento intertemporale delle decisioni di supply chain, poiché considera la pianificazione operativa, tattica e strategica dell’azienda. Il sistema di modellazione presentato nella tesi, seguendo un approccio top down, inizia con il delineare la struttura fisica e la configurazione del network distributivo attraverso un numero limitato di elementi, conseguentemente la progettazione è raffinata aumentando il grado di dettaglio, spingendosi fino alla progettazione dei centri di distribuzione, anello essenziale di ogni rete distributiva. Nei seguenti capitoli sono presentati e discussi vari modelli, euristiche originali, framework e strumenti software. Alcuni significativi casi studio sono illustrati per dimostrare l’efficacia del sistema di modellazione proposto. In definitiva lo scopo ultimo di questa tesi è quello di presentare un insieme di modelli e strumenti avanzati per la progettazione integrata ed il controllo della supply chain che possano essere di riferimento ed in sostituzione alle approssimative regole empiriche troppo spesso utilizzate nella pratica del supply chain management.

l attività di ricerca svolta si articola in due filoni. Il primo è attinente allo sviluppo di strumenti innovativi di valutazione dell affidabilità e dell adeguatezza di reti di distribuzione multi-microrete utili nell ambito dellapianificazione di Smart Grids Multi-microrete. Requisiti sempre più stringenti posti dagli enti regolatori nazionali sulla riduzione della durata e della frequenza delle interruzioni (già con la Delibera 333/072 dell Autorità per l Energia Elettrica ed il Gas -AEEG- in Italia), accanto alla spinta verso l implementazione di nuovi scenari complessi di gestione delle reti, pongono fortemente la necessità che la ricerca si orienti verso l estensione delle metodologie tradizionali di calcolo analitico dell affidabilità ai nuovi paradigmi della distribuzione con l affinamento di nuovi e idonei strumenti di analisi. Il secondo filone, attinente piuttosto al perseguimento di obiettivi di efficienza e limitazione delle emissioni inquinanti è relativo all esercizio di microreti, in linea con le politiche internazionali di gestione dei sistemi elettrici. Ci si è occupati dell ottimizzazione del dispacciamento delle risorse di produzione ed accumulo presenti in una microrete. La procedura di ottimizzazione si basa sull utilizzo del SALHE-EA (acronimo di Self-Adaptive Low-High Evaluation Evolutionary Algorithm). In particolare, l obiettivo è quello di individuare i set-point ottimali dei generatori programmabili e dei sistemi di accumulo al fine di minimizzare i costi di funzionamento e manutenzione dei generatori stessi, riducendo al contempo le emissioni inquinanti da questi prodotte ed assumendo che tutta la potenza disponibile dalle fonti di energia rinnovabile fosse iniettata nella Microrete o accumulata per essere in seguito fornita secondo un apposita strategia di gestione delle unità di accumulo.

In modern and global supply chain, the increasing trend toward product variety, level of service, short delivery delay and response time to consumers, highlight the importance to set and configure smooth and efficient logistic processes and operations. In order to comply such purposes the supply chain management (SCM) theory entails a wide set of models, algorithms, procedure, tools and best practices for the design, the management and control of articulated supply chain networks and logistics nodes. The purpose of this Ph.D. dissertation is going in detail on the principle aspects and concerns of supply chain network and warehousing systems, by proposing and illustrating useful methods, procedures and support-decision tools for the design and management of real instance applications, such those currently face by enterprises. In particular, after a comprehensive literature review of the principal warehousing issues and entities, the manuscript focuses on design top-down procedure for both less-than-unit-load OPS and unit-load storage systems. For both, decision-support software platforms are illustrated as useful tools to address the optimization of the warehousing performances and efficiency metrics. The development of such interfaces enables to test the effectiveness of the proposed hierarchical top-down procedure with huge real case studies, taken by industry applications. Whether the large part of the manuscript deals with micro concerns of warehousing nodes, also macro issues and aspects related to the planning, design, and management of the whole supply chain are enquired and discussed. The integration of macro criticalities, such as the design of the supply chain infrastructure and the placement of the logistic nodes, with micro concerns, such the design of warehousing nodes and the management of material handling, is addressed through the definition of integrated models and procedures, involving the overall supply chain and the whole product life cycle. A new integrated perspective should be applied in study and planning of global supply chains. Each aspect of the reality influences the others. Each product consumed by a customer tells a story, made by activities, transformations, handling, processes, traveling around the world. Each step of this story accounts costs, time, resources exploitation, labor, waste, pollution. The economical and environmental sustainability of the modern global supply chain is the challenge to face.
Nelle moderne filiere logistiche-distributive globali, la crescente varietà dei prodotti, il livello di servizio, e la rapidità nel rispondere alla domanda del cliente, impongono una seria e ponderata progettazione ed organizzazione dei processi intra-inter aziendali. Con l'obiettivo di rispondere a tali criticità, le teorie di supply chain managment (SCM) propongono una vasta gamma di modelli, algoritmi, procedure, e strumenti per la progettazione, la gestione e il controllo delle articolate supply chain e dei principali nodi logistici. Uno dei principali obiettivi di questa tesi di dottorato è approfondire nel dettaglio i processi e gli aspetti principali della filiera logistica e dei suoi principali buffer (i.e. sistemi di stoccaggio), illustrando metodi, modelli, procedure e sistemi di supporto decisionale per la progettazione e gestione di istanze reali, quotidianamente affrontate dalle aziende di tutto il mondo. In particolare, dopo una completa rassegna della letteratura sui sistemi di stoccaggio, la tesi si concentra sulla descrizione di procedure decisionali top-down per la progettazione ed il controllo di sistemi di stoccaggio a prelievo frazionato (i.e. Order picking systems) e sistemi di stoccaggio ad unità di carico intere. Per entrambe le tipologie di sistemi, sono illustrati strumenti informatici di supporto alle decisioni per la valutazione e l'ottimizzazione delle prestazioni logistiche - operative. Lo sviluppo di tali interfacce permette di testare l'efficacia dei modelli e delle procedure decisionali proposte su significativi casi di studio di origine industriale. Se la prima parte del manoscritto si concentra sugli aspetti micro intra-nodo della filiera distributiva, l'ultimo capitolo affronta le tematiche macro di filiera relative alla pianificazione, progettazione e gestione della infrastruttura della supply chain. L'integrazione di macro criticità, come la locazione dei nodi logistici di produzione e distribuzione e l'instradamento dei flussi fisici lungo ed attraverso il network della supply chain, con micro criticità, inerenti la progettazione di nodi distributivi e di stoccaggio e la gestione del material handling, si realizza attraverso la definizione di modelli integrati di pianificazione strategica per l'ottimizzazione dell'intera filiera, lungo tutto il ciclo di vita del prodotto. Una nuova prospettiva integrata deve essere applicata allo studio e la progettazione di articolate supply chain globali. Ogni aspetto della realtà dipende ed influenza gli altri lungo la filiera. Ogni prodotto acquistato e consumato dal cliente finale racconta una storia, fatta di attività, processi, trasformazioni subite, movimentazioni e trasporto in giro per il mondo. Ogni step di questo percorso richiede tempo, risorse, manodopera, generando costi, scarti, inquinamento. In tale contesto, la sostenibilità economica ed ambientale delle moderne supply chain globali rappresenta la principale sfida da affrontare.

