Optimization In Industry

This book describes different approaches for solving industrial problems like product design, process optimization, quality enhancement, productivity improvement and cost minimization. Several optimization techniques are described. The book covers case studies on the applications of classical as well as evolutionary and swarm optimization tools for solving industrial issues. The content is very helpful for industry personnel, particularly engineers from the Operation, R&D and Quality Assurance sectors, and also the academic researchers of different engineering and/or business administration background.

Industrial optimization lies on the crossroads between mathematics, computer science, engineering and management. This book presents these fields in interdependence as a conversation between theoretical aspects of mathematics and computer science and the mathematical field of optimization theory at a practical level. The 19 case studies that were conducted by the author in real enterprises in cooperation and co-authorship with some of the leading industrial enterprises, including RWE, Vattenfall, EDF, PetroChina, Vestolit, Sasol, and Hella, illustrate the results that may be reasonably expected from an optimization project in a commercial enterprise. The book is aimed at persons working in industrial facilities as managers or engineers; it is also suitable for university students and their professors as an illustration of how the academic material may be used in real life. It will not make its reader a mathematician but it will help its reader in improving his plant.

Optimization in Industry comprises a collection of papers presented at the third US United Engineering Foundation's 'Optimization in Industry' Conference. The main thrust of this, the third conference of the series is related to engineering optimization including both manufacture and parametric design. The papers included explore the relationships between well-established deterministic optimization methods and the emerging stochastic and mainly population-based search and optimization algorithms. A mix of approaches across a wide range of engineering disciplines is included. It illustrates the manner in which various techniques can be utilised either in a stand-alone manner or within hybrid systems to give best performance in terms of optimal design and computational efficiency. The papers span scientific, application, awareness/information dissemination and industrial requirements areas. They provide information on available search and optimization techniques and their application to specific design problems and across the field of manufacturing generally. Papers identifying and dealing with problems of incorporating novel optimization techniques within day-to-day design practice and industrial software requirements are also included. The book will thus be of interest to both the industrial and academic communities.

As optimization techniques have developed, a gap has arisen between the people devising the methods and the people who actually need to use them. Research into methods is necessarily long-term and located usually in academic establishments; whereas the application of an optimization technique, normally in an industrial environment, has to be justified financially in the short term. The gap is probably inevitable; but there is no need for textbooks to reflect it. Teaching of optimization techniques separately from their connection with applications is pointless. This book gives a detailed exposition of the techniques. In this first volume, T. A. J. Nicholson demonstrates the full range of techniques available to the practitioner for the solution of varying problems. For each technique, the background reasoning behind its development is explained in simple terms; where helpful it is supported by a geometrical argument; and the iterative algorithm for finding the optimum is defined clearly. These steps enable the reader not only to see plainly what is happening in the method but also to reach a level of understanding necessary to write computer programs for optimization techniques. Problems are tackled in the same way--by searching a feasible region for an optimum. This approach helps the reader to develop the most essential of all skills--selecting appropriate techniques for different circumstances. The numerous worked examples in the text, supported by worked solutions, and the exercises at the end of the chapters are important aids to learning and to teachers. This book serves as an introduction to optimization techniques for students as well as a reference work for the practitioner in business and industry.

This book offers a broad, in-depth overview that reflects the requirements, possibilities and limits of mathematical optimization and, especially, stochastic optimization in the energy industry.

This book provides different approaches used to analyze, draw attention, and provide an understanding of the advancements in the optimization field across the globe. It brings all of the latest methodologies, tools, and techniques related to optimization and industrial engineering into a single volume to build insights towards the latest advancements in various domains. Applications of Advanced Optimization Techniques in Industrial Engineering includes the basic concept of optimization, techniques, and applications related to industrial engineering. Concepts are introduced in a sequential way along with explanations, illustrations, and solved examples. The book goes on to explore applications of operations research and covers empirical properties of a variety of engineering disciplines. It presents network scheduling, production planning, industrial and manufacturing system issues, and their implications in the real world. The book caters to academicians, researchers, professionals in inventory analytics, business analytics, investment managers, finance firms, storage-related managers, and engineers working in engineering industries and data management fields.

In this book, theory of large scale optimization is introduced with case studies of real-world problems and applications of structured mathematical modeling. The large scale optimization methods are represented by various theories such as Benders’ decomposition, logic-based Benders’ decomposition, Lagrangian relaxation, Dantzig –Wolfe decomposition, multi-tree decomposition, Van Roy’ cross decomposition and parallel decomposition for mathematical programs such as mixed integer nonlinear programming and stochastic programming. Case studies of large scale optimization in supply chain management, smart manufacturing, and Industry 4.0 are investigated with efficient implementation for real-time solutions. The features of case studies cover a wide range of fields including the Internet of things, advanced transportation systems, energy management, supply chain networks, service systems, operations management, risk management, and financial and sales management. Instructors, graduate students, researchers, and practitioners, would benefit from this book finding the applicability of large scale optimization in asynchronous parallel optimization, real-time distributed network, and optimizing the knowledge-based expert system for convex and non-convex problems.

In Optimization of Industrial Unit Processes, the term "optimization" means the maximizing of productivity and safety while minimizing operating costs. In a fully optimized plant, efficiency and productivity are continuously maximized while levels, temperatures, pressures, or flows float within their allowable limits. This control philosophy differs from earlier approaches - where levels and temperatures were controlled at constant values, and plant productivity was only an accidental, uncontrolled consequence of those controlled variables. With this approach, the sides of a multivariable control envelope are the various constraints while inside the envelope the process is continuously moved to maximize efficiency and productivity. Because one must understand a process before one can control it (let alone optimize it), Optimization of Industrial Unit Processes discusses the "personality" and characteristics of each process in term of its time constants, gains, and other unique features. This book provides information for engineers who design or operate industrial plants and who seek to increase the profitability of their plants. It recognizes that all industrial processes involve operations such as material transportation, heat transfer, and reactions. Therefore each plant consists of a combination of basic unit operations and can be optimized by maximizing the efficiency, and minimizing the operating cost, of the individual unit operations from which it is composed. Optimization of Industrial Unit Processes discusses real world processes - where pipes leak, sensors plug, and pumps cavitate - offering practical solutions to real problems. Each control system described in the book works, illustrating the state of the art in controlling a particular unit operation. This second edition reflects the continual improvement and evolution of control systems as well as anticipates future advances. Béla G. Lipták speaks on Post-Oil Energy Technology on the AT&T Tech Channel.