Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Newspaper Articles

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Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Newspaper Articles

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Browsing Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering Newspaper Articles by Author "Mhlanga, S."

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    Academic staff development strategies in engineering fields of study: case study of Zimbabwe
    (2013-06) Mhlanga, S.; Matope, S.; Mugwagwa, L.; Phuthi, N.; Moyo, V. S.
    Higher education is the basic instrument of economic growth and technological advancement in any society. The economic meltdown in Zimbabwe which climaxed 2008 with an inflation level of 231million % exacerbated the brain drain. After the economic meltdown, Zimbabwe is in the process of rebuilding the quality of staff and the staffing levels in its higher education institutions. The challenge has been the decision on the mode of study: whether to go via taught masters or master's by research; where to allow the faculty members to study: in the region, or beyond; on a fulltime or on a part-time basis or on a split-site basis. These challenges have been due to the need to have a quick but quality programme of staff development, while maximising on the resources available for staff development. A survey was undertaken of the engineering related departments in Zimbabwe universities focusing on the existing staffing levels, their qualifications, current numbers undergoing study and their levels. The challenges faced by each institution from the administrative side and from the staff side are summarised. Recommendations on staff development strategies are given in conclusion.
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    Implementation Of A Computerized Balanced Scorecard (BSC) System In A Manufacturing Organisation In Zimbabwe
    (2013) Gwangwava, N.; Mhlanga, S.; Goriwondo, W.
    This modern era’s high technological improvements present manufacturers and other organizations with a plethora of Management Information Systems (MISs) which makes them face challenges when choosing a corporate information system. High initial investment in setting up the information systems make it very difficult for companies to adopt new systems as they come into market before realizing a reasonable return from the previous system. In line with these concerns, a methodology for building a Balanced Scorecard module as a strategic management platform that can be integrated smoothly into already existing information system such as MRP/ERP is presented. The paper uses a case study of a manufacturing company based in Zimbabwe. Various manufacturing based metrics are reviewed with the main intent of showing how these can be tracked in a computerized platform. Sample data extracted from the production system is used to test the built system. The paper shows a methodology for software design, setting up and adopting a BSC system. The proposed approach is used to design a computerized BSC system for the case study company, which incorporates a BSC dashboard for the four main perspectives derived from various operational metrics.
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    Scheduling linearly deteriorating jobs on parallel machines: a simulated annealing approach
    (2001) Hindi, K.S.; Mhlanga, S.
    Scheduling deteriorating jobs on parallel machines is an NP-hard problem, for which heuristics would be the ®rst solution option. Two variants of linearly deteriorating jobs are considered. The ®rst is that with simple linear deterioration, i.e. where there is a deterioration rate only, which is meaningful only if the jobs are assumed to be available at a positive time t0 . In the second variant, there is a basic processing time and a deterioration rate and all jobs are available at time t ˆ 0. In both cases, we seek to minimize the makespan. Starting from simple heuristics, both steepest descent search and simulated annealing are designed and implemented to arrive at optimal or near-optimal solutions. Computational results for randomly generated problem instances with diåerent job/machine combinations are pre sented.
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    Towards the implementation of e-manufacturing: design of an automatic tea drying control system.
    (2014) Mabvuu, N.; Nyanga, L.; van der Merwe, A. F.; Matope, S.; Mhlanga, S.
    Many of the production costs for producing tea are attributable to the process of drying the tea. E-manufacturing can assist companies to reduce these production costs by making crucial information available to decision-makers so that they can make informed decisions. This paper presents an application of e-manufacturing to the design of an automatic tea drying control system. This control system will ensure that the multiple drying parameters such as temperature, dryer-exit tea moisture content, and fuel consumption are maintained at optimal states during the course of the drying of tea. The additional aim of this system is to balance the cost of production and the quality of the final product. Using the Guggenheim-Anderson-De Boer (GAB) model, the optimum drying temperature was found to be 100-110°C, while maintaining a dryer-exit tea moisture content of 3 to 3.12 per cent, at a drying rate of 3 per cent per minute. A Barix control application to control the system’s activities, using the web user interface (WUI), was also developed.