La tesi intitolata "Ottimizzazione dello stoccaggio del materiale attraverso l'introduzione di sistemi automatici e flessibili" ha come obiettivo quello di aumentare la capacità produttiva di una realtà industriale come quella di Minimax (SCM Group) attraverso l'introduzione di un magazzino automatico verticale (VLM), un sistema automatizzato che permette il posizionamento e il recupero automatico dei carichi da posizioni di stoccaggio definite. La parte iniziale dello studio ha come obiettivo quello di capire quanti magazzini verticali l'azienda necessiterà per stoccare la quantità di merce che gli impedisce lo sviluppo produttivo. Una volta individuato il numero di magazzini automatici verticali è stata analizzata la situazione flussi AS-IS attraverso lo strumento della flow chart e calcolando tempi e distanze percorse. Successivamente sono state proposte una serie di alternative TO-BE dove, cambiando la posizione dei magazzini all'interno dello stabilimento, si misurano tempi e distanze del Picker, si controlla il flusso del materiale all'interno dell'azienda e si disegnano i nuovi layout. Durante lo studio è stato anche impiegato un algoritmo di clustering che utilizza una matrice di similarità per selezionare le macchine con che presentano i componenti più affini. Grazie all'analisi è stato possibile individuare la capacità produttiva realizzabile e il conseguente aumento di fatturato aziendale, il saving di operatori ottenibile, la centralizzazione della merce, l'aumento della velocità di picking e di asservimento della linea. Anche il flusso del materiale all'interno dell'azienda è stato ottimizzato.

We  are  heading  into  a  world  that  is  becoming  more  and  more  digital.  In  the  future  markets,  customers   will   demand   that   some   sort   of   technical  support  is  available  when  they  make  purchases.   This   put   a   big   responsibility   on   companies  that  have  to  satisfy  that  need.  The  wallpaper  industry  has  not  incorporated  many  efficient  support  tools  to  facilitate  the  product  selection at Swedish retailers. This results in that customers  experience  many  issues  when  they  search for new wallpapers. Through a needfinding process, where customers   were   observed   at   retailers,   eight   primary  customer  needs  could  be  established  in  the  project.  These  were  ranked  after  their  relative   importance.   The   results   showed   that   the  most  important  needs  to  satisfy  was  to  give  customer’s  inspiration  and  help  them  visualize  wallpapers  in  environments.  In  two  workshops,  around  100  ideas  on  how  a  system  that  could  satisfy  these  needs  was  generated  in  a  number  of brainstorming sessions. These ideas were then culled   with   various   evaluation   methods   such   as  rating  matrixes,  inventory  methods  and  by  clustering the ideas. At the end of the evaluation process,  four  concepts  remained  with  different  levels of technical demands and implementation requirements.  The  decision  of  which  concept  that was going to be further developed was then made by Midbec. The final system is a service that allows customer to   visualize   chosen   wallpapers   in   a   digital   environment.  The  system  contains  a  screen  with  a connected hand scanner that will be integrated in  Midbec’s  store  interior  and  QR-barcodes  that  is  applied  to  each  wallpaper.  When  a  barcode  is  decoded,  either  with  the  scanner  or  with  a  smartphone, the user connects to Midbec’s newly developed   online   wallpaper   tool   where   the   wallpaper can be seen in different environments. The   benchmarking   showed   that   no   studies   of    effective    wallpaper    displays    has    been    made.  Several  areas  where  new  systems  can  be   implemented   to   support   customers   and   promote  wallpapers  more  effectively  was  found  throughout  the  process.  This  means  that  there  are many possibilities to develop and implement new  designs  in  the  industry.  As  a  conclusion,  this  project  showed  that  a  needfinding  process  should  focus  on  incorporating  the  user  to  the  highest possible level to ensure that reliable data is collected. Another conclusion is that customers experience   many   different   issues   in   today’s   wallpaper  selection  process.  Again,  this  shows  that  there  is  potential  to  develop  systems  that  can improve today’s wallpaper industry.
Vi går mot en värld som blir allt mer digital. I den framtida marknaden kommer kunder kräva att något sorts tekniskt  hjälpmedel  finns  tillhands  när  de  gör  sina  inköp.  Detta  ställer  krav  på  företagen  som  måste  tillfredsställa  det  behovet.  Tapetindustrin har inte integrerat många     effektiva  verktyg  för  att  underlätta  produktvalet  hos  svenska  återförsäljare.  Detta  resulterar  i  att  kunderna  upplever  många  svårigheter  när  de  letar efter nya tapeter. Genom en behovsidentifieringsprocess,    där    kunder  observerades  hos  återförsäljare,  kunde  åtta  primära  kundbehov  fastställas  i  projektet.  Dessa  rankades  efter  deras  relativa  betydelse.  Resultatet  visade  att  de  viktigast  behoven  att  tillfredsställa  är  att  ge  kunderna  inspiration  och  hjälpa  de  att  visualisera  tapeter  i  miljöer.  I  två  workshops genererades cirka 100 idéer i ett antal brainstorming  sessioner  på  hur  ett  system  som  tillfredsställer dessa behov kan se ut. Dessa idéer sorterades sedan med olika utvärderingsmetoder som     betygsmatriser,     inventerings     metoder     och  genom  att  gruppera  idéerna.  I  slutet  av  utvärderingsprocessen   återstod   fyra   koncept   med olika grad av tekniska och implementerings krav.   Beslutet   om   viket   koncept   som   skulle   vidareutvecklas togs sedan av Midbec. Det  slutgiltiga  systemet  är  en  tjänst  som  tillåter  kunderna att visualisera valda tapeter i en digital miljö.   Systemet   inkluderar   en   skärm   med   en   tillhörande   handskanner   som   är   integrerad   i   Midbec’s   butiksmiljö   samt   QR-koder   som   är   applicerade  på  varje  tapet.  När  en  kod  avläses,  antigen med skannern eller med en smartphone, kopplas     användaren     till     Midbec’s     nyligen     framtagna onlinetjänst där tapeten kan ses i olika miljöer. Förstudien  visade  att  inga  tidigare  studier  på  effektiva  tapetskyltningar  har  genomförts.  Flera  områden   där   nya   system   kan   implementeras   för  att  stödja  kunderna  och  framhäva  tapeter  mer  effektivt  framkom  under  projektet.  Detta  betyder   att   det   finns   många   möjligheter   för   att  utveckla  och  implementera  nya  designer  i  branschen.  Som  en  slutsats  visade  detta  projekt  att      en      behovsidentifieringsprocess      borde      inkludera  användaren  så  mycket  som  möjligt  för  att  säkerställa  att  tillförlitliga  data  samlas  in.  Ännu  en  slutsats  är  att  kunder  upplever  många  olika   svårigheter   i   dagens   tapetvalsprocess.   Återigen visar detta på att det finns potential för att utveckla nya system som kan förbättra dagens tapetbransch.

