Solving partner selection problem in cyber-physical production networks using the HUMANT algorithm

The idea of non-hierarchical production networks consisting of autonomous enterprises has been present in scientific community for more than 20 years. Although some global corporations are using their own production networks across continents, they are not similar to the original idea of non-hierarchical production networks in many aspects. It seems that this idea waited for production systems to acquire proper information and communications technology (ICT) or new industrial platforms, like Industry 4.0. The result is a new type of production network called Cyber-Physical Production Network (CPPN). The CPPN is, from ICT point of view, ready to act as non-hierarchical production networks consisting of autonomous production systems with many automated processes. One of the most important processes of the CPPN is a selection of optimal partners (enterprises) to be part of a new virtual enterprise, created inside production network. An optimisation problem emerges in this process, and it is called Partner Selection Problem (PSP). It is non-polynomial-hard combinatorial problem. Since metaheuristic algorithms are well-proven in solving that kind of problem, a specially designed metaheuristic algorithm derived from ant colony optimisation and named the HUMANT (HUManoid ANT) algorithm is used in this paper. It is multi-objective optimisation algorithm that successfully solves different instances of PSP with two, three, four or more objectives.     

A PSO-based optimum consumer incentive policy for WEEE incorporating reliability of components

The world is going digital, human infatuation with gadgets is increasing and a very short product lifecycle of these products has resulted in a horrendous threat to the environment. Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) reverse logistic management has been a key area for researchers to innovate and produce insights that could sustain businesses without compromising the environment. In this paper, we aim to understand the consumer return behaviour of end of life goods at different incentive levels and make an attempt to incorporate the latest research practices. A novel attempt is made in this paper, where we have for the first time applied product and component reliability in determining the incentives given to the consumer so that the efforts of WEEE recycling and disposal could be conducted in an economically sustainable manner to promote ecological sustainability, thereby envisaging upon the fact that there is a hidden synergy between the trade and environment, and only innovative managerial approaches that are thoroughly pragmatic, could exploit them. The optimisation model has been solved using particle swarm optimisation (PSO) and the insights produce highlight upon the feasibility of such a model.     

Optimisation and modelling green bean's ultrasound blanching

Using of ultrasound in food processing is a novel and interesting technique, which is often complementary to classical methods. This study reports on the ultrasound blanching (USB) of green bean. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to study the effect of process variables on the USB. Three independent variables including temperature (50–90 °C), time (45–225 s) and duty cycle (0.2–0.8 s) were examined. The optimal USB conditions were obtained with a temperature of 90 °C, USB time of 58.27 s and duty cycle of 0.79 s. At these conditions, the residual peroxidase activity (RPA) determined as 9.64% and the vitamin C loss as 8.92%. The experimental values under optimal condition were in good consistent with the predicted values. According to the results, the USB process is more efficient process and as well as less damage to the product compared to the conventional blanching method.     

Optimisation of the extraction conditions of natural colourant carthamin from safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) by response surface methodology

Alkali‐solution and acid‐isolation method (ASAI) and aqueous two‐phase system separation method (ATSS) have been reported to extract natural colourant carthamin from Carthamus tinctorius. In this study, these two methods were compared based on the optimisation results of extraction conditions by response surface methodology. In ASAI, the maximum extraction yield reached 0.779% at pH value of potassium carbonate solution of 11.16, ratio of potassium carbonate solution to raw material of fifteen and extraction time of 18 min, while 2.652% was achieved with concentration of acetone of 58%, ratio of acetone solution to raw material of twenty‐three and extraction time of 41 min in ATSS. From the point of view of extraction yield, ATSS had more superiority than ASAI. However, more pure carthamin was provided in ASAI according to HPLC assay. The obtained results in our experiments could be utilised for further researches of carthamin.     

Joint optimisation of tracking capability and price in a supply chain with endogenous pricing

Tracking systems have been widely used to resolve the issues of product recall and food safety. Thus far, few researches have been done on designing the tracking capability from the perspective of supply chain. In this paper, using the traceable unit size at the manufacturer level to measure the tracking capability, we propose a non-convex non-linear programming to jointly optimise the tracking capability and price considering the tracking cost and recall cost in a supply chain with endogenous pricing. Results show that, in both centralised and decentralised supply chains, there is a unique tracking capability and retailing/wholesale price with closed-form solutions to optimise the supply chain profit. When the cost ratio (unit tracking cost/unit recall cost) is sufficiently large and small, the optimal tracking strategy is barcode tracking and unit tracking, respectively, and otherwise, the optimal tracking strategy is batch tracking with an economic traceable unit size which depends on the cost ratio, quality inspection threshold, supply defection rate and the supplier’s tracking capability. Furthermore, in the context of large and small cost ratio, we find that improving tracking capability will enlarge and mitigate the effect of double marginalisation, respectively. In particular, we find that the strict tracking regulation policy is more robust than the subsidy policy to improve the supply chain tracking capability.     

