Resolution of reliability problems based on failure mode analysis: an integrated proposal applied to a mining case study

Abstract

Reliability determines, in large part, the operational productivity. Nevertheless, a frequent problem is the absence of effective mechanisms to support maintenance management. In particular, there is a need for methodologies focused on improving the detection and analysis of risks that affect reliability. This article presents a methodological proposal for the resolution of these problems, using a high-impact failure mode analysis. The methodology is based on four phases: identification of failure modes, ranking and criticality analysis of them, identification of the root cause(s) and search for highly effective solutions. Among the variety of tools that can be used, it is proposed the use of three specific tools: Criticality Analysis, which allows discrimination and ranking of phenomena and assets; Root Cause Analysis, which focuses on the identification of the real causes of the problems; and a tool for generation of effective and efficient solutions (TRIZ), which it is not usually applied to reliability problems. The proposal is applied in a mining filtration plant, identifying and classifying current problems and generating solutions.     

The impact of modular platforms on automobile manufacturing networks

This paper explores the impact on automobile manufacturing networks of adopting modular platforms to replace the standard platforms used to date. Analysis of European manufacturers’ production networks shows that the use of modular architecture improves coordination by increasing manufacturing mobility and thriftiness ability. The changes resulting from this new modular approach also allow manufacturing capacity to be reorganised and overcapacity to be partially eliminated. From the point of view of production systems, the adaptation of manufacturing processes and facilities to this new architecture should aim to increase flexibility by integrating production around a single platform, allowing for different dimensions and for a larger number of models to be produced in a single plant.     

A note on the modelling and interpretation of a public goods game experiment

This paper presents an alternative interpretation of an experimental public goods game dataset, particularly on the understanding of the observed antisocial behaviour phenomenon between subjects of a public goods experiment in different cities around the world. The anonymous nature of contributions and punishments in this experiment are taken into account to interpret results. This is done by analysing dynamic behaviour in terms of mean contributions across societies and their association with antisocial punishment. By taking into account the heterogeneity between the cities in which the public goods experiment has been performed, this analysis shows a contrasting interpretation. Instead of one trend across cities, two opposite trends are seen across different cities. In addition, we find that the presence of these trends to have an impact on the role of antisocial and pro-social behaviour in public goods games. When accounting for these trends, the antisocial and pro-social behaviour is found to have a significant role in Western societies.     

Unequivocal majority and Maskin-monotonicity

The unequivocal majority of a social choice rule is a number of agents such that whenever at least this many agents agree on the top alternative, then this alternative (and only this) is chosen. The smaller the unequivocal majority is, the closer it is to the standard (and accepted) majority concept. The question is how small can the unequivocal majority be and still permit the Nash-implementability of the social choice rule; i.e., its Maskin-monotonicity. We show that the smallest unequivocal majority compatible with Maskin-monotonicity is n- ë \fracn-1m û{n-\left\lfloor \frac{n-1}{m} \right\rfloor} , where n ≥ 3 is the number of agents and m ≥ 3 is the number of alternatives. This value is equal to the minimal number required for a majority to ensure the non-existence of cycles in pairwise comparisons. Our result has a twofold implication: (1) there is no Condorcet consistent social choice rule satisfying Maskin-monotonicity and (2) a social choice rule satisfies k-Condorcet consistency and Maskin-monotonicity if and only if k 3 n- ë \fracn-1m û{k\geq n-\left\lfloor \frac{n-1}{m}\right\rfloor}.     

Symbolic Economies: Money,Neoliberal Law and National Politics in Argentina

In this article, I examine Argentina's neoliberal reforms throughout the 1990s from a Marxist theoretical perspective, analysing how money, monetary policy and law constitute a fundamental mode of ideological regulation in neoliberal capitalism. Situating this analysis in the context of the capitalist crisis of the mid-1970s, the article discusses the politics of effacement that in Argentina's case paved the way for the use of monetary policy as a form of social control intended to embed the nation-state into global capitalism. Examining economic legislation, macro-economic policies, political ideologies, consumer discourses and pension privatization, I analyse how the neoliberal monetary regime ideologically underpinned a whole state imaginary based on exchange rate parity with the US dollar. Further, I investigate the ideological function of money in symbolically reordering the relationships of workers and citizens to the state, capital and culture. The article concludes with an exploration of the political significance of the monetary collapse of the Argentine neoliberal reform in 2001–2002, comparing Argentina's crisis of hegemony with that of other states within global capitalism.     