In recent years, the need for personal urban mobility has increased a lot especially in emerging and developing countries. It becomes increasingly important to explore propulsion systems that use alternative energy sources and are related to the chain of production, storage and use of renewable energy. Several studies have been conducted in this area, but very few have achieved solutions for the interaction of the vehicle with the building by which it is parked in terms of a multi-energy exchange. Technological innovation of house plant parts, of large residences / hotels, of shelter stations for vehicles, it is now crucial to implement the integration of more renewable energy sources within the same building structure: this is one of the aspects covered by the most general definition of "Smart Housing". Sustainable mobility is perceived as a strong need to match individual urban and sub-urban mobility, to the least environmental and social impact of such personal need. This research project proposes a possible scenario for energy integration between smart housing and smart mobility using a common energy platform that allows self-generation, storage and energy exchange between residential district buildings and smart vehicles. The project integrates multidisciplinary approaches with the aim of designing, evaluating technical and industrial feasibility for the development of: 1) Modular and scalable energy storage devices dedicated to a smart house. 2) a modular city vehicle, with high flexibility of use, with energy storage system and energy-efficient switching capabilities with smart building.

Industrialization of construction is a business strategy to significantly improve competitiveness. However, the organization structure of the construction firms needs to support the new production system. The knowledge on why and how this business development can be accomplished is scarce, both within academia and in business practice. This research seeks to fill this knowledge gap. The purpose of organization structure and the production system have is to coordinate the firm’s processes and control the work performing resources. Information is one of the most fundamental dimensions for steering and controlling the work. The different information types are determined by the firm’s product customization strategy and the production system flexibility. Further, diverse information types are managed in different extent by the organizational steering mechanisms. Consequently, firms with dissimilar customization strategy or production flexibility should organizationally be designed differently in order to be efficient. The developed model identifies four generic production topologies: “engineer-to-order” (ETO), “manufacture-to-order” (MTO), “assembly-to-order” (ATO), and “make-standard-products” (MSP). The differences between the topologies can be related to the location of the “customer-order-decoupling-point” (CODP) in the product realization process; and to what extent the upstream and downstream processes continuously use stored information or process information to accomplish the work of each product order. The model predicts which organization structure mechanisms that should be used for which processes for each production topology. It is the specific configuration of the mechanisms that gives each production topology their organizational capability. The model has been validated by case studies in four organizations, each representing one of the four generic production topologies. Three cases considered housing and one studied truck manufacturing. It has been shown that the conventional housing firms have an ETO-production topology, while industrialized housing firms belonging to one of the others, i.e. MTO, ATO or MSP. The reason is that ETO-firms rely on crafts-based production to manage the work, while the other topologies base their steering mechanisms on industrial principles. These two types of production are fundamentally different, which also explain the need for different organization structures. The research complements previous knowledge and significantly increases the ability to predict, analyze and explain an organization’s design and behavior. The model can be used in practice to guide business development work and performance improvement programs.

Research funder: SBUF (The development fund of the Swedish construction industry). QC 20131113

