Operational Improvements

Operational improvements for shutdown operating state discussed here are primarily the operation and emergency procedures and the training of operators and other personnel. Enhanced procedure and improved understanding of the shutdown risks are key elements in enhancing the outage safety at many plants. 

Similarly to administrative barriers, operational guidance for shutdown was generally lacking at many plants. Safety studies and actual operational events in shutdown triggered the development of outage safety plans and training of personnel to understand the shutdown risks. Many utilities introduced a systematic evaluation of outage plans to identify any safety detrimental activities and correct those. 

The operational improvements are of particular importance in prevention of occurrence of events or in mitigation of events where enough time for recovery exist. The operational improvements are best used in parallel with the specific hardware improvements, where procedures would be developed to initiate specific actions following the alarms. Training activities are important to increase the imderstanding of the plant persoimel and contractors of the safety issues related to conduct of outages. 

LOCAs caused by inadvertent draining are the most probable LOCA events during an outage. Introducing procedures which would focus on the draining process as well as the manipulation of systems connected to the RCS is one of the ways to reduce the probability of a LOCA. At one plant, the test procedure for the isolation valves was reviewed and modified to assure that a LOCA would not be caused by a test on isolation valves. Another plant modified the inspection practice of control rods to reduce the probability of draining the reactor. 

Operational improvements focused on prevention of losses of RHR were mostly related with the changes of the water level in the reactor which could cause a vortex on the RHR pumps. Some plants introduced the procedures focusing on the verification of the water level, other enhanced the procedures governing the drainage operations. 

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Singh, K. P. and K. K. Niyogi - editors, Heat Exchange Equipment and Valve Design and Operability Improvement, International Joint Power Generation Conference, Pheonix, AZ, 1994. 

Most than 500 plant design or operation improvements were identified by licei " of the improvements were procedural/operational changes 40% were design/hardware c ew... 

An automated warehouse is an operations improvement It speeds up and makes the operation of storing items more efficient. Eliminating all or part of the need for the warehouse by tuning production better to the market is a process improvement. 

Conveyor belts, cranes, and forklift trucks are operations improvements They speed and aid the act of transporting goods. Elimination of the need for transport in the first place is a process improvement. 

Finding faster and easier ways to remove glue, paint, oil, burrs and other undesirables from products are operations improvements finding ways not to put them there in the first place is a process improvement. 

L.F. Albright C. Hansen, Eds, Industrial and Laboratory Nitrations , ACS Symposium Series 22, ACS, Washington, DC (1976). Excellent modern review. Ten chapters emphasize various aspects of the chemistry and mechanism of nitrations, including oxidation and ipso-nitration side reactions. Six chapters discuss the chemistry and physical transfer steps between phases. Eight chapters discuss plant operation-improvements, safety features, and new operations. The final chapter is devoted to vapor phase nitrations... 

Better modeling will allow the design of processes that are easier and safer to operate. Improved control methodology and sensors will overcome the current inability to model certain processes accurately. 

A case study on the operational improvement of a plasma etching unit in microelectronics fabrication ends the section. This case study illustrates that if similar preference structures are used in both types of formulation, identical final solutions are found when either categorical or continuous performance evaluation modes are employed. 

As the industry improves on this outstanding production and reliability record, it continues to improve its safety record as well. For example, in 1998 the average number of significant events per unit—an important indicator of safe operation—improved to point zero four (0.04), a sharp decrease from 2.5 in 1985. 

Utilizing the difference in selectivity between a monolithic silica-C18 column (2nd-D) and another particle-packed column of C18 phase (lst-D), 2D HPLC separation was shown mainly for basic compounds and other species (Venkatramani and Zelechonok, 2003). The authors also reported other examples of reversed-phase 2D HPLC, using amino- and cyano-derivatized particle-packed columns for 2nd-D separation. The combination of normal-phase separation for the 1 st-D and reversed-phase separation on monolithic Ci g column for the 2nd-D was reported (Dugo et al., 2004). The use of a microbore column and weak mobile phase for the lst-D and a monolithic column for the 2nd-D was essential for successful operation. Improvement in the 2D separation of complex mixtures of Chinese medicines was also reported (Hu et al., 2005). Following are practical examples of comprehensive 2D HPLC using monolithic silica columns that have been reported. 

After a number of new solutions are produced by crossover (or more generally, recombination) and mutation operations, improved solutions must be incorporated into the population. The best solution found thus far is almost always retained. A common strategy replaces a certain fraction of the remaining individuals, either with improved offspring or with new individuals chosen to maintain diversity. Another strategy is tournament selection, in which new solutions and current population members compete in a tournament. Each solution competes with K other solutions, which may be randomly selected, and, in each pairwise comparison, the solution with best fitness value wins. If P is the population size, the P solutions with the most wins become the new population. 

Operations improvement, waste minimization via, 25 884t Ophthalmic drug delivery systems, 18 711 Ophthalmic drug dosage forms, 18 716 Ophthalmic solutions, ethylene oxide polymers in, 10 687 Opiates, economic aspects, 2 108 Opium, 2 89-90... 

During the last ten to fifteen years a substantial operational improvement of fluxes through the membranes and retention of the membranes has... 

Reduction in the LTFT is possible with the addition of either kerosene or additives termed low-temperature operability improvers. Prediction of response is not readily estimated and testing is always recommended. Typically, kerosene addition will consistently provide a reduction in the LTFT temperature. Operability additives can often be used as a substitute for kerosene or in combination with kerosene to improve the LTFT performance of 2 diesel fuel. 

Unexpected Benefits. Of the fifteen responding firms, R D officers from only five firms report tangible benefits that are not directly related to environmental protection. These benefits include better analytical chemists closed system philosophy of plant operation improved knowledge of molecular structure of products and better process instrumentation. 

The applications of arsenic as a metal are quite limited. Meialluigically, it is used mainly as an additive. The addition of from to 2% of arsenic improves the sphericity of lead shot. Arsenic in small quantities improves the properties of lead-base bearing alloys for high-temperature operation. Improvements m hardness of lead-base battery grid metal and cable-sheathing alloys can be obtained by slight additions of arsenic. Very small additions (0.02 - 0.05%) of arsenic to brass reduce dezincdfication. 

Thus, introducing parameters a, / and T we can account for the essential part of the correlation effects. However, it turned out that in the framework of the semi-empirical approach, all relativistic corrections of the second order of the Breit operator improving the relative positions of the terms, are also taken into consideration (operators H2, and H s, described by formulas (1.19), (1.20) and (1.22), respectively). Indeed, as we have seen in Chapter 19, the effect of accounting for corrections Hj and H s in a general case may be taken into consideration by modifications of the integrals of electrostatic interaction, i.e. by representing them in form... 

Experience shows that adopting the principles of lean manufacturing from assembly industries can be a powerful operational improvement lever. Lean management, first introduced by Toyota, appeals because it holds out a promise no other approach can make not only does it cut costs and improve quality, but it also stabilizes operations and matches supply with demand. A companywide lean transformation program structured around the improvement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) may unearth a hidden capacity that is equivalent to adding another plant to the manufacturing network. Lean, however, should not only be applied in production, but across the entire value chain. 

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