Information Systems Productivity Improvements from

In evaluation research, scientists study effects of programme changes made inside companies, without being involved in the changes themselves. An aluminium plant had introduced a documented SHE information system, involving improved routines for accident and near-accident reporting, workplace inspections and follow-up of SHE results. An evaluation study showed that the introduction of internal control, in combination with other measures such as improved maintenance, contributed to an improved control of production. This resulted not only in substantially reduced losses from accidents but also in reduced overall operational expenditures (Kjellen et al., 1997). 

In supervisory control, process and economic models of the plant are used to optimize the plant operation by maximizing daily profit, yields, or production rates. The computer program reviews operating conditions periodically, computes the new conditions that optimize a chosen objective function, and adjusts plant controller set points, thus implementing the new improved conditions. This scheme will obviously require a model of the plant, current information about operating conditions from the plant s control system, and finally, sophisticated optimization software. 

Biological information is stored in the nucleotide base structure of DNA. By manipulating the structure of DNA it is possible to improve and understand the structure and functional relationships of catalysts (termed protein engineering). Considerable improvements have been made to products derived from enzyme systems, both in the quality and amount of metabolites, enzymes and proteins produced by organisms (often termed genetic engineering). 

The transportation community has turned to the deployment of inteihgent transportation systems (ITS) to increase the efficiency of existing highway, transit, and rail systems. One of the key variables in the vehicle-routing models described above is travel time. With the use of information from ITS, dispatchers can make better decisions. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has indicated that ITS uses advanced electronics and information technologies to improve the performance of vehicles, highways, and transit systems. ITS provides a variety of products and services in metropolitan and rural areas. ... 

In this chapter, we have reviewed the covariance approach—one promising strategy toward efficient acquisition of information from a limited number of data sets. We have seen the fruitful outcomes of covariance NMR spectroscopy, including its applications to soHd-state NMR studies of chemically or biologically important systems, its improvements to enhance the efficiency further, and its modifications to accommodate various needs of structural analysis. In addition, the question regarding the inner-product spectroscopy, to be answered in future studies, has been posted. At the moment of writing this review, covariance NMR spectroscopy is rather young and the number of relevant papers is not many. From... 

Currently, HVI systems are providing rehable information on six characteristics of quaUty from a cotton sample in approximately 30 s that are highly related to the spinning quaUty and market value of the cotton. As of the 1991 crop year, cotton must be tested by HVI to be eligible for price supports in the United States. Information on every bale of cotton should gready improve the marketing of cotton and encourage the production of cotton with fiber properties desired by users. 

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