The United Nations (UN) project "Sustainable energy for all" sets three ambitious objectives to favor a sustainable development and to limit climate change: - Universal access to modern energy services. Electricity is currently not available for 1.3 billion people and the global energy demand is expected to grow of about 35% within 2040, due to the increasing world population and the expanding economies - Double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency - Double the share of renewable energy sources (RESs) in the global energy mix In addition, according to the climate scenario assessed in the fifth assessment report (AR5) of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the prevention of undesirable climate effects requires a 40-70% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, compared with 2010 levels, by mid-century, and to near-zero by the end of this century (IPCC, 2014). The achievement of such objectives requires and encourages the spread of RESs in the global energy mix, gradually replacing depleting and polluting energy sources based on fossil fuels, which still have the main incidence on the energy sector. RESs already play a major role in several countries, due to the technological development and the increasing market competitiveness, and the world renewable power capacity reached 22.1% in 2013, showing an increasing trend in 2014 (REN, 2014). However, supporting policies, robust investments from the private sector and efforts from the scientific community are still crucial to demonstrate the technical and economic sustainability and effectiveness of RESs, helping their large-scale diffusion. Starting from such a background, this Ph.D dissertation focuses on the study, design and development of methods and tools for the optimization and enhancement of renewable energy technologies and their effective integration with energy storage solutions and traditional energy sources powered by fossil fuels (hybrid energy systems). The analysis of the major literature and the different scenarios and perspectives of RESs in the national and international contexts have shown that their economic sustainability, and then their diffusion, is closely connected to a number of technical, economic/financial and geographical parameters. Such parameters are the input of the analytic models developed for the techno-economic design of photovoltaic (PV) plants and small wind turbines (SWTs) and applied to the economic feasibility study, through multi-scenario analysis, of such systems in some of the main European Union (EU) Countries. Among the obtained results, the self-consumption of the produced energy plays a crucial role in the economic viability of SWTs and PV plants and, particularly, after the partial or total cut of incentives and uncertainties related to supporting policies within the EU context. The study of the energy demand profile of a specific user and the adoption of battery energy storage (BES) systems have been identified as effective strategies to increase the energy self-consumption contribution. Such aspects have led to the development of an analytic model for the techno-economic design of a grid connected hybrid energy system (HES), integrating a PV plant and a BES system (grid connected PV-BES HES). The economic profitability of the grid connected PV-BES HES, evaluated for a real case study, is comparable with PV plants without storage in case of a significant gap between the cost of energy purchased from the grid and the price of energy sold to the grid, but high BES system costs due to the initial investment and the maintenance activities and the eventual presence of incentives for the energy sold to the grid can make the investment not particularly attractive. Thus, the focus has shifted to the techno-economic analysis of off-grid HES to meet the energy demand of users in remote areas. In this context, BES systems have a significant role in the operation and management of the system, in addition to the storage of exceeding energy produced by the intermittent and variable RESs. The analysis has also been strengthened by an industrial application with the aim to configure, test and install two off-grid HESs to meet the energy demand of a remote village and a telecommunication system. In parallel, two experimental activities in the context of solar concentrating technology, a promising and not fully developed technology, have been carried out. The former activity deals with the design, development and field test of a Fresnel lens pilot-scale solar concentrating prototype for the PV energy distributed generation, through multi-junction solar cells, and the parallel low temperature heat recovery (micro-cogeneration CPV/T system). The latter activity deals with the development of a low cost thermal energy (TES) storage prototype for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants. TES systems show a great potential in the CSP plants profitability since they can overcome the intermittent nature of sunlight and increase the capacity factor of the solar thermal power plant. Concluding, the present Ph.D dissertation describes effective methods and tools for the optimization and enhancement of RESs. The obtained results, showing their critical issues and potential, aim to contribute to their diffusion and favor a sustainable development
Il progetto delle Nazioni Unite "Sustainable energy for all" ha fissato tre obiettivi ambiziosi per favorire uno sviluppo sostenibile e limitare l'impatto del cambiamento climatico: - Accesso universale a moderni servizi elettrici. Tali servizi sono attualmente indisponibili per circa 1.3 miliardi di persone ed è previsto un aumento del 40% della domanda globale di energia elettrica entro il 2040, a causa dell'incremento della popolazione mondiale e delle economie in crescita nei paesi in via di sviluppo - Raddoppio del tasso globale di miglioramento dell'efficienza energetica - Raddoppio del contributo di fonti di tipo rinnovabile nel mix energetico globale Inoltre, lo scenario climatico proposto nel "fifth assessment report (AR5)" redatto da "International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)" stabilisce la necessità di ridurre l'emissione di gas ad effetto serra del 40-70%, rispetto ai valori registrati nel 2010, entro il 2050 ed eliminarli in modo quasi definitivo entro la fine del secolo con lo scopo di evitare effetti climatici indesiderati. Il raggiungimento di tali obiettivi richiede e incoraggia la diffusione di fonti energetiche rinnovabili (FER) all'interno del mix energetico globale, rimpiazzando gradualmente le fonti di energia convenzionali basate su combustibili fossili, inquinanti e in via di esaurimento, che hanno ancora l'incidenza principale nel settore energetico. A seguito nel loro sviluppo tecnologico e la crescente competitività nel mercato, le FER rivestono già un ruolo fondamentale nel mix energetico di numerose Nazioni ricoprendo il 22.1% del fabbisogno globale di energia nel 2013 e mostrando un andamento in rialzo nel 2014 (REN, 2014). Tuttavia, sono ancora cruciali politiche di supporto, ingenti investimenti privati e contributi della comunità scientifica per dimostrare l'efficacia e la sostenibilità tecnica ed economica delle FER e favorire, quindi, una loro diffusione in larga scala. In questo contesto, la seguente tesi di dottorato è rivolta allo studio, progettazione e sviluppo di metodi e strumenti per l'ottimizzazione e la valorizzazione di tecnologie energetiche rinnovabili e la loro integrazione efficace con fonti di produzione di energia convenzionali alimentate da combustibili fossili e sistemi di accumulo di energia (Sistemi energetici di tipo ibrido). I contributi scientifici disponibili in letteratura e l'analisi dei diversi scenari e delle prospettive delle FER nei vari contesti nazionali ed internazionali hanno dimostrato che la loro sostenibilità economica, e quindi la loro diffusione, è strettamente legata ad una serie di parametri tecnici, economico / finanziari e geografici. Tali parametri sono stati impiegati come input in due modelli analitici sviluppati per la progettazione tecnico-economica di impianti fotovoltaici (FV) e micro turbine eoliche e applicati per lo studio della loro fattibilità economica, attraverso analisi multi-scenario, in alcuni dei maggiori Paesi Europei. I risultati ottenuti hanno mostrato come l'autoconsumo dell'energia prodotta rivesta un ruolo fondamentale nella redditività economica dei citati impianti ed, in particolare, a seguito del taglio parziale o totale dei sistemi di incentivazione e l'incertezza attorno alle politiche di supporto all'interno del panorama Europeo. Lo studio specifico del profilo di domanda elettrica delle utenze e l'impiego di sistemi di accumulo di energia sono stati identificati come strategie efficaci al fine di incrementare la quota di autoconsumo. Tali considerazioni hanno portato allo sviluppo di un modello analitico utile alla progettazione tecnico-economica un sistema energetico ibrido connesso alla rete Nazionale integrante un impianto FV e un sistema di accumulo a batterie. La redditività del sistema, valutata su un caso reale, risulta comparabile a un impianto fotovoltaico privo di batterie in caso di un gap significativo tra il costo dell'energia elettrica acquistata dalla rete e il prezzo di vendita dell'energia elettrica ceduta in rete. Tuttavia, gli elevati costi dovuti all'acquisto iniziale e alle attività di manutenzione, e l'eventuale incentivazione sulla vendita dell'energia in rete, non rendono l'investimento particolarmente attrattivo per impianti connessi alla rete. L'attenzione si è quindi rivolta all'analisi tecnico-economica di sistemi energetici ibridi non connessi alla rete, comunemente definiti in isola o off-grid, per soddisfare il fabbisogno energetico di utenti in area remote e quindi prive di allaccio a una rete elettrica. In tali sistemi, i sistemi di accumulo a batterie, oltre alla capacità di accumulo dell'energia prodotta in eccesso variabili e intermittenti FER, hanno funzioni fondamentali nella gestione del sistema stesso. L'attività è stata anche rafforzata da un'applicazione industriale per la configurazione, test e installazione di due sistemi energetici ibridi in isola impiegati per soddisfare il fabbisogno energetico di un villaggio e di un sistema di telecomunicazione situati in aree remote. In parallelo, sono state svolte due attività sperimentali applicate alla promettente, ma non ancora completamente sviluppata a livello industriale, tecnologia solare a concentrazione. La prima attività riguarda la progettazione, sviluppo e test sperimentali di un prototipo in scala ridotta di concentratore solare a lenti di Fresnel per la produzione distribuita di energia elettrica, mediante l'uso di celle fotovoltaiche multi giunzione, ed energia termica a bassa temperatura, tramite un sistema di recupero termico. La seconda attività concerne lo sviluppo e test sperimentali di un prototipo di sistema di accumulo termico per impianti termodinamici alimentati da sistemi a concentrazione solare. Il sistema di accumulo consente di compensare la natura intermittente e variabile della fonte solare incrementando le ore di funzionamento dell'impianto termodinamico con i conseguenti benefici economici. Concludendo, la presente tesi di dottorato include la descrizione di metodi e strumenti per l'ottimizzazione e valorizzazione delle FER. I risultati evidenziano le criticità e potenzialità dei sistemi studiati con lo scopo di contribuire a una loro diffusione e favorire uno sviluppo sostenibile

