Cycles process improvement

When chlorine dioxide is used for pulp bleaching in conjunction with the Kraft (sulfide) process for chemical pulping, by-product sodium sulfate can be used as a source of makeup sulfur and sodium consumed in the chemical cycle. The demand for sodium and sulfur in pulp bleaching is related to the loss of these chemicals through carryover in unbleached pulp. As process improvements have sought to reduce pollution from pulp mills, less sodium sulfate makeup is required. The trends in pulp bleaching to increase substitution of chlorine with chlorine dioxide have caused an oversupply of sodium sulfate, so that this by-product is often regarded as waste (81). 

Ease of processing improved flow properties and processability lead to cycle time reductions and productivity gains. 

At company level, the activities should progressively go beyond process improvement to take the entire product cycle into account, from raw material production to product recycling and/or disposal and involving all functions and departments of the company as well as suppliers and customers. This holistic approach allows the companies to design, produce and promote innovative, environmentally and economically sound products, improving their ability to successfully negotiate their position in the global markets. 

A quality management system s process should follow a standard Six Sigma process improvement life cycle that includes the following steps define (process and metrics), measure and control (identify problems and issues), analyze (analyze problems and issues), and improve (implement) circling back to measure and control [11]. An example of a process improvement life cycle can be seen in Figure 9. 

In response to the second explanation for this decline, the researchers were not able to verify the contention that current R D efforts are capitalizing on important discoveries made during the last decade. It may be that the industry experiences a cycle of discovery and then development with corresponding increases in the sales to R D ratio followed by decreases in this ratio. However, the researchers found that the industry is currently spending approximately 44.6 per cent of its R D on "new" product/process development and approximately 37.5 per cent of its R D on "existing" product/process improvement. It appears that the R D effort is balanced between new developments and improvement of existing products/processes. 

Manufacture of some greases has been improved by introduction of continuous processes (7) to replace the old batch methods, and by milling to shorten the manufacturing cycle and improve the consistency of the product. 

As with any process, an improvement mechanism is required in order to enhance the computer validation management cycle. The improvement mechanism will be identified based on experience in using the SLC, validation practices, and the analysis of software metrics. The following sections describe the overall scope of each document or activity. Detailed description of each activity can be found in other chapter of this book. 

All models of the C02 cycle need improvement in the way they detail the spatial distribution of soil-plant formations and in the way they specify exchange processes in the ocean and at the atmosphere-ocean boundary. Accurate parameterizations of all studied elements of the biogeochemical carbon cycle should be synthesized into a single system. Such an attempt was made in the block scheme of the model shown in Figure 3.6. The main sources of C02 are the day-to-day activity of land and marine animals, photochemical reactions, decomposition of dead organic... 

CEA has conducted a wide-ranging assessment of the sulphur-iodine cycle for massive hydrogen production. In particular, the hydrogen production cost was estimated, and found to be higher than what was anticipated. Although uncertainties do remain and areas for process improvements have been identified, the sulphur-iodine cycle competitiveness appears to require breakthroughs in efficiency increase and investment cost reduction. 

The efficiency of the cycle was evaluated to be close to 39%, a value which is not far from what would be expected from alkaline electrolysis using the 50% efficiency electricity produced by a V/HTR. There may be some room for possible process improvements, especially in terms of Bunsen section optimisation, but recent thermodynamic data will more likely lead to a revision of the efficiency to a lower value. Furthermore, Figure 3 demonstrates that efficiency is not the dominant factor for cycle competitiveness. 

A special focus of the development regarding solar thermochemical processes is the high temperature endothermic decomposition of sulphuric acid. The solarisation of this step was part of the R D activities of the European project HYTHEC (HYdrogen THErmochemical Cycles) with an emphasis on components development and process improvement (Noglik, 2009). 

Six Sigma process improvement disciplines are typically organized around the acronym MAIC. The first step in a MA1C cycle is a Measure step, wherein one finds appropriate process responses to observe, identifies and validates measurement systems and collects baseline process performance (process monitoring) data. The second step is an Analyze step. This involves summarizing the initial... 

Microprocessors that control processing improve the precision of the product (Chapter 3). It optimizes the process by controlling the machine cycle based on temperature and time, rather than time alone by using an infrared thermometer to monitor the mold s outer temperature. The molding cycle data for the oven and cooling chambers can be stored for different products and recalled when needed. Cycle time, oven temperature, major and minor axis speeds, fan and water spray times are typical of functions under complete computer control. 

The research and development carried out so far in has shown that, even though microwave pyrolysis will not be the solution to the whole problem of plastic disposal, it certainly has the potential to help reducing the number of resources currently committed to landfill. Evidence of this potential is the number of companies interested in the development of the process and that are currently active, trying to commercialize proprietary microwave pyrolysis processes. However, this chapter has shown that in order to accomplish a more widespread utilization of this kind of processes a better communication between the commercial and scientific communities is needed. The companies with their patents would be able provide many innovative ideas that may help to increase processes efficiency and the scientific community would provide explanations for the improvements, that would in turn generate even more ideas in a self-sustaining cycle of improvement. 

A rule two violation is when the process operates above or below its average performance for an extended period of time, specifically for nine or more consecutive measurement cycles. When this happens, investigating the causes could lead to permanent process improvement and defect reduction, even when the process has shifted in a favorable manner. 

---