Browsing by Author "Louw, Louis"
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- ItemAlignment of internal and external business and innovation domains(SAIIE, 2016-05) Katz, Bernard R.; Du Preez, Niek D.; Louw, LouisENGLISH ABSTRACT: “Instead of being really good at doing some particular thing, companies must be really good at learning how to do new things”. This ability to do new things involves both the identification and the mastery of the next ‘new thing’ as well as the ability to align the rest of the company with this new direction. This paper focuses on the alignment of innovation activities with the overall business strategy and infrastructure. An innovation strategic alignment model is presented that supports alignment in a company by identifying the driver of change and its impact on other areas of the business.
- ItemDemand forecasting for network capacity planning in electrical utilities – a review of existing methods considering the evolving technologies of the energy arena(South African Institute for Industrial Engineering, 2018) Breedt, Jana; Louw, Louis; De Kock, Imke H.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Planning for sufficient energy resources in a country is of paramount importance to ensure sustainable development of the economy and prosperity of its citizens. In South Africa the national utility, Eskom, is tasked to create a balance between the electricity demand and the supply thereof. Forecasting the electricity load on the networks to supply the country demand becomes an important task to ensure that capacity planning does not constrain potential growth, and neither does it construct overinvestment to compromise feasibility of implementation. The landscape of energy utilization is currently experiencing rapid evolution in technology and poses significant challenges to the way the electricity demand forecast needs to be done. Technology is evolving to provide more efficient, cost effective and reliable alternative energy sources than the conventional methods used in the past. Improved electricity efficiency and user behavior plays a significant role in future electricity demand requirements. This paper provides a comparative literature review on current forecasting methodologies to provide insight to which of these methods can be utilized in the future. A set of requirements is concluded on to identify the most relevant and effective forecasting methodologies to improve accuracy on forecasting electricity demand into the technology advanced future.
- ItemDesign and implementation of a low cost RFID track and trace system in a learning factory(Elsevier, 2018) Louw, Louis; Walker, MarkENGLISH ABSTRACT: The factories of the future will make use of actuators, sensors and cyber-physical systems (CPS) to provide an environment in which human beings, machines, and resources will communicate as in a social network. In such a network, communication between various “objects” relay the current state of the physical world. Business decisions are made using the information and it is therefore critical that this information is accurate and in real-time. Information flow is a key enabler of such future factories. Industrial engineers, as designers and improvement agents of such factories of the future, will need to develop better skills in various aspects of data analytics and information communication technologies. This paper describes the development and implementation of a low cost RFID track and trace system (by students) for application in a Learning Factory for teaching undergraduate industrial engineering students key concepts related to Industry 4.0 and “smart factories”. The benefit of this system is not only a demonstrator to be used in the Learning Factory, but also can be used to teach students in a “learning by doing” fashion critical skills related to real time tracking in a manufacturing environment. The system also demonstrates potential low cost implementation of such technologies in SME’s.
- ItemDevelopment of a low cost machine vision based quality control system for a learning factory(Elsevier, 2019) Louw, Louis; Droomer, MarliENGLISH ABSTRACT: Learning Factories provide a promising environment for developing the competencies required from a future workforce to apply and integrate technologies associated with digitalised production environments and cyber-physical systems. This paper describes a student project for the development and implementation of a low cost machine vision based quality control system within a Learning Factory. A prototype system was developed using low cost hardware and open source software freely available. The system will be used towards further research and development of more intelligent manufacturing systems within the Learning Factory, based on machine vision. A second benefit was student competency development through self-learning and experimentation. It serves to illustrate how the education as well as research goals of a Learning Factory can be addressed simultaneously through student projects.
- ItemProtective capacity and time buffer design in theory of constraints controlled discrete flow production systems(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2003-04) Louw, Louis; Page, D. C.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Industrial Engineering.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: To maximise the throughput of a production system the capacity constrained resource needs to be protected from variation and uncertainty. In the Theory of Constraints philosophy such protection is provided by means of time buffers and protective capacity. Time buffers are protective time that is allowed in the production schedule to buffer against disruptions, whereas protective capacity is defined as a given amount of extra capacity at non-constraints above the system constraint's capacity. In this research an analytical procedure was developed to more accurately determine the required time buffer lengths. This procedure uses an open queuing network modelling approach where workstations are modelled as GIIG/m queues. A simulation experiment was performed to evaluate the time buffer estimation procedure on the operations of an actual fifteen station flow shop. The results from the study suggest that the analytical procedure is sufficiently accurate to provide an initial quick estimate of the needed time buffer lengths at the design stage of the line. This dissertation also investigated the effect of protective capacity levels at a secondary constraint resource as well as at the other non-constraint resources on the mean flow time, the bottleneck probability of the primary constraint resource, as well as the output of flow production systems using simulation models and ANOV A. Two different types of flow production systems were investigated: (1) a flow shop with a fixed number of stations and unlimited queue or buffer space between stations, and (2) an assembly line where a total work content is distributed among stations in a certain fashion and the number of stations are not fixed. The experimental studies show that flow shop performance in the form of flow time and line output is not that much influenced by low protective capacity levels at the secondary constraint resource. Low protective capacity levels at a single station however can significantly reduce the bottleneck probability for the primary constraint resource when it is located before and relatively close or near to the primary constraint in the process flow, or after but relatively far from the primary constraint. An after-far secondary constraint location also causes slightly longer job flow times, and should therefore be avoided if possible. The research further shows that quite high protective capacity levels at the nonconstraint resources are needed to ensure a more stable and therefore manageable primary constraint. However low average levels of protective capacity at non-constraint resources are sufficient to ensure that the maximum designed output level as determined by the utilisation of the primary constraint resource is obtained. The results for the assembly line experiment showed that an unbalanced line configuration where less work is assigned to the non-constraint stations than to the primary constraint station (but nonconstraint stations have an equal work content) can lead to significant reductions in the mean flow time while maintaining the same line output, without resulting in too many additional stations. Low protective capacity levels in the range of 2% to 5% are sufficient to cause substantial improvements in flow time without resulting in too many additional stations in the line.
- ItemTeaching Methods-Time Measurement (MTM) for workplace design in learning factories(Elsevier, 2017) Morlock, Friedrich; Kreggenfeld, Niklas; Louw, Louis; Kreimeier, Dieter; Kuhlenkotter, BerndMethods-Time Measurement (MTM) has its roots in time studies as a predetermined motion time system. It can however also be used in the field of workplace design and improvement. High amount of work effort for the creation of MTM-analyses and time-consuming trainings in MTM often lead to a decline in the use of MTM. A potential solution for the human resources management of companies could be practice-oriented trainings with MTM as a method for workplace design. A lot of job profiles (e.g. process engineer) in manufacturing do not need a complete MTM training, as they do not require the full time-study aspect of MTM. This article represents an approach for MTM workplace design training in a learning factory.
- ItemTowards an internet-of-things framework for assisting quality-controlled-logistics decision making within the fresh produce supply chain(South African Institute for Industrial Engineering, 2018) Joubert, Lelani; Louw, LouisFresh food is mainly wasted due to overproduction and the natural decay of food quality which cannot be prevented. Hence, actors in the fresh food supply chain are responsible to monitor and control activities that influences the quality of fresh food. The emergence of new technologies such as Internet-of-Things (IoT) creates the opportunity to collect real-time food quality information, which may be used to assist and adapt logistic activities to ensure that food quality remains in the accepted quality limits. The aim of this paper is to identify current knowledge on quality-controlled logistics (QCL) in the fresh produce industry, and to identify whether there are opportunities to implement IoT-technologies, from the perspective of experts working in the fresh produce industry.