Logistics is typically defined as the design and operation of the physical, managerial and informational systems needed to allow goods to overcome space and time. Traditional models and methods for logistic system design and management focus on the optimization of the techno-economic performances. However, logistic activities are distinguished by a huge environmental impact. For instance, the final energy consumption for freight transportation reached in recent years the alarming value of 13% of the total end-use energy worldwide, equal to 40 EJ per year. Thus, innovative techniques for logistic system design and management have to guarantee these system overall sustainability not only from a technical and economic perspective but also from an environmental viewpoint. To this end, multi-objective optimization is of strong help. This is a mathematical programming technique to systematically and simultaneously optimize a collection of objective functions, often conflicting among them. Considering this scenario, aim of this Ph.D. thesis is to develop, propose and validate innovative multi-objective models and methods for design and management of sustainable logistic systems simultaneously optimizing the system technical performance, economic profitability and environmental impact. The developed models fully manage the material flow from suppliers to assembly or manufacturing areas and from these to final customers through the distribution, storage and retrieving activities among and within the logistic actors. An original decision support system is proposed to jointly minimize the operating cost, carbon footprint and delivery time in the design of multi-modal multi-level distribution networks considering the most relevant features of the delivered products. Concerning warehousing systems, both design and operation problems are tackled. A multi-objective optimization model is developed to determine the warehouse building configuration, namely length, width and height, which simultaneously minimizes travel time, total cost and carbon footprint objective functions. These two latter are estimated through a lifecycle approach. All the activities related to warehouse building installation and operating phases are evaluated both from an economic and an environmental perspective. Warehousing system operation is analyzed by means of storage assignment strategy. A time and energy based strategy is proposed to jointly minimize the travel time and the energy required by the material handling vehicles to store and retrieve the unit loads. Proper vehicle motion configuration and unit load features are considered to accurately model the objective functions. Finally, the presented models and methods are tested and validated against case studies from the food and beverage industry. The results demonstrate that a tremendous environmental impact reduction is possible at negligible technical and economic performance worsening.
La logistica viene tipicamente definita come l’insieme di quelle attività di progettazione e gestione di sistemi fisici ed informativi necessari per consentire alle diverse tipologie di merci di superare lo spazio ed il tempo. I modelli ed i metodi tradizionali per la progettazione e gestione dei sistemi logistici si focalizzano sull’ottimizzazione delle prestazioni tecnico-economiche. Tuttavia, le attività logistiche si contraddistinguono per un elevato impatto ambientale. Solo per citare un esempio, il consumo di energia per il trasporto merci ha raggiunto negli ultimi anni il 13% dell’energia complessivamente utilizzata su scala mondiale, pari cioè a 40 EJ annui. Gli approcci innovativi per la progettazione e gestione di sistemi logistici devono necessariamente garantire la loro sostenibilità non solo da un punto di vista tecnico ed economico, ma anche da quello ambientale. A tal fine, l’ottimizzazione multi-obiettivo è di notevole aiuto. Questo metodo di programmazione matematica permette di ottimizzare sistematicamente e simultaneamente un insieme di funzioni obiettivo spesso contrastanti tra loro. Alla luce di questo scenario, lo scopo di questa tesi di dottorato è quello di sviluppare, proporre e validare modelli e metodi multi-obiettivo innovativi per la progettazione e la gestione di sistemi logistici sostenibili ottimizzando contemporaneamente le loro prestazioni tecniche, economiche ed ambientali. I modelli sviluppati permettono di gestire nella sua interezza il flusso di materiali dai fornitori ai reparti di fabbricazione o assemblaggio e da questi ai clienti finali attraverso le necessarie attività di distribuzione, stoccaggio e prelievo all’interno e tra gli attori della catena logistica. E’ stato sviluppato un sistema per il supporto decisionale atto a minimizzare contemporaneamente il costo operativo, la carbon footprint ed il tempo di trasporto di reti distributive multi-livello e multi-modali prendendo in considerazione le più importanti caratteristiche dei prodotti trasportati. Per quanto riguarda i sistemi di immagazzinamento e stoccaggio, questa tesi affronta sia le tematiche di progettazione sia quelle operative. Un modello di ottimizzazione multi-obiettivo è proposto per definire la configurazione degli edifici atti allo stoccaggio merci, ovvero la loro lunghezza, larghezza ed altezza, al fine di minimizzare il tempo di prelievo, il costo totale e la carbon footprint. Queste ultime due funzioni obiettivo sono state valutate considerando l’intero ciclo di vita del magazzino. Tutte le attività relative alle fasi di installazione ed esercizio dell’edificio vengono contabilizzate sia da un punto di vista economico che ambientale. Per quanto concerne la gestione operativa di un sistema di immagazzinamento, questa tesi affrontata il problema dell’assegnazione dei prodotti ai vani di stoccaggio. Si è definito un modello di ottimizzazione multi-obiettivo per minimizzare contestualmente il tempo e l’energia necessari alle attività di prelievo e stoccaggio. Per modellare opportunamente le funzioni obiettivo temporali ed energetiche sono stati valutati accuratamente sia i profili di moto dei veicoli per lo stoccaggio merce sia le caratteristiche dei prodotti da immagazzinare. Per concludere, i modelli ed i metodi presentati sono stati validati e testati con casi studio provenienti dall’industria alimentare. I risultati ottenuti dimostrano come sia possibile ridurre drasticamente l’impatto ambientale di questi sistemi logistici a scapito di un trascurabile peggioramento delle prestazioni tecnico ed economiche.

Diploma thesis contains a design the plumbing and gas installations in the industrial building. The theoretical part deals with the use of rainwater in the building as the process water and the experimental determination of the flow rate and water needs for the manufacturing and storage hall with built-office. The calculation part deals with the design of variants of plumbing and gas installations in the building manufacturing and storage hall with built-office. The practical part contains a design and project documentation of selected variants plumbing and gas installations in the manufacturing and storage hall with built-office, and the use of rainwater in this type of building.