Improvements to the Escalation with Overdose Control design and a comparison with the restricted Continual Reassessment Method

The Escalation with Overdose Control (EWOC) design for cancer dose finding clinical trials is a variation of the Continual Reassessment Method (CRM) that was proposed to overcome the limitation of the original CRM of exposing patients to high toxic doses. The properties of EWOC have been studied to some extent, but some aspects of the design are not well studied, and its performance is not fully understood. Comparisons of the EWOC design to the most commonly used modified CRM designs have not yet been performed, and the advantages of EWOC over the modified CRM designs are unclear. In this paper, we assess the properties of the EWOC design and of the restricted CRM and some variations of these designs. We show that EWOC has several weaknesses that CRM does not have that make it impractical to use in its original formulation. We propose modified EWOC designs that address some of the weaknesses and that have some desirable statistical properties compared with the original EWOC design, the restricted CRM design, and the 3 + 3 design. However, their statistical properties are sensitive to correct specification of the prior distribution of their parameters and hence nevertheless will need to be used with some caution. The restricted CRM design is shown to have more stable performance across a wider family of dose‐toxicity curves than EWOC and therefore may be a preferable general choice in cancer clinical research.     

Networks of international public relations production: The case of Latin American organizations’ connections to U.S. agents

Traditionally, international public relations studies have assumed that a foreign organization, namely a foreign government, is the primary influence on how its home country is portrayed to audiences abroad. This study challenges such assumption of independence by revealing how foreign organizations are connected in ways previous works have not considered. Using Foreign Agents Registration Act data, we reveal the direct and indirect connections that form when foreign organizations hire U.S. agencies to produce their international public relations work. Our network analysis of foreign organizations from Latin American and their U.S. agents documents the network structures that emerge for each country and identifies the types of organizations that are positioned advantageously in the networks. We use these findings to theorize how foreign organizations’ connections and their key positions in networks may influence the production of international public relations efforts for their home country. We at a macro-level, public relations effects depend on the structure of the networks, the overlapping sites where communication content is produced, and who is positioned as key players in the production networks.     

The relationship between Civil Unions and fertility in France: Preliminary evidence

This paper explores the relationship between fertility and the introduction of new laws regulating cohabitation, in a context of low fertility and high out of wedlock childbearing. We show that in France, while fertility and marriage rates moved closely together before 1999, since the introduction (in 1999) of the “Pacte Civil de Solidarité” (PACS)—a cohabitation contract less binding than marriage—this relationship is much weaker. Surprisingly, legal unions (defined as marriage plus PACS) and fertility continue to move together after this date. We provide evidence of the relationship between the introduction of PACS and fertility, utilizing the regional variation in the number of PACS per woman (PACS intensity) and the differences in fertility before and after 1999. We show that French Departments with high PACS intensity did not show a different trend in fertility before 1999 than those with low PACS intensity (excluding Metropolitan Paris). However, they did experience an increase in their fertility levels after the introduction of PACS. This suggests the need to collect better and more detailed data, in order to assess whether the recent increases in French fertility can be partially explained by the availability of PACS.     

The Dangers of Assessing the Financial Vulnerability of Nonprofits Using Traditional Measures

This article analyzes the financial vulnerability of 228 British nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) during the period 2008–2012. To do this, we use the Financial Vulnerability Index developed by Trussel et al. (2002). This index is commonly used in the literature on nonprofit organizations. However, we observe a very poor adaptation of the index to the reality of this industry, at least in predictive terms. The article goes deeply into each of the variables that are used to calculate this index, and we offer explanations of their inadequacy to this subsector of nonprofits.     

Sweet death: indigenous labour exploitation in the San Martín de Tabacal Sugar Mill,Salta, Argentina

During the national consolidation process in Argentina, throughout the nineteenth century, a new map of local power was designed based on appropriated territories and the consolidation of ‘internal frontiers’ denominated ‘desert’ by hegemonic discourses. The indigenous presence was denied discursively, yet military crusades of extermination, and a very massive process of labour incorporation of these groups was forced in order to develop the incipient agribusiness activity in certain areas of the country. This article explores life conditions and resistance strategies developed by the indigenous kolla communities, victims of the exploitation performed by the owners of the San Martín de Tabacal Sugar Mill, located in Salta, northwestern Argentina, throughout the twentieth century.