Improving performance continuously

The balanced scorecard management system provides feedback concerning internal business processes and external outcomes. To improve performance, continuous improvement strategies are incorporated into the model. The process involves a defining the mission and goals for the organization. As with other performance improvement processes, the activities necessary to meet the goals are developed and measures indicative of that performance identified. Continual improvement is incorporated... 

Continuing the current trend, there will be an even greater need to provide highly effective dispersants with minimum environmental impact. Future development efforts will focus on improved performance at low dosage to further reduce the environmental load, accountability (ability to detect... 

Following production launch, process capability and performance should be measured continually in order to demonstrate that your processes remain capable and the capability index continues to rise. Appropriate action should be taken on characteristics that are either unstable or non-capable. Action plans should be implemented to contain process output and continually improve performance. 

To guarantee shipment on time, you either need to maintain an adequate inventory of finished goods for shipment on demand or utilize only predictable processes and obtain sufficient advanced order information from your customer. When you examine some of the requirements in ISO/TS 16949, you may be tempted to question how you can continually improve performance, reduce costs, and minimize space, material travel, equipment downtime, process variation, etc. and meet 100% on-time shipments. You can t, unless you have a partnership with your customer in which there is mutual assistance to meet common objectives. Without sufficient lead time on orders you will be unlikely to meet the target. However, the standard does acknowledge that you may not always be successful. There will be matters outside your control and matters over which you need complete control. It is the latter that you can do something about and take corrective action should the target not be achieved. 

A No. As the Chairman said in a recent interview-and I will repeat now-it is our intention to continually improve performance. However, it is unrealistic to believe that we could achieve a zero accident or emission standard tomorrow. Even if it were theoretically achievable, the cost would be so large that we would bankrupt the company. We must maintain a balance between the benefits we achieve and the cost of achieving them. Let me also remind you that as a company we have made a commitment to abandon any business or technology where we consider the safety and environmental risks to be intolerable. 

The continued development of new single-source molecular precursors should lead to increasingly complex mixed-element oxides with novel properties. Continued work with grafting methods will provide access to novel surface structures that may prove useful for catalytic apphcations. Use of molecular precursors for the generation of metal nanoparticles supported on various oxide supports is another area that shows promise. We expect that the thermolytic molecular precursor methods outlined here will contribute significantly to the development of new generations of advanced materials with tailored properties, and that it will continue to provide access to catalytic materials with improved performance. 

In this section we will briefly review some of the main different approaches that have been used up to now in order to evaluate the potential energy of each configuration in a Monte Carlo run. As we have already stated, the force fields that describe intra- and intermolecular interactions are at the heart of such statistical calculations because the free energy differences that we want to evaluate are directly dependent on the changes of those interactions. In fact, the important advances of the last ten years in the power of computer techniques for chemical reactions in the condensed phase, that we have mentioned in the Introduction, have been due, to a great extent, to the continual evolution in force fields, with added complexity and improved performance. 

Because of strict definitions of commerciality, PMN initiation must occur so early to allow sufficient time for internal formalization and ninety days of EPA review that many of those going through the review process will be altered due to continuous innovation efforts to improve performance and cost. These alternatives often result in nearly structurally identical substances but ones that TSCA will define as "new". Even when these products do reach commerciality, the same research effort often offers them a very limited life span. 

A method frequently used to improve performance of trenches is to incorporate flow enhancement. Typically, this involves the use of a pump to lower the fluid level in the trench, and thus increase the hydraulic gradient. An additional benefit is that the continued flow toward the pump also tends to collect the LNAPL in a smaller area, where it is easier to recover. Water recovered from the trench may be treated for off-site disposal or reinjected upgradient to enhance the flow further. Increased... 

Use of pulsed air injection rather than continuous air injection may improve performance at many sites. After a system has been operating for a period of time, the concentration of contaminant in the recovered air declines. Continued injection of the same volume of injected air recovers less VOC. Injection of air in a pulsed pattern allows time for reestablishment of a greater concentration gradient toward air channels and a more uniform concentration throughout the contaminant plume area. When the system is resumed, volatilization is again the predominant removal mechanism. 

As can be seen from this chapter, a wide array of different membrane systems has been developed for improved performance in a variety of different FC applications. It is likely that, given the vast amount of knowledge of s)mthetic polymer chemistry that has been accumulated over almost the last 100 years, many more systems will be generated and tested as potential PEMs. However, it would appear that four areas will be of continued or increasing interest ... 

Zeolite catalysts play a vital role in modern industrial catalysis. The varied acidity and microporosity properties of this class of inorganic oxides allow them to be applied to a wide variety of commercially important industrial processes. The acid sites of zeolites and other acidic molecular sieves are easier to manipulate than those of other solid acid catalysts by controlling material properties, such as the framework Si/Al ratio or level of cation exchange. The uniform pore size of the crystalline framework provides a consistent environment that improves the selectivity of the acid-catalyzed transformations that form C-C bonds. The zeoHte structure can also inhibit the formation of heavy coke molecules (such as medium-pore MFl in the Cyclar process or MTG process) or the desorption of undesired large by-products (such as small-pore SAPO-34 in MTO). While faujasite, morden-ite, beta and MFl remain the most widely used zeolite structures for industrial applications, the past decade has seen new structures, such as SAPO-34 and MWW, provide improved performance in specific applications. It is clear that the continued search for more active, selective and stable catalysts for industrially important chemical reactions will include the synthesis and application of new zeolite materials. 

Many of the techniques for coiqputer modeling were developed some time ago but the slow speed and high cost of coiqputers prevented their wide application. Now, con ared to laboratory instruments, a computer suited for many types of modeling studies may seem c[uite inexpensive. (It even may seem inexpensive coitqpared to a good collection of real models ) In the past decade, the price/performance ratio of computers has improved by two orders of magnitude and it appears that improvements will continue. 

Wet mixes are usually dried before calcination. Calcination is performed continuously in rotary or tunnel kilns, or batchwise in directly fired drum or box furnaces. The temperature at which the mixed metal oxide pigments are formed can be reduced by adding mineralizing agents [3.75]. In the case of chromium rutile pigments, addition of magnesium compounds [3.81] or lithium compounds [3.80] before calcination improves thermal stability in plastics. 

H2 conversion was also typically lower than total, ranging from 30 to 70%. A H2 recycle is thus necessary. Staged (sequential) addition of H2 to maintain a more uniform 02 H2 ratio in the reactor and avoid excess 02 has also been shown to improve performances. Batch-type autoclave or continuous fixed bed (trickle-bed) or stirred reactors have been used. Operations were typically under pressure in the 50-100 bar range, again with the exception of the cited CSIR patents. The reaction temperature ranged from 4 to 605 °C. Upon decreasing the temperature, H2 solubility increases, but the catalyst specific activity decreases. The productivity should thus pass through a maximum nevertheless this depends from case to case. Table 8.3 summarizes selected results from recent patents. 

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