Les travaux présentés dans ce document portent sur des problèmes d'optimisation dans le domaine de la logistique interne des entrepôts. Le domaine est soumis à une forte concurrence et est en plein essor, poussé par les besoins croissants du marché et favorisé par l'automatisation. L'entreprise SAVOYE construit des équipements et propose sa propre solution GTP (Goods-To-Person) pour la préparation de commandes. La solution utilise un système de stockage automatisé appelé X-Picking Tray System (X-PTS) et achemine les charges automatiquement à des postes de travail via des carrousels pour effectuer des opérations séquencées. C'est un système de systèmes particulièrement complexe qui offre de nombreuses applications aux techniques de la recherche opérationnelle. Tout cela définit le périmètre applicatif et théorique des travaux menés dans cette thèse. Nous avons d'abord traité un problème d'ordonnancement de type Job Shop avec des contraintes de précédences. Le contexte particulier du problème a permis de le résoudre en un temps polynomial avec un algorithme exact. Celui-ci a permis de calculer les dates d'injection des charges provenant des différents flux de sortie du stockage pour s'agréger sur un carrousel, dans un ordre donné. Ainsi, la gestion inter-allées du stockage PTS a été améliorée et le débit du flux de charges maximisé, depuis le stockage jusqu'à un poste. Nous avons ensuite étudié des algorithmes de tri tels que le tri par base et développé un algorithme de tri en ligne, utilisé pour piloter des systèmes autonomes de tri appelés Buffers Séquenceurs (BS). Placés en amont de chaque poste de travail dans la solution GTP, les BS permettent de délocaliser la fonction de tri en aval du stockage, augmentant de facto le débit des flux de sortie. Enfin, nous avons considéré un problème de séquencement consistant à trouver une extension linéaire d'un ordre partiel minimisant une distance avec un ordre donné. Nous proposons de le résoudre par une approche de programmation linéaire en nombres entiers, par la construction de programmes dynamiques et par des heuristiques de type glouton. Une heuristique efficace a été développée en se basant sur des appels itératifs d'un des programmes dynamiques, permettant d'atteindre une solution proche ou égale à l'optimum en un temps très court. L'application de ce problème aux flux de sortie non ordonnés du stockage X-PTS permet de réaliser un pré-tri au niveau des carrousels. Les diverses solutions développées ont été validées par simulation et certaines ont été brevetées et/ou déjà été mises en application dans des entrepôts
The work presented in this PhD thesis deals with optimization problems in the context of internal warehouse logistics. The field is subject to strong competition and extensive growth, driven by the growing needs of the market and favored by automation. SAVOYE builds warehouse storage handling equipment and offers its own GTP (Goods-To-Person) solution for order picking. The solution uses an Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) called X-Picking Tray System (X-PTS) and automatically routes loads to workstations via carousels to perform sequenced operations. It is a highly complex system of systems with many applications for operational research techniques. All this defines the applicative and theoretical scope of the work carried out in this thesis. In this thesis, we have first dealt with a specific scheduling Job Shop problem with precedence constraints. The particular context of this problem allowed us to solve it in polynomial time with exact algorithms. These algorithms made it possible to calculate the injection schedule of the loads coming from the different storage output streams to aggregate on a carousel in a given order. Thus, the inter-aisle management of the X-PTS storage was improved and the throughput of the load flow was maximized, from the storage to a station. In the sequel of this work, the radix sort LSD (Least Significant Digit) algorithm was studied and a dedicated online sorting algorithm was developed. The second one is used to drive autonomous sorting systems called Buffers Sequencers (BS), which are placed upstream of each workstation in the GTP solution. Finally, a sequencing problem was considered, consisting of finding a linear extension of a partial order minimizing a distance with a given order. An integer linear programming approach, different variants of dynamic programming and greedy algorithms were proposed to solve it. An efficient heuristic was developed based on iterative calls of dynamic programming routines, allowing to reach a solution close or equal to the optimum in a very short time. The application of this problem to the unordered output streams of X-PTS storage allows pre-sorting at the carousel level. The various solutions developed have been validated by simulation and some have been patented and/or already implemented in warehouses