Optimisation of one-stop delivery scheduling in online shopping based on the physical Internet

The circulation of online shopping commodities generally involves many entities, such as online manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and customers. Goods from manufacturers to consumers undergo several exchange stages involving different economic entities. The logistics cost increases in certain supply chain nodes and the risk of backlog or running out of stock is high because of the different income and risk expectations of entities, as well as the varying degrees of information sharing between them. Clearly, a one-stop delivery mode crossing numerous transaction links in online shopping can effectively solve these problems and save social resources. However, realising this one-stop mode requires a series of specific premises, appropriate software and hardware technology support. This study introduces the Physical Internet into the one-stop delivery mode as an important logical and technical support, analyses the operating mechanism of the Physical Internet and discusses the operating conditions of one-stop delivery. It analyses the optimisation contents and objectives of one-stop delivery scheduling to construct a multi-objective optimisation mathematical model and propose a solving algorithm. Finally, this study uses an application case to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the optimisation mechanism and algorithm.     

Comparison of sterol composition between Tuber fermentation mycelia and natural fruiting bodies

Truffle, belonging to Tuber genera, is a nutritious and sterol-rich edible fungus, and sterol is a potential health beneficial compound. A comparison of Tuber sterol composition indicates that the total sterol contents in the fermentation mycelia (i.e., 10.5 mg g⁻¹) (n = 3) were approximately 3.2-5.6 times higher than that of the fruiting bodies (p < 0.05) with the addition of soybean flour into the basal fermentation media. Moreover, the phytosterol profile of fermentation mycelia could be significantly improved by adding soybean flour into the fermentation media. After the addition of soybean flour, stigmasterol and β-sitosterol appeared in the fermentation mycelia and the contents of total phytosterols (2279 μg g⁻¹) (n = 3), brassicasterol (943 μg g⁻¹) (n = 3), and campesterol (418 μg g⁻¹) (n = 3) were all increased significantly (p < 0.05). Moreover, the total contents of sterols and phytosterols in the fermentation mycelia cultured in the soybean media were much higher than those in the fruiting bodies (i.e., 1883-3240 and 479-1832 μg g⁻¹, respectively) (n = 3, p < 0.05). This work confirms the potentiality of Tuber fermentation mycelia as the alternative resource for its fruiting bodies from the viewpoint of sterols production.     

Optimising by the response surface methodology the enzymatic elimination of clogging of a microfiltration membrane by pectin cake

The aim of this paper, in which clogging occurs on the filter at a constant vacuum pressure and constant pectin weight, is to find the optimal values of the variables, temperature and time, to know the best conditions to reduce this clogging by enzymatic hydrolysis. Moreover, different properties of the compression of the cake in the filter were determined such as the filtering medium total resistance (R_fT), bed porosity (ε) and the cake‐specific resistance (α) at different times and temperatures. The filter area was 0.142 m², and the value of the mass fraction of solids in the filtered suspension (S) was 0.12. Scanning electron microsopy (SEM) analyses were performed. The results showed that the compressive stress corresponding to the cake improves the flow rate in the filtration flux at the optimal temperature and time for the process, where the enzyme reaches its highest activity. The test results of this study can be applied in different system of filters during cross‐flow filtration.     

Match-up approaches to a dynamic rescheduling problem

This article considers the problem of inserting arriving jobs into an existing schedule of a real world manufacturer. A number of match-up strategies, which collect the idle time on machines of a current schedule for the insertion of new jobs, are proposed. Their aim is to obtain new schedules with a good performance which are at the same time highly stable, meaning that they resemble as closely as possible the initial schedule. Basic rescheduling strategies such as ‘total rescheduling’, ‘right shift’ and ‘insertion in the end’ deliver either good performance or stability, but not both. Contrarily, our experimentation and statistical analysis reveal that the proposed match-up strategies deliver high performing schedules with a high stability. An analysis of the problem parameters that determine the behaviour of the proposed match-up algorithms is included in this article.