This cumulative dissertation investigates the operation of storage-augmented energy systems and their interaction with the overall energy system. A storage-augmented energy system, in this con-text, is defined as an electric energy storage system in close proximity to consumers and distributed generation units under joint control. This work consists of four papers published in scientific, peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings that aim to answer the following Re-search Questions (RQs): (RQ1): What is the status of research of mathematical decision support models for operating storage-augmented energy systems? (RQ2): How do thermal and electrical energy storage systems in hybrid energy systems influence each other, and how does their interaction influence the way the superordinate system should be operated? (RQ3): Which models are suitable to include battery aging costs into the operation problem, and how does this cost-factor change the way the storage-augmented energy system should be operated? (RQ4): To what extent does including an EESS into an industrial production facility enhance the flexibility offering to the overall energy system? All four papers focus on various combinations of the above RQs, and apply different research methodologies to address them. Paper 1 begins with a systematic and comprehensive literature review on the current status of research of energy management for storage-augmented systems in stationary applications. The paper first develops a conceptual framework, which is then used to structure and discuss the relevant literature. Paper 1 concludes with a set of propositions for future research based on the identified research gaps, and hence prepares Papers 2 to 4. Paper 2 und Paper 4 develop mathematical models for operating storage-augmented energy systems in residential and industrial applications, respectively, and discuss the results of computational studies on exemplary configurations. Paper 3, in contrast, formulates a conceptual framework on demand-side flexibility measures in industrial production facilities as a preliminary work for Paper 4. In the following, the different research areas of Papers 1 to 4 are outlined in more detail, and the specific research gaps addressed by the four papers are explained. The systematic and comprehensive literature review presented in Paper 1 develops an overall view on the current status of research in the field (RQ1). Paper 1 provides an introduction to energy management of electric energy storage systems in general, and the multifarious aspects to be considered when operating stationary systems in particular. Research in this field has received more and more attention in recent years. The vast amount of publications on the management of electric energy storage systems, especially those that appeared in the last ten years, has created a need for a structured review and classification of existing research. Although several papers re-viewing the matter have been published, the review in Paper 1 differs from existing research in terms of its focus on mathematical models and its systematic review approach. In the synthesis of the reviewed publications, Paper 1 outlines propositions for future research, which were partially addressed in Papers 2 to 4. Paper 2 analyzes operations of a storage-augmented, hybrid residential microgrid. The paper con-tributes to research by investigating the case of a local energy supplier. The local energy supplier is responsible for meeting local hybrid, i.e. electrical and thermal, energy demands while interacting with the grid at real-time pricing. The major benefit for the energy supplier comes from efficiently using non-renewable decentralized generation units by leveraging thermal energy storage systems and electric energy storage systems. Compared to classical, thermal power plants, distributed generation units utilize primary energy resources more efficiently as they offer the opportunity to use excess heat to serve local thermal demand. Gas-fired combined heat and power plants can operate at combined efficiencies ranging between 70 % and 80 %. This is well above the efficiency levels of conventional power plants without waste heat utilization that usually do not exceed 30 %. Thermal and electrical energy demand in hybrid systems are for the most part uncorrelated, whereas combined generation units generate thermal and electrical energy simultaneously in a fixed ratio. Therefore, in practice, combined generation units follow either electrical or thermal loads when operated heuristically. Two approaches have been applied in Paper 2 to respond to these challenges. On the on hand, optimization methods support economic and reliable operations of microgrids and have already attracted much attention among researchers and practitioners in recent years. On the other hand, hybrid energy storage systems, a combination of electric and thermal energy storage systems, can be applied to decouple both types of demands. Paper 2 first contributes to research by revisiting current work on optimization models for microgrids that include battery energy storage systems and take battery aging into account (RQ3). Most of current research has focused on using batteries to optimize energy systems for economic, ecological, and technical objectives, but barely considered battery aging in the optimization models. Especially battery aging models that consider specific usage conditions have been underrepresented. Paper 2 addresses this research gap by deriving a weighted cost model, considering both cyclical and calendrical aging components, from the domain-specific literature on battery lifetime prediction. The paper further integrates the piecewise-linearized battery aging model into a mixed-integer linear programming formulation for a hybrid microgrid application. The influence of the battery aging model formulation on microgrid operations in a cost-optimal schedule is illustrated in a computational study for a real-world example. Secondly, Paper 2 contributes to research by investigating the interdependencies of the thermal and electrical systems in a parameter study on component sizing. Sensitivities are investigated through selected key parameters and show that both storage types can significantly reduce the grid-provided energy without losing economic viability. Paper 3 and Paper 4 put the spotlight on the industrial consumer. By size, the industrial sector was responsible for around 42.5% of world-wide electricity consumption in 2014. This entails a large potential for generating flexibility by demand-side management. Paper 3 addresses research efforts undertaken to tap this potential and to enable industrial consumers to offer short-term flexibility. Paper 3 fosters the idea that production facilities incorporate a versatile set of flexibility measures that enable them to modulate their electricity consumption time- and volume-wise and, as a result, to participate in respective flexibility markets. Paper 3 develops a conceptual framework for an energy-aware view on production facilities to identify the various resources of flexibility. Besides the production system, whose energy consumption is adjustable by changing the production schedule, there are many examples for additional resources of flexibility such as local generation, energy conversion systems, and other auxiliary systems, of which many show a storage-equivalent behavior. As a final note, the paper proposes a control architecture to coordinate the different sources of flexibility. Paper 4 concludes this dissertation. The paper elaborates on the ideas outlined in Paper 3 and presents an in-depth analysis of a storage-augmented industrial production facility participating in demand response. For simplicity, this work concentrates on the production system and a co-located battery. Paper 4 outlines challenges for industrial consumers participating in demand response and provides an overview of the corresponding literature. For residential and commercial consumers, interdependencies between the scheduling of different applications (e.g., refrigerators or air conditioning equipment) are negligible and scheduling can be performed independently. Prior research has investigated various residential applications and to what extent they are compatible with demand response, e.g. for air conditioning, cloth dryers, or dishwashers. For industrial consumers, however, participating in demand response is more difficult as the scheduling of processes within facilities is often subject to many interdependencies. While in many traditional demand response programs, system operators require direct control of single consumers for short-term flexibility, the aforementioned complexity within industrial consumers falsifies the appropriateness of such approaches and reveals the need for other solutions. In industrial applications, demand response thus requires sophisticated models that account for the influence of demand response on production processes and vice versa. Firstly, Paper 4 contributes to this research by proposing an incentive-based program according to which the facility operator determines alternative electricity consumption scenarios and communicates discrete load reduction potentials to the system operator without disclosing internal processes. Secondly, Paper 4 develops a flexible flow shop formulation for a discrete manufacturing process. A reference model is extended to account for the operating-mode-specific energy consumption of machines with specific consumption trajectories per product-machine-combination. A mixed-integer linear programming formulation is suggested to model and solve the problem in three stages. First, a base-line solution is developed by minimizing total weighted completion time. Then, based on the baseline solution, additional solutions with different responses to the demand response are calculated and a load reduction curve as a potential means of communication is established. Finally, the effects of using a battery to allow easy-to-apply and economically better responses are studied. A numerical example is provided and analyzed to give a zest of the suggested solution.

University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology.
Steel storage racks are structures which are used in factories and warehouses to store goods and merchandises. They consist of uprights, beams and braces made of cold-formed steel, and although they are very light in comparison with conventional structures, they are designed to carry very heavy loads. Storage racks are designed to resist horizontal loads in orthogonal directions using two different frame systems: moment resisting frames in down aisle direction and braced frames in cross aisle direction. The design of racks is different from typical buildings because they are made of slender thin walled members, hence, making them sensitive to global, local, and distortional buckling if overloaded. Moreover; the connections demonstrate highly nonlinear behaviours under loading. Due to the aforementioned reasons, the design of racks poses major challenges for engineers especially in seismic regions where mitigating the vulnerability of racks is important. The objective of this numerical and experimental research was to investigate the seismic behaviour of storage racks and to establish the effectiveness of two alternative control systems to improve the performance of the racks under seismic loads. The control systems studied are new generation passive dampers: (i) a pounding tuned mass damper (PTMD) and (ii) a base isolation system. Full scaled shake table testing was performed at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) to study the dynamic behaviour of storage racks and to verify the numerical models. As part of the research, numerical models based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) were developed and applied to conduct parametric analyses of the racks in order to compare the seismic response of cross aisle braced frames of different heights with and without control devices. The FEM results showed that PTMD dampers enhance by up to 40% the seismic behaviour of racks under 5 meters height while the base isolation system was more effective for tall racks. Financial support for this research was provided by Dexion.

Steel storage pallet racks are commonly used worldwide to store goods on pallets and represent complex and challenging structures to design. The main racking system is denoted as “selective steel storage pallet rack”. These racking systems are one pallet deep and are separated by aisles, allowing for each pallet, stored on horizontal beams, to be always accessible. Selective racks behave like bracing system in cross-aisle direction, with uprights connected by diagonal bracings, while in down-aisle direction, bracings are usually not installed to make palletised goods always accessible. Therefore, in down-aisle direction racks behave like moment resisting frames (MRFs) whose stability and seismic resistance depend on the performance of beam-to-column connections. This Thesis is motivated by the need to increase the knowledge about the mechanical behavior of rack joints, investigating how it is affected by structural details and design parameters, and its effect on the global seismic response of rack systems. This is not only a very interesting and challenging problem from a scientific point of view, but it can also have a very large economic impact. The proposed goal is achieved through: experimental tests, carried out on full-scale boltless rack joints to identify their non-linear moment-rotation curve under monotonic and cyclic loading; the development of a theoretical model to simulate experimental curves of joints; probabilistic analyses to highlight the influence of uncertainties in material strength and geometrical features on the mechanical performance of joints; and finally the development of a numerical model, capable to describe the pinching in hysteresis loops of connections and its effect on the seismic response of industrial storage systems. To obtain the moment-rotation curve of rack connections and to evaluate how it is affected by structural details, a set of full-scale joints are tested at the Structures and Material Testing Laboratory of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Florence. In the first part of the Thesis, results of monotonic and cyclic tests are presented. Some joints are also equipped with additional bolts, which could represent an effective solution to improve the seismic response of steel storage pallet racks. Experimental testing is useful to get information about the semi-rigid behavior and ductility of beam-column joints. Nevertheless, despite the success and popularity of experimental testing, tests can be expensive and time-consuming, therefore current state-of-art models for traditional steel joints are based on the Component Method (CM). The CM approach can be applied to any kind of connections because the joint is modeled theoretically as an assembly of components with an elasto-plastic or rigid force-displacement relationship. A mechanical model based on the CM is developed and used to analytically evaluate the non-linear structural response of rack beam-column joints. The accuracy of the proposed approach is checked by the comparison with experimental results. To explore the impact of the component structural details and the uncertainty in steel mechanical properties and geometrical features, a Monte Carlo simulation of rack connection assemblies is also performed. For the development of simulations, statistical properties of material random variables are assumed on experimental results, the variability in geometric tolerances are assumed in accordance with current standard code requirements and the structural response of rack joints is modeled using the proposed mechanical model based on the CM. Finally, experimental tests showed a non-negligible pinching in the cyclic moment-rotation curve of rack connections, with a reduction of energy dissipation. This structural behavior is expected to influence the seismic response of rack systems and it is investigated in the last chapter of the Thesis. A simplified Finite Element (FE) numerical model is proposed for the analysis of steel storage pallet racks under cyclic loads, considering the pinching in the joint hysteresis loop. The effectiveness of the proposed model is its fast tuning and easily implementation in commercial software packages, commonly used for non-linear seismic vulnerability analyses. For a deeper understanding of the pinching effect, a case-study is discussed, comparing two models of joints differing in the modeling of the degradation of the rotational stiffness. Results highlight that a non-liner dynamic analysis with the proposed pinching model, which describes the effective non-linear elasto-plastic behavior of rack joints, is suggested to obtain a seismic vulnerability assessment of industrial storage systems on the safe side.

Text in English
Industrial sites in Harare contribute significantly to the economy of Zimbabwe. Harare is the capital city of Zimbabwe and therefore has significant manufacturing and commercial activity. The protection of industrial sites is very important because of the presence of valuable assets and operations. Therefore the main purpose of deploying security measures at industry premises is to create a safe and secure environment for the business functions. Security management is consequently an important element of an industrial organisation’s continuity. The implementation of integrated security systems was examined to some extent within this study. The size and nature of industrial facilities influenced this study to view integrated security systems as more effective than stand-alone security measures. The study sought to investigate the various aspects associated with the implementation. The purposes of the research included the following: • Examine current practices, benefits, shortcomings in the implementation of integrated security systems; • Critically evaluate the security management aspects required for the implementation ofintegrated security systems; • Investigate successes and failures associated with integrated security systems and how implementation can be improved; • Examine and identify factors necessary for a best practice approach to integrated security systems; and • Determine a methodology for the effective implementation of integrated security systems. Additionally the study briefly examined how security systems integration can assist in reducing the problem of connivance to theft at receiving and dispatch points at industrial facilities. The report is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 covers the research problem, Chapter 2 deals with the research methods while Chapter 3 has insightful information from literature review. Chapter 4 presents the data and how it was analysed. Lastly Chapter 5 has findings, recommendations and conclusions. The study used the mixed-method approach. This approach includes both qualitative and quantitative research in order to gain a more in-depth understanding of the research problem. The methods of data collection were site visits, interviews and questionnaires. The sample was drawn from a cross-section of sites within the industrial areas of Workington, Southerton, Willowvale, Graniteside, Msasa and few outside industries in the vicinity of Harare. A total of 11 sites were observed. The interviews consisted of 30 participants who were mainly security practitioners at management level as well as some non-security managers. In addition, a total of 102 respondents participated in this study by completing the questionnaire. The majority of the respondents were security practitioners who were the main focus of the study. The findings support the various aspects of the implementation of integrated security systems. The conclusions emanating from the statistical analysis of the collected data included the following: • The critical assets for protection at industrial facilities are infrastructure, products, revenue, people and other movable items or equipment; • The main threat sources are from outsiders, crime syndicates and employees; • Security systems suitable for integration are CCTV, electronic access control, alarms, personnel, policies and procedures backed by information communication technologies. • Security should be functionally integrated with other departments which include Information Technology, Human Resources, Finance, Operations and Marketing; • The preferred mode of linkage was established to be fibre optic on a local area or wide area network using intranet or internet; • The key players in the integration were found to be security practitioners, top management, IT specialist, system suppliers, installers and operators; • The implementation process consists of security policy, survey, system design, procurement, installation, training, operating, review and upgrade; • Factors necessary for best practice include system purpose, availability of resources, top management commitment, skills, and feasibility to implement; • The benefits are mainly improved effectiveness, easy of monitoring, improved outlook and record keeping; • The most significant challenges are system breakdown, sabotage and power outage; and • Connivance to theft can be mitigated by a combination of staff rotation, dedicated CCTV, spot checks, undercover surveillance and functional integration. area network using intranet or internet; • The key players in the integration were found to be security practitioners, top management, IT specialist, system suppliers, installers and operators; • The implementation process consists of security policy, survey, system design, procurement, installation, training, operating, review and upgrade; • Factors necessary for best practice include system purpose, availability of resources, top management commitment, skills, and feasibility to implement; • The benefits are mainly improved effectiveness, easy of monitoring, improved outlook and record keeping; • The most significant challenges are system breakdown, sabotage and power outage; and • Connivance to theft can be mitigated by a combination of staff rotation, dedicated CCTV, spot checks, undercover surveillance and functional integration.
Security Risk Management
M. Tech. (Security Management)